[Racer X 69]

The little donut icon looks pretty bad, though.

What?


You don't like donuts?

[BrianR]

I think the problem is they are not differentiating between "SmugMug the company" and "SmugMug the website people interact with". Which SmugMug are flickr accounts being migrated to? I think they've clearly stated it's the former, even if the email was vague in a few places.

[Mikesul]

This referenced email which most of us did not receive is most likely some kind of troll or worse. Oath (the Verizon subsidiary controlling Flickr) sent an email to my yahoo account (used to filter spam) on the 20th asking me to agree to their revised rules. I will wait to hear from Smugmug. I have had both flckr and Smugmug for years. They are very different sites with different purposes. Both would be destroyed by any real merger.

[robtcorl]

Oath (the Verizon subsidiary controlling Flickr) sent an email to my yahoo account (used to filter spam) on the 20th asking me to agree to their revised rules.

I got that one and one from Flickr about SmugMug's takeover.
I signed up with Flickr (free account) years ago, but only recently started using it after Google stopped letting me upload from Picasa (on my hard drive) to Google Photos.
Goggle Photos is a hot mess, even though I started liking their PP software.

[leekil]

...which is at odds with with the notice that came up on Flickr yesterday which concisely stated that Flickr accounts will be migrated to SmugMug. What that means is hard to say.

My impression from what I read, was that it initially is migrating to SmugMug's TOS, and then later the underlying infrastructure of Flickr would be migrated to SmugMug's. Though there could possibly have been interpretation of what I read.

[baro-nite]

You don't like donuts?

That is libelous!

However, the donut icon is already gone. no, still there, just hasn't made it to every page yet.

A pink and blue donut cartoon doesn't exactly add elegance to the Flickr interface.

[jcdoss]

At this moment, there is nothing to complain about unless you are an employee of Flickr who might get downsized. The Smugmug people care about photography and photographers, so users are likely to be way better off in 5 years compared to what a corporation would do to Flickr.

[PDL]

Depending on what happens, we will see if using photo sites or cloud instances for "backup" will play out. If, and I am speculating here, Smugmug decides that maintaining the Flicker data is too burdensome, what will happen if Smugmug decides to delete, compress, remove, reject etc. Flicker long term support. The issue with cloud based storage is what happens to the data when the supporting company decides that the "old" infrastructure and the old policies are not profitable. Maybe the hardware used to host is just not supportable, the buildings used to host their datacenters are more profitable if they are sold off for say --- Golf courses, housing, sewage lagoons -- or the surrounding city, county, state etc. decides that all that land can be put to better use. It will be interesting to watch, especially when data caps on moving massive amounts of data around will be coming into play over the next few years.

Full disclosure; I do not have a Flicker account, Smugmug account, Facebook account, Twitter account. I do have a old account on a photo site, right now I can't remember where it is and it is empty. All of the images I have "out" on the web are copies, I have all of my original images on my devices. Also, I am a retired System Administrator where I supported Fortune 500 companies server, workstation and remote storage implementations since the late 70's. My last position was running the day to day operations on 56 servers with just over 5 Pentabytes of attached storage. I know full well how many days it takes to move large data sets between datacenters on very high speed networks. I really hope that the Flicker->Smugmug transition does not cause too many problems. Hopefully Flicker users still have all their original images.

[stevebrot]

My impression from what I read, was that it initially is migrating to SmugMug's TOS

Exactly my impression and the cause for much FUD*.


Steve

* Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt

[stevebrot]

Depending on what happens, we will see if using photo sites or cloud instances for "backup" will play out.

Your points are well discussed and I agree. That is why I keep local backup and why I am considering adding a second external HD to allow for rotation for physical off-site storage.


Steve

[robbiec]

I have subscription accounts with both Smugmug & Flickr (only used Flickr for the Singles-in-Challenges here) and have always felt that Smugmug was the superior offering from a display your shots perspective. They are also not an ad driven company or overly pushy in trying to commercialise your images. I think Flickr users will be pleasantly surprised at how Smugmug converge the offerings. Think Smugmug as Ricoh and Oath as Hoya in the Pentax world.

[bobmaxja]

Finally, I think , I will be able to delete my Yahoo account now that Flickr Pro is moving to Smugmug

[zzeitg]

At this moment, there is nothing to complain about unless you are an employee of Flickr who might get downsized. The Smugmug people care about photography and photographers, so users are likely to be way better off in 5 years compared to what a corporation would do to Flickr.

Considering what CBS did to Last.fm, I guess you're right.

[SSGGeezer]

Considering what CBS did to Last.fm, I guess you're right.

I don't have a Flickr account but I remember Last.fm

[FS1]

I suppose I’d be a little nervous about any change if I was very invested in Flickr and also didn’t have background with SmugMug. Though as a photographer, I still think I’d be more comfortable with that change than having Flickr controlled by yet another media/telecom giant (from Yahoo to a Verizon company).

In my case, I haven’t done much with Flickr – I’d always been a bit disappointed by the display/presentation, login and downtime issues, and various other changes. I’ve never encountered any such concerns with Smugmug… They’ve provided stellar support (features, follow-through, and infrastructure) and they also provide a very customizable interface that allows you tailor the presentation and settings quite easily. The social sharing aspects definitely aren’t as developed as Flickr, however.

My hope is that the best features of both current platforms will surface over time. SmugMug seems like a relatively small, tightknit company that is very dedicated to photographers – they actually remind me of Pentax in that way. They also seem very tech-savvy and always interested to incorporate customer feedback… So I have a lot of hope for the future of this venture.