[Raffwal]

Hi all. I currently have a 2 year Flickr Pro account which will expire/be renewed in September 2014.

Your Flickr Pro subscription:

2-year Pro at $44.95
Your Pro account will renew automatically on 25th September, 2014

As we all know, Flickr started offering new unlimited free accounts that come with ads in May. Old Pro members were given the option to keep using the old account or switch to the new unlimited one. I kept on using the Pro. Even though my current Pro account subscription is still valid for a year, I started figuring out what is actually included in the currently available option.

According to Flickr, the currently available new accounts are:

Free:

1 Terabyte of photo and video storage
Upload photos of up to 200MB per photo
Upload 1080p HD videos of up to 1GB each
Video playback of up to 3 minutes each
Upload and download in full original quality
Unlimited monthly bandwidth

Ad Free:

$49.99 per year
All the benefits of a free account
No ads in your browsing experience

Doublr:

$499.99 per year
2 Terabytes of photo and video space
All the benefits of a free account

So is my conclusion correct that in a year if I want to keep using an account without ads, my best option is to renew my Pro account if the price is $44.95 for two years and the current Ad Free account costs $49.99 per year?

Is there an important aspect that I'm nor seeing? And what kind and how disturbing are the ads on the current free account?

[Raffwal]

Now I am confused. My Flickr Pro account clearly shows that the Pro account will be renewed in Sept 2014. Yet, another part of the Flickr website says that

What happens if my Pro Account expires?

Since May 20, 2013, Pro accounts can no longer be purchased. You can enjoy unlimited storage as long as your Pro account is active. If your Pro account expires, it will revert to a free account with a storage limit of 1 Terabyte.

If you need more storage or would like to go ad-free, you can upgrade your account to one of our paid account types.

So the Pro account cannot be renewed anyhow and my options are the current new account types???

EDIT: On the other hand they say this:

If you’d like to keep your Pro membership:

Anyone who was Pro at 12:00 am (midnight) GMT on May 20, 2013, may be eligible to sign up for recurring Pro in order to extend their Pro membership beyond its expiration date.
This applies to:
those whose one-time or gift Pro memberships expired after 12:00 am GMT.
those who are on a gifted Pro account.
those who have purchased one-off Pro and are set to expire in the future.
To keep your Pro status by signing up for a recurring Pro subscription, visit the account order page.
If you cancel your recurring subscription or opt for the prorated refund, you will no longer have the option to sign up for a recurring subscription.
If your recurring subscription expires after May 20, 2013, due to a failed payment, please contact the billing team.

So my original thought of being able to renew the Pro account was correct after all?

EDIT2:

Talking to myself again here. It seems that renewing the Pro account is the best option for me.

I've heard that Flickr Pro is no longer being offered. How does that affect me?

As of May 20, 2013, we are no longer offering Flickr Pro subscriptions to the majority of our members. Some things to be aware of (with more details below):

Recurring Pro members currently have the ability to continue renewing at the same price.
Eligible non-recurring Pro members can purchase a recurring Pro subscription.
The “Gift of Pro” will no longer be available for purchase.
Pro users will no longer appear with a “Pro” badge beside their name or buddy icon
Your Pro pricing remains the same and your benefits have improved:

Those who remain Pro will retain all their original benefits.
The photo and video size limits will be upgraded to those offered with our new free account.
If you are on a recurring Pro subscription, your payments will remain as is. To see what your current subscription costs, see the previous payment on in your order history.
Pro members will never be automatically transitioned to an Ad Free or Doublr subscription.

[K McCall]

Now I am confused. My Flickr Pro account clearly shows that the Pro account will be renewed in Sept 2014. Yet, another part of the Flickr website says that



So the Pro account cannot be renewed anyhow and my options are the current new account types???

EDIT: On the other hand they say this:



So my original thought of being able to renew the Pro account was correct after all?

EDIT2:

Talking to myself again here. It seems that renewing the Pro account is the best option for me.

I too looked pretty closely at this when thy switched over. I think the FAQ about what to do if your Pro account expires refers to ones that are lapsed. You're already signed up for a recurring subscription, but if you changed that an our accounts page to NOT automatically extend your membership come September 2014 (or if you deleted your payment information, or if the card they have on hand expired), then at that time your account would revert to a free account and you could probably not get your paid account back (you might have a case if the reason was because of a card expiration). Otherwise, as long as you keep paying for it, the Pro account is yours to renew.

As to whether it's worth the money - I think so. But that's just my opinion. I like the Stats feature a lot, although with the most recent changes to how they count "views," it seems to have become a little useless. I would hate to see ads, although with AdBlock I don't think I would any way.

I hope this helps! For sure, their payment scheme is really confusing these days.

[paulh]

I'm running the AdBlock Edge extension for Firefox. I don't see any ads using my free Flickr account - ymmv.

[Rupert]

I have one Pro account and will continue it, it seems the best option. The "New Flickr", although with some kinks, does seem to offer some real advantages over the old Flickr.

Otis has his own account which is "free". He doesn't mind the ads since he assigns a whole batallion of Army Squirrels to eat the ads off the pages as soon as they appear.

Regards!

[tuco]

It is time to renew my Flickr Pro account. I was presented with the the following options:

• $6.95 for 6 months
• $24.95 for 1 year
• $44.95 for 2 year

And the final charge to my credit card was $47.95 when I updated the 2-year option.

[photolady95]

I have a pro account also, since 2009 and they automatically get paid. I'll keep it, I prefer it over Photobucket or any other higher priced photo storage places. Took me a bit to find where things are from where they were, but it was easy and as I said, I like it and will keep it until the Lord calles me home.

[hks_kansei]

the adverts aren't invasive at all on the free account (what I have)

all I get is on the main homepage there is a single animated advert on the righthand side, about roughly 250px square.

And when viewing a photo in lightbox there's a single line text only advert under the comments.


I don't think it's worth $50 to remove what is essentially one line of text and an ad the size of an address label.

[Rupert]

the adverts aren't invasive at all on the free account (what I have)

all I get is on the main homepage there is a single animated advert on the righthand side, about roughly 250px square.

And when viewing a photo in lightbox there's a single line text only advert under the comments.


I don't think it's worth $50 to remove what is essentially one line of text and an ad the size of an address label.

I agree. For free a few ads are not a problem, but if they begin to be, Otis says he will sell you an ad eating squirrel for only $25. Since he can live off the ads, you won't even have to feed him! Just keep it in mind......
Regards!