Flickr is going back to limited free accounts

**brightseal** · 11-01-2018, 09:30 AM

Originally posted by k1man

So basically hook us then you gotta PAY so some ahem can make his Billion bucks, usual nonsense, GREED

Exactly!

Docrwm · 11-01-2018, 09:55 AM - **1 Like**

Originally posted by Doundounba

I currently have 1,164 photos online on a free account. Looks like I'm exactly their target demographic for "Pay up!"

What, Canadians?

pathdoc · 11-01-2018, 10:17 AM

884 photos and probably a very slow rate of accumulation. I'm sitting on what I've got.

**mattb123** · 11-01-2018, 10:21 AM - **3 Likes**

They used to limit free accounts to 200 photos which is why I originally got a pro account. I have a lot of photos there so I guess I'll keep paying. Not unreasonable and everyone needs to make a buck somehow.

Doundounba · 11-01-2018, 10:34 AM - **1 Like**

Originally posted by Docrwm

What, Canadians?

Heheh.

I think they figure people on free accounts with near or more than 1k photos are people who are actively engaged in the community and are the most likely to accept being pushed into paying. They may even be right but that doesn't make it any more fun. In fact, the moderators edited out a profane expression of displeasure from my previous post...

DeadJohn · 11-01-2018, 10:34 AM - **5 Likes**

Originally posted by k1man

So basically hook us then you gotta PAY so some ahem can make his Billion bucks, usual nonsense, GREED

How do you propose they fund their operations? You're complaining about paying. If they show advertising, people complain about having to view ads. If they sell our data to other companies, people complain about privacy. If they run on a tiny budget, we get slow servers and unfixed bugs.

Flickr is a for-profit company rather than a charity financed by donations and staffed by unpaid volunteers. Even if the corporate owners make zero profit, they have to pay software developers and other staff. The server farm needs to be paid for, whether Flickr keeps their own hardware or rents cloud space. The local utility turns off the power if bills aren't paid. Property taxes. Etc.

awscreo · 11-01-2018, 10:36 AM

Originally posted by Doundounba

I currently have 1,164 photos online on a free account. Looks like I'm exactly their target demographic for "Pay up!"

I'm at 1190 lol, same boat.

Flickr is pretty trash anyway to be honest. I only upload there because their embedding function is nice for sharing. I'll just switch to 500px full time, better quality content anyway.

I might clean out some old content to keep it under 1k, or close the account altogether, not sure yet.

I keep thinking if joining 1x.com is worth it, has anyone tried? They advertise their feedback from pros system, is it comprehensive, and useful? The monthly premium is more expensive than 500px pro, but with feedback, and better (curated selection of photos) it might be a better platform.

pschlute · 11-01-2018, 11:14 AM - **1 Like**

I have had a paid account on Flickr for a number of years (wish they wouldn't call it pro !). I am firmly of the opinion that nothing is free in this life, look at what Facebook does with your data to give you a "free" service.

Doundounba · 11-01-2018, 11:23 AM

At $35 per year, it might make sense to/for me. But that's only for the first year. At $50, they had better offer me something much better. Now I also have to consider alternatives like 500px or even Smug Mug's own service offerings...

Docrwm · 11-01-2018, 11:24 AM - **1 Like**

Originally posted by DeadJohn

How do you propose they fund their operations? You're complaining about paying. If they show advertising, people complain about having to view ads. If they sell our data to other companies, people complain about privacy. If they run on a tiny budget, we get slow servers and unfixed bugs.

Flickr is a for-profit company rather than a charity financed by donations and staffed by unpaid volunteers. Even if the corporate owners make zero profit, they have to pay software developers and other staff. The server farm needs to be paid for, whether Flickr keeps their own hardware or rents cloud space. The local utility turns off the power if bills aren't paid. Property taxes. Etc.

Or owned and operated by a government. Free Enterprise is the engine that drives innovation but it doesn't happen for free.

**UncleVanya** · 11-01-2018, 11:41 AM

2363 photos... hummmm. I think I may need to upgrade. Sigh. I don't need it but I guess I will upgrade 'cause it is easy to use and useful.

Not a Number · 11-01-2018, 11:50 AM

Originally posted by normhead

Unlike Photobucket who basically said "If we can get enough suckers to pay $40 a month, we can retire in couple of years."

You can tell who's trying to provide service, and who's just in it for the money.

Really? Photobucket never said they would delete or deleted content from free accounts. They never restricted uploads to free accounts either.

All they did was break the links for 3rd party hosting which was easily remedied with browser add-ons.

A change of management restored 3rd party hosting and reduced the prices by over 90%. All you had to do was sit tight and change nothing except install a browser ad on.

If you have a free flickr account with over 1000 images you have to either download your files or upgrade by the deadline or lose your files.

steve_k · 11-01-2018, 11:53 AM

Originally posted by awscreo

I'm at 1190 lol, same boat.

Flickr is pretty trash anyway to be honest. I only upload there because their embedding function is nice for sharing. I'll just switch to 500px full time, better quality content anyway.

I might clean out some old content to keep it under 1k, or close the account altogether, not sure yet.

I keep thinking if joining 1x.com is worth it, has anyone tried? They advertise their feedback from pros system, is it comprehensive, and useful? The monthly premium is more expensive than 500px pro, but with feedback, and better (curated selection of photos) it might be a better platform.

You can keep 500Px. It would be the last of the photo sharing sites I would recommend. They just keep taking away functionality. I looked at them when SmugMug bought Flickr and they lost. There are a couple of accounts that keep liking the last photo I posted there every week.

stevebrot · 11-01-2018, 11:56 AM - **2 Likes**

The notice came up full page for me. I am not happy with the price, but feel that the change was inevitable. After all, Yahoo was not making money with the existing business model and a change was needed.

I was intrigued at the promise of priority exposure on Explore. Amazing that a few dollars might make my photos more interesting! Now my hope is that the public transit and train folk all have free accounts.*

Steve

* There are several enthusiast subjects that are regularly included in explore, e.g. random photos of public transit and utility vehicles, trains, airliner take-off/landing, fashion dolls, game captures, and Legos. The train and buses seem to be particularly well networked and rise on basis of views alone. Encoded spy messages? Viewbots?

awscreo · 11-01-2018, 12:01 PM

Originally posted by steve_k

You can keep 500Px. It would be the last of the photo sharing sites I would recommend. They just keep taking away functionality. I looked at them when SmugMug bought Flickr and they lost. There are a couple of accounts that keep liking the last photo I posted there every week.

Works for me, all I need is a big pool of good quality photos to look at, and a good platform to share images on. Their Discover engine already learned my preferences and suggests very nice new photographers to follow, the ones I already follow put out amazing and inspirational content.

Limited uploads (on a free account) might be a deal breaker for some, but I personally only upload photos that I really like there making it my personal portfolio of sorts, snapshots all went to flickr, and I guess in future they might just go to facebook.

I'm actually curious about their new-ish connection to Getty. Might want to try the licensing feature.

---------- Post added 11-01-18 at 12:05 PM ----------

Originally posted by stevebrot

The notice came up full page for me. I am not happy with the price, but feel that the change was inevitable. After all, Yahoo was not making money with the existing business model and a change was needed.

I was intrigued at the promise of priority exposure on Explore. Amazing that a few dollars might make my photos more interesting! Now my hope is that the public transit and train folk all have free accounts.*

Steve

* There are several enthusiast subjects that are regularly included in explore, e.g. random photos of public transit and utility vehicles, trains, airliner take-off/landing, fashion dolls, game extracts, and Legos. The train and buses seem to be particularly well networked and rise on basis of views alone. Encoded spy messages? Viewbots?

Still not sure what gets picked on explore to be honest)

11-01-2018, 09:55 AM - 1 Like	#17
Docrwm Veteran Member Join Date: Sep 2010 Location: Somewhere in the Southern US Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 12,285	Originally posted by Doundounba I currently have 1,164 photos online on a free account. Looks like I'm exactly their target demographic for "Pay up!" What, Canadians? Last edited by BigMackCam; 11-01-2018 at 09:55 AM. Reason: Edited quoted post

11-01-2018, 10:34 AM - 5 Likes	#21
DeadJohn Pentaxian Join Date: Jan 2011 Location: New York Posts: 4,833	Originally posted by k1man So basically hook us then you gotta PAY so some ahem can make his Billion bucks, usual nonsense, GREED How do you propose they fund their operations? You're complaining about paying. If they show advertising, people complain about having to view ads. If they sell our data to other companies, people complain about privacy. If they run on a tiny budget, we get slow servers and unfixed bugs. Flickr is a for-profit company rather than a charity financed by donations and staffed by unpaid volunteers. Even if the corporate owners make zero profit, they have to pay software developers and other staff. The server farm needs to be paid for, whether Flickr keeps their own hardware or rents cloud space. The local utility turns off the power if bills aren't paid. Property taxes. Etc. Last edited by DeadJohn; 11-01-2018 at 10:46 AM.

11-01-2018, 11:56 AM - 2 Likes	#29
stevebrot Otis Memorial Pentaxian Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Vancouver (USA) Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 42,007	The notice came up full page for me. I am not happy with the price, but feel that the change was inevitable. After all, Yahoo was not making money with the existing business model and a change was needed. I was intrigued at the promise of priority exposure on Explore. Amazing that a few dollars might make my photos more interesting! Now my hope is that the public transit and train folk all have free accounts.* Steve * There are several enthusiast subjects that are regularly included in explore, e.g. random photos of public transit and utility vehicles, trains, airliner take-off/landing, fashion dolls, game captures, and Legos. The train and buses seem to be particularly well networked and rise on basis of views alone. Encoded spy messages? Viewbots? Last edited by stevebrot; 11-01-2018 at 12:08 PM.

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11-01-2018, 09:30 AM	#16
brightseal Site Supporter Join Date: Dec 2015 Photos: Albums Posts: 629	Originally posted by k1man So basically hook us then you gotta PAY so some ahem can make his Billion bucks, usual nonsense, GREED Exactly!

11-01-2018, 10:17 AM	#18
pathdoc Pentaxian Join Date: Mar 2015 Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 6,381	884 photos and probably a very slow rate of accumulation. I'm sitting on what I've got.

11-01-2018, 10:21 AM - 3 Likes	#19
mattb123 Site Supporter Join Date: Apr 2010 Location: Colorado High Country Photos: Gallery Posts: 10,872	They used to limit free accounts to 200 photos which is why I originally got a pro account. I have a lot of photos there so I guess I'll keep paying. Not unreasonable and everyone needs to make a buck somehow.

11-01-2018, 10:34 AM - 1 Like	#20
Doundounba Pentaxian Join Date: Dec 2012 Location: Montréal QC Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 2,351	Originally posted by Docrwm What, Canadians? Heheh. I think they figure people on free accounts with near or more than 1k photos are people who are actively engaged in the community and are the most likely to accept being pushed into paying. They may even be right but that doesn't make it any more fun. In fact, the moderators edited out a profane expression of displeasure from my previous post...

11-01-2018, 10:36 AM	#22
awscreo Veteran Member Join Date: May 2016 Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 2,722	Originally posted by Doundounba I currently have 1,164 photos online on a free account. Looks like I'm exactly their target demographic for "Pay up!" I'm at 1190 lol, same boat. Flickr is pretty trash anyway to be honest. I only upload there because their embedding function is nice for sharing. I'll just switch to 500px full time, better quality content anyway. I might clean out some old content to keep it under 1k, or close the account altogether, not sure yet. I keep thinking if joining 1x.com is worth it, has anyone tried? They advertise their feedback from pros system, is it comprehensive, and useful? The monthly premium is more expensive than 500px pro, but with feedback, and better (curated selection of photos) it might be a better platform.

11-01-2018, 11:14 AM - 1 Like	#23
pschlute Moderator Loyal Site Supporter Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Surrey, UK Photos: Gallery Posts: 8,198	I have had a paid account on Flickr for a number of years (wish they wouldn't call it pro !). I am firmly of the opinion that nothing is free in this life, look at what Facebook does with your data to give you a "free" service.

11-01-2018, 11:23 AM	#24
Doundounba Pentaxian Join Date: Dec 2012 Location: Montréal QC Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 2,351	At $35 per year, it might make sense to/for me. But that's only for the first year. At $50, they had better offer me something much better. Now I also have to consider alternatives like 500px or even Smug Mug's own service offerings...

11-01-2018, 11:24 AM - 1 Like	#25
Docrwm Veteran Member Join Date: Sep 2010 Location: Somewhere in the Southern US Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 12,285	Originally posted by DeadJohn How do you propose they fund their operations? You're complaining about paying. If they show advertising, people complain about having to view ads. If they sell our data to other companies, people complain about privacy. If they run on a tiny budget, we get slow servers and unfixed bugs. Flickr is a for-profit company rather than a charity financed by donations and staffed by unpaid volunteers. Even if the corporate owners make zero profit, they have to pay software developers and other staff. The server farm needs to be paid for, whether Flickr keeps their own hardware or rents cloud space. The local utility turns off the power if bills aren't paid. Property taxes. Etc. Or owned and operated by a government. Free Enterprise is the engine that drives innovation but it doesn't happen for free.

11-01-2018, 11:41 AM	#26
UncleVanya Loyal Site Supporter Join Date: Jul 2014 Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 28,401	2363 photos... hummmm. I think I may need to upgrade. Sigh. I don't need it but I guess I will upgrade 'cause it is easy to use and useful.

11-01-2018, 11:50 AM	#27
Not a Number Moderator Join Date: Mar 2012 Location: Venice, CA Posts: 10,526	Originally posted by normhead Unlike Photobucket who basically said "If we can get enough suckers to pay $40 a month, we can retire in couple of years." You can tell who's trying to provide service, and who's just in it for the money. Really? Photobucket never said they would delete or deleted content from free accounts. They never restricted uploads to free accounts either. All they did was break the links for 3rd party hosting which was easily remedied with browser add-ons. A change of management restored 3rd party hosting and reduced the prices by over 90%. All you had to do was sit tight and change nothing except install a browser ad on. If you have a free flickr account with over 1000 images you have to either download your files or upgrade by the deadline or lose your files.

11-01-2018, 11:53 AM	#28
steve_k Site Supporter Join Date: Dec 2016 Location: Shelton, CT Photos: Albums Posts: 708	Originally posted by awscreo I'm at 1190 lol, same boat. Flickr is pretty trash anyway to be honest. I only upload there because their embedding function is nice for sharing. I'll just switch to 500px full time, better quality content anyway. I might clean out some old content to keep it under 1k, or close the account altogether, not sure yet. I keep thinking if joining 1x.com is worth it, has anyone tried? They advertise their feedback from pros system, is it comprehensive, and useful? The monthly premium is more expensive than 500px pro, but with feedback, and better (curated selection of photos) it might be a better platform. You can keep 500Px. It would be the last of the photo sharing sites I would recommend. They just keep taking away functionality. I looked at them when SmugMug bought Flickr and they lost. There are a couple of accounts that keep liking the last photo I posted there every week.

11-01-2018, 12:01 PM	#30
awscreo Veteran Member Join Date: May 2016 Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 2,722	Originally posted by steve_k You can keep 500Px. It would be the last of the photo sharing sites I would recommend. They just keep taking away functionality. I looked at them when SmugMug bought Flickr and they lost. There are a couple of accounts that keep liking the last photo I posted there every week. Works for me, all I need is a big pool of good quality photos to look at, and a good platform to share images on. Their Discover engine already learned my preferences and suggests very nice new photographers to follow, the ones I already follow put out amazing and inspirational content. Limited uploads (on a free account) might be a deal breaker for some, but I personally only upload photos that I really like there making it my personal portfolio of sorts, snapshots all went to flickr, and I guess in future they might just go to facebook. I'm actually curious about their new-ish connection to Getty. Might want to try the licensing feature. ---------- Post added 11-01-18 at 12:05 PM ---------- Originally posted by stevebrot The notice came up full page for me. I am not happy with the price, but feel that the change was inevitable. After all, Yahoo was not making money with the existing business model and a change was needed. I was intrigued at the promise of priority exposure on Explore. Amazing that a few dollars might make my photos more interesting! Now my hope is that the public transit and train folk all have free accounts.* Steve * There are several enthusiast subjects that are regularly included in explore, e.g. random photos of public transit and utility vehicles, trains, airliner take-off/landing, fashion dolls, game extracts, and Legos. The train and buses seem to be particularly well networked and rise on basis of views alone. Encoded spy messages? Viewbots? Still not sure what gets picked on explore to be honest)