Flickr’s new Pro and Free account offerings

[thefsb]

Smugmug has set out their plans: https://www.flickr.com/lookingahead/

What are your plans?

I'm looking for software I can use to host my photos and share them to people I choose to share them with. Suggestions?

[thefsb]

Lychee?

[LiveShots]

Having your own website will give more flexibility, the cost will be higher though. 

[thefsb]

On 11/3/2018 at 11:13 PM, LiveShots said:

Having your own website will give more flexibility, the cost will be higher though. 

Yes, renting a server is more expensive than Flicker pro. But I already have servers with spare capacity and I can add a vhost. The question is what software to use. I just don't know what the candidates are.

I'm considering Nextcloud. It's not specifically intended for photo sharing but it's pretty good at it, has lots of other useful features and is actively developed.

Edited November 5, 2018 by thefsb

[Lescatalpas]

Google?  I quit Flickr, as  I am not accepting a 100 % increase in pro fees.

Edited November 6, 2018 by Lescatalpas

[thefsb]

I will quit when I have my alternative arranged. I'm unhappy with the incoherence of their arguments.

Andrew Stadlen, VP of Product at Flickr, emphasizes engagement over and over. Engagement is the industry term for people doing stuff, especially social stuff, on the platform. Engagement, i.e. your behavior as observed by the platform, is the basis for the generation of behavioral surplus, which is Shoshana Zuboff's term for marketable products that describe and permit modification of our behavior. And in the middle of this text from we read

Quote

SmugMug, the photography company that recently acquired Flickr from Yahoo, has long had a saying that resonates deeply with the Flickr team and the way we believe we can best serve your needs: “You are not our product. You are our priority.”

This is incompatible with all the engagement talk.

SmugMug needs to decide if Flickr is a CMS or a social media platform. If it is a commercial CMS, what's Mr. Stadlen's belaboring of engagement all about? If it is a social media platform offering free photo sharing (in exchange for behavioral surplus) then why are they making changes that will reduce our ability to engage?

My guess is SmugMug bought a social media platform that, owing to high per-user operating costs, is unprofitable and this is their best idea for both raising revenue and reducing storage costs.

It will be interesting to see how free users get along with having to delete old stuff to add new.

Edited November 6, 2018 by thefsb

[thefsb]

@Lescatalpas  Google's cloud photo sync works well but the sharing is a pita, afaict.

I can share photos and create albums and share those by sending URLs around to the people I want to share with. There's no page equivalent to https://www.flickr.com/photos/lescatalpas/ that shows everything you've published.

It's probably going to be about the same with Nextcloud.

[Chrissie]

1 hour ago, thefsb said:

It will be interesting to see how free users get along with having to delete old stuff to add new.

I am one of those who would be affected soon. I currently stand at around 900 pics. But Flickr is not my main, or even sole, repository. This is for me just a platform to expose some of my pictures to the general "audience". As a second priority, I can view (and share) the traces from my most recent "adventures" online, i.e. from work, with my colleagues.

The images, which have not generated any feedback so far are probably not worth keeping in public display anyways, unless they are loaded with personal preference (see my motivation #2). So I'm planning to thoroughly "weed out" my current selection and am planning to go along with Flickr's announced changes. Until my preferences change, one way or the other.