Smugmug/Flicker

[Peter Dexter]

Maybe this is old news but I just discovered that Smugmu has acquired Flicker. I wonder how long Flicker will remain a free service and what changes Smugmug will make to it. Doesn't sound promising to me...

[Antonio Correia]

I am on SmugMug and Flickr for more than 10 years now.
Received this mail this morning.

"We’re excited to announce that Flickr has agreed to be acquired by SmugMug, the photography platform dedicated to visual storytellers.
SmugMug has a long history of empowering people who love photography and who want to improve their craft, making them a perfect fit for Flickr and our creative community. With SmugMug, we’ll continue to focus on you, the Flickr members who inspire us all with your work.

Nothing will change immediately with regard to your Flickr account. You will still access Flickr with your current login credentials and you will have the same Flickr experience as you do now. We will continue to work to make your Flickr experience even better.

We think you are going to love Flickr under SmugMug ownership, but you can choose to not have your Flickr account and data transferred to SmugMug until May 25, 2018. If you want to keep your Flickr account and data from being transferred, you must go to your Flickr account to download the photos and videos you want to keep, then delete your account from your Account Settings by May 25, 2018.

If you do not delete your account by May 25, 2018, your Flickr account and data will transfer to SmugMug and will be governed by SmugMug’s Terms and Privacy Policy.

Read more detailed FAQs about this transition on the Flickr Blog.

We’re happy that Flickr is your home for photography and we look forward to the next chapter in our adventure together as we join the SmugMug family.

Thanks,
The Flickr Team"

I must read some links, so I understand completely what is going to happen to the private photographs I have in Flickr...

Unfortunately I have payed recently 2 years subscription on Flickr !

This I do not understand:
"...If you want to keep your Flickr account and data from being transferred, you must go to your Flickr account to download the photos and videos you want to keep, then delete your account from your Account Settings by May 25, 2018..."

To keep the photos I must delete the account ????
Download more than 2.000 photos ??? How long is that going to take ?

[Asher Kelman]

Antonio,

At least they don’t simply delete you precious work! Other agencies have simply closed overnight.

But why is it that Flickr is no longer vibrant and a star of the intervener. What socially has changed with the way folk use the internet!

Asher

[Peter Dexter]

Asher my understanding is that Yahoo which managed Flicker is in dire straits so was happy to divest it's self of Flicker. There seem to be a variety of statements coming out from "download all your photos now and get out!!" to "relax, no big changes at hand". I don't see any thing to relax about though. I think it is only a matter of (a short) time before you will have to pay to keep your photos hosted. Just look at the astounding precident provided by Photobucket which sent hosting prices through the roof. There are still some free sites like Tinypic and Postimage.org.

I started out with Photobucket when they first opened their doors but in subsequent years found the quality of my images linked from their site and posted to forums such as this was horrendous. Fortunately a few years back a kind soul told me "use Flicker and your linked images won't be degraded". It is that fact as well as free linking/posting that most concerns me. I do have a Smugmug page but have never tried linking images on it to other sites so can't quantify the results that would produce.

I'm afraid the days of free anything on the net are over.

[Asher Kelman]

Not necessarily over!

I am toying with doing the same for some time. Need to have some way of success that attaches itself to the natural wants of phone and camera users.

We can easily host everyone here.

Can someone calculate what the load likely could be for the first 1000 folk?

Asher