Flickr sold to Smugmug

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boff180
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Flickr sold to Smugmug

Post by boff180 »

I’ve just had an email from Flickr regarding my Pro account.

You have to 25th May 2018 to accept Smugmugs terms and conditions. They’re claiming there will be few changes and Pro will continue as normal but let’s see, Flickr is one of the best image hosting services out there, will be a crying shame to see it go.

I’ve copied and pasted the “FAQ” below.

What’s going to happen to my Flickr account?
At present, nothing. You will continue to log in with your current credentials and you will have the same Flickr experience you are used to. If things do change in the future, we’ll be as transparent as possible about the process and give you as much notice as we can about the issues that will matter to you.

Will anything happen to my photos or will they be moved?
You’ll still be able to access your photos as you do currently and they’ll retain the same flickr.com URL as always.

Wait, what exactly is SmugMug?
SmugMug is a 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, photographers can create beautiful portfolios, use a powerful e-commerce platform to sell their photos, preserve their memories, and stand out with great options for showcasing their work.

I got an email saying I have until May 25, 2018 to opt out of SmugMug’s Terms of Service and then my Flickr account will be governed by them. Explain please?
As part of the acquisition, all Flickr accounts will move to SmugMug’s Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. You have until May 25, 2018 to either accept SmugMug’s Terms and Privacy Policy or opt out. If you do nothing in that time, your account will simply transition from the current Yahoo Terms of Service and Privacy Policy to SmugMug’s Terms. If you don’t want to make this change, you can delete your Flickr account through your Account Settings page. If you want to preserve a copy of your photos, be sure to download them from your Camera Roll first!

We encourage you to read SmugMug’s Terms in detail, as you would with any site where you host your photos. It is worth noting that SmugMug has prided itself on having very photographer-friendly terms without some of the standard verbiage and licenses that many platforms grant themselves to use your data in a way that best suits them. This is one of the reasons we’re thrilled to have found a new home at SmugMug.

What are SmugMug’s plans for Flickr? Will the products be merged?
SmugMug loves Flickr and they want us to keep on being Flickr. There is no plan to merge the products. As we spend more time with the SmugMug team, we hope to find ways to coordinate our development work and provide two great destinations dedicated to visual storytellers and creatives.

Will my Flickr Pro subscription change?
You’ll remain a Flickr Pro member and continue to enjoy all the benefits of a Pro membership. We’ve just started offering a 45-day free trial for new Pros who sign up for a yearly subscription. We’re also extending this offer to folks who may have been Pro in the past and want to come back to give it a try. Learn more on our Pro page.

Do I still have to log in to Flickr with my Yahoo login?
Yes. During our transition process, you will continue to sign in using your existing login credentials. Over time, Flickr’s sign-in will be separated from Yahoo’s and when that happens, you’ll have the ability to choose how you log in.

I actually can’t remember what my login is — can you help me?
If you are unable to log in to your Flickr account, please start by going through the Yahoo Help Page for Flickr and click the “Contact us” link on the lower left. Follow the prompts there to communicate with a Customer Care agent.

I have a SmugMug account — will my accounts be merged?
No, your SmugMug and Flickr accounts will remain separate and independent for the foreseeable future.

When are you going to fix Explore?
Ha! Nice try. You know the first rule of Explore is that we don’t talk about Explore.

Honestly, though, there are numerous parts of Flickr that we plan to improve and SmugMug supports our desire to make your Flickr experience better. Before making any significant changes to the Flickr experience, SmugMug is committed to spending time getting to know the community and listening to your needs. We will share updates as we map out our future together.

What happens to the Flickr staff that we all know and love?
You can’t get rid of us.

How can I keep up to date on the changes?
For any significant changes to your Flickr service, we will send you a service email like the one we’re sending about the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy changes noted above. For other updates, we’ll make announcements in-product, here on the Flickr Blog, in the Flickr Help Forum, and on Twitter.

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Pen Pusher
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Re: Flickr sold to Smugmug

Post by Pen Pusher »

Not had an e-mail but this link came up when I opened Flickr just now - https://www.smugmug.com/together/

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Jakub.Zurek
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Re: Flickr sold to Smugmug

Post by Jakub.Zurek »

Read a news article saying Smugmug are planning to keep Flickr the way it is, but provide additional support/funding that it requires. So shouldn't be anything to worry about.

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Brevet Cable
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Re: Flickr sold to Smugmug

Post by Brevet Cable »

Sounds familiar....
Like when Amazon took over Lovefilm, TalkTalk took over AOL UK ( and recently offloaded part of it to some company owned by Yahoo ) and many others.
You get the same old platitudes claiming that nothing will change, or if things are going to change they'll tell you, then you find they do change ( and you're either not told or told at the last minute ), you're unable to change/opt out of any advertising/privacy options unless you register with the new provider ( despite them claiming you won't have to ) and ultimately will either be fully merged or terminated.

Cynical, moi ?
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Re: Flickr sold to Smugmug

Post by ErrolC »

Well they've given a month's notice of new conditions (those include rather more restrictions on the nature of photos than Flickr, I understand), which seems fair enough. If that change spurs someone to delete their pro account, then they could ask nicely for a refund (does Deviant Art cost much?), but I assume Flickr have the standard 'we can change the rules anytime we like', so good luck.

They haven't specifically said they existing external links will remain valid, which is the immediate concern in many quarters. They are making promising noises, and have a reasonable track record.

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Re: Flickr sold to Smugmug

Post by G-CVIX »

Have to agree with Brevet. Fingers crossed they don't change anything.

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Re: Flickr sold to Smugmug

Post by harkins »

G-CVIX wrote:Have to agree with Brevet. Fingers crossed they don't change anything.

They've already stuck a couple of stupid looking doughnuts on the page (the link to SmugMug) and I don't like them (trivial I know)

SmugMug does appear to require a subscription, even for the basic option. So surely it's just a matter of time before Flickr is merged and a monthly subscription will be required.

Georgeconna
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Re: Flickr sold to Smugmug

Post by Georgeconna »

Oh Well I could not be bothered anymore wasting my time loading up pictures to these site, Between PB and this crowd. a couple of friends use the Mug site and I find it most awkward to find what I need there. fingers crossed it does not disappear but I do fear the worst.
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Wissam24
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Re: Flickr sold to Smugmug

Post by Wissam24 »

harkins wrote:
G-CVIX wrote:Have to agree with Brevet. Fingers crossed they don't change anything.

They've already stuck a couple of stupid looking doughnuts on the page (the link to SmugMug) and I don't like them (trivial I know)

SmugMug does appear to require a subscription, even for the basic option. So surely it's just a matter of time before Flickr is merged and a monthly subscription will be required.


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cg_341
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Re: Flickr sold to Smugmug

Post by cg_341 »

Unless SmugMug have never had a free account as they knew they couldn't compete with the Flickr product...

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Re: Flickr sold to Smugmug

Post by verreli »

They paid money for something so they'll be looking to monetize that new asset in the near term. The two business models are advertising or subscription. Take your pick.

A vast database of images is quite a valuable resource that people are willingly giving away (much like facebook info), especially when AI fully exploits the potential in a few years time...

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Wissam24
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Re: Flickr sold to Smugmug

Post by Wissam24 »

Well, always remember, if you're using a service for free online, you are the product
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Re: Flickr sold to Smugmug

Post by ErrolC »

verreli wrote:They paid money for something so they'll be looking to monetize that new asset in the near term. The two business models are advertising or subscription. Take your pick.

A vast database of images is quite a valuable resource that people are willingly giving away (much like facebook info), especially when AI fully exploits the potential in a few years time...


Yep, adding tags for attributes that are auto-detected isn't primarily for the uploader's benefit...

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wallace
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Re: Flickr sold to Smugmug

Post by wallace »

I've been a Smugmug customer for a while now and a Flickr Pro member as well. A combined deal would be nice for the two sites.

Generally Smugmug have a good product, they are not a down your throat type of company like Wix or Squarespace, all that advertising has to be paid for somehow.

Let's see how things turn out.

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Re: Flickr sold to Smugmug

Post by rockfordstone »

Brevet Cable wrote:Sounds familiar....
Like when Amazon took over Lovefilm, TalkTalk took over AOL UK ( and recently offloaded part of it to some company owned by Yahoo ) and many others.
You get the same old platitudes claiming that nothing will change, or if things are going to change they'll tell you, then you find they do change ( and you're either not told or told at the last minute ), you're unable to change/opt out of any advertising/privacy options unless you register with the new provider ( despite them claiming you won't have to ) and ultimately will either be fully merged or terminated.

Cynical, moi ?

thing is, flickr still has a large user base (something like 90 million or something) a lot who have pro accounts or, like me, have photos uploaded there which link to another site. deleting it or making people recode all their links will drive a massive amount of the user base away.

you don't pay for a user base of 90 million and then destroy it or put everything behind a pay wall and lose everyone like photobucket did.

i suspect they will stay seperate as flickr is closer to social media than smugmug, but there will be a level of integration in terms of subscriptions. they have confirmed that a free option will remain on flickr, whether that will cover 1TB of space as current i don't know, but who uses that amount anyway?

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Re: Flickr sold to Smugmug

Post by Ian G »

Don't know if anybody else has been affected but I lost a load of photos today on Flickr. Apparently it's to do with a database error. Images and data up to the 23rd April have been recovered and restored but they've encountered some issues and won't be recovering any more until they've resolved issues! Great!
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Re: Flickr sold to Smugmug

Post by speedbird2639 »

Do you not keep a back up copy on your PC/ laptop or on a HDD?

I know these organisations always give assurance that they have multiple redundancy in the event of something crashing at their end but I still would have a back up myself as well - no excuse now memory such as HDD is so cheap.

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Re: Flickr sold to Smugmug

Post by Ian G »

Yep, they're only low-res, watermarked images I bung on Flickr for hosting. This is why I don't trust cloud technologies!
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LN Strike Eagle
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Re: Flickr sold to Smugmug

Post by LN Strike Eagle »

Ian G wrote:Yep, they're only low-res, watermarked images I bung on Flickr for hosting. This is why I don't trust cloud technologies!

Still a pain in the bum though - takes ages to name and tag them all.

Wish they had a feature to let you copy the info from another image already in your library.
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Re: Flickr sold to Smugmug

Post by ErrolC »

LN Strike Eagle wrote:
Ian G wrote:Yep, they're only low-res, watermarked images I bung on Flickr for hosting. This is why I don't trust cloud technologies!

Still a pain in the bum though - takes ages to name and tag them all.

Wish they had a feature to let you copy the info from another image already in your library.


Naming (and sorting within sets, to a degree) I get, but why aren't you tagging your photos (the master, not the low-res export) before upload?

It used to be that if you modified a tag on Flickr (due to a typo in a rego or whatever), it offered to modify other instances of the same tag. A feature lost in an 'upgrade'.

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Re: Flickr sold to Smugmug

Post by Ian G »

I used a third party program which unfortunately no longer works due to the way Flickr or whoever owns them changed their authentication and security process, so good and bad! It was a great app which allowed easy tagging and naming and was easy to use on multiple images. I have basic tagging on lightroom, such as name and website etc but everything else I do when I upload to Flickr. It's like adding to a stock library, a pain in the wotsit but it can be worth it in the end as I've had a few sales from some random tags that people have searched for.
The online uploader isn't too bad but one mistake and the whole lot can be ruined, plus the 'organizer' tool is pretty archaic. I think I read it was due to be updated as many other parts of Flickr have been changed, although these changes have been around for a few years now. Hopefully with Smugmug on board we'll see a bit of progress at least.
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Re: Flickr sold to Smugmug

Post by boff180 »

I upload to Flickr direct from Lightroom CC Classic, seems to work ok with tagging.etc can also georeferenced the images prior to upload too.

Andy

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