Flickr needs to reverse the asinine decisions made today to force
people to merge their accounts with Yahoo and to place new limits
on your contacts and tags.
Here are some of the more interesting comments pulled over the past few hours from two flickr forums where they are taking a beating over this right now.
People are pissed.
It looks like I'll also be forced to drop about 2,000 of my contacts at Flickr. If I drop you and your are a Thomas Hawk reader please know that I'm sorry, that I was forced to do it and that it's not personal.
On with the quotes (note, some of these contain offensive language):
hodgepodge: "I'm sure that the Flickr staff love their creation. But they love the big fat check that Yahoo gave to them much more. They didn't make Flickr as a labor of love, they made it hit the startup lottery (which they did, admirably I might add). That doesn't mean that they don't care about their creation, but don't kid yourselves into thinking that because you helped build it by being early adopters and advocates that they really care about you. This is clearly about money; saving money on maintenance, and making money off of advertising."
bkusler: "seriously. this wasn't rocket science. you guys just fucked this up.
the early adopters are all "key influencers" -- how many of the "nuskool" ppl do you think we signed up? duhh..."
justj: I think after being here all night, this is really close to how I'm feeling... The shift in 'tone' really hit home, that this will never again be the flickr we joined in the beginning
Troy McClure SF: "In short, I don't want a Yahoo! account. I've been there, been burned, and I'm done with the company. Whether that rational of me or not, it's the truth. I don't want Yahoo, and that should be my choice."
Vidiot: "I guess what I find jarring is the shift in tone, even if it is but an infinitesimal one. Today marks the first time that to me, Flickr has ever felt like something less than that community I bought into (literally), and more like a service I pay for. And that's a sad realization."
Striatic: "thomas hawk also makes a good point" Hi Stri, I couldn't resist putting that one in there. ;)
Photojunkie: "I'm payed up till 2008 enjoy the rest of the money Flickr I will truly miss you. You were a fantastic photo shairing site. "
Ravages: "But suddenly - this merging thing. I am afraid that after the 15th, I might have to look out for other places to post photos to. I will be sad to lose my flickr friends and my flickr communities, but I don't want to see them replaced by a Yahoo community.
Bad move, staff of flickr "
Quote: "I wonder if flickr were aware quite how tainted the brand is when they signed on the dotted line."
Striatic: "i suspect that they were aware of this, but assumed that yahoo's reputation would really improve in the following two years.
they were wrong."
Shining Example: "I find myself idly wondering whether yahoo are aware of this massive image problem they have, and if so, whether they care, and what they intend to do about it..."
astilly: "i'm more and more disappointed in flickr these days... i'm pretty sure i won't be renewing my pro account this year."
Eric in SF: "I just don't trust Yahoo! and do not want their marketing droids using my personal info.
Sorry, Stewart, but my love (platonic!) and admiration for you and the team is just not enough to compensate for my feelings towards Yahoo!"
Merkley: "how about making a reciprocation exclusion? in other words, spammers are all out there clicking their fingers off trying to build a database of potential victims while AWESOME HANDSOME TALENTED people like myself and thomas hawk are merely reciprocating -- seems like the two things are miles apart and therefore should be considered as two different groups with completely different intentions." (I had to put that one in there because Merkley called us handsome and talented).
bosquetango: "hey, there is a slogan I can get behind: Mcflickr! It says so much to the corporatization of a once beautiful site. It is only because I, and many others, felt such kinship with the little boat that could float once known as flickr has sold its soul to a marketing mess that we bother to waste our time tilting at windmills hoping the tide can be reversed and we can return to the wonderful, truly great entity that was our flickr."
pagis: "I think this is one of the worst things you've done. Your job is to do everything in your power to make our life in flickr easier and more fun, even if it makes your job harder, this is way it's a great site and why I'm willing to pay rather than just using one of the free services outhere.
Anyway, as I said I'm not so happy with flickr anymore, is there an option to download all my pictures in one go (as a zip or something) so I can migrate rather than merge?
It's a shame that it turn to that by I guess most good things come to an end. I do think that if you force all these changes you should have the decency to allow your old skool members (the same people that made you attractive to yahoo in the first place, when this was still an alfa and beta site) to download all the stuff they have and move on."
greenteaphoto: "This is ridiculous.... a limit on the number of contacts to help performance of the site?? Why not cache results of certain queries once a day and rely on the cached results instead? I agree with other commenters... Flickr is ALL about networking... with a limit on that it makes no sense whatsoever... So what am I supposed to do if/when i reach the limit? Start deleting old contacts?
what's gonna happen next? Google will say that we can open only 200 emails a day? MSN will tell us that we can't do more than 1000 messages a day? Google allowing only 500 searches a day?
Come on... "
mr_phillip: I just want to put on record how utterly crap I think this forced merge is. I don't care at all that I'm loosing some kind of old-skool-cool - I'm the only person who knew how I logged in so how is that cool anyway?
What really pisses me off is Yahoo's God-awful ID setup. It took me over an hour this morning to set up an ID, mostly because every name I tried was taken - including random letters I got by hitting the keyboard in frustration. So now I'm stuck with a username I didn't want, can't change, don't like, and won't remember.
mkelley: "Because of this move I probably won't re-up my Pro account. I've been with you guys since GNE days and the Move to Yahoo wasn't exactly a fav. I try not to signup for Yahoo Microsoft "passport" type accounts and this is just one more move that has me saying "enough is enough".
Thanks,
Mike Kelley"
RajParmer: "I do not like the way Yahoo impose in this manner. I am an old skool member (which I was in a way quite proud of) but when it becomes mandatory to sign up to Yahoo, I will have to delete all my pics and close my account down and join with one of the other similar services on the net. A shame really, I really liked Flickr (more so before it was disgraced by Yahoo)."
lloydj: "Many, many, many companies also block access to well known webmail clients, and this often extends to other services, hence Yahoo! Mail, Google Mail, Hotmail are *all* blocked. If the sign-on has to go through Yahoo! rather than via on the Flickr.com domain, then that'll shut out a lot of people."
mattg: "this sucks."
the O-ster: "my account (luckily) expires tomorrow :)HOORAY!"
pagis: "bye bye flickr. kind of like saying goodbye to a first love girlfriend, it's really tough, but from my experience relationships I know that the next one is always better"
Paul York: "I am so unhappy with this. Again I'll be forced to sign up to a host of shitty services and no-doubt get spammed with "marketing" mail.
I'll have to pick some random series of charaters and numbers just to get my "new shinny" id - I may be able to log in easily first time and save the session but in a few months time on a diffrent pc or if I delete my cookies I'll be left thinking now what was I called "Y!ShitName12Z1XY3" Oh yes - just rolls of the tongue!
Sooooo un-happy. "
Here are some of the more interesting comments pulled over the past few hours from two flickr forums where they are taking a beating over this right now.
People are pissed.
It looks like I'll also be forced to drop about 2,000 of my contacts at Flickr. If I drop you and your are a Thomas Hawk reader please know that I'm sorry, that I was forced to do it and that it's not personal.
On with the quotes (note, some of these contain offensive language):
hodgepodge: "I'm sure that the Flickr staff love their creation. But they love the big fat check that Yahoo gave to them much more. They didn't make Flickr as a labor of love, they made it hit the startup lottery (which they did, admirably I might add). That doesn't mean that they don't care about their creation, but don't kid yourselves into thinking that because you helped build it by being early adopters and advocates that they really care about you. This is clearly about money; saving money on maintenance, and making money off of advertising."
bkusler: "seriously. this wasn't rocket science. you guys just fucked this up.
the early adopters are all "key influencers" -- how many of the "nuskool" ppl do you think we signed up? duhh..."
justj: I think after being here all night, this is really close to how I'm feeling... The shift in 'tone' really hit home, that this will never again be the flickr we joined in the beginning
Troy McClure SF: "In short, I don't want a Yahoo! account. I've been there, been burned, and I'm done with the company. Whether that rational of me or not, it's the truth. I don't want Yahoo, and that should be my choice."
Vidiot: "I guess what I find jarring is the shift in tone, even if it is but an infinitesimal one. Today marks the first time that to me, Flickr has ever felt like something less than that community I bought into (literally), and more like a service I pay for. And that's a sad realization."
Striatic: "thomas hawk also makes a good point" Hi Stri, I couldn't resist putting that one in there. ;)
Photojunkie: "I'm payed up till 2008 enjoy the rest of the money Flickr I will truly miss you. You were a fantastic photo shairing site. "
Ravages: "But suddenly - this merging thing. I am afraid that after the 15th, I might have to look out for other places to post photos to. I will be sad to lose my flickr friends and my flickr communities, but I don't want to see them replaced by a Yahoo community.
Bad move, staff of flickr "
Quote: "I wonder if flickr were aware quite how tainted the brand is when they signed on the dotted line."
Striatic: "i suspect that they were aware of this, but assumed that yahoo's reputation would really improve in the following two years.
they were wrong."
Shining Example: "I find myself idly wondering whether yahoo are aware of this massive image problem they have, and if so, whether they care, and what they intend to do about it..."
astilly: "i'm more and more disappointed in flickr these days... i'm pretty sure i won't be renewing my pro account this year."
Eric in SF: "I just don't trust Yahoo! and do not want their marketing droids using my personal info.
Sorry, Stewart, but my love (platonic!) and admiration for you and the team is just not enough to compensate for my feelings towards Yahoo!"
Merkley: "how about making a reciprocation exclusion? in other words, spammers are all out there clicking their fingers off trying to build a database of potential victims while AWESOME HANDSOME TALENTED people like myself and thomas hawk are merely reciprocating -- seems like the two things are miles apart and therefore should be considered as two different groups with completely different intentions." (I had to put that one in there because Merkley called us handsome and talented).
bosquetango: "hey, there is a slogan I can get behind: Mcflickr! It says so much to the corporatization of a once beautiful site. It is only because I, and many others, felt such kinship with the little boat that could float once known as flickr has sold its soul to a marketing mess that we bother to waste our time tilting at windmills hoping the tide can be reversed and we can return to the wonderful, truly great entity that was our flickr."
pagis: "I think this is one of the worst things you've done. Your job is to do everything in your power to make our life in flickr easier and more fun, even if it makes your job harder, this is way it's a great site and why I'm willing to pay rather than just using one of the free services outhere.
Anyway, as I said I'm not so happy with flickr anymore, is there an option to download all my pictures in one go (as a zip or something) so I can migrate rather than merge?
It's a shame that it turn to that by I guess most good things come to an end. I do think that if you force all these changes you should have the decency to allow your old skool members (the same people that made you attractive to yahoo in the first place, when this was still an alfa and beta site) to download all the stuff they have and move on."
greenteaphoto: "This is ridiculous.... a limit on the number of contacts to help performance of the site?? Why not cache results of certain queries once a day and rely on the cached results instead? I agree with other commenters... Flickr is ALL about networking... with a limit on that it makes no sense whatsoever... So what am I supposed to do if/when i reach the limit? Start deleting old contacts?
what's gonna happen next? Google will say that we can open only 200 emails a day? MSN will tell us that we can't do more than 1000 messages a day? Google allowing only 500 searches a day?
Come on... "
mr_phillip: I just want to put on record how utterly crap I think this forced merge is. I don't care at all that I'm loosing some kind of old-skool-cool - I'm the only person who knew how I logged in so how is that cool anyway?
What really pisses me off is Yahoo's God-awful ID setup. It took me over an hour this morning to set up an ID, mostly because every name I tried was taken - including random letters I got by hitting the keyboard in frustration. So now I'm stuck with a username I didn't want, can't change, don't like, and won't remember.
mkelley: "Because of this move I probably won't re-up my Pro account. I've been with you guys since GNE days and the Move to Yahoo wasn't exactly a fav. I try not to signup for Yahoo Microsoft "passport" type accounts and this is just one more move that has me saying "enough is enough".
Thanks,
Mike Kelley"
RajParmer: "I do not like the way Yahoo impose in this manner. I am an old skool member (which I was in a way quite proud of) but when it becomes mandatory to sign up to Yahoo, I will have to delete all my pics and close my account down and join with one of the other similar services on the net. A shame really, I really liked Flickr (more so before it was disgraced by Yahoo)."
lloydj: "Many, many, many companies also block access to well known webmail clients, and this often extends to other services, hence Yahoo! Mail, Google Mail, Hotmail are *all* blocked. If the sign-on has to go through Yahoo! rather than via on the Flickr.com domain, then that'll shut out a lot of people."
mattg: "this sucks."
the O-ster: "my account (luckily) expires tomorrow :)HOORAY!"
pagis: "bye bye flickr. kind of like saying goodbye to a first love girlfriend, it's really tough, but from my experience relationships I know that the next one is always better"
Paul York: "I am so unhappy with this. Again I'll be forced to sign up to a host of shitty services and no-doubt get spammed with "marketing" mail.
I'll have to pick some random series of charaters and numbers just to get my "new shinny" id - I may be able to log in easily first time and save the session but in a few months time on a diffrent pc or if I delete my cookies I'll be left thinking now what was I called "Y!ShitName12Z1XY3" Oh yes - just rolls of the tongue!
Sooooo un-happy. "
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