“Old Skool” Flickr members are being forced to switch to/merge with Yahoo! IDs to access the popular photo sharing site (Read their rants here). I think the issue here is summarized perfectly by ScrewDriver, a representative from Flick Off, an anti-Yahoo Flickr User Group.
Here’s what Screw had to say:
The dissension here in part is a resistance to change and a deep-rooted distrust of mega-corporations possessed with wallet assaulting tentacles. (from BBC)
I am an avid Flickr user. I check my account countless times throughout the day, and every image I post to this blog is hosted on Flickr. I use Flickr to share logo ideas as well as photos from my digital camera. I would consider myself a Flickr early adopter, but I joined post-Yahoo-acquistion, so I just used my Yahoo ID to sign in. Therefore, I don’t have such an issue with the change, plus I really like Yahoo (and Yahoo mail). I can, however, completely related to the uproar because of something I keep in my wallet.
I have a Disney credit card that earns Disney Dream Dollars that I can use towards Disney vacations. I’m a big fan of Disney and I like the card for that, but I also like the card because it says “Charter Member” on it. Charter means that I was one of the first to get a Disney credit card, and that’s something special to me. Credit cards have come and gone from my wallet, but Disney will stay there because [1] I want to keep earning Disney dollars and [2] again there’s something special about being a charter member. I get no extra benefits, in fact nothing extra, but that’s ok.
I am sure Old Skool Flickr users are feeling the same thing. They are losing their home, it would be interesting to have someone else come along and offer them a new place to roost.
Speaking of tentacles, I just reupped my Flickr annual fee. I didn’t get to it in time, and I thought that I had lost a bunch of photosets because my account was downgraded to free. Just as I was about to scream bloody murder, I plugged my credit card back in and viola, all my pics were back right where they belonged. There’s a lot of things I complain about on the web, but Flickr (and the Yahoo acquisition) isn’t one of them. As far as the Yahoo acquisitions go, del.icio.us, flickr, and now MyBlogLog, haven’t been “corporatized” nearly as much as some companies might have. I think that if all you have to complain about is a networked login, then Yahoo (and Flickr) are doing a pretty good job not messing up the great web app that we all know and love. Sure, we’d love everything to remain “not corporate” but who would we depend on for exit strategies?
Ha! Perfection! I completely agree, especially about the exit strategies. bk
Flickr has been fairly flexible to user requests in the past. It’ll be interesting to see what their ongoing response is in the next few days. Maybe they can find a way to accomodate more tags or create a tier of ’super-pro’ users for an extra $20 that buys more fields in the tag db.