DISQUS

Josue Salazar · 9 months ago

Flickr Pro is a great service. It's worth every penny to me. Why is it bad that Yahoo owns it? Do you expect it to be free because Yahoo is in the mix?

If it's valuable to you, you shouldn't think twice about renewing. If on the other hand, Flickr Pro is not that valuable to you anymore then don't renew. I don't think it should have anything to do with the fact that Yahoo owns the service but rather if it's something you get value out of.

(i personally do, I have been using it probably for the same time period you have and i have thousands of photos, i use it as photo backup and i regularly upload hundreds of photos that are completely private. I just love having my photos there for me to play with - Specially in times where i am not that happy with iphoto anymore).

Colin Devroe · 9 months ago

I have nothing against Yahoo! really. But we all know there is a chance that Yahoo! won't survive. Or, worse in my opinion, may get bought from Microsoft. I don't want to pay for something that will disappear or be ruined.

Josue Salazar · 9 months ago

In that case, wouldn't paying for flickr be a good thing? If the service is making money it's less likely that it'll be shut down in case of a Yahoo! sell out.

Lance Hill · 9 months ago

I have been a Flickr Pro user for almost a year now and I absolutely love it. Even with Yahoo! sort of on the rocks, I think $25 is such a minimal investment for what you get, and I can't see Flickr just pulling the rug out from underneath us anytime soon.

Same price to go out for one meal, and you're starting a diet out anyway right? So instead of going out stay in for dinner and keep on using Flickr.

Colin Devroe · 9 months ago

What an excellent way to think about this! Instead of going out to eat one night, just get a Flickr account. Not a huge investment.

Excellent point and suggestion.

Corey Harris · 9 months ago

I love my flickr account too. I don't think Yahoo will go under. I think they just need to start being more selective and make better choices. I use Flickr and Del.icio.us from Yahoo. I pay for a Flickr Pro account and even pay for my Yahoo Mail Plus account. Heck, I would pay for my Del.icio.us account too if they offered awesome features to go with it. I think if more people had the attitude to pay for a pro account because they liked the service I don't think there would be an issue. But we live in a society where people think every thing should be free. If I truly like a service, I will pay for it.

Colin Devroe · 9 months ago

Corey: Let me be clear. I do not think Flickr should be free. Flickr Pro is, as I said in the video, worth every penny. But, will Flickr be around a year from now? I don't know. I think it has the chance to be sold off by Yahoo!.

We'll see. But I think I'm leaning towards renewing my Pro account.

djsteen · 9 months ago

I've been using Flickr for a long time. I can't find where it tells me how long, but it was befroe Yahoo! bought them.

I've had a Flickr Pro account for over 2 years and I enjoy every moment of it. Everything is highly organised, and thus if I'm searching for a photo of mine I will search Flickr (my local copies are hardly as organised; no local tagging).

I haven't heard anything about Yahoo!'s 'state' right now, but my only news source is Twitter (nothing has appeared on there of late).
That said, I was a little scared when Microsoft wanted to buy Yahoo!. What will happen to my lovely Flickr?

As long as I'm paying for it I know my photos are safe.

There's three services I've invested too much in to lose: Flickr, Viddler, and Twitter.

Colin Devroe · 9 months ago

I agree with you. Flickr is great. I'm leaning towards renewing!

Jason Wishard · 9 months ago

Colin, you raise a fantastic point! I never really thought about it until this post. It may be smarter just to get a semi-slick PHP Gallery installed and migrate everything over to a hosted platform (maybe not Dreamhost :p) and use S3 to host all of the large images?

I hate to not keep Flickr going (as my subscription is up in a month), but what does one do?

Thoughts?

Colin Devroe · 9 months ago

I am not sure how large your photo library is Jason... but I know that S3 has reasonable pricing. You may end up paying more than $24 a year though.

chris runoff · 9 months ago

I've been using flickr since the end of 2005 and went pro as soon as I crossed the 200 photo threshold.

I tend to view my pro account payment as support to Flickr more than to Yahoo. It's a very thin line to draw, I know.

Selling off Flickr might be a difficult call for Yahoo. It's a strong revenue stream and the community would revolt in the case of a sale to the wrong entity. (read Microsoft)

I have to believe that if Yahoo tanks, the Flickr community would rise to the occasion to save the site we all love. Look at what happened with JPG Magazine.

Ultimately, with a minimal investment, you are lending your support to a product, company, community that you love.

Colin Devroe · 9 months ago

Excellent points!

Daniel Nicolas · 9 months ago

[viddler id-6d598185]

Colin Devroe · 9 months ago

Lets be clear though Danny. Flickr is actually smaller than a lot of other photo sharing sites. They've grown a lot since Yahoo! Photos switched over to Flickr. But, other sites are out there that are much larger and make a lot more money. (24 dollar pro accounts doesn't make Flickr a ton of money)