A Donkey on the Edge

Just re-read that last post. What a load of pants, let me try again…

Flickr was founded by an artist and at first, lots of artists where members. While there are clearly loads of ordinary family pics on the service there are also loads of really interesting, edgy creations. These range from surreal mindmaps, to strange images made with toy cameras to the nude self-portraits of Female Tech.

Like most wonderful, slightly marginal things, the content was never going to be to everybody’s taste. Those of us who where there in the beginning feel a sense of belonging and Flickr’s transition from online photography haven for the creatively inclined to mainstream storage service for the merry masses’ Kodak moments is proving to be a painful one.

It’s not that there’s anything wrong with Yahoo or even with the aims of providing the sort of all-American, clean-living service that they are trying to build. It’s just that they’re crossing the line where arbitration and moderation are taking place.

It’s these moderation ‘choices’ that are causing the trouble. No one has ever been able to get this right and there’s just no way Yahoo’s group of ingenue moderators are going to be able to get through this cultural minefield in one piece.

Safe???!! WTF does that mean?!! This from the Flickr help files:

My account has been reviewed as safe. What does that mean?

Having a “safe” account means that you are good at moderating your own content. Awesome!

“Good at moderating your own content” wow that sounds creepy. I hate it when I read something like this that intellectually I know is right but somewhere hidden at the back there’s a little alarm bell that goes off… Now if I could only work out what it was.

One of the Flickr posters in my contacts has had a lot of grief with her regular readers complaining that they could no longer see her pictures. I’ve been doing a little reading ever since I became a libellous Flickr user (can you libel someone in an email address? I’m sure there’s a precendent out there…) and you know, this Flickr content filter thing is really getting up my nose.

Anyway, am not liking the feeling of being ‘handled’ this is definitely not the Flickr experience I signed up for.

Rob Ferrara isn’t 100% in agreement re Flickr. His point is that the free account doesn’t give him enough of an incentive to upgrade.

On reflection I agree. Apart from the previously mentioned web2.0-ness of it all (api, sharing etc) the other thing I love is the offer of at least theoretically infinite image hosting. There are no idiotic limits apart from a bandwidth choke but to give you an idea, I’ve never gone over 2% consumption of my allowance.

I think if Rob leaves a comment to clarify his reasons for not upgrading I shall offer him a pro account as a Christmas gift :-)

Flickr: Give the Gift of Flickr

Get Your Own! | View Slideshow

Very impressed by Slide.com

• I made a whole slideshow without having to upload a photograph—it grabbed my public Flickr photos
• I didn’t have to log in or register until I had a fully functioning slideshow
• The integration with most social software apps is great

Thankyou Stowe

But the photo is geotagged so if you follow the map to the store you can let me know what it’s all about?

While you’re there, scroll over to Battersea power station—the satellite photographs are amazing and there are almost 200 shots taken from in front of the building.

At last, I’ve been promoted to “official photographer”

and of course, you can too