I’ve historically used this site mostly for posting random videos and thoughts I didn’t think really fit into ma.tt.
Posting frequency should go up here now, though, as I’m moving all my moblogging I’ve previously done on Flickr to here. Why?
- We now have a really good post by email feature. (And I just added the secret address to my address book.)
- I get more visitors here than my Flickr page.
- I have way more control over the site, archiving, comments, design, everything here.
- My Flickr Pro account is about to expire, I don’t really see any value in renewing it, and I’m also pissed off they only show the latest 200 photos for free members, which means if I don’t pay a $25 ransom more than 800 photos going back to the year 2003 (6 years!) are going to be hidden from the world. That sucks. I can’t place my trust in any web service that does that, even though I know and love many of the people behind it. Remove my stats, extra features, sure, but don’t mess with my content.
- I think it’s lame Flickr doesn’t strip my standard email signature from posts sent via email there.
So there you have it.
I have a nostalgic attachment to my Flickr post-by-email address, I actually know it by heart and many of the implementation decisions for WordPress.com’s version of the same were inspired by Flickr’s approach in things, which is generally extremely tasteful.
Matt on Not-WordPress, mostly photos 
Is the post-by-email going to be built into the .org WP version as well?
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There is some post-by-email built in, but it’s not as good so we need to port over the improvements.
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Try smugmug.com. I tried to used flickr to share photos with friends but couldn’t stand the interface. I may be wrong but flickr doesn’t offer easy way to sort photos like by data… I tried smugmug and am very happy so far. Unlimited storage. The interface takes a bit of getting used to but works fine. You do have to pay $40 (more for for better features like posting DVD quality video clip) a YEAR. Upgraded acct even allows posting/sharing video clips of 5 min or less.
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I never got into flickr, I always believed that my content should be where I can control it 🙂
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The problem with Flickr isn’t the control, but the exporting options, it lacks any. My guess is that they made this close eco-system just to not use similar services.
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$25 a year for unlimited storage of images is not a bad deal. I’m going to use Flickr as a gallery for artists in the north Texas area.
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One trick for people going from paid to free flickr, so you don’t loose all your photos, is to create a group just for your photos. Add all your photos to the group and they can still be found, even if hidden in your photo stream.
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Most Yahoo! offerings are tragically flawed in some way.
The shame of it is, Yahoo! has an enthusiastic and loyal community that desperately wants to help them be better, but Yahoo! seems incapable of properly leveraging that community to their benefit, regardless of the service: Delicious, Flickr, Answers, even Mail.
(Given the failed Microsoft takeover bid, I don’t think any level of Yahoo! management begins to understand what’s good for it.)
It’s a shame, really.
Thankfully, Google provides equally, if not better, options, again, thanks in large part to listening to their community and changing what they do to meet those needs.
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Cheers Matt, I agree. Control your content but also aggregate it. We should be smart about ‘social media’ and use it when it’s worthwhile for us to do so, not just do it because there’s an awesome site out there that happens to tell you it’s about ‘X’ (i.e. photo sharing).
Just rambling.
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@Doug: Given the failed Microsoft takeover bid, I don’t think any level of Yahoo! management begins to understand what’s good for it.)
Remember that Microsoft has spent billions since the 1990s subsidizing and building tie-ins to Windows/Office and re-launching their search and other Web properties. They are abject failures. Yahoo or any other Web property that lets itself be absorbed into that is going to fail as well.
That said, I’ve seen how mismanagement of Flickr has contributed to the growth of Zooomr and similar services. I’ve seen a similar error with Delicious. (Would Diigo have grown as much as it has without Delicious’ unwitting help?)
I agree with Matt. Messing with users’ content is a mistake that will come back to bite them.
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