Is Flickr Dying

I signed up to Flickr pro last year, it seems to have improved since then but I only use it for sharing. They don't support raw formats which restricts using it for backup.

I keep the original SD cards, a HDD copy and paid for cloud storage. I have no interest in my own HDD farm or the aggro of maintaining them (been there, done that at work).

Yes I have just had a PC crash so know how important secure online storage is

What's gone wrong with it? Generally a PC crash does not cause a loss of data unless the hard drive has totally died.

Flickr is a great place and I'd encourage anyone to use it, not only to see photos but also for discussions. Most groups don't have much in the way of discussions while others have a good forum. As I'm paying Pro I need to start using it as my online backup.

I signed up to Pro last year, and have not noticed many changes except I have a vague feeling that there seems to be fewer people using it now.

I received and email yesterday with a notice of Flickr Pro membership going up in price with immediate effect.

We’re writing to inform you that effective today, the price of Flickr Pro subscriptions has increased to:

1 month: ￡6.49, VAT inclusive
3 month: ￡16.99, VAT inclusive
1 year: ￡55.88, VAT inclusive
2 year: ￡109.88, VAT inclusive

I paid my annual subscription in early January, but it is now getting too expensive and Flickr's future is looking a bit shaky, so I don't think I'll be renewing in 2021.

Agreed. I'd rather wait and see if they do a 25% off at the increased price for any of the 'sale' times, rather than bumping my subscription to 2 years right now. Similarly, I paid in December, so have 11 months left or thereabouts, but it's not a comforting email to receive. Glad I have all my photos saved and backed up but might start looking into other available options...

The harddrive survived but when the PC crashed I was working on a project for someone, fortunatley the project was backed up on a hard drive but when I needed to add more photos it was easiest to access them from Flickr. I have had time since to recover a lot from the hard drive and have now got a spare PC I had running as I would like. The failed PC had a motherboard failure and is not worth repairing despite being only 3 years old.

Yes I too renewed early January and was peeved then there was quite an increase in price from last year. Not sure what I will do next year as at just under a £1 a week I could justify the cost but now I'm not sure. Waiting for a 25% voucher from Flickr well thats one of the longest shots I know of, maybe I ought to start gambling.

They had 25% off at the end of last year, so cost me £26.93 for the year. A very palatable price, in my opinion. The fact it's happened once makes me think there's a possibility of it happening again. Regardless, I have around a year to wait and see so it's not a huge gamble.

I've renewed for 2 years, at just under £44 p/a. Two years is, I suppose, an act of faith in Flickr's future, but there are so many features that make it special, e.g. unlimited storage, access to a massive archive of other photographer work, groups and discussions, sharing with users and non users, detailed information (exif etc), personal statistics, geotagging, advert free, etc.

Initially when Smugmug took it over they had to sort out a number of issues, and experienced difficulties in the transition process, but as far as I can tell, it's sorted and better than ever. I don't think any other service offers such comprehensive functionality at a comparable price.

Flickr '2019 Your Best Shot Winners' announced and it's great to see that the first of the best five (out of 17,000+ submissions) is a Pentaxian with an enthralling photograph: Over the Edge by Robert Span. I found his comment fascinating:

How this moment was captured: “It was taken on a late summer afternoon at a time when there were some very interesting cirrus cloud formations in the sky. I was concentrating on shooting butterflies that afternoon, but I ended up taking a few quick shots of the sky before I put the camera away for the day. To be honest, I wasn’t really expecting anything spectacular. Later on that evening, as I was doing some post-processing, this one particular photograph stood out as it suggested to me a large wave or the edge of a waterfall. I manipulated the colours slightly with Nik Color Efex to strengthen that impression. So, you might want to call this picture a happy accident.”

The photographer: “I’m a 51-year-old amateur photographer based in Ontario, Canada. I’ve always been a Pentax user and have a keen interest in using their older CCD-sensor DSLR bodies with vintage manual-focus lenses. For me, photography is a rewarding hobby, and I derive much pleasure and enjoyment from it, even though I still have much to learn.”

All the winners are very deserving, and having access to their other work on Flickr lets us see outstanding quality of photography.

Well done Robert Span!

Great to a see a winner from our community.

here is the link