Posts Tagged: Flickr

Photography / Technology — No Comments
18
Jan 12

Escaping Flickr

I previously http://bit.ly/x0KSf0 wrote about my troubles with Flickr: my Pro account expired (Flickr cared so much about keeping me as a client that it sent me a total 1 (one) mail about it) and according to Flickr policy I could only access only the 200 most recents og my photos. The solution (according to #Flickr was easy: pay them for another year).

Thankfully, I had most of my photos in my iPhoto library. So for most of the photos I could just export them again to Picasa and then delete them from Flickr. As soon as I deleted some photos, Flickr would release a few more, always holding me on the 200 limit.

So I ended up with about 100 photos I didn't have elsewhere. To the rescue came #Migatr http://bit.ly/xTGzjE . Migatr, a Windows-only application, allows you to migrate from many web platforms to another. The following are supported:
- 23HQ
- Aol Pictures (Import Only) (CLOSING)
- Faces.com
- Flickr
- Menalto Gallery (Self-Hosted)
- Picasa Web
- Phanfare
- Photobucket
- SmugMug
- Zenfolio
- Zooomr

The process was quite pain-free (I was only troubled having to find the .NET Framework that is required not the actual migration). Your photos are first downloaded locally and then uploaded on the service of your choice. Unfortunately titles from Flickr are not saved, but titles embedded in EXIF data will of course be read on the other end (e.g. Picasa in my case). I'd like it the photos were also separated in folders when they are downloaded, as it is they are all dumped in a single folder. Still, it's free and worked without issues, and I'm free from Flickr now :)

See the liberated photos here http://bit.ly/ygyScu

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Photography / Technology — 3 Comments
7
Jan 12

I'm a Flickr hostage

I had seen the notification by #Flickr that my Pro account was expiring. The single mail of notification linked to a FAQ page http://www.flickr.com/help/limits/#73 mentioned that photos above the 200 free limit would be hidden. I made the mistake to believe that that meant that the extra photos would simply be hidden from public view.

Instead, when your account expires, not only the public but also you lose access to any photos over the 200 limit. This means your photos are now hostage to Flickr, which gives you a supposedly funny notice when you login, informing that your photos are "safe & sound". You just have to pay to see them again.

I can't seem to avoid thinking there was a reason why they only send a single notification mail about the account expiration…

So what are my options now (if any?) except from paying Flickr #extortion money?

[update]
1) +michael arrington describes the situation also here (nice photo :) ) http://techcrunch.com/2011/04/08/i-wont-use-flickr-until-they-release-my-photo-hostages/
2) It seems that if you delete some of the most recent photos, Flickr will show you some of the older ones… An still no official way to massively download your photos. Thankfully most of my photos are also stored locally but I don't have them properly categorized in all cases.

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