My Flikr rant

[Marko]

There's way more family/vacation pics on smugmug... way more.
but you are right Maw many people just upload their snaps on flickr because it's free. ALSO you don't need to email pics anymore ...just point them to yr photostream...... There's lotsa good stuff on flickr but it's mixed in with lotsa crap as well.

In order not to threadjack, I started a new thread of the differences between these sites (Flickr - SmugMug - Deviant art - Imagekind) here http://www.photography.ca/Forums/f7/...kind-5772.html

[AntZ]

......Flickr isn't really about artistic standards. The photography is just part of the package. Think of this: if you have friends or family that live far away, anyone who has ever tried sending loads of crappy birthday snapshots to them through email (without drastically compromising resolution) can relate to what a great thing it is to just email a link to them and they can download at (usually) full resolution. They can choose the ones they want to print, frame, or load onto their digital picture frame, etc. And when you shoot that New Year's Eve party or trip to the zoo with the kids you can put it up there without having to decide who to send it to or whatever. Do it once, even better if you have an upload plugin for Lightroom or something, and everyone's taken care of. Flickr can be either the online art gallery (albeit with the aforementioned format imperfections), the photographic special interests chat and share community, and also the online crappy-snapshots-of-special occasions for long distance family and friends photo album, and for some people it is also about the backup or storage of said boring images.

I agree, but Michael was wondering "Why flood a group?".

[Mars Observer]

I hear ya Michael. There are times I've said to myself: 'if I have to look... at yet *another* picture... of yet *another* flower...' (no offense to anyone's flower pics - I've just been over-exposed to them).

But Flikr seems to be many things to many people - and not just about fine-art photography.

Honestly, I think grandparents would much rather see an out-of-focus snapshot of the grandchildren with too much flash and a partial thumb over the lens, than an Ansel-Adams-esc landscape.

And the photos that aren't of people... well... at least the thought was made to be creative. Maybe that seed of creativity will someday blossom into... a flower

[F8&Bthere]

I agree, but Michael was wondering "Why flood a group?".

well you wouldn't be flooding anything but your own photostream so I would figure who cares? Maybe you just got back from a European vacation and have 600 images you've culled down to 100, and you want both the share with family/friends benefit and the backup/storage benefit flickr can offer. Am I missing something here?

The thing very much related to this that I dislike as a paid flickr member is the lack of control in how things are displayed. So if I upload a pile of family vacation shots for Grandma and Grandpa overseas, that is what everyone is going to see for the default 1st few or more pages of my photostream. Newest uploads first right? But maybe I want other visitors, say members of this forum, to see my more artistic efforts if they happen to drop in via a link or if they saved me as a contact...it's like google and other search engines in that most people won't bother looking past the first few pages. So if all they see is boring snapshots, it's not doing much for my image as a photographer. Yes they can go directly to my sets or collections but not everyone does that when the photostream is right in their face.

[JAS_Photo]

I guess the owners of a group can prevent 'dumping' by allowing only a certain number of photos per day and making commenting mandatory. I really do not see how someone has the time to add a photo to ten or twenty groups as some I have seen are. My family photos are in a separate file viewable only to contacts marked family.

[F8&Bthere]

ok now i feel stupid, michael DID say into Flickr groups. I've never noticed this because I don't go look at many groups and those that I do look at seem fine - i mean no boring snapshot floods

[Mars Observer]

I guess the owners of a group can prevent 'dumping' by allowing only a certain number of photos per day and making commenting mandatory. I really do not see how someone has the time to add a photo to ten or twenty groups as some I have seen are. My family photos are in a separate file viewable only to contacts marked family.

And some groups are 'by invitation only'...

[F8&Bthere]

ok let's see if I can contribute to this thread without putting my foot in my mouth again....

One possibility that comes to mind is that the guilty parties might be using something like the Flickr upload plugin for Lightroom and at some point in time checked off the option to automatically copy uploaded images to a certain group they subscribe to and then minimized the option settings for that in the export dialog or bypass that dialog altogether using a right click export and they don't even know they are doing this?

So last time they uploaded some HDR shot and wanted to post it to some HDR group, and then next time they are uploading a pile of vacation shots without even checking that setting?

[Michaelaw]

Flooding your own stream is fine, who cares! Most of the groups I belong to allow only so many uploads a day usually between 1 and 6. Sometimes during my bored moments I sort of surf groups if you will which starts by liking someones group post, checking their photostream and linking off to other groups from there. That process quite often takes me to no upload limits groups where some twit has uploaded 2 gazillion bad smoke pics? I just can't fathom why Not that it's a huge deal but why one wouldn't take a few of the best shots to add to the group, if I want to see more, I'll check out your stream. On another note, I used to upload to another site where if your image got enough votes it was shuffled into a hall of best work or some such thing But I stopped because it got stupid! Some idiot started uploading pics of computer batteries and if you enlarged the shot you got a website address and price of the battery. The person started slow but before you know it they were uploading ten at a time. The mind behind that sort of behavior is...........

[casil403]

I know what you are talking about Michael and I've seen it.
My best guess is that perhaps they think those shots are in fact really good! I also think their work gets reinforced by other people making comments about their work. I remember a thread Raiven posted a while aback about a guy on flickr that posted a photo of what IMO was simply an ordinary flower. I mean it was nice, but no big deal or so I thought anyhow. He had over 100 comments on that photo with all kinds of words such as magnificent, awesome, etc, etc.! I just didn't see what others were seeing. So I think sometimes it might be a bit of an ego thing really. I have to say too that in all honesty it's nice when people leave me positive feedback on my images and it feels good. So I can get that some people might be doing that for those types of reasons.
The thing of it is, that anyone can go out and get a digital camera, slap it into auto mode, point it at someting, start shooting and then they think they are a "photographer" instead of taking the time to learn the basics. I think alot of times that might be part of it too. Anyone can also go out buy some fancy ingredients, a cookbook and believe they are a chef too...Then their friends convince them to open up a restarurant which goes in the toilet within 2 years. (I've heard that story form my own circle of people but I didn't believe the hype and actually have an idea of how hard it is to own a successful restaurant...much like being a successful photographer ) I liken flickr to almost the same thing sometimes.
Also, recently as a rule, I generally stopped belonging to flickr groups that force me to comment on other people's photos. IMO, commentingon others photos should be something that is simple common courtesy and I should be allowed to comment on stuff when I want to, not when it is forced upon me.
That might also contirbute to it.
I started posting onto Flickr as a way that my family back on the westcoast could see what I am doing. They are very supportive of my hobby and want to see how it's progressing. It's easy for friends too to see what I've been up to also. Now I find it a bit of a neat social network thing much like being on this forum.