AARoads Forum

Non-Road Boards => Off-Topic => Topic started by: US71 on April 20, 2018, 10:06:00 PM

Title: Smugmug Acquires Flickr
Post by: US71 on April 20, 2018, 10:06:00 PM
https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2018/04/20/smugmug-buys-flickr-verizon-oath/537377002/

My photos are on Flickr. I hope they don't make any major changes.
Title: Re: Smugmug Acquires Flickr
Post by: Max Rockatansky on April 20, 2018, 11:02:28 PM
Quote from: US71 on April 20, 2018, 10:06:00 PM
https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2018/04/20/smugmug-buys-flickr-verizon-oath/537377002/

My photos are on Flickr. I hope they don't make any major changes.

I'm using Flickr as a third backup.  I have an older computer I use as a data drive and a bunch memory sticks as my primary backups.  Hopefully they don't pull a Photobucket and ruin things. 
Title: Re: Smugmug Acquires Flickr
Post by: Scott5114 on April 21, 2018, 04:33:25 AM
I hope they fix Flickr's user interface so it doesn't leak memory like a sieve.
Title: Re: Smugmug Acquires Flickr
Post by: Stephane Dumas on April 21, 2018, 07:40:21 AM
Quote from: Max Rockatansky on April 20, 2018, 11:02:28 PM

I'm using Flickr as a third backup.  I have an older computer I use as a data drive and a bunch memory sticks as my primary backups.  Hopefully they don't pull a Photobucket and ruin things. 

I agree and don't forget then Imageshack did a Photobucket of its own as well.
Title: Re: Smugmug Acquires Flickr
Post by: cjk374 on April 21, 2018, 09:15:02 AM
I must have joined Flickr after all of their major problems were resolved.

And Smugmug sure talks a happy-go-lucky politico type talk. I am scared now.
Title: Re: Smugmug Acquires Flickr
Post by: hotdogPi on April 21, 2018, 09:20:14 AM
I'm really worried, too.
Title: Re: Smugmug Acquires Flickr
Post by: US71 on April 22, 2018, 11:18:38 AM
I have too many photos to move, unless they'd let me download en masse.  I'm going to wait and see for now.
Title: Re: Smugmug Acquires Flickr
Post by: abefroman329 on April 22, 2018, 01:26:58 PM
Are they calling it Flugmug or Smickr?
Title: Re: Smugmug Acquires Flickr
Post by: US71 on April 22, 2018, 01:36:45 PM
Quote from: abefroman329 on April 22, 2018, 01:26:58 PM
Are they calling it Flugmug or Smickr?

Right now, they seem to be keeping both names.
Title: Re: Smugmug Acquires Flickr
Post by: hotdogPi on April 22, 2018, 02:28:48 PM
I didn't realize it before, but Flickr was previously owned by Verizon; it was not an independent company. This makes me a little less worried, as it's now part of a smaller company, not a larger one.
Title: Re: Smugmug Acquires Flickr
Post by: US71 on April 22, 2018, 04:05:37 PM
Quote from: 1 on April 22, 2018, 02:28:48 PM
I didn't realize it before, but Flickr was previously owned by Verizon; it was not an independent company. This makes me a little less worried, as it's now part of a smaller company, not a larger one.

Verizon bought Yahoo which owned Flickr, then sold off the parts they didn't want.
Title: Re: Smugmug Acquires Flickr
Post by: US71 on April 23, 2018, 09:00:39 AM
I received an official announcement just now in my e-mail
Quote

We're excited to announce that Flickr has agreed to be acquired by SmugMug, the photography platform dedicated to visual storytellers.

SmugMug has a long history of empowering people who love photography and who want to improve their craft, making them a perfect fit for Flickr and our creative community. With SmugMug, we'll continue to focus on you, the Flickr members who inspire us all with your work.

Nothing will change immediately with regard to your Flickr account. You will still access Flickr with your current login credentials and you will have the same Flickr experience as you do now. We will continue to work to make your Flickr experience even better.

We think you are going to love Flickr under SmugMug ownership, but you can choose to not have your Flickr account and data transferred to SmugMug until May 25, 2018. If you want to keep your Flickr account and data from being transferred, you must go to your Flickr account to download the photos and videos you want to keep, then delete your account from your Account Settings by May 25, 2018.

If you do not delete your account by May 25, 2018, your Flickr account and data will transfer to SmugMug and will be governed by SmugMug's Terms and Privacy Policy.

Read more detailed FAQs about this transition on the Flickr Blog.

We're happy that Flickr is your home for photography and we look forward to the next chapter in our adventure together as we join the SmugMug family.
Thanks,
The Flickr Team


I don't see anyplace to mass download my photos, so I guess I'm stuck.
Title: Re: Smugmug Acquires Flickr
Post by: okc1 on April 23, 2018, 09:17:27 AM
Just where is the Flickr Blog?
Title: Re: Smugmug Acquires Flickr
Post by: US71 on April 23, 2018, 09:40:56 AM
Quote from: okc1 on April 23, 2018, 09:17:27 AM
Just where is the Flickr Blog?
https://blog.flickr.net/en
Title: Re: Smugmug Acquires Flickr
Post by: Max Rockatansky on April 23, 2018, 09:42:33 AM
Quote from: US71 on April 23, 2018, 09:00:39 AM
I received an official announcement just now in my e-mail
Quote

We're excited to announce that Flickr has agreed to be acquired by SmugMug, the photography platform dedicated to visual storytellers.

SmugMug has a long history of empowering people who love photography and who want to improve their craft, making them a perfect fit for Flickr and our creative community. With SmugMug, we'll continue to focus on you, the Flickr members who inspire us all with your work.

Nothing will change immediately with regard to your Flickr account. You will still access Flickr with your current login credentials and you will have the same Flickr experience as you do now. We will continue to work to make your Flickr experience even better.

We think you are going to love Flickr under SmugMug ownership, but you can choose to not have your Flickr account and data transferred to SmugMug until May 25, 2018. If you want to keep your Flickr account and data from being transferred, you must go to your Flickr account to download the photos and videos you want to keep, then delete your account from your Account Settings by May 25, 2018.

If you do not delete your account by May 25, 2018, your Flickr account and data will transfer to SmugMug and will be governed by SmugMug's Terms and Privacy Policy.

Read more detailed FAQs about this transition on the Flickr Blog.

We're happy that Flickr is your home for photography and we look forward to the next chapter in our adventure together as we join the SmugMug family.
Thanks,
The Flickr Team


I don't see anyplace to mass download my photos, so I guess I'm stuck.

I believe you can download albums in one shot.  I just bought myself a third backup harddrive the other day, I'm getting a little leery this is heading towards having pay to download your own photos. 
Title: Re: Smugmug Acquires Flickr
Post by: US71 on April 23, 2018, 09:45:55 AM
Quote from: Max Rockatansky on April 23, 2018, 09:42:33 AM
Quote from: US71 on April 23, 2018, 09:00:39 AM
I received an official announcement just now in my e-mail
Quote

We're excited to announce that Flickr has agreed to be acquired by SmugMug, the photography platform dedicated to visual storytellers.

SmugMug has a long history of empowering people who love photography and who want to improve their craft, making them a perfect fit for Flickr and our creative community. With SmugMug, we'll continue to focus on you, the Flickr members who inspire us all with your work.

Nothing will change immediately with regard to your Flickr account. You will still access Flickr with your current login credentials and you will have the same Flickr experience as you do now. We will continue to work to make your Flickr experience even better.

We think you are going to love Flickr under SmugMug ownership, but you can choose to not have your Flickr account and data transferred to SmugMug until May 25, 2018. If you want to keep your Flickr account and data from being transferred, you must go to your Flickr account to download the photos and videos you want to keep, then delete your account from your Account Settings by May 25, 2018.

If you do not delete your account by May 25, 2018, your Flickr account and data will transfer to SmugMug and will be governed by SmugMug's Terms and Privacy Policy.

Read more detailed FAQs about this transition on the Flickr Blog.

We're happy that Flickr is your home for photography and we look forward to the next chapter in our adventure together as we join the SmugMug family.
Thanks,
The Flickr Team


I don't see anyplace to mass download my photos, so I guess I'm stuck.

I believe you can download albums in one shot.  I just bought myself a third backup harddrive the other day, I'm getting a little leery this is heading towards having pay to download your own photos. 

Most of my stuff is burned to CD, but I have a few on my computer I still need to save
Title: Re: Smugmug Acquires Flickr
Post by: hbelkins on April 23, 2018, 11:15:01 AM
Quote from: US71 on April 23, 2018, 09:00:39 AM
I received an official announcement just now in my e-mail
Quote

We're excited to announce that Flickr has agreed to be acquired by SmugMug, the photography platform dedicated to visual storytellers.

SmugMug has a long history of empowering people who love photography and who want to improve their craft, making them a perfect fit for Flickr and our creative community. With SmugMug, we'll continue to focus on you, the Flickr members who inspire us all with your work.

Nothing will change immediately with regard to your Flickr account. You will still access Flickr with your current login credentials and you will have the same Flickr experience as you do now. We will continue to work to make your Flickr experience even better.

We think you are going to love Flickr under SmugMug ownership, but you can choose to not have your Flickr account and data transferred to SmugMug until May 25, 2018. If you want to keep your Flickr account and data from being transferred, you must go to your Flickr account to download the photos and videos you want to keep, then delete your account from your Account Settings by May 25, 2018.

If you do not delete your account by May 25, 2018, your Flickr account and data will transfer to SmugMug and will be governed by SmugMug's Terms and Privacy Policy.

Read more detailed FAQs about this transition on the Flickr Blog.

We're happy that Flickr is your home for photography and we look forward to the next chapter in our adventure together as we join the SmugMug family.
Thanks,
The Flickr Team


I don't see anyplace to mass download my photos, so I guess I'm stuck.

There are some mass download utilities available. I posed that question a few years ago somewhere (Facebook probably) and got some responses. Of course, I'm on a Mac, so that would probably make a difference.
Title: Re: Smugmug Acquires Flickr
Post by: Chris on April 24, 2018, 11:20:13 AM
Smugmug only offers paid subscription plans: https://www.smugmug.com/plans

Flickr used to have paid subscription plans, but the Yahoo acquisition got rid of the paid plans, as personal data collecting was apparently a better business plan. Flickr reintroduced optional paid plans, basically only to get rid of ads - which any adblocker will achieve too - and to get statistics. It is my impression that quite a number of users actually opted for a paid subscription, even if it wasn't really necessary if you're not into statistics.

This makes me wonder if Smugmug will force people into a paid subscription plan, like the Photobuckets of this world. I have over 40,000 photos on Flickr so I would be open to a paid plan if the rates are reasonable (max $ 50 per year).
Title: Re: Smugmug Acquires Flickr
Post by: AsphaltPlanet on April 24, 2018, 11:32:54 AM
Just reading this thread made me wonder.  Do people maintain local copies of their images even after uploading to flickr (or something else?)  I don't upload much of my image collection, but I maintain a local copy (and backup) of everything.  I'm curious what others do.
Title: Re: Smugmug Acquires Flickr
Post by: oscar on April 24, 2018, 11:49:52 AM
Quote from: AsphaltPlanet on April 24, 2018, 11:32:54 AM
Just reading this thread made me wonder.  Do people maintain local copies of their images even after uploading to flickr (or something else?)  I don't upload much of my image collection, but I maintain a local copy (and backup) of everything.  I'm curious what others do.

I likewise make local copies of everything, and backups of those files as well as others on my system. The local copies came in handy when my ISP stopped offering free user web space, and I had to move the files on that space to one of my other web spaces.
Title: Re: Smugmug Acquires Flickr
Post by: abefroman329 on April 24, 2018, 11:52:25 AM
Quote from: AsphaltPlanet on April 24, 2018, 11:32:54 AM
Just reading this thread made me wonder.  Do people maintain local copies of their images even after uploading to flickr (or something else?)  I don't upload much of my image collection, but I maintain a local copy (and backup) of everything.  I'm curious what others do.

Almost all of the pictures I take these days are with my iPhone, and I only upload them to iCloud because it saves space on my phone.  I suppose there's a way to save them to my laptop or netbook, but none of these photos are priceless.  Between iCloud and my iPhone backing up to iTunes every night, I think I'm covered.
Title: Re: Smugmug Acquires Flickr
Post by: hbelkins on April 24, 2018, 02:20:31 PM
Quote from: AsphaltPlanet on April 24, 2018, 11:32:54 AM
Just reading this thread made me wonder.  Do people maintain local copies of their images even after uploading to flickr (or something else?)  I don't upload much of my image collection, but I maintain a local copy (and backup) of everything.  I'm curious what others do.

Yes. My process is that I copy from my camera to my MacBook Pro, then immediately run a Time Machine backup. I run the photos through iPhoto to make small edits, then export those pictures into new folders, and then immediately run another Time Machine backup. I also copy both the original photos and the iPhoto-edited pics onto an external drive.
Title: Re: Smugmug Acquires Flickr
Post by: US71 on April 24, 2018, 02:21:23 PM
Quote from: AsphaltPlanet on April 24, 2018, 11:32:54 AM
Just reading this thread made me wonder.  Do people maintain local copies of their images even after uploading to flickr (or something else?)  I don't upload much of my image collection, but I maintain a local copy (and backup) of everything.  I'm curious what others do.

I keep copies of everything I upload even after I post to Flickr.
Title: Re: Smugmug Acquires Flickr
Post by: Chris on April 24, 2018, 02:42:05 PM
Quote from: AsphaltPlanet on April 24, 2018, 11:32:54 AM
Just reading this thread made me wonder.  Do people maintain local copies of their images even after uploading to flickr (or something else?)  I don't upload much of my image collection, but I maintain a local copy (and backup) of everything.  I'm curious what others do.

I too have my collection on Flickr, on my computer and on an external drive.

I don't see myself moving 40,000+ photos to another service. That would require an extreme amount of work to re-upload, re-tag and re-order everything. In addition, they are hotlinked on several internet forums, which would create a problem similar to what we see with Photobucket, and previously, Imageshack.

I also use imgur for quick uploads to internet forums. I hope imgur doesn't end up the same way as imageshack. Apparently imgur is heavily used by reddit users, which may give it some credentials to stay around. Image hosting costs a ton of money and advertising doesn't generate that much revenue for such services.
Title: Re: Smugmug Acquires Flickr
Post by: formulanone on April 24, 2018, 03:52:02 PM
Quote from: AsphaltPlanet on April 24, 2018, 11:32:54 AM
Just reading this thread made me wonder.  Do people maintain local copies of their images even after uploading to flickr (or something else?)  I don't upload much of my image collection, but I maintain a local copy (and backup) of everything.  I'm curious what others do.

I back up everything that gets uploaded. I periodically make backups of the backups.
Title: Re: Smugmug Acquires Flickr
Post by: Scott5114 on April 24, 2018, 06:04:39 PM
Quote from: Chris on April 24, 2018, 02:42:05 PM
I also use imgur for quick uploads to internet forums. I hope imgur doesn't end up the same way as imageshack. Apparently imgur is heavily used by reddit users, which may give it some credentials to stay around. Image hosting costs a ton of money and advertising doesn't generate that much revenue for such services.

I think imgur is safe, at least under current ownership, because it was started by a Reddit user who wanted to make an image hosting service ideal for use on things like Reddit. It actually has its own social-media aspect to it–images can be submitted to the public and then upvoted and downvoted, same as on Reddit.
Title: Re: Smugmug Acquires Flickr
Post by: Hot Rod Hootenanny on April 24, 2018, 10:12:12 PM
Quote from: AsphaltPlanet on April 24, 2018, 11:32:54 AM
Just reading this thread made me wonder.  Do people maintain local copies of their images even after uploading to flickr (or something else?)  I don't upload much of my image collection, but I maintain a local copy (and backup) of everything.  I'm curious what others do.

Back in my heyday of running roadfan.com I had three copies of my road photos. Print copies, digital copies on disks (then CD-ROMS), and the website.
Now in the digital age, I try to have two digital copies of my photos, one on my laptop, the other on an external hard drive. This goes along with whatever photos I post on FB.
Title: Re: Smugmug Acquires Flickr
Post by: SSOWorld on April 24, 2018, 10:18:52 PM
time to begin the process of downloading and deleting as I feel leery about smug snake
Title: Re: Smugmug Acquires Flickr
Post by: Max Rockatansky on April 24, 2018, 11:28:58 PM
I have storage backups that I use for my photos:

-  My old laptop
-  A terrabyte drive
-  A box of flash drives

I'm at about 60,000 photos and have about 46,000 of them on Flickr.  Last year I put a lot of effort into reorganizing my photos and heavily edited my albums from prior to 2014 when I didn't have very much skill at photo taking.
Title: Re: Smugmug Acquires Flickr
Post by: Roadrunner75 on April 24, 2018, 11:43:06 PM
What's the consensus on safest place to put photos for now?  I only have a handful that I've ever uploaded for here - partially because I'm too lazy to go through the process - and that was at Photobucket.  I don't need a social media experience or voting or a place to upload my Christmas photos - Just something simple to get a direct link for the forum.  I saw Imgur above.  I was thinking of trying out Flickr but...
Title: Re: Smugmug Acquires Flickr
Post by: Scott5114 on April 25, 2018, 05:07:14 AM
Honestly, if you have no strong feelings about keeping your rights to your photos, a good option is to license them under a free license and upload them to Wikimedia Commons.

Pros:

Cons:
Title: Re: Smugmug Acquires Flickr
Post by: MNHighwayMan on April 25, 2018, 06:40:28 AM
I had never thought of using the Commons as a hosting service before. That's kind of brilliant, in its own way, but at the same time, it almost feels like abuse of the system. :paranoid:
Title: Re: Smugmug Acquires Flickr
Post by: Scott5114 on April 25, 2018, 07:34:31 AM
Quote from: MNHighwayMan on April 25, 2018, 06:40:28 AM
I had never thought of using the Commons as a hosting service before. That's kind of brilliant, in its own way, but at the same time, it almost feels like abuse of the system. :paranoid:

As long as you're fine with freely licensing it, Commons is fine with you using their hosting. You get a reliable host, they get a free image to add to their collection (and maybe use to illustrate a Minnesota road article). It's a win-win.
Title: Re: Smugmug Acquires Flickr
Post by: MNHighwayMan on April 25, 2018, 08:25:31 AM
Quote from: Scott5114 on April 25, 2018, 07:34:31 AM
Quote from: MNHighwayMan on April 25, 2018, 06:40:28 AM
I had never thought of using the Commons as a hosting service before. That's kind of brilliant, in its own way, but at the same time, it almost feels like abuse of the system. :paranoid:
As long as you're fine with freely licensing it, Commons is fine with you using their hosting. You get a reliable host, they get a free image to add to their collection (and maybe use to illustrate a Minnesota road article). It's a win-win.

To be honest, I'm kind of honored when someone uses one of my road pictures for something (has happened once!). All I care about is being credited–I take these pictures as a hobby, not as a way to try and make money. :biggrin:

Maybe I'll look into making an account and uploading some stuff...
Title: Re: Smugmug Acquires Flickr
Post by: hbelkins on April 25, 2018, 10:55:22 AM
Facebook is a free, reliable service for image hosting. I've been uploading my recent photos both to Flickr and Facebook.

For those of you who are concerned over privacy issues -- and I'm not one of them, because there is nothing that I could have seen on Facebook that would have affected my vote in the 2016 election in any way -- you can choose to share what you want with Facebook. You don't have to fill out current city or job or anything like that. Start your personal account and create a page, and upload your photos there.
Title: Re: Smugmug Acquires Flickr
Post by: US71 on April 25, 2018, 11:24:38 AM
Quote from: hbelkins on April 25, 2018, 10:55:22 AM
Facebook is a free, reliable service for image hosting. I've been uploading my recent photos both to Flickr and Facebook.

For those of you who are concerned over privacy issues -- and I'm not one of them, because there is nothing that I could have seen on Facebook that would have affected my vote in the 2016 election in any way -- you can choose to share what you want with Facebook. You don't have to fill out current city or job or anything like that. Start your personal account and create a page, and upload your photos there.

Don't they resize them? Would you have a problem if Mark Zuckerberg suddenly decided he owned everything?  That's why I don't post my best shots there, only runners up.
Title: Re: Smugmug Acquires Flickr
Post by: briantroutman on April 25, 2018, 12:27:51 PM
Quote from: hbelkins on April 25, 2018, 10:55:22 AM
For those of you who are concerned over privacy issues...You don't have to fill out current city or job or anything like that.

In my estimation, the amount of information you voluntarily provide–and the value of that information–is trivial compared with the enormous dossier that Facebook can assemble based on snooping on your activity. Sure, you can choose to not to list your current city on your Facebook profile, but it's of little significance since Facebook already knows exactly where you live, where you work, what route you take to work, what fast food restaurant you stop at on the way home, etc.

I'm not insinuating that Facebook is trying to do anything nefarious to any one person with his/her data, but if you're an end user of Facebook, you have to realize that you aren't Facebook's customer; advertisers are Facebook's customers. Any service that they provide to you is incidental to making money through advertisers, and if there's any way they can make a buck by selling the information they've amassed on you and drafting end user agreements that aren't in your best interests, they will.

I think we can all agree that you should always keep a backup copy and never trust any one service to offload photos (or any other digital assets)–just in case that company goes bankrupt, suddenly changes its policies, or whatever. What I'm more concerned with is the issue of embedded links–and all of the intellectual capital that is in a sense destroyed when links to images are broken. If Smugmug suddenly disables Flickr's image embedding, I can imagine that lots of photo-intensive AARoads threads would be rendered useless.

Perhaps the only reasonably durable solution would be to maintain your own system of redirects on a domain that you control. But unless you had some way of automating the process, it would be quite tedious to set up and update if you migrated photos from service to service.
Title: Re: Smugmug Acquires Flickr
Post by: hbelkins on April 25, 2018, 12:28:36 PM
Quote from: briantroutman on April 25, 2018, 12:24:46 PMSure, you can choose to not to list your current city on your Facebook profile, but it's of little significance since Facebook already knows exactly where you live, where you work, what route you take to work, what fast food restaurant you stop at on the way home, etc.

That's not Facebook. That's Google.
Title: Re: Smugmug Acquires Flickr
Post by: freebrickproductions on April 25, 2018, 12:33:54 PM
The only problem with Facebook is, IIRC, the image links tend to go dead after a while.

I always keep local copies of my stuff, so when Flickr goes down, I won't lose anything. Only issue would be posting things on this forum, as there isn't any way to upload attachments (all of the other forums I'm on have this option).
Title: Re: Smugmug Acquires Flickr
Post by: bandit957 on April 25, 2018, 01:35:21 PM
Quote from: hbelkins on April 25, 2018, 10:55:22 AM
Facebook is a free, reliable service for image hosting. I've been uploading my recent photos both to Flickr and Facebook.

But wouldn't people need a Facepoo account to see it?
Title: Re: Smugmug Acquires Flickr
Post by: vdeane on April 25, 2018, 02:01:27 PM
Quote from: hbelkins on April 25, 2018, 12:28:36 PM
Quote from: briantroutman on April 25, 2018, 12:24:46 PMSure, you can choose to not to list your current city on your Facebook profile, but it's of little significance since Facebook already knows exactly where you live, where you work, what route you take to work, what fast food restaurant you stop at on the way home, etc.

That's not Facebook. That's Google.
While those specific examples are more Google's forte, Facebook does engage in such tracking too.  Recently there was a scandal over their phone app downloading people's text messages.  Every site with a Facebook login, "like" button, or comment interface also sends data back to Facebook which they use to build a "shadow profile".
Title: Re: Smugmug Acquires Flickr
Post by: hbelkins on April 25, 2018, 02:41:11 PM
Quote from: bandit957 on April 25, 2018, 01:35:21 PM
Quote from: hbelkins on April 25, 2018, 10:55:22 AM
Facebook is a free, reliable service for image hosting. I've been uploading my recent photos both to Flickr and Facebook.

But wouldn't people need a Facepoo account to see it?

Not for a Page. Facebook Pages are publicly visible to everyone and a FB account is not needed to view them. But I was thinking more in terms of image hosting for sharing images with places such as this forum.

To that end...

Quote from: freebrickproductions on April 25, 2018, 12:33:54 PM
The only problem with Facebook is, IIRC, the image links tend to go dead after a while.

I haven't had that issue.

Let's test it.

(https://scontent-ort2-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/30689284_10156085198796469_2594043316299366400_o.jpg?_nc_cat=0&oh=44d1e5bc8621b7878e2576b25421d941&oe=5B94EC9C)

This is linked from Facebook. Let's see how long the image stays up.
Title: Re: Smugmug Acquires Flickr
Post by: J N Winkler on April 25, 2018, 02:45:49 PM
Quote from: AsphaltPlanet on April 24, 2018, 11:32:54 AMJust reading this thread made me wonder.  Do people maintain local copies of their images even after uploading to flickr (or something else?)  I don't upload much of my image collection, but I maintain a local copy (and backup) of everything.  I'm curious what others do.

My strategy:

*  Nothing lives on the image acquisition device (phone or camera) permanently.  Photos are periodically emptied from both onto my main computer and are covered by nightly local backups (no cloud backup) until a convenient time arrives for archiving.  Transfer from the camera involves physically transferring a SDHC card between the camera and the reader (I bought it in 2007, when WLAN transfer capability would have entailed compromising on optical features).  Transfer from the phone is invariably by WLAN rather than USB cable, which I refuse to use (despite its being faster) because the helper application insists on loading at boot and is memory-hogging trash.

*  Photos are eventually archived to optical media (Blu-ray currently), external hard disk (current accumulating external HD has 8 TB and so should be good for another five years or so), and to a folder on the nightly backup disk that is separate from the nightly backup tarballs.

I have a Flickr account but do very little with it because Flickr's website is set up so that you have to spend your time on it, accepting exposure to their advertising, to generate metadata.  I just don't get enough of an emotional hit from having my photos seen by others to spend a large part of my days there.

I have experimented with having a world-visible Facebook album for image hotlinking, but have decided it is not a workable solution because each upload to it posts a "Jonathan added to this album" update to my feed, which is unacceptable to me because I am looking only for free hosting for forums, not attention from my Facebook friends.
Title: Re: Smugmug Acquires Flickr
Post by: Eth on April 25, 2018, 02:57:16 PM
Since all of my photography is done using an Android phone of some sort, all my photos automatically get backed up to Google Photos. My organization there leaves something to be desired, as I currently just have all my road photos in a single album (1,862 of them as of this writing). I don't link to those directly, though; when I actually want to post something, I download the photo from Google, do any necessary resizing or cropping on my end, and then upload them to my own webhost, which I'm basically just using as a glorified file server. As long as I continue to pay for the hosting, I feel pretty secure in the knowledge that the links won't break.
Title: Re: Smugmug Acquires Flickr
Post by: Chris on April 25, 2018, 03:40:34 PM
Quote from: vdeane on April 25, 2018, 02:01:27 PMWhile those specific examples are more Google's forte, Facebook does engage in such tracking too.  Recently there was a scandal over their phone app downloading people's text messages.  Every site with a Facebook login, "like" button, or comment interface also sends data back to Facebook which they use to build a "shadow profile".

Facebook gathers much more data through tracking than through what you post on your Facebook profile. If you use a browser extension like Ghostery you can see how extensive this tracking of personal data is. If I open a random article on the Los Angeles Times website, there are 16 trackers, some of those are embedded in video players, so you basically need to block functionalities on the website to avoid tracking. It's not just about blocking ads.

Even closing your Facebook account does not stop Facebook from tracking you. Besides Facebook owning services like Instagram and WhatsApp, website tracking will just continue as well. The real power is the ability to combine all that data to get an accurate profile of the user.

Evidently Yahoo thought this was a viable business plan for Flickr, when they dropped the paid subcription plans.
Title: Re: Smugmug Acquires Flickr
Post by: J N Winkler on April 25, 2018, 04:29:05 PM
Google tracks you across the Web using UTM cookies.  There are also companies like NewRelic that specialize in software that enables a website owner to track users around the website, compiling statistical information for reporting through a dashboard.  I ran across NewRelic a few days ago when I was trying to figure out why a particular website was sending traffic to bam.nr.net and various subsites of newrelic.com, and also why some requests had "X-NewRelic-Id" headers as well as "X-Requested-With: XMLHttpRequest" headers.

The big players like Google and Facebook will assure you that they are moving to HTTPS Strict Transport Security (HSTS) because they are concerned about protecting you from man-in-the-middle attacks on your HTTPS traffic.  What they do not tell you is that HSTS also allows them to track you through supercookies.
Title: Re: Smugmug Acquires Flickr
Post by: Big John on April 25, 2018, 04:41:37 PM
Even Facebook tracks your political affiliation using algorithms. https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/facebook-categorize-users-political-preferences/

I looked up what they had on me and they sure got it wrong.
Title: Re: Smugmug Acquires Flickr
Post by: US71 on April 25, 2018, 05:11:14 PM
Quote from: Big John on April 25, 2018, 04:41:37 PM
Even Facebook tracks your political affiliation using algorithms. https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/facebook-categorize-users-political-preferences/

I looked up what they had on me and they sure got it wrong.

They didn't have mine at all.
Title: Re: Smugmug Acquires Flickr
Post by: formulanone on April 25, 2018, 06:10:34 PM
Quote from: Scott5114 on April 25, 2018, 07:34:31 AM
Quote from: MNHighwayMan on April 25, 2018, 06:40:28 AM
I had never thought of using the Commons as a hosting service before. That's kind of brilliant, in its own way, but at the same time, it almost feels like abuse of the system. :paranoid:

As long as you're fine with freely licensing it, Commons is fine with you using their hosting. You get a reliable host, they get a free image to add to their collection (and maybe use to illustrate a Minnesota road article). It's a win-win.

I've marked about 99% of my photos on Flickr with a Creative Commons license, so there's bots that migrate some of the images to Wikimedia Commons. I upload a few here and there directly, but I rarely find enough time to directly send them to Commons. In some cases, it's neat to see how far and wide your photos wind up on the web.

(Sadly, my most "famous" photo (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:MarjoryStonemanDouglasHS_22Jun2008.jpg) is not related to roads (https://www.google.com/search?tbs=sbi:AMhZZiuBwcPWEMrDbrV5zPY9SuplhKFl1EkBJVEgsJ5nl4JCqQn6-kVDEousnfztklCQy-0IpbtiWnMnAsaVD-Y3pRoMzDBel-qmxsTZt3oTmPbMnyEcnquxeX6HImpdCSPURQ4KxDANofOQI_1OQ2v5yo1q4WLH7JpkuVrI0oaS9yGoVxYJY3zvdlFKXJFt1VMO8A7OlyLdJXXLuqLrBwe9xwkTVN9lBN1z91c6XG28SNgWT8FoIYQopGt-ecU3dIWN9MaLezvNxvmLSJWLMp1TlA1z2xJkLaQMHXdHJ4v_12L-ZiqiU-Dqd3pOpS4Tvz7Zv7-ijVAUEfjJ-tb5pG6ZlIEqQX64SgQg).)
Title: Re: Smugmug Acquires Flickr
Post by: Scott5114 on April 25, 2018, 07:26:58 PM
Quote from: MNHighwayMan on April 25, 2018, 08:25:31 AM
Quote from: Scott5114 on April 25, 2018, 07:34:31 AM
Quote from: MNHighwayMan on April 25, 2018, 06:40:28 AM
I had never thought of using the Commons as a hosting service before. That's kind of brilliant, in its own way, but at the same time, it almost feels like abuse of the system. :paranoid:
As long as you're fine with freely licensing it, Commons is fine with you using their hosting. You get a reliable host, they get a free image to add to their collection (and maybe use to illustrate a Minnesota road article). It's a win-win.

To be honest, I'm kind of honored when someone uses one of my road pictures for something (has happened once!). All I care about is being credited–I take these pictures as a hobby, not as a way to try and make money. :biggrin:

Maybe I'll look into making an account and uploading some stuff...

That's perfect for Commons, then. You'll probably want to use the CC-BY-SA license, which requires attribution to you, and that any edited versions of the photo will also require attribution.

I should note that my above endorsement of Commons as a host specifically applies to road photos. Those have a pretty clear case for being kept. For general-use hosting, of things like photos of your mom, or your cat, or screenshots of TV shows, or things of that nature, using Commons is questionable to outright prohibited.
Title: Re: Smugmug Acquires Flickr
Post by: Bruce on April 28, 2018, 02:29:03 PM
Google Photos is also a decent secondary storage option, since it offers unlimited space for smaller-sized photos and has a decent sync tool. Plus the machine learning will arrange photos taken in sequence into a short GIF or a movie. Like so:

(https://i.imgur.com/8h3lmtr.gif)
Title: Re: Smugmug Acquires Flickr
Post by: freebrickproductions on May 01, 2018, 12:05:23 AM
Good news according to the SmugMug/Flickr merger FAQ:
https://blog.flickr.net/en/2018/04/20/together-smugmug-flickr-faq/
Quote
Will Flickr continue to have free accounts?
Yes. When Flickr joins SmugMug on May 25th, we will continue to offer free Flickr accounts.
Title: Re: Smugmug Acquires Flickr
Post by: cjk374 on May 01, 2018, 09:57:02 PM
Quote from: freebrickproductions on May 01, 2018, 12:05:23 AM
Good news according to the SmugMug/Flickr merger FAQ:
https://blog.flickr.net/en/2018/04/20/together-smugmug-flickr-faq/
Quote
Will Flickr continue to have free accounts?
Yes. When Flickr joins SmugMug on May 25th, we will continue to offer free Flickr accounts.

I feel a little bit better after reading that blog's FAQ section. Not letting my guard down yet though.
Title: Re: Smugmug Acquires Flickr
Post by: freebrickproductions on May 02, 2018, 03:41:27 AM
Quote from: cjk374 on May 01, 2018, 09:57:02 PM
Quote from: freebrickproductions on May 01, 2018, 12:05:23 AM
Good news according to the SmugMug/Flickr merger FAQ:
https://blog.flickr.net/en/2018/04/20/together-smugmug-flickr-faq/
Quote
Will Flickr continue to have free accounts?
Yes. When Flickr joins SmugMug on May 25th, we will continue to offer free Flickr accounts.

I feel a little bit better after reading that blog's FAQ section. Not letting my guard down yet though.
If the majority of Flickr's user traffic comes from free accounts, I wouldn't be too surprised if the two sites ever wind-up merging that SmugMug has free accounts on the resulting site.