Thursday, May 23, 2013

Change 56 months ago.

Clouds decending by ausfi
Clouds decending, a photo by ausfi on Flickr.
I had forgotten that I used to be one of the admin of a group called
"I'm Not Happy With The New flickr - Can I Have the Old One Back",
131 members. That was initiated 56 months ago, when we had a major change, and also 27 months ago. I wrote then:
”The group has served its purpose - or not. We have a new system, again! I have no poblem using it now, cannot really remember the old one. I still would like avatars next to the group names in 'Add to a group', they would make the group easier to find, but that's not happening.”

Some people have sent photos there now. The change now is a whopper compared to that time. I will certainly always remember how Flickr looked a few days ago.

Some people have a more balanced view:
JMBower:
As for all the griping about pro memberships...If you're pro, you get to stay pro. Huzzah! Why the complaining about the other options? I mean, I don't like them either, but I'm pro...I'm staying pro...it was a good deal before the redesign and it remains a good deal. literally nohting about the account has changed. If you're not Pro, then why are you suddenly up in arms about Pro going away? You aren't losing anything. Nothing is being taken away from you. if anything, you're getting a lot of the benefits to Pro without paying for it other than with ads. My biggest concern was that if they did a nice thing for the free users, that they recognized those of us who had paid into the system for years. Which they are...Pros are getting to keep what we have...and the cost stays the same. That's awesome! Yes it could have been rolled out better and thought through more, but they corrected the error in the matter of a day or so. I know there are a lot of style issues/bugs with the redesign, but as far as accounts go, I think Flickr did a pretty smart thing. Reward your old members by grandfathering them, and moving toward a more sustainable business model to expand your community. Again, it could have been handled a bit better in transition, and there are issues remaining, but the change was coming. If what you want is a serious portfolio type site, then Flickr was never really for you, honestly. And that's from someone who has been griping about the new redesign right along with you. Let's not pretend, though, that we're losing some magical mystical website that never really existed. It's a shaky step forward, and maybe off to the side a bit, but it is a step forward. I think when it all settles out, we won't be happy about every detail, but the sky won't be falling. I understand the frustration but the "I'm going to leave....once I stick around for a while and complain about it" crowd kinda gets to me once in a while. Leave and vote with your money, or stay and work toward getting what you want. the middle road of just carping about it doesn't get you anywhere.

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