You Know What Part

"Let us think the unthinkable, Let us do the undoable, Let us prepare to grapple with ineffable itself, And see if we may not eff it after all." Douglas Adams

For the love of FSM

Back in March, Yahoo! bought Flickr, a growing community of people who upload their photos to share with whoever they want. Flickr was cool because it could be free (there’s a pay option) and it was well designed. It allowed people to comment on other people’s photos, tag them, and create groups to share.

So now, as Yahoo! starts to integrate Flickr into their portfolio, you know, like all acquired companies are eventually, Flickr Fans are pissed. Why?

At stake is a new user-profile stipulation that reads: “We will be migrating all independent Flickr accounts to Yahoo’s network in 2006. At that time, if you have not done so already, you will be asked to create a Yahoo ID (or link your account to your Yahoo ID if you already have one) in order to continue using your account.”

Members’ photos will be deleted if they later drop their account with the portal and search engine, disappointing some.

Wow, what a terrible, evil thing to do to people. And what is their protest going to be?

“If Flickr really forces me to join Yahoo in 2006 in order to still use my account, I will quit 24 hours before the deadline,” wrote Thomas Müller…

Yeah, that’ll show ’em! You stop displaying your 1,400 photos on Flickr and take them to… uh… hmm. On second thought, what other photo-sharing site has tags, tons of traffic, and a hell of a lot more people who don’t care about Yahoo! requiring a Yahoo! ID? That’s right, no one.

I’m sorry people think getting a Yahoo! ID is a terrible thing (although I suspect these same people have about 10 Gmail accounts and don’t anonymize their Google usage). But the fact is Yahoo! paid a lot of money for Flickr and they’re damn sure going to use it. For every person who tells Yahoo! to Flick Off (very creative), about 10 more will come on through the integration with existing Yahoo! IDs. Sorry people, this is a losing battle and your idealism is off the mark. Go fight for something worthwhile.

2 responses to “For the love of FSM”

  1.  Avatar

    Picasa is nice, I think.

  2.  Avatar
    Anonymous

    Does Picassa allow people to share photos too? (I've never used it.)