I have had a remarkable amount of copyright issues via flickr, countless images stolen and used inappropriately, even after de-tagging, watermarking and opting out of groups, not to mention keeping a firm eye on my privacy, download settings.

From my perspective, flickr actively promotes image harvesting. Copyright information is not readily accessible to new users, and the settings section is vague at best.

Heard of ‘flickr hive mind’?
if not, google it and see how our images are distributed without consent. New users are never made aware of such applications.

I also agree with the commenter who mentioned the sameness and copycat behaviour. Once a fashionable little aesthetic pops up, a thousand minions are jumping on the bandwagon, the imagery of girls in fields, girls in grass, girls in stripe socks, girls in sleepy, infantile poses are the big thing right now, it seems. `some of this is stunning work, but the homogeneity is a serious turn off for me.

I have been using flickr for five years now, and sadly cannot report much in the way of positives anymore. For online, impermanent archiving (not true, original sized archiving!) flickr is a great place to store files. Aside form this, i only keep my account open to promote new works. (i make digital art and photomontage).

x

I choose to share my EXIF data. WIth an open exchange of settings I find Flickr can be used as a great learning tool.

My photos are mostly available to view “on black ” . There are several applications that allow you to do this, find various things on flickrs ” toys ” or groups.

As for explore- yawn ! Some people are SO obsessed by getting their photos on there, I have seen some amazing photos ( including my own of course !! ) that hardly get a comment let alone make it into explore, mainly because they dont add to groups, or tag like its going out of fashion ! I have had photos on explore btw, so this isnt sour grapes !

I cant stand the groups where everyone has to ” add one, comment on and fave three “. Still these photos often then make it into explore, which makes them happy ! I have contacts who take reasonable photos that seem to have a cult following because of these groups…. sad, I usually end up deleting them as a contact, they bask in their own popularity, and forget to comment on the photos of us lesser flickerites !!

I also have friends from opposite sides of the world that I have “met ” on flickr, which is lovely.

Like other folks have said, if you dont want it stolen- dont put it on the web.

When I first chose my flickr name- no-one else on the web had it to my knowledge- certainly nothing like it on flickr…. having ” googled ” it I found it all over the place…. and some were very odd folks ! Its not just your photos that get pinched !!

I encourage people to try out the 365 project or if that is too much of a commitment, go for the 52 week project. It’s a fun way to kinda force yourself to become closer with your camera, and hopefully appreciate digital photography.

But.. Flickr is not a great place to learn new things in my opinion. That’s why we have DPS ^^
I see so many of the same themes over and over, and I really don’t spent that much time on Flickr..
So many copycatters.. (ie girls painting their face, girls sitting in a box or basket, photos of just their feet wearing colorful socks, etc) and so many people commenting on how creative and artistic these photos are!
Seriously makes me wonder sometimes if people are commenting just to comment, because no way would I call any of that creative..

Also, there are way too many perverted people on Flickr. When I post female friend’s photos, I get tons of views, but when I put a photo of myself, hardly any.. Am I that not interesting?? ^^;;

One thing I see why I prefer dA rather than flickr, it’s that there IS the option to give and get CONSTRUCTIVE critiques which will be seen in the “deviation page” right under the work, with the ratings on originality, technique and others. That is, if you pay for it.

Oh, and one thing I learnt from every site of this kind I’ve been, it’s:

“be polite, give your sincere opinion -whether you like it or not and why… this always depends if the author is friendly or not you may use colloquial or friendlier expressions XD- and if you feel curious about their technique, ask… you may get some response and you’ll get a chance to learn a lot”.

I’m rather new in flickr and haven’t commented that much, but in other online galleries (like dA or others) I used this and it worked.