Original Photo by Mathias Appel
Flickr Limits Free Accounts to 1000 Photos to Make the Service Sustainable
SmugMug purchased Flickr from Yahoo in April (see “SmugMug Buys Flickr from the Remains of Yahoo,” 24 April 2018), and is now revamping the service. First up, Flickr will limit free accounts to 1000 photos starting 8 January 2019. After that, users with more than 1000 photos won’t be able to upload new photos. Simultaneously, Flickr is enhancing its $49.99-per-year Flickr Pro plan with unlimited photo storage, 5K photo support, ad-free browsing, and more. In a blog post, Flickr Vice President of Product Andrew Stadlen explained that the change is aimed at refocusing the service around photography enthusiasts, reducing reliance on advertising, and making Flickr more sustainable.
I’ve been Pro for over ten years now. My terabyte is nearly full so glad that’s now not a limit.
Flickr has a job to do, if it’s even fixable, to restore a sense of active community there. Not as vacant or soulless as 500px but nowhere near the level of activity on Instagram.
Though I don’t use either Flicker or Instagram, I’ve been reading quite a bit about hate speech, harassment as well as plain old creepy stuff on Instagram continuing to muItiply. Facebook’s policing efforts seem to not terribly successful on Instagram, and it might be an opportunity for Oath/Yahoo to position Flickr as more of a safe space than Instagram, if this is is the case.
Smugmug bought Flickr from Oath a while back. These new accounts are their first changes since ownership transferred. Yahoo’s acquisition was a disaster for the once lively Flickr.
Flickr has clarified that it will not delete any photos shared via Flickr Commons.