I have several post filed under personal that are what best can be described as rants against flickr. I never did post them cause I really have not been in the mood to stir anyones pot let alone the flickr pot. Besides, some of them could be taken as sour grapes I suppose.
I typed for myself when yahoo and flickr became one – augh!! I complained to myself when photos reaching the front pages of interestingness were – well – photo shopped crap or the obvious (to me) unfairness that allowed the lesser of the cream of the crop to make explore- using the scratch my back I will scratch yours with favs etc. method. I admit that my photos are probably not worthy of making explore but they sure the heck were better than some that did!
After Yahoo stepped in on the deal the fun seemed to no longer be fun. Groups I had joined started getting ugly, spammers and trolls moved in and some of the regulars responses became down right rude. I mean why berate someone for asking a question in a group discussion because the answer can be found in the manual for that particular camera? I imagine that the person asking either had no manual or did not understand the gooblety goop techno explanation in the manual. And, even if the question annoyed me I would not respond RTFM.
After Yahoo stepped in more and more people were complaining of their photos being misused or used without permission all over the net. My dog Catfish is proud that his picture was used to illustrate a gourmet dish on a cooking site LOL.
While catching up on my blog reading tonight I came across Karoli’s post “Flickr’s Community Is Doomed“. It made me feel better in some respects and sad in others. At least I was not the only one who thought things were going downhill but the newest announcement already had me wondering if the end of the fun had come. Yahoo’s announcement that they were closing down Yahoo’s Photos and send them all to other services including Flickr was followed shortly by an announcement in my mail box that they are now going to attach ads to my emails LOL.
I have never liked the sneaky stuff that Yahoo does. I only have ties to them because the available DSL service in my area merged with them. It seemed ok at first but then the notices of TOS changes kept coming. Web Beacons – big brother Yahoo is tracking you -were announced. Want to fire ATT opps they changed to SBC Global – opps they are now AT&T/Yahoo but my web space is still … no it changed to Geocities – well you get the idea. Who knows who owns what anymore. But I had DSL and that was better than dial-up. Now we do have an alternative Comcast Cable Net but my experiences with Comcast are worse than those with att/sbc/yahoo/prodigy or whatever they call themselves today. At least if I stay with DSL when the cable goes down my internet still works.
So, I have not decided what I am going to do. I still have not figured out how ads attached to my emails are going to be useful to me – and if they are just going to annoy me when a send and relieve mail or are they actually going to be attached to my mail?
“ Additionally, within the next few weeks you will begin seeing graphical advertisements in your AT&T Yahoo! Mail service. These advertisements will be integrated into the AT&T Yahoo! Mail experience, and we hope you will find the advertisements useful. Advertising such as this allows us to continue delivering new and innovative elements to our service and helps us keep prices competitive, while we continue to provide the high level of service that you have come to know and trust. “
Now I have already purchased web space from another host. Their mail service sucks with long retrieval and delivery times not to mention many other services refuse the mail because the host is used by spammers.
So do I revolt and ditch yahoo for good? Transfer (read more money) my blogs domain name to my Bluehost, delete all pictures I had in Yahoo Photos, find another mail service and complain when they give all Flickr members more photosharing space after I had to pay for the privilege?
After the latest attacks on other bloggers and the current debates going on about anonymity on the net these latest Yahoo announcements remind me : Resistance is Futile . … Resistance is Futile . …
The fun is fading on all fronts. Comcast’s guide now has ads at the bottom taking up room where useful info used to be – you know – the show listings? AUGH
Oh yeah, I dug out my old school speakers, the ones with the big ass bass, midrange, and tweeters in em. Yep we had battle of the loud music here the other afternoon – the neighbors and I – I took the dogs out to the truck so as to not hurt their ears, put my aircraft style ear protectors on and started sharing my favorites with them. At 1/3 volume I could no longer hear their boom boom coming through the walls. The cranked it up – I cranked it up – they cranked it up – At about 1/2 volume I exited my townhouse and walked across the street only going back in with ear protection on to increase the volume at the end of each track. I recieved many thumbs up from other neighbors who were as sick of the noise these people subjected us to day and night. long story shortened – at a little under three quarter of max volume – they had no more sound to give me LOL LOL as they turned theirs down and came outside – stunned looks on their faces. Dang I had not even plugged in the 15 inch high power sub woofer yet – I was waiting for Phantom of the Opera for that . …
“The day will come when man will have to fight noise as inexorably as cholera and the plague.”
— Robert Koch, 19th-century German bacteriologist who won Nobel Prize for medicine in 1905