Sunday, March 11, 2012

Flickr Sometimes Deletes Your Content Even Though They Don't Have To

So flickr finally replied to my questions.

The answer was: "After reviewing your recent correspondence, we have no further comments to make regarding this case, and consider it closed."

I think this sums it up. Click on the image to see it at full size:


I guess it's time to start searching for a new online photo-community...


(Previously#1 and Previously#2)

18 comments:

Unknown said...

try imgur. have yet to have a problem wit them

Anonymous said...

500px is one that I have heard recommended

emma6 said...

can't read it, but i have a pretty good idea what it says.

Simon Woodward said...

Unbelievable. Just...unbelievable. Without wanting to sound too crass - do they not "know who you are?" I know, it shouldn't make a difference, as this could happen to anyone, and it probably has happened to people who don't have the platform and following to spread the message - but you would have thought that the negative press that you could, and hopefully WILL, generate about Yahoo! and flickr would have made *someone* at flickr HQ say "Erm, hang on guys, maybe we should actually sort this out"

I still can't get my head around why they simply won't help you. Just sort it out. Restore the page, links and comments like they know they can.

I hope you have better luck with another photo community.

Dave Gorman said...

@emma6: if you click on it, it should show you the full size image.

Barry O said...

May I recommend smugmug?

Phil said...

is why i am now using Google Plus as my photo storage site of choice :)

Sue Phelan said...

They dont respond to the issue because its easier not to. they delet becuase its more cost effective to just get rid of a problem rather than find out whether it really is a problem or not. Laziness is killing everything.

Unknown said...

You have definitely seen this through to the bitter end Dave and it is a shame that, rather than take the opportunity to use this instance to improve their service, flickr have chosen to slam the door in your face. There are a few different photo sharing services and the main ones I use are
Google Picasa / Google+ and Lightbox.com

Hope you find one that suits your needs.

Dave Gorman said...

@DarrenRichie: they might yet see the light and do the right thing. The more people who tweet @Flickr, link to this (or this) and otherwise let them know that they don't like the idea of a site deleting their content when they don't have to (and not replacing it when they are meant to) the more likely it is that they'll do something about it.

Anonymous said...

WELL THAT ISN'T VERY NICE
Are they likely to still have a copy on their servers? Or, more realistically, a copy retrievable at no cost other than a 30 second search-click-reload scenario?

Trent said...

Dave,
I am entirely enjoying your recent trend in posts that I am calling "rational man on the Internet".
I find it heart warming to read someone defending common sense.
Please keep it up.
Best,
Trent

Dave Gorman said...

@Jamie: a copy is available to them. They - and only they - can access the url where the content used to reside and put it back at that location.

Even if there is some cost involved and it's more than a 30 second search-click-reload scenario (which I suspect it is)... that's only the case because of their choice to delete - rather than disable access to - the photo. It's their choice to do it this way.

Dave Gorman said...

@Trent: thanks, I intend to. But only if it can possibly achieve something. For that to happen, it kind of needs people to make some noise, for @flickr to feel suitably ashamed of the choices they make.

R said...

Posted my tweet. It is a Monday morning so more than happy to complain about something, anything really.

Try contacting some of the big names in the Flickr community like Thomas Hawk. I know he has previously had problems with the Flickr Explore Blacklist.

There's a lot of buzz about Google+.

Best of luck!

Smylers said...

Dave, thanks so much for all the effort you've put into working out what went on here, and especially for providing an explanation that's useful for linking people to.

Now I'm fighting the urge to mail Flickr and (wrongly) claim that your flowchart is breaching my copyright ... http://www.flickr.com/photos/dgbalancesrocks/6827220702/lightbox/

Stephen said...

Last year when my Flickr Pro came up for renewal I was teetering on the egde of moving to another service (since Flickr seems to have been left to somewhat whither on the vine since Yahoo bought it).

I think I'll have less inertia this year.

Thanks for your work on this Dave!

Tony Worrall said...

This whole episode frightens me being a massive Flickr user and promoter to my friends. When DMCA was first announced there were plenty of scare stories about copyright issues and files being deleted. Looks like they were true. Flickr's customer service to you has been disappointing but I hope they pick up on this. There has been a bit of a buzz around it. I don't want to leave Flickr as I consider the best and easiest to use. However, it is getting a little stale. Maybe time to shop around?