There might be users that do, and they have the right to, right?

Right, but why not just create a way to filter them out. It would make things easier for both people who want to enjoy them and people who do not.

There might be users that do, and they have the right to, right?

Ignoring the photos, though the feature you propose or otherwise, is similar to standing in a room full of people you don’t like and trying to pretend they’re not there.

You can do it, if I know they’re there to begin with, I won’t go in the first place.

Now I’m here and they’re showing up. I don’t want to be in their company. It’s only a few at first, and while those may be easy to ignore, I know there will be more, and more.

And that’s what bothers me.

So I’m faced with a choice. Stay and put up with the inevitable, or leave and not bother with it.

Thomas, I see this very similar to your struggle with crime in Oakland. You don’t like it but you stay and fight it instead of leaving (or doing nothing).

I see video as an opportunity to try something new…sure there’s plenty of crap, but we’ll become skilled at filtering that in the same way we do photography.

To me, though, the simple inclusion of videos changes the whole way I experience flickr. It’s sad, but it’s also inevitable? What’s wrong with thousands of pictures and videos of someone’s kid? Nothing, nothing at all. It’s just that there’s nothing great about it either. Just more between me and what I’m looking for, is all.

With that said, I think a lot of the grumpiness over this issue is from people who don’t want anything about Flickr to ever change, and seem to perceive any attempt by the company to do so as some sort of heavy-handed imposition and affront to their identity as an artist.

That, in my mind, is just misguided and short-sighted.

We could debate the business merits of the changes until we’re blue in the face, but when it comes down to it, it’s Flickr/Yahoo/MicroHoo’s property to run as they see fit.

I, too, am drawn to Flickr primarily for the art, but I see the value of it as a sharing tool for journalism, as well as the family birthday photos. And I’ve used it for those purposes, and it’s a great tool. We’ve both used it to host screenshots of things we want to illustrate on our blogs. Calling that “fine art” would most likely be pushing the boundaries of that definition, as well.

But that’s not to say I don’t agree that many of us photographers would like to see a lot more focus on the art end of the scale.

I was even drawn to Zooomr because that community seemed to skew more towards the artistic.

But if memory serves me correctly, a significant, and vocal part of that community objects to Zooomr’s efforts on a mobile platform for nearly identical reasons to those you highlight in this post about Flickr Video. I think it’s fair to say that photos from phones are very rarely art, or even intended as such. (Maybe when more of us have 5 megapixel phones this will change, but for now…)

I think you’ve made some insightful points, as always, Thomas. But I think most of this controversy is way, way overblown.

Reasonable analysis. Thanks for sharing.

Here’s my thoughts on yours:

If someone uploads 250 snapshots from their family reunion, perhaps 245 of those are “crap” from an art perspective. Fine. But I don’t see how two short videos — grandma blowing out her bday candles or whatever — taken with the same point-and-shoot camera tips the scales any farther toward “crap.” 5/250 and 5/252 are, it would seem, practically identical.

I enjoy the fine art on Flickr immensely. I also think it’s the best place to post my 250 reunion photos. I don’t see how one interrupts the other. And I don’t see how video makes it worse.

(Having a search filter seems like a fine idea though.)

Thanks,
Nate

(Disclosure: I work at Yahoo!, but not of the Flickr team.)

As others have pointed out, Flickr has SO many areas they could have improved on before implementing video. Yet they didn’t.

Personally, I’ve already seen enough boring web video to last a lifetime. I just don’t want to see any more.