Smugmug Acquires Flickr!

There is only one Wonderland, but let's also talk about and share photos of other national parks.

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yellvet
Posts: 224
Joined: Tue Aug 01, 2017 5:54 pm

Smugmug Acquires Flickr!

Post by yellvet »

Talk about timing! Due to a variety of problems that I've been having with Flickr, I was seriously considering going to another photo share website to post/share and store my images. Was looking at PBase and SmugMug. Just went to the SmugMug website to check out their plans and pricing and guess what? Flickr has just agreed to be acquired by SmugMug! Reportedly, no changes are planned for Flickr users at this time....everything will remain the same. Both sites will continue to operate separately and Flickr will continue to offer pro and free accounts. I wonder how long that's gonna last?

For now, I've decided to adopt a "wait and see" attitude on this latest development....might be a very good thing for Flickr and its users or it might turn into an absolute nightmare for everyone. Don't know, with any kind of certainty, what's gonna happen after the acquisition is complete or even 6 or 12 months down the road. So, for now, I think the better part of valor will be to make sure that I've got all my images backed up on a separate HD. Wow! If you go to the Flickr support/help blog, there's a FAQ section on this topic. This is big news, folks. So, Flickr users may want to keep up-to-date on the progress of the acquisition and how you might/will be affected. Sorry I had to be the one to drop the bombshell, folks. Flickr users were supposed to get an email about the acquisition, but I never got one...did you?



lah
Posts: 165
Joined: Thu Jul 27, 2017 12:47 pm

Re: Smugmug Acquires Flickr!

Post by lah »

No, I haven't heard anything from Flickr.
Dang, I had to quit using Photobucket, now maybe I won't be able to use Flickr.
Thanks for the heads-up.



yellvet
Posts: 224
Joined: Tue Aug 01, 2017 5:54 pm

Re: Smugmug Acquires Flickr!

Post by yellvet »

I just hope that SmugMug hasn't bitten off more than it can chew. Something similar happened to our cable provider down south 2-1/2 years ago. It was the classic "little guy takeover of the giant cable company" which provided phone service, cable TV and Internet access to a substantial number of people across the country. Everyone on the smaller company's service and support teams were really quite pleasant to its newly acquired customer base (at first). So users tried to be patient when their service had problems. But patience only lasts so long when you're paying a good chunk of money each month to have WORKING phone service, cable TV and Internet access.

The smaller company was so overwhelmed by customer complaints that people began switching providers. Bottom line, the smaller company just didn't have the management, manpower, equipment or the technical and customer support expertise to pull off a smooth transition for all the users. Right after the merger was complete, residential customers began having all sorts of problems (ie: no TV, no or intermittent Internet access, frequent power outages, etc.). Seniors across the country were furious and they had good reason to be mad....after all, they weren't able to watch Jeopardy, Wheel of Fortune or CNN! :o But, more importantly, they relied on the Internet to be able to communicate with their long-distance family members and friends. It was during this time that I watched for business-related articles about the company's dilemma. The price of the company's stock had taken a huge hit and was dropping quickly. I honestly thought that the company might go out of business. We had company-related billing and technical problems for over 2 years. There were so many complaints generated by the folks in our 55+ community that the cable company finally assigned one of its key technical management employees to live and work in our community, just so he could personally address, service and troubleshoot all the residential problems. I believe he's still there....great guy. Luckily, things have finally settled down. I just hope that SmugMug takes a long hard look at all the implications and ramifications that are associated with such a large-scale acquisition. Is SmugMug ready for this? What about Flickr, its staff and its customers? Seems to me, that this would be a very good time for pBase to step up to the plate and try to win over some new customers, with simple, EZ to understand plans, aggressive pricing and some outstanding technical and CS support. Here I am SmugMug. So far, your panda hasn't impressed me. Got a guy in a bear suit? Now that's something that just might win me over. ;)



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Nordwil
Posts: 45
Joined: Thu Aug 03, 2017 11:41 am
Location: Massachusetts
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Re: Smugmug Acquires Flickr!

Post by Nordwil »

I'm curious to see where it will lead. I use Flickr primarily for nature/wildlife shots and events my son participates in. While I have all my shots backed up, it would take a lot of time to sift through them again.

I enjoy using Flickr to look back at trips/events and enjoy the bit of back and forth in the comments section. I try to post only quality shots and often wonder whether certain photos are "Flickr-worthy". I paid to upgrade to "pro" to gain more memory but that's unnecessary now that they've increased the capacity by so much.

I'm at the point in my life where I'm trying to get rid of monthly fees not add more!



Mike W.
Posts: 62
Joined: Mon Aug 14, 2017 2:11 pm
Location: Far, far north edge of SF Bay Area

Re: Smugmug Acquires Flickr!

Post by Mike W. »

I use both imgur.com and postimage at times and have been happy doing so, unlike those who used Photobucket. But sooner or later the free sites are going to go away and if you're not hosting them yourself or paying for a service they will become unavailable.



mdtrot
Posts: 144
Joined: Tue Jul 25, 2017 7:57 pm
Location: East Texas

Re: Smugmug Acquires Flickr!

Post by mdtrot »

lah wrote:
Sat Apr 28, 2018 1:04 am
No, I haven't heard anything from Flickr.
Dang, I had to quit using Photobucket, now maybe I won't be able to use Flickr.
Thanks for the heads-up.
Same here, and before Photobucket, I was using Webshots, which also went kaput. Now using Flickr. We'll see what happens.



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