It seems every few years, it gets more and more difficult to keep blogging. Flickr just announced that "Free accounts will soon be limited to 1000 photos". I'm already at 1,457, and I've barely been using them for a few years (2016). I thought I had finally found a permanent photo sharing solution, the company just recently changed hands, and now this. What am I supposed to do? Start looking AGAIN for another free service? I've already gone through Photobucket, which no longer allows third-party hosting, Google Photos, then Picasa, and then Flickr. It's annoying because now all my photos are linked in different places, and it's just a huge hassle. My blog is entirely free with no ads. I make absolutely ZERO money keeping this running. I only blog because I enjoy it, and because I want to share my knowledge on clock repair and post my projects.
What's worse is that there won't be anything grandfathered-in. According to their email update:
*Free members with more than 1,000 photos or videos uploaded to Flickr will no longer be able to upload new content after Tuesday, January 8, 2019 unless they upgrade to Pro. After February 5, 2019, free accounts that contain over 1,000 photos or videos will have content deleted -- starting from oldest to newest date uploaded -- to meet the new limit. Members may always choose to download content over the limit at any time prior to these dates.
Yes you read that correctly. CONTENT WILL BE DELETED unless you PAY.
This will mean downloading, re-saving, and re-linking 458 photos, as well as re-editing all their associated posts, which will be a MASSIVE amount of work.
Also FYI: Pro is 50$ USD/year, or 5.99$ USD per month. This adds up to around 68$ CAD per year plus or minus any conversion fees that might get tacked on. It's auto-renewing and non-refundable.
If anyone has suggestions I'm open to hearing them.
This seems to be the way of the world, user fees everywhere. I used Shutterchance for a while but I haven't checked if they are fee based now. The only photos I keep in the cloud are on DropBox (free version) and WordPress (modest fee each year). All those I have online are reduced in size for space conservation.
ReplyDeleteI should be able to continue using Google Photos. I just REALLY hated the interface. The organizing of photos there is also similar to Flickr (where everything you upload gets dumped in a big pile and you can add select photos grouped in "albums"). The way the photos link is also different and I didn't like it. But it's unlimited... and as far as I know, still free.
DeleteWould it be feasible at all to host the images yourself? You could use a raspberry pi or similar cheap single-board computer and an external hard drive. If you did that, it would be a single upfront cost (unless there are other fees involved in this approach of which I'm unaware).
ReplyDelete