The Flickr Brouhaha and Ipernity

First of all, I try to never miss a chance to use the word "brouhaha."  And the massive, drastic, total and complete change in Flickr this week seems to be a perfect time to use it.  As of this time there are 197 pages of response to Yahoo's "Better, Brighter Flickr," with about 99% of the comments on the pages being negative, to put it mildly.  Now, had I just happened on Flickr for the first time, if I didn't have the unusual number of 666 pictures already posted there, the radical change may not offend me at all.  What offends me most is that without notice, without asking for input from its users, Flickr became an entirely different experience than it had been.  It is as if Blogger one day decided that all of its blogs should have pink as the background color and imposed that single limitation across everyone here.

As part of the last picture I uploaded to Flickr I wrote:

Flickr, I loved you. Oh, you weren't the first. I went out with photo.net and usefilm.com and, well, I can't even remember the name of that other one. But then I met you. You were nice to me. We had good times. And sure, I know I sometimes ignored you and took you for granted. But let's face it - when you say you just got a facelift for me, we both know it's not true. This isn't just a facelift. It's liposuction and a tummy tuck, an artificial heart and fake nails and I just don't even recognize you anymore. It isn't for me. I was happy with you as you were. You are looking for someone youngr and hippr. I hope you find them. I hope you are happy togethr. I am going to back out on the circuit now because, you know, there are other fish in the sea and petals are definitely off this bloom.

My dissatisfaction is not with change, but with loss of trust.  Not all of the changes were bad, but the changes were many and were a complete surprise.  Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer threw gasoline on the fire with a statement explaining that Flick was eliminating the "pro" accounts (that had cost $25 per year for unlimited uploading rights) because there are no longer any "professional photographers."  Wow.  Photography Consultant Jim Colton described this as "...perhaps one of the stupidest comments I have ever heard..."  That seems to be the consensus of many.  It certainly is a telling statement of where Yahoo/Flickr stands on the issue of photography.

So, many have been looking for a new place to share their pictures, and many of my Flickr friends seem to be seriously considering Ipernity.  I have started a free account there.  Funny, because a week ago I would have dismissed this site as a Flickr knockoff.  What a difference a few days makes.  Today, it seems to be the new Flickr.

Take that, Mothr Flickr.