Flickr is at it again

[PFMcFarland]

I don't know how many of you use the old 3.2.1 Uploader from Flickr, but your days are numbered.

Flickr dropped support for it many years ago, trying to get folks to use either the online version, or the offline one designed to scoop up every photo on your computer if you weren't careful. But 3.2.1 soldiered on because it just worked.

Well, the corporate decision was made to no longer allow users to sign in with the 3.2.1 Uploader, so if you sign out, there is no way back. This happened to me yesterday. Only thing is I did not sign out, so if you ask me, Flickr is hunting down the accounts still using 3.2.1, and signing the owners out so they can enforce the ban on 3.2.1.

So after venting a bit on the so-called Help Forum, I went ahead and used the online Uploader. You know what? It's still sucks after all these years. I can type in tag words faster than it can look up suggestions, but then it pauses my typing while doing so, and it all looks like gibberish when it finally shows up. And that's just one of the several things I hate about it.

The only thing it does good is it has already put the photos in some sort of holding bay before you start editing them (titles, tag words, description, and so on), so when you finally hit the Upload button, it goes a lot quicker. But then they were only scans from half-frame photos, so maybe the files from my regular size photos will bog it down again. We'll see.

Anyway, I think it's just despicable they pulled a fast one like that. And I'm getting tired of companies that abandon older standards to force you to upgrade to the new stuff just so they can sell more, especially when there is really no improvement to the user experience.

PF

[melek]

Flickr was part of Yahoo, which is now part of Verizon's "Oath" division.

What a stupid name - it should be "Oaf."

In any case, Flickr is part of a large group of companies that add and remove features with little or no notice.

Microsoft is notorious for starting up divisions that are "knee jerk" reactions to the success of others and then killing off those units: Microsoft Mobile, Pocket PC, Zune, possibly Surface, Bob (remember that embarrassment?), etc., etc.

You might say that Windows is one "knee jerk" unit that has survived.

[PFMcFarland]

We all live in a Dilbert world now.

PF

[Brazile]

Sorry to hear it, PF. I made the switch a couple years ago and find the online uploader to perform reasonably well on my system. I wonder if it's a browser incompatibility or something? Could also be ISP speeds, I suppose. Hope it resolves for you regardless.

Robert

[Philip]

I use the Flickr email uploader -- a long time ago they assigned me an email address that I have continued to use for over a decade without any *big* problems. (Small problem: about one in a hundred disappears instead of being posted.) A week or two ago they sent out a message saying they were no longer accepting their old addresses but, by the way, here is a new much longer one. The new one is a hassle because I cannot memorise it. But my usual mailer remembers and it still works.

It works well for tags, too. I put the title in the Subject line followed (if I want tags) by Tags: and then whatever tags I want, each tag in double quotation marks. In the email body, I type whatever caption I want. Bob's yer uncle.

Other small problems: whatever line breaks are accidentally formatted into the email body become hard line breaks in the posting, so I often have to go through the posting and edit out the line breaks. No big deal, and sometimes I don't bother. Similarly it's no big deal to me that even though I can send more than one photo this way, i can send only a single title, list of tags, and caption. I rarely post more than one or two pictures a day, so that works well for me.

[jamesmck]

I use the Flickr email uploader

Can you share that new link?

[Philip]

James, have a look here: https://help.yahoo.com/kb/flickr-for-de ... 15685.html

The way it works is that each Flickr account has a (normally secret) email address associated with it. You have to click something to ask for it. No doubt it's a case of ask and it shall be given.

[And hopefully that url does not contain my account's information! ]

[titrisol]

grmbl grmbl grmbl
First picasa, then this