Thread by @dramalho

I've been using @Flickr since 2004. Since then they've changed hands, changed - every so slightly - in technical terms (although you can tell active development has stopped a while ago) and lost a lot of it's market over to newer platforms.

The attempts to win back that market were very much Enterprisey-meets-Startup-Baloney - namely the 1TB Free Storage for no good reason and the half backed redesign. Those choices never made the impact they wanted and in fact, some of those choices have to be taken back now

Despite all this, despite having Instagram steamroll the entire market, 500px being such a quality player and a bunch of other "Hey, Photographers are cool and live for awards, so join us and get awards every day" platforms, Flickr is still around, WHY IS THAT?

I can't give you a global answer, but here's what keeps me using it:

(1) The personal feed is decent and manageable, I don't want to say it's because it's chronological, but yes, it's because it's chronological (something that's now so rare it's becoming Hipster again)

(2) Flickr Groups - despite a lot of them being Social Growth Hacks - are great. If you find the right ones, you get access to a lot of quality work, ensured by correct curation and administration. Again, hashtags are all the rage, but curation gives you quality

(3) The API was and given every competitor is in Lock-the-doors-mode, the most comprehensive and open around. API is nerdy-factor but it's also a window into the company business model. If you close down the API to protect Assets or cut other software clients out, that's telling

As examples, look at the wording here:

support.500px.com/hc/en-us/artic…

instagram.com/developer/

Now, this is where we are now and what @SmugMug will do is yet to be seen. They've run their business in what I think is a sustainable way and the announced changes to @Flickr also point in that direction, so if you're upfront about how you make money, that's good for everyone.

What I hope is that the current community over at Flickr doesn't take too much of a loss over the following months and quality people don't run off.

The biggest example and sample of what Flickr has, for me, is @things_d_likes . I think it exposes a lot of quality work and, sure, that's down to me finding it on a daily basis, but it's also because it's THERE in the first place.

The API helps me manage it, the Group (flickr.com/groups/things_…) helps me keep in touch with the artists and the Feed, Groups and people's public favourites help me uncover quality and I can't do that anywhere else, not on the platforms I tried at least.

Now, having said all these things that last thing to say is that I'm buying into the business model. I've just purchased the Pro account despite my own photography activity having slowed down tremendously as I want Flickr to keep being what Flickr has been for the past 14 years

I hope they improve the site, I hope they improve things like the Explore tab which is absolutely not a place where you find quality work and it feels like it should be and I hope they don't cut down on what makes Flickr different.

Big hopes,big expectations,I will see you there