Waiting in line for Windows Vista (Flickr pisses off users)

That's crazy. I like Vista and have been running it full time since RC1. Microsoft sent me my MSDN update with Vista Business and I installed it yesterday too. Although I enjoy running it and I'm a huge fan of the GUI, I don't know if I'd wait in line for it. I wonder what killer features people were looking for that would prompt them to wait in line for Vista.

Hey Flickr really screwed the pooch on this latest round.
I have had an acoount for years, and now I am looking for a way to download all of my pictures and use another service.
I guess it is time to check out Zooomer.

Guy

@2
Guy - what part bothers you? The 75 tag limit on photos, the 3000 contact limit, or the shutdown of the Flickr auth system (i.e. the move to Yahoo! ids to log in)? Or just change in general?

From the message they delivered:
- 300 people have > 3000 contacts
- some minute fraction of photos have more than 75 tags

I don't know how many people don't use Yahoo logins yet. I'm one of them, by the way, so I will be switching. I already have a Yahoo id, so it's not a huge change for me. I am a Flickr old skool user with thousands of photos, I was an early buyer when they initially sold subscriptions and I've paid in advance for more time.

Flickr's claim on the contact and tag limit is for performance reasons. I cannot comment on whether that is valid or what sort of improvement we'll see.

The Yahoo id thing has just been pending since the merge - this really shouldn't surprise anyone.

Personally, I hesitate in saying that I think this is giving a bullhorn to a vocal minority. Because I think minority is an overstatement.

Here in Germany there is plenty of Vista boxes on shelves - I just checked a moment ago when I was shoping and NOBODY is buying it. Pity that Microsoft is selling their products always much more expensive in EU...

Speaking of Flickr - I am dumping it. What is the other good photo upload service out there?

Via the Asian guy:
Will I be able to switch Y! IDs associated with my Flickr account?

“Yes. We’re building that tool. I don’ thave an eta, but sooner rather than later.“

Dave Winer and I both have stupid inactive Flickr accounts associated with the darned Yahoo ID we were forced to create. I bet there are a few more people who do, too.

[I am CEO of Zooomr]

It sucks that I know have to dump 40% of my contacts on Flickr. Flickr used to be about reciprocating for me. A few weeks back I met Scott Smith. He added me as a contact today. Now I can't add him back. I can't add him back because Flickr won't allow me. This is bad for community. There is no reason that they had to do this. Flickr is taking a well deserved beating over this one and I hope they reverse this terribly unfriendly decision.

From the message they delivered:
- 300 people have > 3000 contacts

Jake, but these are some of the people that have invested the very most time into Flickr. I have over 5,000 contacts but I've also marked over 18,000 photos on Flickr as favorites. It's about giving back to the people who appreciate your work. It's the yin and the yang and it's a big part of what makes flickr work.

A simple solution has been presented by Flickr user Merkley (another very active Flickr user who takes the best nudes on flickr in my opinion). Don't allow more than 3,000 contacts who have not made *you* a contact. This allows reciprocity to take place but addresses their concerns about spam etc.

This is a huge mistake for them to do this.

In March of 2005 when Yahoo acquired Flickr, Caterina Fake wrote on the Flickr blog, "We're going to stay true to our vision and to the people who made us what we are -- that's you, the Flickr pioneers," even if only 300 of us we matter.

In an earlier post in the forums of flickr we were described as "acceptable losses". That's the kind of language that politicians use when they send kids to war. Not the kind of language that should be used to describe community members on a social photo sharing site.

Over the years Yahoo has had a terrible habit of giving out new features and then taking them away again. I call it bait and switch, which I think is illegal, but I guess Yahoo avoids enough of the legal nuances to keep from getting sued. For that reason I stopped using Flickr as soon as Yahoo bought it.

During the past year or so, Google, AOL, Yahoo (and I'm not sure about MS) have started allowing people to use a full e-mail address as a logon ID for many if not all of their services. If I use my Gmail address as a Yahoo login ID am I any less a user of the Yahoo service that I signed up for this way? I can get to just about anything Google offers with a Yahoo, Hotmail, or any other valid e-mail adress. Google lets all of their services stand on their own. Yahoo, it seems, can't figure out the advantage of this.

What Yahoo is now saying is "if you want to use any of the Yahoo services you MUST have a Yahoo e-mail address, even if you don't plan to use it." Of course those Yahoo e-mail addresses come preset by default as spam magnets (check those "marketing preferences" after you sign-up!)

I recently wrote up instructions for signing up for Yahoo-Groups (my choice would have been Google Groups) for my condo association. The process is needlessly complicated ("why did they need my birth date? I put in fake information and the next screen told me to go get my parents!") One thing I stressed is that at least you don't HAVE to have a Yahoo e-mail address, you can just keep using whatever you are comfortable with. I have a feeling I'll have to send out revised instructions soon. I'll use my tech leadership position to lead the group out of the wasteland that Yahoo has become as soon as I can. Google groups has caught up fast, and there remain NO STRINGS.

I'm quite happy with Googles purchase of Picasa too. They not only came out with a Linux front-end, but if you don't want the photo editing features, you can do everything you need to do with the web interface. As far as I know they haven't taken away any features that Picasa had before the purchase. No bait and switch.

@7 Thomas
Somebody from Flickr/Yahoo described you as an acceptable loss? Literally those words?

@8 macbeach
If you don't use a mail service and the mailbox fills up with spam, does it matter? I have a yahoo id and a corresponding yahoo email box that is full of spam, but since I don't actually use that mailbox for anything, I don't really care.

@3 Jake,
All of it, not only does this change the way I use Flickr but I refuse to go through Yahoo. If it works for you, go for it.

Guy

@Jake: No, no one at Flickr used those words. Stewart Butterfield agreed with long comment from another user that happened to include similar words. Stewart later clarified what he was agreeing with (not the 'acceptable losses' part), but Thomas Hawk appears to like the soundbite.


comment one, comment two

Good news. Flickr has changed a part of how adding contacts work and reciprocating contacts will not count towards the 3,000 limit. Nice to see them listening.

http://thomashawk.com/2007/02/flickr-does-right...

Jake, Striatic used the phrase "acceptable losses" Stewart said he agreed with the quote where Striatic used it but later clarified that he didn't agree with all of Striatic's quote but just part of it.

Windows Vista is an exact copy of Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger