OK. Renewed Flickr Pro subscription. I wish that 2023 will bring ActivityPub support to make it worth the wait instead of the revamped mobile app that I was wishing for since Smugmug acquired it.
@thisis The app is laughingly bad! I wanted to check when it’s coming up for renewal, and it opens Safari! Swipes don’t work as expected everywhere, no way to organize stuff decently on it, SOOOO many things missing!
@ridwan hahaha still great actually. Way better than Glass, IMHO. Glass only has its mobile app going for them. LOL
@thisis I have to use another app to upload. And browser to organize. And app to interact. It’s a mess.
@rom I remember back in the day I used to upload everyday. Brilliant service. I tried Glass but never clicked with me. Sometimes it is better to stick with what you know.
@rom @maique I find it so sad that Flickr (and Smugmug to a certain degree) didn’t evolve in recent years. I mean, what did Flickr do to improve on the desktop, mobile, etc? The last time I check Flickr, I could see dated UI design from the Yahoo era or even before that… Glass is not Flickr and lacks many things but do adapt to today’s world and will keep growing in coming years.
@numericcitizen @rom Not much, really. I’m using it mostly as my archive, but think I’d move away if I found a simple solution. Glass doesn’t solve that one for me. It’s sad, actually, but it’s a pretty decent archive solution, just wish they’d improve the social/sharing part of it. The app, and the organize function on web, are very clunky and dated.
@maique @numericcitizen @rom Am I wrong or have the new owners of Flickr not overseen some important foundational work? Like, serious, back-end (hosting, old code from the Before Times, etc) as well as wide-reaching issues have been worked on (sorting out the free tier, preserving certain types of images, etc)?
I haven't taken a full and proper look at the updates they have made so I'm probably wrong with this but the impression I got is that the platform was in a precarious position before we even talk about the front-facing features such as UI and the app. I can only assume both Yahoo and Verizon did very little of the necessary maintenance to the foundations over the years.
@SimonWoods You are right, I believe. I do remember reading about all those things, but that was so long ago I can’t really think of all the specific improvements they made. I do appreciate them, of course, and also for keeping it alive.
But the front-facing improvements are also important for us users, and those haven’t been noticeable.
They brought the platform to “modern” times a few years back, and then it just seems to have stayed there.
@numericcitizen @rom I hope Flickr does evolve. A long time user with more than 25k photos there. But organizing, selecting and finding photos on Flickr is pain. I just use autoupload to flickr on all my devices to ensure there is a copy of photo on Flickr.
@SimonWoods you are absolutely right. They did update the backend as well as the authentication front end. But, after that? Nothing worth nothing IMO.
@maique @numericcitizen @SimonWoods @rom I wish someone influential enough would ask them what do they plan to do with the platform. Because they never talk about this. Emails to support take ages to get a reply and they never answer when I ask what’s ahead. Still, they keep offering me discounts to become pro again. 😔
edit: typos
@numericcitizen @rom @maique Flickr's trying, but I don't think they have much resources these days.
The website got some new coating here and there, but nothing big. The communities were a big feature in the past, but they are dead now (people don't use, and they don't work to improve them, to make them more attractive).
Their mobile app is jurassic. We're (almost) in 2023 and they didn't add dark mode, such an easy thing to implement. The uploader never worked properly.
Which's a bummer, because Flickr has an amazing API, which would allow them to implement amazing things on the client side.
These days, Flickr for me is much more a place to store my photos than anything else.
Glass, on the other hand, is a gallery. It's where I go to see nice photos, learn from other people, and interact. It's not a place for storing work, and I don't think it will ever be (it would deviate from their plan for the platform, I guess).
@SimonWoods @maique @numericcitizen @rom their new backend and service teams is modernazing the stack. And moved away from the old infra they had. I remember reading it somewhere (on their blog, on a tweet, don't remember now).
@maique @numericcitizen @otaviocc I think some of the criticism is fair but it reminds me of Micro.blog; there's a lot going on, and with great flexibility it can be difficult to keep up or focus on one big shiny update. However, when you step back and look at progress over time and not centred around Apple events or whatever, things appear to be moving in the right direction.
For me, I was doubtful of the SmugMug acquisition because I believed they would just integrate parts of Flickr, including talent, to make SmugMug better. However, I am pleased to see steady and gradual improvements that are not built around news-based trends and big marketing splashes.
@numericcitizen @maique I agree - taking Smugmug a long time to migrate the infrastructure of Flickr to something better, to create a foundation to preserve photos and saying that they are looking at adding ActivityPub. I still believe in Flickr, but for how long, I am not sure.
I tried Glass but apart from the mobile app, it has nothing compelling against Flickr, at least for me.
@SimonWoods @maique @numericcitizen they prioritized in migrating the infrastructure AFAIK. It is not easy to do whilst keeping the site up and running. Imagine how many links would break since Flickr is practically open, as compared to silos.
They have tiny incremental improvements on the UI and app, but nothing that looks innovative.
@pcora @maique @numericcitizen @SimonWoods I think they do but not enough. Maybe @d0n might chime in.
@otaviocc @numericcitizen @maique Flickr was all that before (and still is), but as you have said, it needs to level up their overall user experience. Frankly, adding ActivityPub will be a major change that might just get the community back on Flickr.
@d0n we love Flickr, but it needs more love from you guys, too. :)