Flickr has added the ability to upload 90 second video clips! Cool, right? Apparently not. A group called “We Say NO to Videos On Flickr” has more than 25,000 members and appears to be going strong. These disgruntled users fear that video will cause the site to slow down and attract the dreaded “YouTube crowd.”
Flickr, however, is standing firm. The videos will stay.
Here’s our response to what we see as frequent feedback here in the forum (I’ve paraphrased the feedback in some instances):
“I don’t want video on Flickr.”
We’re sorry, but video is here to stay. We’d love for everyone to give it a shot. If it’s not to your taste, then you should change the default on autoplay. You can distinguish between video and photos by the white arrow bottom left.“I think video should have it’s own separate site.”
Just as with our international launch last year and building language on top of our global community, we wanted to avoid siloing what is after all, just another format.“…did none of the staff see this coming?”
Given our experience with the outrage in moving sets from the left-hand side of the page to the right a few years ago (and various adventures since then), we’re very familiar with the passionate response of our members. We can’t be afraid of that. We need to continue to improve, release new features and iterate.Feedback and iteration are very much part of our process. We very much value the feedback that we receive after features launch. It gives us a chance to take something good and give it that extra polish.
This response doesn’t seem to have calmed the outraged users. They’re still tagging all of their photos “no video,” threatening to move to another photosharing site (there’s another one?), and signing petitions aplenty.
We suppose the real question is: Are they willing to put their memberships where thier mouths are and cancel their accounts in protest?
(Pssst, the headline is a joke. We love you, Flickr.)
We Say No To Videos On Flickr [Flickr]
(Photo:AngeloM)
wiretapstudios:
“Why is everyone on flickr such a whiny self-entitled bitch these days?”
These days? There’s a certain contingent that’s been that way ever since I’ve known them, and I’ve been Pro for several years now. Whining about Yahoo, Microsoft, Wired, and everything else. Damn prima-donna attention whore wanna-bes….they always threaten to leave but they never do.
I’m curious to know of the ~25k members, how many really don’t like the video add-on.
Because, you know, you can join a group and ‘lurk’
I’ve gotten 3 invites from the group since the elevate and I don’t care really. I am thankful for the stop auto-play function.
I’d just like to point out that flickr won’t attract this so-called youtube crowd because only PRO USERS can post videos. I sincerely hope i’m not the first one to say this. Also, it would mkae more sense that the “youtube crowd” would stay on youtube :-!
@wiretapstudios:
1) As i said above, since video can only be uploaded by PRO users, they’re not going to be posting these “sophmoric videos” you suggest. It’s almost as if you’re attacking your fellow users (i’m assuming you have a pro account)
2) As others have said, youtube got it right, and with flickr now being a yahoo company, i’m sure they’ll have no problem with bandwith requirements
Also, the analgoy you made with the consumerist and celebrity news was a horrible one. It’s fairly obvious that audio and video are a function of each other. Consumer culture and celebrity gossip are not.
@wiretapstudios:
@wiretapstudios:
1) As i said above, since video can only be uploaded by PRO users, they’re not going to be posting these “sophmoric videos” you suggest. It’s almost as if you’re attacking your fellow users (i’m assuming you have a pro account)
2) As others have said, youtube got it right, and with flickr now being a yahoo company, i’m sure they’ll have no problem with bandwith requirements
Also, the analgoy you made with the consumerist and celebrity news was a horrible one. It’s fairly obvious that audio and video are a function of each other. Consumer culture and celebrity gossip are not.
“It’s fairly obvious that audio and video are a function of each other.”
Awesome how you can’t delete or edit comments on this site. Meant to say photo and video.
It’s 90 seconds of video, a function that is not required. So why are users protesting? The feature does not encroach on their existing storage accounts, nor does it reduce storage quotas for new users. Complain about something that matters.
Maybe it’s just me…but this is giving me motivation to go camera phone such high quality material as hamster on a paper airplane and Rabbi getting nut-shotted with a dradle and post not just the video clips, but 24 screenshots/second on Flickr.
90 seconds is perfect for short family videos (e.g., baby’s first steps, short announcements, etc.). That keeps them out of real direct competition with YouTube, for now.
@javi0084: No, it won’t attract that crowd b/c of the 90sec rule. If people would read why they chose 90 sec it would make sense as to how it fits in with flickr’s format. We just had a baby (3 weeks ago) and this happened at the perfect time. We’ve had a Pro account since we got married to keep friends and family up to date. The short clips of our little boy that we take with our Canon digital cam are the kind of things that fit on flickr. Works great – except for the upload tool on the computer. That doesn’t seem to work right yet.