Today I received the information from Flickr directly on my account that from February 2019 the company will delete all pictures above the number of 1000 of all members - unless we are willing to become “pros” and pay 50,- US Dollars ransom per year.

The company that promised its members in the past that we could upload all our pictures up to 1 TB for free so that we would not need to worry about the safety of our precious images is now threatening to cull everything above 1000 unless we pay them.

In other words: they are threatening to destroy the collection of all people that believed in the words, offers and the goodwill of this company. There are many people on Flickr that have created a collection over many years and that have put a lot of energy and love into this. And the collection of each member is unique. It is an expression of our photographic development over the years. And all this a steal cold company is going to destroy unless we feed them with extra money.

There was hope that things would improve with Flickr after it had been taken over by the new owners Smug Mug. Previously Flickr had taken a severe downturn after the mother company Yahoo had been taken over by new owners. But now it turns out that the new owners see Flickr as their new cash cow. They blackmail members to pay to avoid their collection being destroyed. This is Piracy. This is deception. This is undermining trust. And this is dishonest.

If this is really going to happen I will stop using Flickr. I will not delete my account immediately because I want to maintain my social contacts that I have collected over the years. But I will stop using Flickr as the place to show my pictures.

I am not accepting to be blackmailed. I am not willing to pay money for people who don’t give a toss for previous promises and don’t care about the things their users have created over the years. And I despise this expression of raw capitalism.

FLICKR IS DEAD!!!