Filed under: Photo, Web services
Flickr users upset over screenshot exclusion
Wired News is running an interesting piece about Flickr's policy which excludes images from being displayed in public areas of the site or global search results if more than half of the uploader's images are "non-photographic images." The rationale seems to be that when people come to Flickr they're looking for photos, not screenshots or other images. The policy has met opposition in particular from (you guessed it) Second Life users, who upload screenshots from the virtual world at a breathtaking rate, as well as illustrators. By primarily uploading non-photographic images, their accounts are flagged NIPSA, or Not in Public Site Areas. Flicrk co-founder Stewart Butterfield says revising the NIPSA policy is "in the top 10 percent" of things to do at Flickr, but there's no indication when a clearer policy will be in place.
So, just how good at time waster games are you? Think you've got the stuff? Well, The World's Hardest Game 2.0 doesn't think you do.
Yes, amazingly, it's possible to have a sequel to a game called "The World's Hardest Game". It doesn't seem logically possible, since if the first one was actually the world's hardest, how could another one come along and share the moniker? It made me doubt the name in the first place. That is, until I tried the game.
The mechanics of the game are very simple. You are a small red square, ...
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
ToddZ said 11:38AM on 6-14-2006
I *like* that Flickr attempts to keep the focus on photography. I would be very disappointed, and the site would become much less useful & fun for me, if my searches and views began filling up with screenshots from videogames. Gah. I'm a paid Pro account holder, and I support the NIPSA policy.
From Wired:
"Rice and Scholtz both said they would increase their use of Snapzilla, a third-party photo-sharing service for Second Life users. Rice indicated the issue made him less likely to recommend Flickr to others."
Others = screenshot loaders? Good.
"It's such an odd move on (Flickr's) part to alienate such a large part of their user base," said Snapzilla creator Cristiano Diaz, known inside Second Life as Cristiano Midnight. "It's hard to understand the motivation behind that."
No it's not. I suspect the larger part of their user base would just be annoyed by Second Life screenshots appearing all over. Flickr doesn't want *those* users to jump ship. I hope.
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Citizen_Insane said 12:58PM on 6-14-2006
I agree with Todd. I don't want to see a bunch of WOW or Second Life crap when I'm browsing arround on Flickr. The site is for *PHOTOS* not sharing your MMO addiction with the world. There are plenty of other sites to show off MMO stuff, you don't need to pollute flickr with it. One of the things I like most about flickr is that the popular images are all really good photography. If the images on the front page were screen shots from games I think it would make flickr seem a lot less profesional and artistic.
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Franklin said 4:02PM on 6-14-2006
Maybe Flickr should spin off a screenshots category/service. A screenshot-only version of Flickr might take off on its own in popularity.
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Jimmy said 8:29PM on 6-14-2006
I do post screenshots to my Flickr account. It's a convenient way to store and present any image really. I understand that photography enthusiasts would like to keep Flickr as photo-centric as possible, but any image should be able to get equal time. I like Franklin's ideas of having a screenshot category. I definitely wouldn't be opposed to having my screenshots separated from traditional photos.
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Torley said 7:10AM on 6-15-2006
My imaginative muse right now is that Flickr + Second Life = SLickr.
It's been surprising to me to see the rippleshock on this one throughout the blogosphere and whatnot.
I don't argue that Second Life screenshots aren't the same as photographing the offline world; I do, however, believe that pictures from within online worlds are just going to keep growing in popularity and find a space all their own--which might have been considered absurd, or more of a "marketing" (as opposed to sentimental, emotional, or other human reasons) thing just several years ago.
I have some friends who're on a very tight balance not to get NIPSA'ed, so they're like 50/50 right now on their accounts between "real-world" photos and SL screenshots.
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Peter said 10:35AM on 6-15-2006
The other downside to this is that people in the same boat as Torley's friends "might" decide to add lots of non-screenshot junk images to keep their ratios up.
(Not picking on your friends specifically Torley, but your comment just made me think that others might do it.)
I agree with Franklin that a separate category would be a better way to deal with this.
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Christian Glz said 3:20PM on 6-15-2006
Flickr is to photos, if you want free image hosting try something else, like the crappy imageshack service, not flickr.
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