Educators who rely on a free Flickr account need to acquaint themselves with the changes Smugmug has implemented since purchasing Flickr – see this summary from the Flickr blog.
Smugmug claims it is positioning Flickr as a social photography site not intended for backing up you images. In keeping with this claim, the company has imposed a 1000 image limit on free sites and will eliminate images over this limit – old images first. The cost for a pro account is $50 a year.
There had been some confusion regarding images designated as “commons”. Images made available under Creative Commons would be images you and I have offered with this designation. There is also a Flickr Commons which refers to a repository of images from the Library of Congress, etc. – probably not you and me. Images marked as Creative Commons before the Smugmug purchase date will not count against your free 1000 image limit. Too late if you were thinking you could now change the designation attached to old images.
Some ideas for free users.
Be aware of your number of stored images. I wish I could explain how. I tried to find the total for my account, but could find only how much of a terabyte I have used (I have long had a paid/pro account). Cull if you are close.
Use Google Photos if you need an image backup. Truthfully, for educational purposes, Google Photos is probably a better educational choice. Yes, I will continue to use both – I pay for redundancy.
Some thoughts on the Flickr/Smugmug decision. I always support paying for the online services you use. I find trying to argue this is about a social approach as disingenuous. We Flickr users pick and choose those we follow socially. Also, if you don’t want the site to be used for backup don’t allow automatic uploads.
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