Wow…

flickr really pissed off a lot of people in one quick shot.

In one post on flickr news they:

1. Announced that by March 15th you either switch to the new authentication scheme or you can’t use flickr anymore.

2. Announced that contacts will be limited to 3,000 (previously, there was only a theoretical limit of around 10,000 if I remember correctly).

3. Announced that tags on photos are now limited to 75.

At first blush, those aren’t really a big deal. In reality, for many of us, they represent flickr moving in a direction that just sucks.

Thomas Hawk, CEO of Zooomr and avid flickr user (not to mention a friend of mine), is none too pleased either.

More telling than his reaction, though, is the reaction of others on the forums to the news. In fact, the most telling one comes from my other friend, Vidiot who wrote:

“I guess what I find jarring is the shift in tone, even if it is but an infinitesimal one. Today marks the first time that to me, Flickr has ever felt like something less than that community I bought into (literally), and more like a service I pay for. And that’s a sad realization.”

*sigh*

Oh yeah… One more…

hodgepodge: “I’m sure that the Flickr staff love their creation. But they love the big fat check that Yahoo gave to them much more. They didn’t make Flickr as a labor of love, they made it hit the startup lottery (which they did, admirably I might add). That doesn’t mean that they don’t care about their creation, but don’t kid yourselves into thinking that because you helped build it by being early adopters and advocates that they really care about you. This is clearly about money; saving money on maintenance, and making money off of advertising.”

It got me thinking, actually.

I’m wondering if the announcement at the end of last year about the upload limit being removed for pro accounts was simply to soften the blow of what they knew was coming?

Or, as some of the forum folks seem to be thinking, did Yahoo! not even care whether or not they pissed people off?

Who knows… All I know is I’m looking elsewhere for online photo storage.

Technorati Tags: flickr, photos, photography, mess, disaster, yahoo!