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Screenshot Accounts 'Delisted' on Flickr

An anonymous reader writes "Flickr and Second Life fans seem to have collided head-on over a little known policy on Flickr that 'delists' an account from public areas, including search, when more than half of your content is non-photographic in nature. Flickr stated that most people searching the site are looking for photographic content so the restriction is in place merely to keep the site focused on its original intent. From the article: 'As a result, many screenshots on Flickr are AWOL — at least as far as the general public is concerned. That's angering and confusing some of the people who carefully stage scenes in the popular virtual world and religiously post the results online.'"

18 of 210 comments (clear)

  1. Makes Sense by Shadow+Wrought · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Flickr is all about photographs, so it makes sense that that's what they focus on. If you need a place to post SL screen shots, there's still deviantart, renderosity, and myspace. There are quite a few options other than just flickr.

    --
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    1. Re:Makes Sense by Shadow+Wrought · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Indeed, the great thing about the Internet is that there is not just one single place for things. Why should flickr have to change from a photography site just because they are good at it?

      --
      If brevity is the soul of wit, then how does one explain Twitter?
    2. Re:Makes Sense by MaWeiTao · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Why should flickr change their policy?

      Its creators wanted a site to share photographs. Why should they have to accomodate anyone who doesn't want to use the site as intended? There are countless other options for sharing images other than photographs.

      If I go into your house and start using your bedroom as a toilet should you be forced to accommodate me? Of course not. I'm in your house, I should abide by your rules. It's essentially the same situation here

  2. Virtual != Real (yet) by brenddie · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Is true that these digital representations are not real photography but how long until you cant diferentiate from a real scene and one generated on a virtual world.

    Maybe Flickr should start thinking about having 2 sections :
    Real photography
    Virtual photography

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  3. Mr. Literal-Minded has the obvious answer. by dpbsmith · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Instead of posting an electronic "screenshot," take an actual photograph of a computer screen... with some desk clutter like a soda can or a yellow Post-It note in the frame.

    Heck, you could probably take a single photo like that and use an image editor to paste the screenshot into the genuine screen image. If television ads can get away with "picture simulated," why not Flickr users?

  4. Delisted, not removed. by Aladrin · · Score: 5, Insightful

    They are simply delisted. Nobody WANTS to search for your crappy 'I'm so awesome' screenshots. All of your stuff can still be accessed, just not by people who don't care.

    Big freaking deal.

    --
    "If you make people think they're thinking, they'll love you; But if you really make them think, they'll hate you." - DM
  5. My Rights Online?!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    And what pray tell, do Flickrs policies and actions have any relevance to my rights online or any rights offline?!!!

    If you dont like Flickrs actions, dont use them anymore. This isnt a holy violation of your rights or anything else.

    1. Re:My Rights Online?!! by 'nother+poster · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Well, this is Slashdot. The editors can put the stories in whatever catagories they damn well please. If you dont like Slashdots actions, dont use them anymore. This isnt a holy violation of your rights or anything else. HTH. :)

  6. Stop whining by tygerstripes · · Score: 5, Insightful
    If I really really want a steady crapflood of WoW Wedding shots, I'll tick the "bore me senseless" option. You can put what you like on Flickr, just don't assume anyone else gives a damn. Delisting is a good thing for people who want to use the site as it was intended.

    If you're really that obsessed with having people look at your uninteresting life, why not go and get one. Then take pictures of it. Sheesh.

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    Meta will eat itself
  7. They're screwing themselves ... by LoudMusic · · Score: 1, Insightful

    It doesn't seem like it would be too terribly difficult to circumvent the block.

    However, Ito's images do show up in the Flickr group pools for his guild, We Know, and for World of Warcraft, because more than half of the images in his account are traditional photographs. In Ito's Flickr account, images he has taken of Helsinki, Finland, and Vancouver, British Columbia, show up beside an image of guild members setting out for a hike in World of Warcraft.

    Just upload a crap load of pictures, yours or ones you find randomly on the `net, and then add all the screenshots you wish.

    They're pissing off members and potentially generating monumental amounts of useless data on their servers.

    Instead of an "on | off" switch for the entire account they need to have it be selective per image. But good luck writing effective code for that.

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  8. Re:Search option by ScottLindner · · Score: 4, Insightful

    You can't create something effective that is everything to everyone. It really is best to carve out your niche and stay in it. This is exactly what Fliky is doing and it is very wise. To do otherwise will only cause problems in the long run for both users and advertisers paying Flikr.

    Scott

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    Slashdot.. where people join together in deliberate ignorance.
  9. Re:simple solutions by gEvil+(beta) · · Score: 4, Insightful
    My post was intended as a joke, but your response brings up an interesting semantics issue.
    Picture of your monitor != a photo
    If using a camera to take a picture of something doesn't result in a photo, then what exactly is a photo? I've generally viewed it as being a product of the device used to capture the image. Anything output by a camera would be a photo, in my opinion. However, you seem to disagree with this notion. Is a photo defined by the content of the image? Or is it something else entirely?
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    This guy's the limit!
  10. Who's rights, where? by ivan256 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    This could be a useful slashdot section, but we keep getting these stories that don't have anything to do with 'rights' at all, much less the reader's rights... Somtimes even the online part is a stretch.

    So, some website actually implemented their policy, and some self-important people with a misguided sense of propriety got pissed about it. News for Nerds? Absolutely! Your rights online? Not a chance.

  11. Your Rights Online? by Tim+C · · Score: 4, Insightful

    This has to be one of the most ridiculous misapplications of this topic that I've ever seen.

    1. You have no right, natural, God-given or otherwise, to have your content hosted on Flickr.

    2. The accounts have not been deleted, they have just been delisted. That means that they won't show up in a search.

    3. As I understand it, you can still provide people with direct links to the screenshots.

    Please, help me out here - in what way is this a YRO issue?

  12. Re:What is Flickr's business model? by spun · · Score: 2, Insightful

    After all, is there any significant difference between capturing a scene from the real world and capturing a scene from a fictional world?

    Yes, yes there are significant differences. You see, most pictures taken of virtual worlds are boring, have little artistic merit, and are of no interest to anyone outside the immediate circle of the person taking them, whereas most real life pictures are... Oh, wait...

    No, no difference.

    --
    - None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
  13. Re:Seems like over-moderation by mlk · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Delisted not deleted. Still taking up file space, just not now listed. Apparently flicker has a target audience, and random crap from WoW in the listing is not what the target audience wants.

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    Wow, I should not post when knackered.
  14. I guess I'm confused a by crlove · · Score: 2, Insightful

    The only thing you can't do with screenshots is search for them on flickr's site.

    You can still link to them from other sites, use them in [img] tags on websites, etc.

    You just can't use flickr's search box to find them.

    So... what's the big deal? Does anyone really search flickr for screenshots?

  15. Re:This is a YRO issue!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Americans? How do we know these people bitching are American's? nice bias.