hmmm… what?
Think, Flickr, Think??
14Jun2007 Filed under: Uncategorized Author: ValI didn’t really say anything when we had to start signing in to Flickr with Yahoo IDs. I didn’t whine about the 75 tag limit. I didn’t whine about the 3,000 contact limit. I didn’t whine when safe search was implemented. But gosh dang, I am getting so sick and tired of the whiney babies on Flickr. The newest infraction? This was recently added to Flickr’s tos:
Note: If your Yahoo! ID is based in Singapore, Germany, Hong Kong or Korea you will only be able to view safe content based on your local Terms of Service so won’t be able to turn SafeSearch off.
And now? Many people are going around and whining that this is censorship! Lyke OMG!!!1!!!1 I can’t believe you said the “C-word”!
This obviously has something to do with local laws and such for these nations and I’m sure that Flickr wouldn’t institute that policy unless they felt they had to, yet there are many people just going around different areas of Flickr causing trouble about it. It’s really not a big deal, people. I’ve come across many, many, people who live in those countries but have “regular” Yahoo IDs. Get one of those! Or how about go to Google for your porn?
Okay, that’s really not the issue at hand right now. Whether or not you agree with the new bit in the TOS is completely irrelevant here. What is getting on my nerves is that these people are whining about it everywhere.
Why can no one be mature these days? Why must they take every little minor infraction so personal and force everyone in the community to suffer their whines?
For instance, the announcement about the Flickr book (the one I mentioned before) had a healthy thread going until someone decided to jump in and say, “well I’m not buying it because you censor!” Um, dude, did anyone ask you? And every-freaking-where he posts this huge image that has some German in it but also says in English, “Think, Flickr, think!” Someone else posts an image that says, “I won’t post photos until flickr has removed all filters. Let’s start to boycott them. We are the community!” Yeah, and I’m part of the community, too, and I say who the crap cares if you upload images or not? How about you all take the discussions somewhere where you will actually be heard instead of looking like a crying baby?
That’s what annoys me. Take your complaints to Flickr and leave the rest of us out of it. Because you know what? I’ll guarantee you most people don’t give a flying flip and all your incessant whining is just going to make them want to support Flickr in this decision just to “show you.”
You want to whine about something? How about do something useful with your time like trying to stop hunger? Or bring world peace? Sheesh, just grow up people!
/incoherent rant.
- Tags: annoying, censorship?, flickr, whiney-babies
One Response to “Think, Flickr, Think??”
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Bes Z
June 14th, 2007 at 3.24 pm
The idea is interesting, the execution is bad. Posting about it everywhere will not do much, as laws and policies do not change because of many people knowing about something. My focus in this comment is not on whether or not the issue is justified [I do not like people being censored without explanation, and even that explanation should be something that a company like Yahoo cannot absolutely avoid. For example, Yahoo's actions in China resulting in people being jailed is something that Yahoo can avoid, but will not, because of the business and financial prospects and interests in the Chinese market. However, in this situation, people cannot access pictures, so the case is a bit different than people being jailed because of Yahoo turning over information.]
Censorship itself is a very difficult topic to judge instantly. In this situation, I agree that some specific users should not be censored without any reason. I have not yet researched a lot on the issue, but so far, from whatever I can find, it seems some specific kind of photos of Flickr are being censored for some specific countries. I can understand some of the frustration of these people; if only I was being censored in my entire city, I would be wondering and trying to question a lot also.
Censoring, or filtering, in this case is being disputed because people are saying no reason was given to them for such an action. Sure, an action by a company can be considered bad if there is no reason provided that is beneficial to the users. However, let’s consider the reaction of many people: complaining on the forums. Sure, the idea that increasing awareness helps can be attractive, but will it help? If the idea of complaining in this case is compared to something else, then we have to see if that “something else” topic is along the same lines, or the same, as the topic in question.
I personally think people should complain, but I do not know how posting complaints on flickr forums help. If one wants to do something, one can close their account, organize a mass shut down of all German accounts by having all or as many German flickr members, both free and pro, to delete all their pictures and close their accounts. Is that not a big, final statement:
“I do not support this, that is why I am closing down. I will move my business elsewhere.”
How can any kind of protest without any actual action do anything? Think about it. If all of Germany today still has their Flickr account open, and the only thing they did differently was upload less photos and complain, will that do much?
I doubt it. This is a good cause, but it is being executed very poorly. This poor execution is going to result in more people ignoring the issue than embracing it. Even if someone gets 100,000 people in a group saying “Flickr should not censor us”, how is that something that will cause Flickr to change something? More people are complaining only, invalidating the arguments or those who are trying to argue logically.
Let us see what happens.