After seeing a lot of chatter on the Etsy forum about individual's flickr accounts being terminated. I decided that it might be a good idea to backup my flickr photos. Although I do not use flickr for direct promoting or any kind of selling as it is against their terms of use, I do have a lot of product photos stored there. I have a pro account and really like to use flickr as my photo storage for arts and crafts images as well as some personal photos. And, flickr has a wonderful community. I have over 2,500 on my friend's list now! I also belong to several fun groups.Unfortunately, it appears that in the last few months there has been at least a few fellow Etsy sellers' accounts deleted by flickr administration for whatever reason and without warning. (I'm assuming that the account termination is related to a violation or suspected violation of flickr's terms of use.) The fear of that happening to me is always in the back of my mind even though I feel like I comply with the site's terms of use and have always had a "safe" rating on my account. I guess that you can never be too careful when it comes to important business things though - in this case, a lot of good photos and great photo storage!
In light of all the chatter that I've seen about accounts being terminated, I searched out a way to backup all of my flickr photos. Perhaps it is just the paranoid woman in me - she is present all the time! I am happy that I did do a little research though because I came across a wonderful download-able application called FlickrEdit. It allows you to not only edit your flickr photos but also back up all of them to your hard drive or a cd/dvd. It is totally free and compatible for both PC and Mac. How great it that! So even if you are not as paranoid as I am, I highly recommend that you take advantage of this program provided by SunkenCity.org - it is a real little gem! I backed up all my flickr photos yesterday. Since I had over 700 photos, it did take a little while (maybe 30 minutes to an hour), but it was well worth the time and piece of mind.
Now, as far as flickr goes, I love it! I hope that I never have my account terminated for any reason. It is a great community to be a part of and an inexpensive photo storage with wonderful options offered. I enjoy being part of groups there and having so many on my friend's list. I don't know all the circumstances of those whose accounts have been terminated, but I know that it would break my heart if that happened to me. Those who it happened to probably feel a little of the same way. I hope that things work out for the best in the end.
Good information. I'm one of the unlucky Flickr users who lost all their photos. More than 10 days later, still no explanation from Flickr. I am so sad and mad both. Plus my blog looks practically naked...I substituted photos from my hard drive for the most recnet months but it will take me forever to get them all replace, if I ever try.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for sharing this, Shalana! I have worried about this, too. I wonder if I can back up a group's photo pool too? I need to dig out a hard drive with some space. Thank you for offering this peace of mind solution.
ReplyDeleteI received a warning from flickr (maybe a got the warning because I have a pro account?), so I was able to go in and edit(read: remove) most of my descriptions which took hours. I feel really sorry for those who lost their accounts without warning. :(
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