I’ve been debating about upgrading my Flickr to Pro status for a little while now and to see what it might be worth to me. I’ve obviously been hunting around online and in the blogosphere (more specifically the general web, including Flickr groups as well as blogs) to see if there are any testimonials of how the upgrade was worth the extra coin. Some people mention that the ability to archive all their images online is nice, and they prefer it over Kodak or some of the other photosharing systems that are out there when they send images to their friends. Others like the fact that there is a generally mature community that is present and it’s a refreshing change from Facebook or Myspace. Along these lines, I found one post in particular that stood out. This person is also wondering about making the jump and sees that the social network is really the biggest selling point and that the yearly fee to be able to archive images for as long as you pay is somewhat iffy for those who are already paying for hosting and the rest.
But one thing I do know is that with any social network, you only get out what you put in and going Pro isn’t going to all of the sudden make more people comment on what I’ve done and it’s not going to give me any more incentive to post more images than I do now and certainly not full sized images for all the effort that they take… well time that is… to upload.
So for the time being, I think I’m going to stay at the free level, enjoying my 200 or 201 latest images and sharing them with the others on Flickr and getting comments as they come, playing with some of the voting groups to see how good my captures may indeed be. I don’t think I’ve got the time right now to commit to really getting involved in the Flickr community to the point that I would want to use it as the only venue for my images and I don’t think it would make things any easier for my friends and family – those people who I really want to know how they like my work – to access and enjoy my work.
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