So this is where we meet again.

I won’t give up Flickr entirely: one has certain obligations, mainly to the AlphaSmart group (www.flickr.com/groups/alphasmart), but also to the three people who told me they like the Icking pictures (www.flickr.com/groups/icking). I’ll hardly renew my Pro account, though, which means that Flickr can’t serve for backing-up my original photos anymore.

Are Stewart, Heather, and the other members of the Flickr staff bad people? I don’t think so. As far as I’ve read their explanations I’m inclined to accept them. Though their intentions may have been “good”, they were remarkably naive in thinking that a German localization would outweigh the loss of pictures, your own pictures and those of your friends. And I blame them for ineffectiveness and the consequence of destroying a community. The “Flickr community” as a whole never meant much to me, but I do care about my personal deminutive community on Flickr, and they have destroyed that one too: some Kees club members stay, some move away. It will be hard not to lose any. And it will certainly be a hassle.

What also disturbed me is the display of anticipatory obedience (vorauseilender Gehorsam): the German government has done nothing to warrant the measures taken. There are legal regulations to protect people from certain contents –child porn and other aberrations of the sick mind–, but most of these contents weren’t allowed on Flickr in the first place. As far as I can see, the only field where regulations may be more strict in Germany than elsewhere is the celebration of violence and nazi symbols. If Flickr.de would dispense with that, just with that, there would have been no uproar, I think. As it is, many harmless pictures are classified as unsafe. I grant filtering pictures must be hard, given the large number of uploads, but Flickr members are entitled to –let’s call it: just censorship.

True, you can always open a Yahoo.com account, link your Flickr account to that, and everything will be alright. Alright? When many familiar people don’t think so and take their leave? Besides, it is true: what happens on Flickr.de today, may happen on Flickr.com tomorrow... It may even happen on Ipernity. God forbid.

PS: I’m no blogger by nature, and if I post I’m not sure which language I’ll choose. It may be English (EN), German (DE), or Dutch (NL). I promise it won’t be French.