Toronto Mike

Flickr's Photo Bias Revealed

flickr

The Flickr MT plug-in I use for the home page displays the last seven pictures uploaded to my Flickr account in the sidebar.  On every other page you'll see ads, but on the home page you see pictures.  You'll see pictures, unless the image uploaded to my account is a screen capture and not a photograph.  When I upload a screen capture, you'll see an ugly Flickr message explaining that the image could not be displayed.

This is Flickr's ugly photograph bias.  They won't allow screen captures to be viewed in searches or other public realms, including displays from my little plug-in.  In fact, if the majority of your pictures are screen captures, they'll label your entire account NIPSA, which is Flickr speak for "Not in Public Site Areas".

Personally, I don't see the harm in allowing screen captures in public areas.  When I took a screen cap of myself as a South Park character, it was blocked from public areas.  That's just wrong!

Flickr is my favourite social networking site, but this photo-only policy paints an ugly picture.

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