We talked about how Flickr has been pushing its users to go Pro to stay in business, and now the company is apparently stepping up that pressure, forbidding free users from posting images which promote any commercial activity -- not just real world commerce, but virtual world commerce too. That move has roiled the huge community of Second Life users who rely on Flickr for sharing their virtual world screenshots, much of which feature SL fashion.
"For free accounts," as a Flickr representative recently informed an SL content creator (see screengrab), "linking to a store in Second Life is considered commercial activity. Linking to a blog that links to a store is also considered commercial activity."
Many SLers are upgrading to Pro accounts while grumbling; others are vowing to no longer include any links in their Second Life fashion images on Flickr, and just list store names in the credits. Some leading fashion brands in SL, which typically offer free content to bloggers who feature their works, are no longer stipulating that their blog images be posted to Flickr.
Whether this is a good way for Flickr to stay afloat is subject to debate, but it's notable that the Second Life community is large enough on the image sharing platform that the company is actively setting policy around virtual world commerce:
Linden Lab, which has revenue shortfall problems of its own, might want to partner with Flickr on this. For instance, go Premium in SL, get a deep discount on your Flickr Pro account, and vice versa!
Hat tip: SL creator Hayden Pierce, via Alicia Chenaux.
To be honest if you look at the physical world influencers may money and get freebies for their advertising and oromition and people in the virual spaces can and do, do the same (even if for many it's just a hobby). In so many ways virtual world participants/avatars want thr same rights on social platforms as physical world groups. (Thinks back to the Nym Wars when avatar accounts were being banned or deleted). Same rights, same responsibilities, same costs. Rights always come with responsibilities (whether we want to embrace them or not). So while it may suck... *shrugs*.
Posted by: Moggs Oceanlane | Tuesday, February 18, 2020 at 02:52 PM
Sounds fair to me; be it a big website like Amazon or a small mom and pop self-hosted storefront, advertising is advertising. If Second Life wants to play the make-real-profits game, it has to play by the same rules as everyone else.
Posted by: Adeon Writer | Tuesday, February 18, 2020 at 04:11 PM
$50 a month to keep the lights on at Flickr, as well as a reasonably bottomless storage bin for photos (not just the ones that are publicly published), a reasonably termed photoshare system, a relatively basic social interaction system... plus discounts on photoprints and Adobe Photoshop/Lightroom CC.
I've paid for this every year after the first year in 2013 I was gifted Pro. I think it's not such a big ask to put the cost of a frappucino down every month towards supporting a good tool.
Posted by: camilia fid3lis nee Patchouli Woollahra | Tuesday, February 18, 2020 at 06:54 PM
I hope that $50.00 frappuccino comes with a good tool too.
Posted by: Lily | Tuesday, February 18, 2020 at 07:56 PM
is not unreasonable to be asked to pay for product advertising
Posted by: irihapeti | Tuesday, February 18, 2020 at 08:35 PM
$50 a year, I meant. that's $5 a month, not a big ask. Made a mistake in my original msg.
Posted by: camilia fid3lis nee Patchouli Woollahra | Tuesday, February 18, 2020 at 09:58 PM
awesome thank you for this post it has stuff I did not get in my blog either. :)
Posted by: AmandaMagick | Wednesday, February 19, 2020 at 03:23 AM
$5 a month can be written off against income gained on your yearly taxes as an 'advertising expense'. Your premium on SL can also be claimed as an expense. It's the cost of doing business, and it's pretty cheap, considering some of the stores listed on Flickr make more than enough money at this point to pay $5.
Posted by: Rascal Frats | Wednesday, February 19, 2020 at 02:17 PM
It may help if the restrictions on Flickr Pro advertising were to loosen somewhat; so as to enable the presentation of useful marketing material in the real world to real people ... as some would say ...
Posted by: Josef Balbozar | Thursday, February 20, 2020 at 12:41 AM
Contrary to how the article reads it is only a clarification to all the folks who ignored Flickr's rules on commercial activity. It has been forbidden a while by now and many SL users ignored it.
Can't say I am surprised they decided to take action.
Posted by: Fionalein | Thursday, February 20, 2020 at 06:23 PM
Flickr is Fxckr.
Posted by: Pave | Friday, February 21, 2020 at 11:11 PM
I haven't been able to get back onto my free account since they did away with connection to Yahoo(months ago). I've tried several time to get a hold of someone at Flickr with no luck of a return message. I messaged on their Facebook page and got a message back to go to the help page on the Flickr site. :/ I can't even get in to delete my account if I wanted to. Grrr.
Posted by: Karalyn Hubbard | Sunday, February 23, 2020 at 01:28 PM
https://help.flickr.com/issues-migrating-off-yahoo-login-HkqfXSbS
In the end they say to contact their support if you can't get it work, using this page:
https://help.flickr.com/contact/contact-us-rkBc7roJQ
Posted by: Frans Charming | Tuesday, February 25, 2020 at 08:54 AM