Portofino Sunset - © Copyright 2010 by William Beem
Once again, Flickr is annoying me. I have my account settings to limit blogging of my images. According to the settings, I should be the only one who can blog them from Flickr. Seems simple, right?
Flickr Blogging Settings
Imagine my surprise when I received a comment on Flickr telling me that they saw my image on this site: http://www.thatsorlando.com/portofino-sunset/2010/07/
I don’t blame the blogger. Apparently, there is a “thats” blog for many cities. I don’t see any advertising on the blog, but that’s not really the issue here. The issue is one of trust. When Flickr offers account settings that say one thing and yet allows the service to disregard those settings, it’s a breech of trust. Apparently, putting your photos in a Flickr group allows the people who view that group to override your individual account settings. That’s exceptionally stupid, but such is the way Flickr works.
I sent a note to Flickr support about the issue, but I’m not holding my breath. When I’ve made complaints about the way their site works in the past, they dismissed the issue by saying that Flickr is a sharing site. Apparently, the users are not in charge of determining how their own photos are shared, but Flickr gives them a placebo-effect in their account settings.
Don’t trust Flickr to honor the account settings you make on the service.
by William
no comments