I guess I don't "get" Flickr - in particular, the awards.

[PatrickCheung]

haha this IS an interesting thread.

iunno i use flickr 'cause i like the photostream layout better than most of the other photo hosting sites i used before.

its been said before, flickr's a place for everyone, from serious photographers to kids with a camera who want praise. i also find it appeals to those "kids with cameras" more than it appeals to serious photographers. that said, theres bound to be crappy photos, decent ones, and amazing ones. and of course, theres gonna be crappy photos that get lots of praise from uneducated people. there's also the issue of commenting to get noticed.

iunno, i think i'm somewhere between "serious photographer" and "kid with a camera who wants praise"... more on the kid side. i want an aesthetically pleasing (at least in my eyes) place to share my photos and get useful feedback on how to improve on them, and hopefully get noticed by a few people. i can do without the praise and useless comments though. maybe flickr's not the best place but i guess i'll use it since i bought a "pro" account.

flickr kinda reminds me of highschool. if you're popular and have friends, everything you do is worthy of praise :]

[TPF Sponsor]

[CW Jones]

Flickr is.... well special. Yes lots of people use it for their crappy snapshots, those would be the people with FREE accounts. I like to think that the work I put up there is better than a snapshot.... I pay for my account and COULD dump tons of images but I don't I use it for selected images. Now its not a portfolio in anyway haha but right now its a good choice for me not having a ton of money for something like SmugMug or ZenFolio or some of the others.

Just my 2 cents!
-Collin

[Antithesis]

There is some quality work on flickr, but it's usually outnumbered 1000:1, crap:awesomeness. Sometimes you find some really inspiring work though, you just have to sift through all the crap. Some people will seriously post entire memory cards worth of crap up.

[bhop]

The awards are just comments from regular people that like your pics. They add the little gif themselves when they make a comment. You don't have to be a member of any group to receive one. You can turn off the comments option in your account, or delete the comments with the 'bling' if you want. I don't see what the big deal is honestly.

Personally, I like flickr. I like the interface. I like the groups system they use. It's easy to upload new pics and organize the ones you have. I'm not looking to be "cool" or get heaps of praise. I use it to share my pics with my friends, family, and anyone else that wants to see them. I'm sure most people with flickr accounts have the same thing in mind.