Yahoo CEO: " ...there is no such thing really as professional photographers"

[Majeed Badizadegan]

Your assertion that her response was "ignorant" is a classic example of taking a brief quote,of extemporaneous speech, out of context, and trying to make something of it. Viewed in context, her comment was actually not ignorant, but it describes the thought process that lead them to stopping the old model, with the "pro" accounts, and moving toward a business model where every user gets 1 terrabyte of storage space. I'm afraid your non sequiter about basketballs doesn't really "play" with the facts. In fact, that's why it is a non sequiter..."An inference or conclusion that does not follow from the premises or evidence."

There's enough context from the garbled quote I provided, and those can go watch the video if they want more.

The heart of the matter here is this CEO actually believes simply because there is an abundance of cameras and people taking photos, there is no such thing as a professional photographer anymore.

To quote her precisely:

with cameras as pervasive as they are, there is no such thing really as professional photographers,

And to address this:

Look at the question she was asked by an audience member, then look at her reply, look at the state of the industry, and look at why everybody gets 1 TB...she handles it all in just a few seconds.

The "state of the industry" doesn't really matter in regard to the point I am trying to make. Of course it's nice to offer everyone a lot of free space. Of course there are more cameras than ever before. Photography as an industry is shifting, and rapidly moving to unexplored territory. There is a flood of images everywhere you look, all the time. But to actually say "There is no such thing as professional photographers" is a very ignorant summation and a poor response to the audience member.

 

[Overread]

Yep "pro" is used all over the place. Heck I think my Spyder is a pro edition (or maybe elite since elite are better than pros I think).

 

[Dikkie]

What with the old rule that a free account had the restriction that you could only view the last 200 photo's uploaded?

If you have a terabyte to upload 500 000 photo's (as they say), and you can only see the last 200... that would be kind of st00pid.
I suppose that rule does not count anymore?

 

[Derrel]

I don't think the whole "flickr pro account" ever had anything to do with professional photographers anyway. I mean all it gave you was stats (which were pretty weak stats anyway - most of mine were "unknown") - extended organising features (ie more sets) - access to all photos now just the latest 200 - and more storage and upload limits.

So nothing in there that screams "professional" over "just regular shooter that shoots more and wants more features"

You make a good point, and further expand upon my comment about taking a brief quote out of context; I agree, the "pro" account Flickr offered was not related to professional photographers, and I think her comment reflected that. What she said at the press conference represent unscripted thoughts, and reveal the behind-the-scenes status as she is familiar with it...on Flickr pro, there were not many so-called professional photographers. There was no real "need" to offer Flickr Pro accounts.

I think it's pretty obvious that when a person is asked a question, sometimes "thoughts" have to be translated to words,immediately. But viewers without training in journalism or interviewing might jump to conclusions because they do not have experience is finely parsing such comments. Her comments for example; they need to be looked at in the context of 1) the question asked about 2) a specific business model. I think the CEO's comment that there's no such thing as propfessional photographers was kind of an unwilling "tell", a verbal slip, an accidental disclosure of their research, which says that 1)there are almost no professional photographers using the old FLickr Pro account model, but 2) there are boatloads of people with high-resolution cameras so 3) we figured we'd better drop the pretense, and try and monetize this by giving everybody a whopping 1 TB of storage space.

The give the razor away, sell 'em the blades for life model made hundreds of millions of dollars. Facebook does the same thing..."unlimited" photo storage...along with a hefty dose of targeted advertisements delivered daily. The FLickr Pro account was setting up a ridiculous artificial distinction with the "pro" service...so...they dropped it...

 

[Steve5D]

Honestly, if the CEO of Yahoo was in a position to solely determine the health and vitality of the photography industry, there might be cause for concern. Saving that, though, this is simply an example of someone who's stupid. Taking offense to her comments is not much less stupid...

 

[Majeed Badizadegan]

Honestly, if the CEO of Yahoo was in a position to solely determine the health and vitality of the photography industry, there might be cause for concern. Saving that, though, this is simply an example of someone who's stupid. Taking offense to her comments is not much less stupid...

I'm not going to get into it with you again, Steve. Your constant ad hominem attacks and general negativity add little value to the forum.

 

[Derrel]

Your assertion that her response was "ignorant" is a classic example of taking a brief quote,of extemporaneous speech, out of context, and trying to make something of it. Viewed in context, her comment was actually not ignorant, but it describes the thought process that lead them to stopping the old model, with the "pro" accounts, and moving toward a business model where every user gets 1 terrabyte of storage space. I'm afraid your non sequiter about basketballs doesn't really "play" with the facts. In fact, that's why it is a non sequiter..."An inference or conclusion that does not follow from the premises or evidence."

There's enough context from the garbled quote I provided, and those can go watch the video if they want more.

The heart of the matter here is this CEO actually believes simply because there is an abundance of cameras and people taking photos, there is no such thing as a professional photographer anymore.

To quote her precisely:

with cameras as pervasive as they are, there is no such thing really as professional photographers,

And to address this:

Look at the question she was asked by an audience member, then look at her reply, look at the state of the industry, and look at why everybody gets 1 TB...she handles it all in just a few seconds.

The "state of the industry" doesn't really matter in regard to the point I am trying to make. Of course it's nice to offer everyone a lot of free space. Of course there are more cameras than ever before. Photography as an industry is shifting, and rapidly moving to unexplored territory. There is a flood of images everywhere you look, all the time. But to actually say "There is no such thing as professional photographers" is a very ignorant summation and a poor response to the audience member.

You need to consider these as 1) off-the-cuff comments in response to 2)why they discontinued the Flickr Pro account method of trying to extract money. You can try all you want to "make something of it" with the basketball players analogy. Your "point" is based on the commonly seen practice of taking a quote out of context and trying to "make a point out of something" somebody said, in response to a specific question. She did that. Your use of the word ignorant, repeatedly, doesn't make your argument any stronger. You seem to be ignorant that the type of argument you are trying to make has been done tens of thousands of times before, on almost any news story where people disagree with something a person said. You need to step back and try and put the comments into their actual context.

She was thinking out loud...you can re-quote this statement, in bold, as many times as you'd like":there is no such thing really as professional photographers,"

but you are utterly missing the MEANING of what the statement meant. You are taking a comment wayyyy out of context. For Flickr Pro accounts, there never really was anything "professional" about their offerings, and they had no professional photographer user base to speak of. Again, let me explain it: she was talking about their decision to stop the Flickr Pro account. Her comments reflect their understanding of their business model...Flickr Pro was not of much use to professionals....Zenfolio is and was...they know that.
She let us in on their thought process as to why Flickr Pro was being killed off. Why is that so,so difficult to understand?

Here is a FAMOUS quote that was taken way out of context: http://beatlesnumber9.com/biggerjesus.html

 

[Majeed Badizadegan]

She was thinking out loud...you can re-quote this statement, in bold, as many times as you'd like":there is no such thing really as professional photographers,"

but you are utterly missing the MEANING of what the statement meant. You are taking a comment wayyyy out of context. For Flickr Pro accounts, there never really was anything "professional" about their offerings, and they had no professional photographer user base to speak of.

What she said was more of a statement on photography in general. You and I may interpret it differently. But as for taking it out of context, she said what she said. And the implications of what she said make her appear somewhat ignorant and out of touch, to me.

 

[amolitor]

When someone says something that is obviously wrong in:

- in answer to a question at a press conference
- in a posting on an internet forum
- on a blog post

you should in general assume that we're talking about a misspeaking, a dropped word, a momentary lapse of common sense. The CEO of Yahoo is not a moron, she is aware that professional photographers exist. Therefore, when she says something like "professional photographers don't exist" you need to assume that there's something else going on. These are not PhD theses, errors creep in. Trying to make something out of someone's silly mistake isn't likely to go very far.

Of course, on internet forums it's actually what passes for "argument", but it's also pretty lame.

 

[Derrel]

When someone says something that is obviously wrong in:

- in answer to a question at a press conference
- in a posting on an internet forum
- on a blog post

you should in general assume that we're talking about a misspeaking, a dropped word, a momentary lapse of common sense. The CEO of Yahoo is not a moron, she is aware that professional photographers exist. Therefore, when she says something like "professional photographers don't exist" you need to assume that there's something else going on. These are not PhD theses, errors creep in. Trying to make something out of someone's silly mistake isn't likely to go very far.

Of course, on internet forums it's actually what passes for "argument", but it's also pretty lame.

In other words, one must examine the statement IN THE CONTEXT in which it was actually MADE.

 

[amolitor]

Well, if you're gonna try to figure out what she was actually trying to say when she said the obviously wrong thing, context ain't gonna hurt. You can also just ignore that bit. It's also possible that you still won't be able to figure out WTF she meant, and maybe that was just a bunch of filler words

 

[Majeed Badizadegan]

In other words, one must examine the statement IN THE CONTEXT in which it was actually MADE.

Or, CEO's could not say stupid things in the first place. Ya know, think before you say something that could come off as really dumb?

 

[Derrel]

I typed in the phrase "stupid quotes", and found a site with these....some of these are INCREDIBLE howlers!!!!

http://www.allgreatquotes.com/stupid_quotes.shtml 640K ought to be enough for anybody. Bill Gates, 1981 A low voter turnout is an indication of fewer people going to the polls. Dan Quayle Airplanes are interesting toys, but they have no military value. Marshal Ferdinand Foch in 1911 And there's no doubt in my mind, not one doubt in my mind, that we will fail. George W Bush And what do you do? Queen Elizabeth II, to four British guitar greats, Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck and Brian May, at reception for British music industry at Buckingham Palace March 2005 Are you a guitarist, too? Queen Elizabeth II, to Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page who co-wrote Stairway to Heaven, at Buckingham Palace reception for British music industry March 2005 Are you Indian or Pakistani? I can never tell the difference between you chaps. Duke of Edinburgh Prince Philip, at Washington Embassy reception for Commonwealth members China is a big country, inhabited by many Chinese. Charles De Gaulle, former French President Computers in the future may weigh no more than 1.5 tons. Popular Mechanics, forecasting the relentless march of science, 1949 Do not bother to sell your gas shares. The electric light has no future. Professor John Henry Pepper, on Thomas Edison's electric light invention Do you have blacks, too? George W Bush, to Brazilian President Fernando Cardoso Do you still throw spears at each other? Duke of Edinburgh Prince Philip, to Australian Aborigines Dontopedalogy is the science of opening your mouth and putting your foot in it, a science which I have practiced for a good many years. Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Philip Every prime minister needs a Willie. Margaret Thatcher, referring to Lord William Whitelaw I believe there would be many people alive today if there were a death penalty. Nancy Reagan I have determined that there is no market for talking pictures. Thomas Edison, in 1926 I think there is a world market for maybe five computers. Thomas J. Watson, 1943, Chairman of the Board of IBM Radio has no future. Lord Kelvin, Victorian physicist and President of Royal Society, c. 1897 So, where's the Cannes Film Festival being held this year? Christina Aguilera Stocks have reached what looks like a permanently high plateau. Irving Fisher, Professor of Economics, Yale University, October 16, 1929. Television won't last. It's a flash in the pan. Mary Somerville, radio presenter, in 1948 That 'rainbow' song is no good. It slows the picture down. Anonymous MGM producer, after first screening of The Wizard of Oz The atomic bomb will never go off, and I speak as an expert in explosives. Admiral William Leahy, on US Atomic Bomb Project, to President Truman in 1945

 

[cgipson1]

My fav..... total honesty!

Dontopedalogy is the science of opening your mouth and putting your foot in it, a science which I have practiced for a good many years.
Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Philip

 

[jowensphoto]

Interesting tidbit: yahoo is planning to spend/ already spent 1/3 of its cash withholdings on Tumblr.