Threepwood's other blog

When memes collide!

nobody@vox.com(Threepwood) — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 13:49:14 +1000

Found on Flickr here
Original source UserFriendly

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Once more into the breach Flickrites, everybody over me!

nobody@vox.com(Threepwood) — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 23:44:26 +1100

So "Monkey Boy" has had a brain fart and now wants to buy Yahoo. Unfortunately he's forgotten that this will require him to deal with Flickr, the Flickr-verse and it's inhabitants the Flickr-ites who, in traditional form have taken a deep breath and gone right off their fucking heads. Here is the first of what will no doubt be many demonstration groups and if history is a true judge the gnashing of teeth and hand ringing in the forums will be deafening.
And I've got to admit to a wry smile as the course of events is fairly predictable, indignant outrage, followed by much of the aformentioned gnashing and wringing and then we get the wonderful quotes, "That's it I want my money back" and "I'm cancelling my account, farewell cruel flickr-verse". It's all happened before, Flickr got sold to Yahoo, the population seethed but survived, Yahoo changed some stuff, the Flickr-ites lost their collective minds but survived and now it's happening again. The melodrama is going to be fabulous but the community will carry on, and hey, if it doesn't there are heaps of alternative. I cant wait to see what happens next!

Still, these are some mighty creative people and it's well worth popping over to have a look at the photo's, some really funny stuff on show. My all-time-fave a LOL-Ballmer.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

JPG Mag disassociates from founders

nobody@vox.com(Threepwood) — Tue, 15 May 2007 22:07:00 +1000

Derek, one of the founders of JPG magazine has written a pretty damning overview of why he and partner Heather have been disassociated from JPG Magazine. The sense of dissappointment is growing in the Flickr-verse with 8020, JPG Mags publishers. The building unease does drive home the fact that JPG Mag is ultimately a community driven forum; I wonder if the CEO was able to appreciate the impact of his actions before he tried to erase the past. It will be interesting to see where this all ends ups. Read and research and form your own opinion.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

The Magic Donkey - Friend or foe?

nobody@vox.com(Threepwood) — Mon, 19 Mar 2007 14:56:44 +1100

Flickrlogo

So my Flickr obsession continues and I am wasting more and more time on this service. I guess I shouldn't call it wasting as it is all part of the overall package that is my photography hobby. I am intrigued by the "Intrestingness" function and have been vainly trying to get a shot into the Top 500 but have only minor success to date. Intrestingness is determined by an algorithm that Flickr holds pretty close to it's chest and it does tend to get the occasional tweak. While the specifics of the algorithm are secret what is clear is it does take into account the number of views, favourites and comments that an individual photo receives. So at the most basic level, more faves = good, more comments = good, more views = good. The quest for more views/comments/faves has lead to the build up of comments groups in Flickr where you add your shot and comment a specified number of others, the goal being that you can expose your photo to a wider audience and receive more comments than you otherwise would have done. That said, recent (last year) changes to the selection algorithm (the Magic Donkey) penalise users for adding their photos to a large number of groups and in some instances it appears that photos in some specific groups are blackballed from 'intrestingness' selection.

This change has inadvertantly polarised the Flickr community, some users chase the Explore/Intrestingness goal (looking for listing in the top 500 or front page) while some just publish their photos to a wide variety of comment groups and build up a huge number of comments from other users. Unfortunately the later approach tends to reduce the intrestingness (according to Flickr) of a photo and can disqualify the shot from the top 500. So that's the question, what do you chase in the Flickr-verse, do you look for the comments and feedback and interaction with others that comes from participating in the group structure. Or do you maintain the Explore/Intrestingness function as the ultimate goal.

I know that many people disdain the beauty contest aspect that Flickr represents and do not actively promote their photos. Likewise many users (myself included) enjoy the social aspect of the site, the ability to make connections and interact with others all over the world, facilitated by the common love of photography. Some look for the exposure and community kudos that the T500 & Explore represents. Where do you fit in the spectrum?

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Tumblr - my personal junkbox

nobody@vox.com(Threepwood) — Sat, 17 Mar 2007 14:09:26 +1100

Tumblr

So like a huge number of other folk who listen to the TwiT podcasts, I've run over to the Tumblr site and have started up my own little junk box Tumblr. Tumblr makes it really easy to grab stuff from the net and just stick it into a page making it somewhere between a bulletin board and a junk box.

One of the things that I like most about the service is the intuitive posting tool. It's another button that sits on your tool-bar but this one has a few smarts behind it. The posting function has some degree of context sensitivity, so if I am on a Flickr page and see a great photo that I want to throw over to my Tumblr I just click the "Share on Tumblr" button and the post service recognises that I want to post a photo and posts the data in the correct way. Likewise with YouTube, the post service recognises that I want to post a video and just does all the work for me. You can also select a chunk of text and Tumblr will recognise that you want to post this chunk of text as a quote (with attribution) to your tumblr site.

Another nice feature of the Tumblr service is the ability to aggregate RSS feeds to your Tumblog. So for example, I can have the headlines for all my Vox posts automatically pop up in my Tumblog. I could take a feed of shots from Flickr and have these automatically cross post. Keep in mind the flexibility of RSS allows you to tailor your feeds according to certain criteria and it quickly becomes apparent that this is a pretty useful feature.

Looking at the big Web 2.0 sites gives the hint as to whats missing from Tumblr right now. Digg, Reddit, Flickr, YouTube, Delicious and even Vox provide two tools that have ensured their success to date, the social network and the competitive metric. At this point in time Tumblr does not seem to support these functions and I think that this will be the determining factor as to wether the site succeeds or fails. What I'd like to know is what content is HOT on Tumblr right now, what Tumblrs are getting the hits/feeds and hows my Tumblr doing for hits. I know that Leo Laporte and Merlin Mann both use the service because I'm a geek and listen to their podcasts but who else is using it, I'd like to just surf Tumblrs, there is the radar service but Im looking for more than just recently updated Tumblrs.

I'm tending to use Tumblr as a single 'point of presence' type tool. It aggreagtes my content from a couple of sites that I regularly use and provides a cork board for me to stick up crap that either amuses, inspires or intrests me in some way. It's not a fully functioning blog tool, and its not a link posting/sharing tool like del.icio.us; Tumblr falls somewhere in between. Right now I'm enjoying it, and it will likely just become the central place where I stick stuff for friends & family. That said Tumblr has a viral quality to it, its easy to use and I think it has the potential to be so much more than it currently is.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Cheeseseal

nobody@vox.com(Threepwood) — Wed, 28 Feb 2007 22:46:57 +1100

I defy you to not smile at this photo from Grabthar....Its just brilliant. Link here to original image on Flickr.
I posted this using the Flickr side tools....Poxy result. Much better doing it from Vox directly.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Flickr meets users halfway

nobody@vox.com(Threepwood) — Sun, 04 Feb 2007 15:42:08 +1100

Last week I blogged about the wee bunfight occuring at Flickr with regard to changes proposed to contact and tag limits. It seems that the outcry from the Flickr population has not fallen on deaf ears. Yesterday the Flickr team have posted an ammendment to their new rules.

We've heard your feedback and we've made a wee tweak to the contact limit change:
While you're limited to 3,000 non-reciprocal contacts, we've lifted the limit for reciprocal contacts -- that is, if you and your buddy have each other as contacts, it won't count towards the limit.
Thanks to merkley??? for the idea!

So while this change dosnt address the sore point of cutting older users over to a Yahoo ID is is nice to see that someone is listening in Flickr land.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Bunfight in cyberspace - Yahoo, Flickr and the rest of the world

nobody@vox.com(Threepwood) — Wed, 31 Jan 2007 23:21:15 +1100

The most wonderful fight is occurring in Flickr land right now as I type. Flickr have decided to make a few changes to how the system works, in a nutshell (Austin Powers imitators will be hunted down) these are...

A maximum cap on the number of contacts to 3000 contacts
A maximum cap on the number of phototags to 75
Mandatory requirement to use a Yahoo ID instead of the old Flickr mail ID's

...and holy snapping duckshit Batman, what a crapstorm this has initiated (and here). I'll wait while you catch up on the fight......

Back? OK then; there are a couple of things that I find really interesting. First up is that I'm wondering whether the Flickr team had any inclination of the depth of anti-Yahoo feeling in the Flickr community. Everyone has a pet 'hate' company, I mean, who hasn't diss'd Microsoft at one time or another. The Flickr community is verhment though, there is a real sense of HATE and distrust towards Yahoo and dissappointment with the Flickr guardians. Did the Flickr team have any idea of this depth of feeling, does Yahoo KNOW their brand is held in such low esteem by the users of the communities that they support? Surely they would have approached things differently if they had an inkling of how much the community disliked Yahoo?

The other really interesting thing in this little bruhaha is the role being played by Thomas Hawk, this one really has me intrigued. Thomas (a pen name) if you have never heard the name before wears several public hats, among them he is a popular blogger and also an avid photographer with a VERY active Flickr photostream. He has over 5000 contacts associated with his Flickr account, so it's fair to say he will be impacted significantly by the change. Thomas has weighed into the discussions with very strong opinions (as is his right) against the Flickr changes. That said, Thomas is also the the CEO for the start up, ZooomR, another photo sharing site in competition to, or perhaps an alternative to Flickr. TH is very clear and upfront about his Zooomr association in his Flickr posts and I guess this is for the sake of full disclosure. However what intrigues me most is how Yahoo/Flickr must react to this in private, it must really chafe them to have the CEO of the upstart 'new-kid' offering as a PowerUser on their own services publically getting stuck into them. I would pay to be a fly on the wall in the Yahoo offices to hear what they are saying:

{The scene: An angry mob gather outside Yahoo central. The camera pans across the crowd, picks out the handsome Mr Hawk, played by Pierce Brosnan perhaps, who weilds the bullhorn and the crowd rallies to his cry...}
The Mob : Yahoo sucks! Flickr rules! We wont use your bloody tools!
{The camera pans up to the 101st floor of the Yahoo golden tower where two dangerous looking men discuss dark deeds...}
Yahooligan 1: SO...this Hawk character, do we send the boys around to break his fingers?
Yahooligan 2: May be concrete shoes...
{In the distance...} Flickr Staff: Wow look at the kitten...
The Mob: 1.....2.....3....4.....We wont log in any more.......
Yahooligan 1: I'm packing the lead pipe
Yahooligan 2: Cool, I've sent his email address to Yahoo Shopping, Yahoo Groups and the Nigerian Spammers
The Mob: 5....6....7....8....'cos Yahoo's service aint so great
Yahooligan 1: Oh you dirty bastard, I like the way you think
{Camera fades to black, the two evil looking men exit stage left laughing their Dick Darstardly laughs}
Flickr Staff : Ooooo, Looook! Another Flower! Its the Intrestingness page for you.

In all seriousness though, the dynamics that this change are kicking up are really interesting to watch and I cant help but think that the poor Flickr staff are stuck in the middle between the corporate owner and the irate users. They do a great job and provide a brilliant service (yes! I am a huge Flickr fanboy) but stuck between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea where can they go?

Good Luck Flickr.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Work vs Play / iStock vs Flickr

nobody@vox.com(Threepwood) — Wed, 17 Jan 2007 22:46:05 +1100

I find nowadays that it is much easier to expose your work to an audience using tools like Flickr and to a certain extent Vox and other blogging platforms. I've been on Flickr for about a year and really quite enjoy it, I treat it as a bit of a challenge in that I generally only upload shots that I really like (yeah and the odd snapshot creeps in for the family). I love to use Flickr to explore new images and can spend hours looking at other peoples fantastic photography. I'm at the point now though, where I'd like to try and sell some images and have signed up for an iStock account but am yet to be accepted until I get through the mandatory initial three images. I'm not approaching this with any sort of romantic notion of fame & fortune, more that I want to know whether I can take a shot that someone else thinks highly enough of to pay for.

Now the quandry, if I load (and have accepted) a photo to iStock, I cant upload it to Flickr due to the exchange in rights to the work. This begins to draw me away from the fun & enjoyment that I get from the Flickr world as I would start to reserve my best images for iStock. I'm challenged by how I view my photography, is it a hobby that I share with my online friends in the free/Flickr world and use to bring some enjoyment to someone that I dont know (the same way that I wile away hours looking at others photography)? OR is my photography an opportunity to perhaps make a few extra dollars? Where does the hobby/fun/play stop and the plan/work/reward begin?

Dont get me wrong here, I have no great tickets on my photography and the question certainly isnt pitched as a potential career change, I consider myself a hobbyist who enjoys taking photos. That said, has anyone considered this question for themselves? Do use use both services or just one exclusively? How do you approach the art vs work question?

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Vox Hunt: Pure Emotion

nobody@vox.com(Threepwood) — Fri, 08 Dec 2006 11:46:09 +1100

Show us pure emotion.
Submitted by Roxy.

Happy Birthday

It doesn't matter how many times you ask "Is everything OK?" the response is always "I'm fine" but I'm pretty sure the camera doesn't lie! It's an adventure having a teenager in your life.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend