I recently merged my old skool account with an old Yahoo account of mine in order to be able to use the ‘mobile site’. I eventually had to get a Flickr staff member to UN-MERGE the accounts because it was so incredibly annoying to use the merged account. Not only was it yet another login/password to remember but it was flat out cumbersome to use.
One of the main issues was that I had to constantly re-login over and over on my home computer to get to my photos on Flickr.
Also, I was being logged into a Rogers (Canadian ISP) cobranded version of the Yahoo.com site because I had a Rogers account like 2 years ago. The problem with that was the Rogers Yahoo cobranded site never worked properly! So merging the accounts actually made for a worse experience on Yahoo! as well as Flickr. I don’t even use that ISP anymore and yet I have to look at a Rogers logo every time I go to Yahoo!
I wanted to delete my Yahoo! account but then I couldn’t because I would no longer be able to use Flickr! So I had to get my accounts un-merged. What if I want to delete my Yahoo account in the future?
I’ve been nothing but supportive of Flickr from the early days when they we’re a tiny little company here in Vancouver but this is just a bad idea! So what if it’s a ‘pain’ or tedious to keep two login systems running? The friction this causes all of the original Flickr members should outweigh the ‘pain’ it causes the developers at Yahoo.
If someone asked me what photo sharing site they should use I’d no longer be inclined to just say Flickr.
If by some chance Stewart, Caterina, Heather or any of the Flickr peeps are reading this PLEASE DON’T DO THIS!
More reaction to this Flickr screw up:
BBC.
1700 Diggs.
Thomas Hawk.
Zooomr: happy to accommodate people.
SmugMug: Offering 50% off.
Dave Winer: Flickr people are smart.
If you’re planning to bail here are some ways to get out:
FlickrDown: Download all your pics from Flickr on PC.
Englaze: Get a burn of your images.