Flickr (venting and warnings): Important for flickr users.

(blog is temporarily public so everyone can view this post)

Okay so not only did I have to private my blog (still undecided on making it public again) I now had to private my Flickr!!

In return for making my flickr private (I'll explain why I made it friends/family viewable only in this post later but feel free to skip ahead its in red, to the chase if you don't feel like reading my mumbo jumbo first, lol) now my already had to be private blog is displaying all "photo unavailable" pictures seems I uploaded them with flickr (and flickr is now private).

I don't like uploading straight from computer because it takes forever, they upload out of order, it ridiculously spaces out my post photos and paragraphs and I'm lucky if my photos don't "error" while uploading. See why I post using flickr? It was easy using that! But seems my flickr is now private my photos won't display, and it totally makes me mad. My compulsive obsessive self has to be greatly annoyed by this or I gotta spend hours, probably days re-uploading photos. Grrr.

Oh and did I mention my pretty myspace page that I thought looked pretty dang decent now just displays "photo unavailable" everywhere! Can you tell I'm annoyed by this?! All because I privated my flickr account.

Is there a way to make photos public from flickr photos that are private, for future posting?

Okay, now the reason my photos are friend/family only. Should probably continue reading if you have flickr and your photos are public.

Well the obvious reason, even with right click disabled, them space-balled, and blogable to you only, people can still steal them if they really wanted to. It's actually not that hard at all.

My main reason is Orkut. What I've learned about it is it is like Myspace for Brazillian kids. Like a social network. They are supposed to be 18 but they aren't. They "play" a role playing game with the kids pictures that they steal off of Flickr. "They use the photos to create profiles and they sometimes alter them in inappropriate ways. Requests to remove these photos are often ignored or responded to rudely."

Google Orkut and make a profile, type in FAKE and a ton of profiles will show up.... you'll see what I mean.

I don't remember if it was Orkut or not, but an external websites in the past had a picture of my daughter up without my permission (I don't even know how I managed to bump into it) and I had taking all the precautions and they still managed to snag a picture!!!

Also I'd had a few people blocked for suspicious activity and odd people and profiles adding me as a contact and adding my pictures as faves when they had no photos in their stream. I swear the same person has 10 accounts and keeps adding me.

Recently a member who I thought was harmless and safe had asked (I'm lucky they even asked) to use my photos for Orkut, and just the mention of that place got her blocked from me (even though they are blocked they still can see your photos!!!) and at that point I set my photos so ONLY people who I have marked as a friend or family can see them.

It's ridiculous things some people are and will do. I hate my pictures on private but safety comes first and until I find a better way to protect my photos they will remain that way. I hope I find some safe guarding. I upload them public for only a very short period with some safety guards (long enough for my mom and family to view, they have no flickr account) and then I set them to friends and family only.