141/365: “The thorn from the bush one has planted, nourished and pruned pricks more deeply and draws more blood.” ~ Maya Angelou

(by the way, this is an interesting look back at the day that Flickr exploded!)

I have a "test" home over on ipernity, which seems to be a very friendly community with a clean look that has a familiar feel to "old" Flickr! :) Janet Brien's Pad on ipernity

This quote really hits the nail on the head for my feelings about the "New [NOT] Awesome Flickr".

What a DAY!!! I came home last night to discover that the Flickr I knew and loved had been totally uprooted and replanted by a thoroughly inept gardener! This morning I awoke and stumbled around the site in a horrified daze, feeling terribly frustrated and extremely angry. I posted an image earlier today which Steve created for his banner and I decided to use it too. The post also gave me a chance to rant and rave. Apparently, however, I'm not done yelling. Please forgive my raging! :D

The site runs much slower and because we don't have really fast DSL speeds here, this makes it even harder to visit other people's photostreams in a timely manner. New pet peeve: I simply DETEST having to click the "View X More Comments" link...why can't I just have an option to "show all comments"? The reason why they don't give this option is because this is how a new page of ads is reloaded for your viewing pleasure if you don't have an ad-free account. The more comments you have, the more times you get to refresh the ads. It also infuriates me that if I didn't have my Pro account set for auto-renew, I'd have to fork out $50 to have an ad-free experience. And, I hate that I don't have any way to change the look of my page.

It makes me upset to read comments about how my Flickr friends are having computer crashes now, how it's so slow they can't visit people's photostreams like they used to, how people's pictures don't even show up, etc., etc. I just can't believe that the people making the decisions just decided that if you want a fast load time on Flickr, you need to live in an area with fast internet speeds. WAY TO GO YAHOO!!!!!!

I am going to wait for a week to pass before I make a verdict about moving to another photography site. I've been hearing very good things about www.ipernity.com/ so I'll be checking that out. 500px.com is another possibility but I'm not sure. If you have opinions on alternatives that you like, please let me know.

Maya Angelou (born Marguerite Ann Johnson; April 4, 1928) is an American author and poet. She has published seven autobiographies, five books of essays, and several books of poetry, and is credited with a list of plays, movies, and television shows spanning more than fifty years. She has received dozens of awards and over thirty honorary doctoral degrees. Angelou is best known for her series of autobiographies, which focus on her childhood and early adult experiences. The first, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969), tells of her life up to the age of seventeen, and brought her international recognition and acclaim. Wikipedia: Maya Angelou