It's ironic that - now (as of the end of May 2008) - having been so 'eager' to give others advice about making a 'safe' Flickr account, my own account at Flickr was deleted. Actually, I'm not surprised. I think I was testing the limits and must have gone over the edge (violated the Flickr TOS (terms of service) - although there was never any message or warning from Flickr admin about what was amiss or any explanation. But that is in the fine print (I presume).
Recently, I've had to give (or been asked to give) my take on why Flickr sometimes deletes a person's account (and all their photos) without warning. It's happened to me too. ( Not my 'sunbuns' Flickr id, but another one. In reality, Il keep several Flickr ids (only 2 are Pro (paid) accounts for a couple of reasons: foremost, being the need to experience seeing my own profile and Flickr photostream from the point of view of contact, friend, famil and family & friend.
So over the years - as a Flickr and Yahoo member and also active on my web own sites, I've learned something about the Internet as a hobby and also how it's used as a business -- commercial enterprise. Therefore, I've put together my thoughts here about Flickr and hope you find it useful. I welcome any feedback on these ideas.
I can think of a few things that might help protect your Flickr account - I can't really say this advice will keep your account from being deleted, but you know you don't want to have to keep creating a new account again. You say you won't come back to Flickr if you are deleted again, but you KNOW you probably will. So it's worth a try.
Flickr has a method to its madness.
They don't just delete at random - -however, they may find members who are violating (or borderline) the Yahoo/Flickr Terms of Service (these are the Flickr 'rules' in very fineprint). They probably come across 'unsafe' Flickr members at random and then put you on their "watch" list. Then if you don't change or have another violation, then you might get deleted. Also, sometimes people (who don't like seeing your photos) make 'flag' a picture and these violations are kept in your Flickr (and Yahoo) records without you even knowing about them.
So how do you need to behave to be a Flickr membr in good standing?
The basic Flickr principles are probably something like this:
A) Follow the basic procedures. Know the rules. (Explained below)
B) Do no harm - in fact, actively show you are trying to prevent any harm. (Explained below)
C) Act like a real person who USES Flickr - not just a 'porn ghost.' Use Flickr as a real community member - act like you ARE a paying (pro) member now.
Each of the above principles is explained below and some suggestions on how to actually put the principle into practice are given.
A) The basic rules are very important. Find out and make the appropriate settings if you intend to use Flickr to view adult explicit content or want to display photos in your photostream that are. Do you know about these things? If you don't, you're alert flirting with dangers from the get-go.
1) Have you set your Safety Level to 'restricted' and Content Filters to "Safe Search: off" ?
2) Check your account staus. What does Flickr say about your account? Safe, Moderate, Unsafe. You can see Your Account page info (including the settings in Privacy and Permissions I mentioned above) by clicking your Flickr id at the top of any page. The one that says "Signed in as _____". There are 4 tab pages.
At the top of "Your Account" page, it tells you how Flickr staff rate your account. If you have 'Moderate' or 'Unsafe', you'd better read the "What does that mean?" information soon.
B) Do no harm: Don't put pornographic or explicit sexual photos where minors (or just anybody COULD find them). It's not that they HAVE found, they should NOT be where they 'could' possibly be seen by underage minors (under 18) or other people who might object/complain.
So , the first and essential thing you should do is to make all and any of your pictures that have nudity or are explicitly sexual private (Of course, you can make visible on to friends -- like me).
What makes a photos objectionable? It is NOT only the fact that you find the photo sexually stimulating (Duh!) True - some photographs are just plain pornographic. Obviously, there are unquestionable examples: an erect penis, exposed vagina or anus, masturbation, copulation, anal penetration, etc). I'm afraid that while there are these general guidelines, you cannot simply think that BY ONLY following the bare minimum (no pun intended) that you can satisfy everyone. The fact is some people are offended by any type of nudity or exposed body part so just because you are not showing publicly photos of a hard-on, it doesn't mean that somebody might not be offended by a view of a guy's uncovered hairy ass.
If you want a SAFE and lasting Flickr account, it would be wise to make all photos containing nudity private (visible only to Flickr Friends (other than 'true' art photography (don't ask me to explain that - but- I am talking about the type of nudity that you would see in an art museum). If you are doing any less, then you are flirting with the threat that someone can object (and flag one of your photos) on grounds that he/she finds it objectionable. I imagine that Flickr admin tallies these 'flagged' photos and when you reach a certain number (one - five?), then it investigates (or worse) simply deletes you account.
Flickr Groups play a role too.
Another importannt thing is to NOT add your photos to any NON-private group pool of photographs. Some +18 adult Flickr groups are public and their photos pools are also public. Anyone can join (automatically) or look at their collection of group photos (pool) without restriction. Even if your photos are private, when you add them to a public group, they become viewable to all the members of that group. It's safest to join a private (invitaion only group) or a public group that has a MEMBERS-ONLY photo pool.
C) Flickr wants happy customers. If you are a NON-paying (free) member, you are not making them happy -- espeically if you pose a risk to other paying members. Their first priority is to make their paying customers free from worry and bother. However, non-paying members do add value to their company by bringing in people, who might or do join Flickr. So Flickr actually needs its non-paying members too. That's why they do try to bend over backwards to get people to 'restrict' their use of pornographic content. Flickr does not ban it unilaterally. (NOTE: A few countries have separate and stricter Internet access and search censorship rules - so Flickr must act according to those countries' rules: Germany, Singapore, Korean, for example).
So that means you have to act like a person who would someday (might) buy a Flickr pro account.
Flickr is a (hopefully for them) profit-making business owned by Yahoo. They boast about being the world's most popular photo-sharing site, but there IS strong competition. Remember that the Internet means business (making money). They want their users to be people who might actually 'buy' their services. So if you don't want to pay the $29.99 a year to be a 'pro' Flickr member, then at least try to act like one. How behave like a future paying customer is explained below.
Here are some points to consider doing to make your account 'safe':
a) Post some of your own non-porn photos. If all you have are net porn and no real photographs of your own, you'll look simply like a 'porn ghost'. Just a virtual identity only on Flickr to view and display Net porn. You should upload some real digitial photos (from a real digital camera) - if possible. These should not be pornographic (although they could be if properly restricted to 'private - friends only"), but some of them should be regular snapshots of travel or events in your city. These should be public.
b) Have a 'real' identity. Add something to your profile - (you don't have to reveal anything that you want to remain private). Just write a few sentences. If you can fill in some other info in your profile (you can be as specific or general (vague) as you wish. Join some public groups that are NOT just adult sex or porn photos.
c) Contribute as a Flickr community member. Comment on people's photos (and not just porn ones only), making favorites is OK, but how will you keep up with 100s or 1000s of favorites, anyway. Be selective. Participate in groups (and not just porn ones only), write testimonials (and maybe get some too). This way you appear to somebody who is using Flickr as it was intended so your review by Flickr staff will (likely) reflect this.
d) Make contacts responsibly. If it's not clear what a person's age is and you suspect that Flickr member might be 1) under age 2) new to Flickr 3) not interested in your net porn pix, then by all means, do not make them a Flickr friend. You can make then a contact (they cannot see your 'privates' until you know more about them. Or you can send them a Flickrmail and ask them make their age clear on their profile. This is probably where I make my own mistakes.. I usually check a person's profile to see if they state their age or make it clear that they are interested in photos with sexual content.
For example, I look to see -- when a person adds me as a Flickr contact / friend -- if their lists of other contacts (many times I recognize some of their friends), and I look at their photo content (if I've already been make a Friend by them first) or their lists of public groups (private groups are NOT visible to others). If they are brand new to Flickr - usually means no photos of their own, very few contacts and few groups, then I ask (politely) or just say it's not clear if they are 18 or over from their profile so I can't add them as a friend yet. Normally, it IS clearly stated or obvious. So I don't have to actually write them very often.
It becomes more necessary and probably it will often me much clearer when you initiate the adding contact/friend first. Still the same guidelines hold. Even with people who are fellow porn collectors, there can still be strong preferences. For example, I recently has someone who was obviously a gay male very interested in nude and pornographic gay content, tell me that many of my collected photos portray young men he considered to be too young. He apologized but stated that he did not want me as a contact. So you can't please everyone and may sometimes please no one in trying to do the former.
D) I suspect there may be other 'rules' or also other ways that Flickr 'flags' people as unsafe. For example, how many downloads of pictures you do. How often you change your Buddy Icon (and what it looks like).. How may complaints are received about your photos?There are more hints inside Flickr, too. Check out the Flickr FAQ and "What does this mean?" (safe/unsafe account) for more details.
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Hey.. this was long - but I hope it will help. It helped me to have to try to get this all down in one place. I needed to get this written down so I just took the time to do it now. But I'll post it on my blog and refer people to it from my Flickr profile. http://www.flickr.com/people/klewless
(P.S. My 'former' Flickr id: sunbuns as deleted on May 29, 2008).
Hope you can get to be a 'safe' Flickr member and saved from deletion
....There's more to playing 'safe' than just wearing a condom (LOL).
Kelly ( Not very active on Flickr anymore) and Yahoo mail: (sunbuns99)
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