Instagram ???

vedostuu said:

I agree too. Who uses flickr these days, anyways?

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In my experience - many, many excellent photographers. Usually senior photographers and people who are advanced of age. Same age group as on here, but the ones on flickr are actual photographers, not armchair self-appointed darkroom gurus or darkroom nerds with a fleeting interest in actual photography.

But jokes aside - honestly, give it another go - there are some true film photography masters regularly posting great content on Flickr. Personally I'm learning so much from them. I'm still a bad photographer, mind you, especially compared to some of the posters out there.

Back to Flickr: the pace is slow: there are no or few 'comments' or words. Very little discussion on technicalities. People communicate via their images. As there is little or no interest in the platform from advertisers and 'infuencers', the content, at least the content I follow, seems to reflect mostly the honest journey in photography of the individual, some sort of personal journey, which I often find incredibly compelling. This as opposed to other social media platforms where people mainly post to build a 'persona' or to tell the world who they are, what they're worth, where they are at the moment and so on. It's a subtle but extremely important difference to me.

Also, as I have personally taken over the moderation of a few groups, I'm seeing people returning. One of the medium format groups I've cleaned up and now moderate has grown from 8k people to almost 10k in the last year. I would say about 500 are regular posters. I'm enjoying seeing everyone's scans trickling in. Most are old analog people who went digital and are now getting back to developing and scanning. Some incredible pictures. I wonder if the lockdown contributed to this return, too.

Instagram personally I have absolutely no interest in.

It depends what one is after and how much attitude problems one has

I hate Facebook and wish there was some true alternative to Instagram but there isn't and I just decided to adapt and stop worrying. That is far best platform to get feedback for my work and to make new friends.

vedostuu said:

It depends what one is after and how much attitude problems one has

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Yep. You could say the same about people who shun Flickr. Enjoy Instagram

I don't think IG blocks people who use the same hashtags repeatedly, The algorithm works for IG, not for the users; it prioritizes those posts that have higher level of engagement (time). It's very clear on their website that they want "stories, not just pictures and it's a good tool to grow a business. For example, food instagramers with many followers upload detailed recipes, and usually have a link to an e-commerce website. IG followers want to see "how it was made" or what's the story behind a post...the backstage. More engagement, more money for IG from advertisers and engagement does not mean "likes" anymore.
Another way IG (and most social media) makes money is by selling your data. How much time it takes for a user to press like? How fast they scroll? It analyzes the words you use to know your personality, it knows how many hours you do sleep, what time you wake up...how many times a day do you walk your dog?

I think, for us, the goal is to make people follow a link to our website where they can appreciate our work in a better context and hopefully buy some prints.

DMJ said:

I don't think IG blocks people who use the same hashtags repeatedly

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Yet many people have reported it. There is argument that it's not that but using blocked hashtags often enough - but, far as I know, I don't use any - unless they block things like "#filmphotograph" or "#blackandwhite".
In my case, I think it was the result of making maybe 7 or 8 posts in one day, all with the same tags, which got me earmarked as spam. Even though my daily average for posting is probably .01.

BradS said:

Not looking for, nor do I expect a debate.
I may try it but I'd really like to hear form others who already have...
I'm the kinda guy who likes to have some idea how deep the water is before he jumps in head first.

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I think deep is the wrong word for it. But it’s fun and light. Sort of 1:1 entertainment when you start out with a bunch of silly videos thrown in to distract you.

Ted is watching this thread

DMJ said:

it knows how many hours you do sleep, what time you wake up...how many times a day do you walk your dog?

.

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Yes the first two are bad enough but it was the third one that was the killer for me. The number of walks has to remain between me and my dog

pentaxuser

DMJ said:

Ted is watching this thread

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I never can figure out why anyone thinks it is easy to do anything. Kids in grammar school think they can pick up a violin and play like a virtuoso, people pick up cameras and think they can shoot like whoever they admire, people think they can post a couple of images on IG or FB or whatever,,, and think they will have millions of followers and likes ? To quote Jim, people are strange. everything takes practice and time, unless of course you pay the 5bucks for the 100,000 of likes.
People sadly equate their self worth by bs on social media and it is really sad. I would hate to be a 20-something or teenager nowadays, it was hard enough when I was that age, would be the icing on the cake believing for whatever reason getting "likes" or "followers" from the endless stream of fake friends equates self worth, perils of the indoor generation I guess. I kind of wonder when the next 1870s solar pulse thing is going to happen. From what I remember Montreal (?) got a taste of it 10 years ago, sigh, the whole world needs a break from the all this nonsense ...

jnantz said:

I never can figure out why anyone thinks it is easy to do anything. Kids in grammar school think they can pick up a violin and play like a virtuoso, people pick up cameras and think they can shoot like whoever they admire, people think they can post a couple of images on IG or FB or whatever,,, and think they will have millions of followers and likes ? To quote Jim, people are strange. everything takes practice and time, unless of course you pay the 5bucks for the 100,000 of likes.
People sadly equate their self worth by bs on social media and it is really sad. I would hate to be a 20-something or teenager nowadays, it was hard enough when I was that age, would be the icing on the cake believing for whatever reason getting "likes" or "followers" from the endless stream of fake friends equates self worth, perils of the indoor generation I guess. I kind of wonder when the next 1870s solar pulse thing is going to happen. From what I remember Montreal (?) got a taste of it 10 years ago, sigh, the whole world needs a break from the all this nonsense ...

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People think they can have instant talent because they, for the most part, are not yet talented enough to appreciate the nuance of whatever practice they are undertaking. People can gain competence quickly and then never end up getting beyond that point.
I don't think people equate their self-worth with likes or shares on social media (of course, some people do, but not the majority). However, Instagram is a way to present images to an audience - the desire is that that, at least, should work.
It all amounts to a commercial culture that feeds on personality. You are less likely to get published if you have no following - whatever you are trying to get published. You are supposed to actively promote yourself.

I find the functionality of Flickr better in most respects, or at least potentially so. One person said they liked Flickr because there was little conversation, just images. But in, places, it does have conversations, much more than IG and I like that. Thematically orientated groups are more important in Flickr. This is where the gap between actual and potential comes in. Some groups are well moderated and will not allow images that do not fit group rules. But now there are a lot of groups that are managed very little or not at all and they become dumping ground for all kinds of garbage. They do have some curated groups on IG, but with hashtags, anyone can put anything they want to a given tag so there is no filtering that a post is remotely relevant to the theme. I dislike that IG is so phone-centric. I had an app that allowed one to upload from a laptop. But it stopped working, is rumored IG will block you if thinks you are loading from something other than a phone. Then I found a way with Apple Safari that kind of works. It is depressing to me that probably 95% of images that will be seen will be seen on phones only. But that seems to be the reality. Perhaps in future there will be way for a phone to generate a larger image.

I've found a bunch of the old apugers on Instagram. It's great to reconnect.