I Made it Myself / Discuss

TuJaded    says:

Well you always say "it will never happen to me" but if you aren't 'playing by the rules' it sure will!

I am of course, referencing the latest user hubub about using Flickr in ANY WAY, SHAPE OR FORM as a sales tool.

There have been plenty of heated, panicked & desperate threads and discussions on this issue - I think I can fairly state for us all - "WE DON'T WANT TO LOSE OUR FLICKR ACCOUNT!!"

BTW this ALSO means losing your YAHOO! account!!!
While many folks before me or before today, have had their entire accounts, profile and any trace of them DELETED by FLICKR for violating the TOS in regards to sales; many more users are tyring to take action to educate themselves on those TOS and to rectify their image descriptions, content, comments, inclusion of links to sales sites and extra links or verbage in their profile relating to sales or sales websites.

Here is what is critical to know:

==============================
>>In joining Flickr, you agreed to abide by the Terms of
Service and Community Guidelines. Flickr accounts are
intended for individual use, for our members to share
photos that they've taken, not to sell stuff:

"Don't Use Flickr for Commercial Purposes Flickr is for
personal use only. If you sell products, services or
yourself through your photostream, we will terminate your
account. Any other commercial use of Flickr, Flickr
technologies (including APIs, Flickrmail, etc), or Flickr
accounts must be approved by Flickr."

www.flickr.com/guidelines.gne

Please remove salesy verbiage from underneath your photos
at your earliest convenience so that we don't have to take
further action on your account. <<

==============================

Incredibally lucky for me - and actually generously by Flickr my account was NOT spontaneously deleted for apparant violation - I was warned.

The comment by another user inquiring if my items was for sale was deleted - by someone.

And while i thought I had been extremely aware of this issue and very dilligent in conforming to and abiding by these TOS agreement rules - I have snapped-to (hmm a pun?) and am making even more effort to not violate any more, ever again.

I love Flickr and I understand their TOS. I may not agree with it but then again their favorite color may not be green and we are playing in their house.

PLEASE - PLEASE don't be a 'what if' TAKE ACTION NOW to rectify you possible violations. Some of my suggestions include:

PROFILE: you may ONLY include a sales related link in FLICKR's Company Website field in your profile page.

DO NOT include 'salesy verbage' elsewhere in your profile, set description, picture description or comments.

DO NOT include external sales related website links in your profile (other than the field mentioned above), set description, picture description or comments.

BLOG links - there have been many other discussions of this in the Etsy.love group, on etsy.com itself and in other related group discussions. As I understand it (pls verify) you can include a link to your blog ONLY IF there is not a sales related link on that blog.

TAGS: It has been told by Flickr that it is OK to use ETSY as a tag.

OTHER LINKS - EDUCATIONAL etc.: I am currently awaiting word from the' Flickreenos' (their term) in regards to whether these kind of links in descriptions or comments are allowed. I use them in reference to silversmithign especially and have appreciated it when others have as well.

Don't want to bum anyone's trip - but getting whacked off of Flickr would be way more of a drag. :-)

I want to close by adding that we are all pretty smart, I have often seen things or techniques or images of interest for a variety of reasons and I am able to find the users profile and review their information and link to their other website if provided. Keep your images, ideas and techniques flowing here.

~peace

tuajded (Holly)
Posted at 11:34AM, 19 August 2006 PDT (permalink)