Fotolog and Flickr

[imomus]

I now have an account with Fotolog and an account with Flickr. Basically, they do the same thing: host and display my digital photographs. Does anyone have experience of both these systems? Which do you prefer? What are the pros and cons of each?



At first sight, Flickr has the cleaner interface, although I like Fotolog's world map. I get the feeling that I'll reach my bandwidth limit on Flickr pretty quickly too. And I'm curious about the social networking aspects of both systems. What are your experiences? Are there other photoblog publishing systems you recommend?

Comments

[palux-negro.livejournal.com]

I don't know flickr so Fotolog always crashes and it's full o people showing boring things and underwear. Creating an account of fotolog it's like entering in a disco-salsa place.

I haven't used Fotolog but I really like Flickr

[jinty]

the ability to put notes on your own and other people's photos, as well as comments, is very neat indeed and makes it feel a) sometimes like showing people a photo album in person, and b) like a true networking experience -- building up a post by comments and the direct writing on a photo that LJ doesn't quite have an equivalent for.

I would like it better if there was a Flickr option to get your comments emailed to you, like LJ, because I don't look at it every day.

Re: I haven't used Fotolog but I really like Flickr

[imomus.livejournal.com]

I must say the slideshow feature on Flickr is pretty cool. Here's a slideshow of my friend Toog's recent photos (http://www.flickr.com/photos/56853614@N00/show/) (actually mostly illustrations for his blog (http://toog.blogspot.com/)).

there are other neat Flickr-based tools too

[jinty]

This guy has done a lot of fun stuff -- a colour wheel using Flickr pictures, for instance.

Re: I haven't used Fotolog but I really like Flickr

[(Anonymous)]

You can use an RSS feed to see your comments if you don't visit flickr everyday. I use the email client Thunderbird to subscribe to flickr RSS feeds.

Flickr

[(Anonymous)]

I've never used Fotolog, but I've taken quite a liking to Flickr, to the point where I've recently upgraded to the pro account. I love the interface, the tags, the way it makes it easy to subscribe to feeds of all kinds (people's pics, or specificically tagged pics), the fact that I don't have to worry about bandwidth (I use Flickr to host all my pics, and just link to them from my site). They even make it easy to moblog. It's a smart system, and the people behind it seem to know what they're doing.

- Jean
http://jeansnow.net

[padmaclynne.livejournal.com]

i, also, have not tried Fotolog. I do enjoy flickr.

flikr is an upload limit of 10 megs a month, and 100 active photos, without doing a pro account.

fotolog will not tell me what the daily limits are, just that there are daily limits.

" As we've said, Fotolog was never meant to be a site where you could upload a whole bunch of photos from a BBQ or a vacation. It's about sharing your world through your latest and greatest photo."

but it also seems that more people use flickr, which is nice in a network.

[sarmoung.livejournal.com]

I read a mention of Flickr and noticed some other Click Opera habitués were using it. I don't intend to use it as a dumping ground for party snaps or similar, rather somewhere I can put photos that might possibly be of use to someone else. It was the tagging, together with the interface, that persuaded me to use it over other places. I've not really started using yet, but hope to have some good photos from the US, particularly of various WS Burroughs associates and locales from Lawrence, Kansas, in the next few weeks.

Rubbish photos and images I stick on Photobucket.

[freddster.livejournal.com]

i love flickr, its great and i've made tons of friends (loads in japan actually..) i will look up your pix :)

[neil-scott.livejournal.com]

I deleted my Flickr account yesterday because I found it all too chatty and friendly, my friendless and commentless noble_savage, whatever its artistic merit, does have the advantage of actually being about the photos (in a world drowning in images).

[lucanus-cervus.livejournal.com]

Friendless with a capital 'F', perhaps, but surely beloved of many connoisseurs of pornographic Neil Scott Hitler doppelganger scenarios?

x

[neil-scott.livejournal.com]

That's the good thing, by not knowing who the audience is (apart from 60-odd LJ people), I avoid the great threat to all bloggers (photo or otherwise), which is to be perverted or diverted by the audience's demands and desires.

[charleshatcher.livejournal.com]

You must be quite the pushover if you need to isolate yourself from the public in order to remain "true to oneself" (not that I for one second believe such a condition exists).

[neil-scott.livejournal.com]

Yes, but you yourself are quite clearly indifferent to entertaining or instructing your audience.

For myself, I hope that people find something of interest in what I do, but I'm Reithian enough not to pander to their whims.

[charleshatcher.livejournal.com]

I, conversely, hope that people find something of interest in what they do, and I the same.

[imomus.livejournal.com]

Yes, there's something to be said for a simple page of photos like that. Nice pictures, by the way, I like your handling of depth and perspective, and the attention to close-up and small things.

[neil-scott.livejournal.com]

Thanks. The more photos I take, the more I realise that I only really see small things (a common problem with myopics) ... the rest is a haze. I'm surprised more people don't talk and think more about the punctum, rather than tbe historical and biographical interest of pictures.

[(Anonymous)]

fotolog is photoblogging for the masses and flickr has a much more clean, artsy feel to it. there is tons of trash of fotolog, definitely, and the server crashes are all too often, but there's a clunkiness and slowness i like about it - flickr is irritatingly clean for me. actually, fotolog went through a bad time about two months ago, and there was a huge divide between fotologgers on whether to stay on board or jump over to newer services like flickr and fotola. a good many stayed, but now have accounts in both places. also, i find that fotolog is more of an open community than flickr is. i love the friends/favourites feature that constantly updates alongside my photos, and i miss that on flickr. i'd say go fotolog, but i'm old school. and according to my own fotolog/flickr division, i seem to be with the masses!

r.
(fotolog.net/qinghuayuan)

Oh! So many questions!

[lucanus-cervus.livejournal.com]

Well, I might be able to tell you, but then I'd have to kill you

[slurpee.livejournal.com]

flickr, if you are looking for more of a community feel and simplicity. i love especially their cataloging capabilities (via tags), where you are linked to similar photographs. and for their creative groups:

Squared Circle (http://www.flickr.com/groups/circle/)
One Letter (http://www.flickr.com/groups/oneletter/)
In Numerical Order (http://www.flickr.com/groups/numerical/)
Longline (http://www.flickr.com/photos/genista/5800461/in/set-98796/)

most users are bloggers of some sort. however, as already mentioned, there are limits to a free account. i use both flickr and photobucket to host photographs. i haven't checked out your other suggestion, though. but it's hard to beat these awesome pics here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/slurpee/favorites/

[freddster.livejournal.com]

i was on flickr for a little while, then a nice friend bought a pro account for me :))

[odyshape.livejournal.com]

I use http://www.photobucket.com . It's so successful that it only accepts new subscriptions at 11 pm or something. It's good if you're not so into the chatty thing about flickr.

Desires?

[(Anonymous)]

The difference between Flickr and Fotolog is the same between Friendster and MySpace. One is your local record store where you bump into your friends and get the latest Momus CD, the other is a Virgin Megastore in a mall somewhere in the mid-west. The caliber of users applies also. And, Neil Scott, please don't write things like "...the advantage of actually being about the photos." and worrying about being perverted by the desires of your audience. I liked your photographs, but when you write things like that you come across as a dick.

Woo

[(Anonymous)]

fotolog would be great if it worked but it never does. and the administrators are very poor about keeping the users updated about the status of the site.
when it is working smoothly though, surfing fotolog can be quite great with so many different sorts of people uploading.
in the long run, i prefer flickr.

[wrighter.livejournal.com]

i have both. flickr is so much better than fotolog. not only is it more dependable, but its interface is so much cleaner. it also offers more features.

http://flickr.com/photos/buriedleaves/

[sweetnessss.livejournal.com]

www.fotopic.net offers 250 MB free space which I find incredible - also I like the weekly statistics.
A negative aspect is that it won't let you link photos directl, only to albums.

[(Anonymous)]

Re. the Thames & Hudson book. While any book by Momus will be greeted enthusiastically by me, I'm a bit aghast that you don't already know and participate in the two most active photoblogging communities! Strange that they wouldn't pick someone with a more long-standing relationship to the community action, if you will. That said, I recognize you've been a longstanding photologger yourself at iMomus and I adore your photo collages. Actually, I wish you'd do more of those.

I started on Fotolog in ~2002 and switched to Flickr this year. I liked Fotolog, but yes it crashed all the time and it was relatively simple. However, there was (and maybe still is) a very vibrant community of Fotolog users. Like Flickr (and prior to Flickr) there were Fotolog communities devoted to images of things: cars, books, etc. There were (and maybe still are) regular Fotolog meetups in NYC/Brooklyn. As a starting point, go to Laura Holder's Fotolog (http://www.fotolog.net/lauratitian) and then visit all her friends & favorites. You should also know of art gallery exhibits of fotologer's work at jen bekman and the talks at the Apple Soho store. Also, strangely, there's a big fotolog userbase in Brazil.

I heard about Flickr very early b/c I'd been longtime regular reader of Catarina Fake's blog. You should check out all her blogs, including her Flickr blog where she does excellent evangelism for the site. I was a bit hesitant to use Flickr at first because I find it's interface, while technically slick, to be a bit crowded and chunky looking. I hate how you have to title all your photos and how big the title is. Ideally I'd like to display only a large image and a caption in small font below. There are ways to do this using server-side software--always a bit complex for a tech novice like me. Anyway, I use Flickr b/c of the tags, and the slideshows, and the "badges" of current images that you can have on your blog.

When I'm back at my regular PC with all my bookmarks I can give you a big list of photobloggers. But for now, check out my favorite: http://www.satanslaundromat.com/sl/.

What are your favorite photologs?

Tim in NYC

[imomus.livejournal.com]

My favourite is by a man clever enough to program his own interface, Jip de Kort (http://www.kwark.org/Gfx/2005/2005Week09.html).

[imomus.livejournal.com]

Oh, and Kaori Mizushima, who also has a custom interface, her one day journal (http://www.monminouweb.com/onedj.html).

Flickr

[jqmark.livejournal.com]

I lurv Flickr as I can upload right from iPhoto. There is a great LJ photoblog ru_photo that seems to have some great photographers.

mmm flickr hey - whhat took you so long?

[grocko.livejournal.com]

i remember a certain someone (that would be me) sending you an invite months ago...

fotolog v. flickr

[dubmill.livejournal.com]

I have accounts at both (/dubmill) and generally agree with qinghuayuan's comments.

fotolog is fairly primitive, has the more savage jpg compression on the images (whereas flickr also stores the original high resolution images should you want to view those), and there's always something not working properly.. BUT it has the better basic interface (that encourages interaction with other users) and is generally funkier and more spontaneous/lo-fi. It's a nice mix of sexy Brazilian teenagers and artier things.

flickr is much more technically advanced and reliable, has a lot of good features (sets, groups, the image 'organizr', different image sizes, allows external linking to images etc. etc.) BUT is, in my opinion, much dryer. The basic interface is flawed somehow and there is a constant glaring white background which I personally don't like. It started life as a very geeky place - seemingly heavily populated by bloggers from the web design and internet tech end of the spectrum, plus there are lots more people who are hung up on Becoming Better Photographers in a boring kind of way. In its favour it is growing at a phenomenal rate and those constituencies are fast getting watered down with vast numbers of users of all different kinds.

fotolog / flickr / fashion / cosmic rays

[(Anonymous)]

i participate in both, but only as a guest, not a paying subscriber.

although my freeloader status limits me to 1 photo opportunity a day, i tend use fotolog more, and a bit differently. my "homepage" (the page that my browser opens to, is http://www.fotlog.net/cafe/ ... a group page center on the cafe (a la bistro) scene with a side riff on caffe (a la coffee). fotolog reminds me of a global city - mostly populated by high school kids speaking a strange dialect of brazilian portugese - a noisy and lively place. fotolog reminds me of the old webcam scene. it feels like "cafe".

when i use flickr, i tend to upload 6 photos at a time. and it begins to feel like a scrapbook or photo album or minigallery.

i went to google to try and find a "photolog beta" that i had run into a few months ago. it looked like a "euro" version of "fotolog" - cleanly designed, but perhaps sedate(d). there is something about those noisy kids in fotolog that keeps the place lively !

Re: fotolog / flickr / fashion / cosmic rays

[dubmill.livejournal.com]

there is something about those noisy kids in fotolog that keeps the place lively !

Absolutely. Somebody made a comment earlier about fotolog being like a Virgin Megastore in the Mid West - but in a way that's a romantic image to me, not a negative one. The Sound of the Suburbs etc. etc.

I hope that flickr becomes more and more like fotolog. More anarchic and noisy, but with all the technical advantages that it currently has over fotolog. I also hope that they make the pages more customizable (which has been discussed in the forums - the management have said they have some plans in that area).

I think the other site you're thinking of is http://www.photoblog.be/ (there are so many of them: fotothing, fotoamigo, fotola etc.).

/dubmill (at fotolog and flickr)

SO many photoblogs!!!!! I dig fotoamigo.com the most

[(Anonymous)]

I like it because it seems be a little bit Flickr, alittle bit fotolog. Fotoamigo is new and still small and maybe thats why i dig it. you get more uploads for frre than fotolog, and some of the great tools of flicker like slideshows. Ive done smugmug , and pbase too....but my new fav is definately fotoamigo.com
check it out!!!!
Visit fotoamigo.com (http://www.fotoamigo.com/)!

Re: SO many photoblogs!!!!! I dig fotoamigo.com the most

[(Anonymous)]

Ok, Bumping this up!!

What about Flickr accounts are now going to have to merge with Yahoo?! Not sure about that! Im thinking about switching to Photothing!
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