Hey friends. Listen, bad news. I got banned from Flickr today. I made the mistake of wanting to tell my 1,600 contacts about this thing, posterous, that me and a friend created. We're proud of our community and our work and wanted to share it with more people. We just worked all weekend to provide autopost to Flickr functionality. Then this morning, I had a thought to share my excitement with my friends on Flickr by sending mass Flickr Mail. I've been a member of the Flickr community since 2004. I've been a really active member since 2006, when I got my first Canon Digital Rebel XTI. I've joined countless groups, and uploaded over 1,000 photos, many of which I've spent HOURS or DAYS postprocessing. I've had over 60 photos make it into the top 500 photos on Flickr for the day they were uploaded. That was always a rush. I've probably spent close to $20,000 in camera equipment along the way, as the Flickr-frenzy of enthusiasm for photography became a great obsession -- one of the great hobbies I'll never stop loving. Along the way, I've commented and made contact with 1,600 great flickr-ites along the way. I feel like there's a real connection between me and many of them, and it's really kind of like just wanting to show your friends this cool thing you created. I think one part of online communities like Flickr is that you get an illusion that you know people well, and that the link between you and others is closer than they really are. I myself get unsolicited mass FlickrMail from my contacts all the time, but I never really considered it awful. It was always on topic, something to do with photos or even a Flickr contact being in the San Francisco area and asking if anyone had a couch to crash on. I don't mind that stuff at all. That's awesome. That's what makes Flickr great. A bunch of my contacts from flickr thanked me for the note and are now using posterous. That's great. I'm excited you're here. Unfortunately, some of my contacts saw this as spam and emailed me so. To them, I am very very VERY sorry. I spend hours of my day fighting spam and defending the posterous community, and it pains me to know that I was part of the problem on Flickr. I will never EVER willingly contribute to spam of any kind, good-intentioned or not. You have my word.
