So, what happens when you are using flickr free instead of flickr pro?
Hey djuggler! About your photos…
You’ve run into one of the limits of a free account. Your free account will only display the most recent 200 photos you’ve uploaded. All of your photos beyond 200 will remain hidden from view until you either delete newer photos, or upgrade to a Pro account.
None of your photos have been deleted, and if you upgrade, they’ll all come back unharmed.
Cool! You can buy Pro accounts for friends.
“and if you upgrade, they’ll all come back unharmed.”
So they’re holding your pictures hostage?
Yup. Also, if you are a free account instead of pro and let your account go inactive for 3 months they close your account.
If you are pro and don’t pay, you drop to free status. Which means that as a pro user if you have a few thousand pictures up suddenly only the latest 200 will be available then 3 months later no pictures will be available.
Which means, when someone dies, so does their online photographic history. My grandfather was a shutterbug. His collection was donated to a museum which means most if not all probably went to trash bin. I would kill for those pictures today but in the past had not the where withall to get them.
Flickr should provide an export function that allows archiving or a memorial function that allows the collection to be preserved. Perhaps the memorial function would freeze the account so that no more pictures could be uploaded but comments and notes could be continued and edited by the estate.