Flickr: kthxbai
ArsTechnica comments (Flickr’s shift to Yahoo ID requirement sparks (virtual) rioting) on the need to recognize the effort and contributions that early adopters make in support of fledgling social networking sites.
Those who run online (and offline) communities know that you can’t please everybody, and that old-school members are the most demanding and change-resistant. But when it comes to major community status markers you have to bend over backwards to accommodate the members who really value this sort of thing. In Flickr’s case, some kind of differentiating marker for legacy members would be nice, like a badge or a title, or some other visible signifier of the major investment that these senior users have made in the community.
Seniority perks and visible signifiers of in-group status are “Anthropology 101,” and no amount of Web 2.0 pixie dust can change that basic fact of human nature. Community sites that forget this in the midst of changes and genuine improvements do irreparable damage to the very social networks that they’re striving to build.
To be clear, I’m not questioning the business case for the Flickr and Yahoo merger, nor am I questioning the supposed benefits which await newly anointed Yahoo email address owners in the form of single-sign-on to all of Yahoo’s properties (or most of them, anyway).
Rather, as I’ve said before, I’m trying to point out that in the rush to make the business case I think people are overlooking some basic human needs, which the ArsTechnica article begins to highlight. Furthermore, in projecting this kind of reaction into the future, I feel that unless people pay attention to the underlying causes behind this reaction, rather than the reaction in and of itself (which could be passed off as whining or whatnot), this whole notion of a participatory internet may just hit a few roadblocks.
Just think about it. Without the uber-geeks falling all over themselves to make Flickr what it is today (a property of almighty Yahoo), would your (insert stereotypically computer-illiterate demographic here) be posting photos on Flickr? Do not vex/anger/enrage/put out/incense/annoy the uber-geeks.
Anyways, as one of the ArsTechnica members (Traddy) succinctly points out:
You could argue that the reason the site was valuable to be bought out is because of their [the Old Skool-ers] work; since the site is all about “community”.
Well put.
There are a couple of other interesting posts lying around the interwebs:
Oh, and if you’re wondering what “kthxbai” means, here’s your answer