Flickr Announces Deadine For Switching To Yahoo! IDs

From March 15th Flickr will require all 'old skool' members to switch over to a Yahoo! account. They announced back in 2005 that this would eventually happen and they now have set a date. Like many others I have resisted switching over because I wanted to keep my the simpler login and I liked being special ;o)

They have slowly been shutting down parts of Flickr to old skool members such as the mobile site and latest Yahoo! Go for mobiles. What worries me about the switch is this statement from the Flickr Faq.

I'm going to delete my Yahoo! account. What happens to my Flickr photos?

If you associated your Flickr account with your Yahoo! ID and you delete your Yahoo! account, you won't be able to sign in to your Flickr account. And all your photos will be deleted.

I recently had to change my Yahoo! ID because my account which I had held since 1998 suddenly disappeared. I would have been mightly pissed if my Flickr pic had been associated with that account. But, I guess I have no choice but to switch.

Update: Thomas Hawk is not happy about the switch and summarises what other people are saying.

Comments

[Alison]

When Flickr was first sold to Yahoo!, it was categorically stated (in response to criticism), that there would be no Yahoo! lock in. It was just a matter of time ...

[goddert]

If you had read the first lines of YOUR reference link you would know a change of your Y! ID don't and neither didn't make vanish your fotos.

"Will I be able to switch Y! IDs associated with my Flickr account?
"Yes. We're building that tool. I don' thave an eta, but sooner rather than later."

In the meantime, as you can read also in the thread, they do it on request.

I'm also not very happy about this switch, but neither doesn't it help to spread FUD.

[Robert Gale]

They may be building that tool but what if I had switched accounts a couple of months back when I lost my account? The facility wouldn't have been there to switch accounts. Plus if I switched today and lost my account tomorrow, I'd be stuffed.