A large percentage of bloggers online use Flickr for their image and photography hosting. Flickr is more than just an image host, though. It supports the creation of groups, discussion, comments, and geolocation. While these features build community and comradery, many of them are misused.

All-Out Spam

No doubt, there are spammers that infiltrate and attempt to permeate any website with a medium to low level of traffic. (My site even gets hit pretty hard.) Spammers mass-produce accounts and post links in comments to draw immense amounts of traffic for ads. Firstly, don’t click on ads from websites that get spammed. You’re just giving the spammer more incentive to continue spamming. Secondly, don’t post links that are spammy or even look spammy. If your comment isn’t relevant, don’t post it.

Badges, Awards, and Group Invitation

Just by perusing through the Explore (popular) photos of Flickr, you will find many “Awards.” These usually consist of some awful animated GIF with glitter, sparkles, or seizure-causing color changes. Don’t post these on Flickr photo pages. They’re downright annoying and waste valuable space that could be filled with real content. Group invites should be saved for FlickrMail, the private messaging system on Flickr. Don’t waste my time and spam my photos with group invites that are usually irrelevant and self-promoting.

Self-Promotion

As a photographer, I enjoy admiring others’ works. However, I don’t enjoy having them shoved down my throat by posting high-resolution version in the comments of my photos. If you photo has some relevance to the discussion or to my photo, post a simple link to it. Don’t try to rob even 400+ pixels of vertical space in the comments section with a link to your photo (or photos). This Flickr page clearly shows how annoying all of the previous problems can be.

Notes

I’m under the impression that most Flickr users don’t understand how to use “Flickr Notes” properly. Most use them as a bulletin board to overlay their important irrelevant comments on top of photos. These notes should be used to draw attention to a certain area of the photograph and make a point, such as: suggesting a better crop, suggesting some modifications to be made in a certain area, or generally pointing out something in the photo. Here’s a mild example of note abuse.

To everyone who’s guilty of this: KNOCK IT OFF.