Flickr Backpedals, Gives All Pro Users the Chance to Renew and Keep Their Benefits

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Flickr’s recent transition to a “spectacular” new design and account structure has been anything but “spectacular” thus far. While some photographers have come out in support of the new design, reaction from the photographic community seems to be more negative than positive.

The new design was accused of being tailored towards the Facebook/Instagram/Twitter crowd and not photographers, Marissa Mayer made the statement that because of the prevalence of cameras there’s not such thing as a professional photographer anymore, and it looked like certain Flickr Pro users would be “screwed” out of their Pro accounts … We’re guessing it’s been a rough few days at the Yahoo! offices.

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Fortunately, it looks like Flickr is backtracking on at least one of those counts. No, the Yahoo! CEO hasn’t come out and apologized to the professional photographer community (yet) [Update: Mayer has apologized through her Twitter account for her “misstatement”]; the Flickr Pro stipulations have changed to allow all current Flickr Pro users the chance to renew and keep their Pro benefits as long as they would like.

According to Flickr’s new FAQ page, eligible Pro users have three options: recurring users can continue renewing at the current price, non-recurring users can transition to a recurring Pro membership, and both recurring and non-recurring members have the chance to transition to the company’s new Free account and receive a prorated refund for the months they have left on their membership:

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Don’t let that “eligible” word scare you either. It’s no longer the case that you need to have had a recurring membership in January of 2013; as long as you were a Pro member at midnight GMT on May 20, 2013, you’re considered eligible to transition to a recurring membership and keep all your benefits.

It’s a small consolation to the photographers who aren’t thrilled with the new layout changes, but those who had no issues with the redesign and simply wanted the chance to keep their unlimited storage and $25.00 per year bill (e.g. Thomas Hawk) can breathe a sigh of relief.

To find out more about the new system and decide on the best option for you, check out Flickr’s FAQ page for more info, or head over to your account order page to renew or get your refund before your Pro account expires.

(via Engadget)

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