Dear Flickr,
I have been using your service since you were in Beta. In fact, I bought a Pro account even when you were in Beta. That was how much I liked your service. It is nice to have been in the early community that made Flickr so vibrant and exciting.
Then you got acquired by Yahoo. Fine. Good for you.
Now you are forcing me merge my Flickr account with my Yahoo account, which absolutely sucks. Now I may have to create a new Yahoo account which I don't use for email and such, just to continue using Flickr. And no, I do not like to merge my Yahoo account with my Flickr account. Call me old-fashioned but I just like to keep these two things separate.
I just renewed my Pro account a few days ago and then I get this email from you telling me to Flick Off. Merge it or lose it. Take it or leave it.
In your email, you say "if you're reading this, you've been around for a while and that means a lot to us".
I just don't feel the love at this time, man.
Yours unhappily, a Beta Old Skool Account-Holding Flickr Member,
mrbrown
Dear Old Skool Account-Holding Flickr Member,
On March 15th we'll be discontinuing the old email-based Flickr sign in system. From that point on, everyone will have to use a Yahoo! ID to sign in to Flickr.
We're making this change now to simplify the sign in process in advance of several large projects launching this year, but some Flickr features and tools already require Yahoo! IDs for sign in -- like the mobile site at m.flickr.com or the new Yahoo! Go program for mobiles, available at: http://go.yahoo.com.
95% of your fellow Flickrites already use this system and their experience is just the same as yours is now, except they sign in on a different page. It's easy to switch: it takes about a minute if you already have a Yahoo! ID and about five minutes if you don't.
You can make the switch at any time in the next few months, from today till the 15th. (After that day, you'll be required to merge before you continue using your account.)
To switch, start at this page:
http://flickr.com/account/associate/
Nothing else on your account or experience of Flickr changes: you can continue to have your FlickrMail and notifications sent to any email address at any domain and your screenname will remain the same.
Complete details and answers to most common questions are available here:
http://flickr.com/help/signin/
Thanks for your patience and understanding - and even bigger thanks for your continued support of Flickr: if you're reading this, you've been around for a while and that means a lot to us!
Warmest regards,
- The Flickreenos
