Tag: Flickr

Nasty Flickr messages

Well, that was disturbing. I got a notification that someone sent me a note on Flickr, and I had four messages from four different users:

  • Why did you post pornographic images on my photo?.
  • I Don’t get the mail you just sent me, are you trying to call me a pedophile?.
  • Do that again and i will call the cops..
  • You have been reported to flickr..

Needless to say, I was more than a little freaked. And when I tried to reply to any of them, it said my account had been blocked.

I did a bit of research, and apparently this is a widespread and growing problem with Flickr. The accounts are legitimate, but the owners are not aware that their accounts are being used. They have somehow given up their Yahoo! IDs and passwords to some sort of phishing expedition, likely an offer of a photo award. There’s a detailed explanation on Flickr, which has really done very little to settle the curdled feeling in my stomach.

I can’t help but wonder if it’s coincidence that I got these messages mere days after joining a discussion group attached to the photo pool I told you about, where images of kids are being “stolen” from Flickr to create fake profiles on Orkut.

Sigh.

Just wanted to tell you about it in case it happens to you.

This would be a bullety post if I weren’t so infernally verbose

Have you noticed that my posts are getting longer, and longer, and longer? I mean, they’re barely posts anymore, they’re friggin’ chapters… and there’s no sign of relief today, either.

First, something rather disturbing. Through Babes in Blogland, I came across this story about how some users of Orkut (a social networking site similar to Facebook or MySpace, but owned by Google) are “stealing” images of kids from Flickr to create fake user profiles. You can read about it on SaraSmiles’ Flickr account (over 1200 comments in three days… at least people are paying attention!) While I find this distasteful and kinda gross, I’m not going to be pulling my photos off of Flickr anytime soon. I will be following the story, though, and I thought you might like to know about this, too.

On a lighter note, I have to tell you that I scored a victory for slacker snack moms everywhere last week. We had “meet the teacher” night at Tristan’s school, and all the junior and senior kindergarten parents were brought together for an information session. They gave an overview of the curriculum, spoke briefly about some new procedures, and then brought up a few “housekeeping” items. One of them was a plea – really, that’s the right word – from one of the teachers to please, please send simpler snacks for the kids. “When they have three or four items to choose from, they get overwhelmed,” she said. “We really only plan for 15 or 20 minutes at snack time, and we’re only here for a short time. The kids are bringing these multi-course snacks and it takes them half the afternoon just to eat them.” Yes!! Slacker moms unite, we have scored one small victory in our inherent laziness.

And finally, this is way cool. As you know, I’ve long been a huge fan of Cooper and Emily from Been There, and the BlogHers Act initiative, and The Motherhood. Head over to Been There to read about how yesterday, Emily was not only live-blogging the Clinton Global Initiative, but she got to ask a question – to Angelina Jolie!! Click on over to Been There to read Emily’s great question about what mothers can do, and the terrific response she got.

I may be saving the world from overenthusiastic snack moms, but Emily’s content to just save the world. Isn’t she lovely?

Edited to add: Wow, issues with photos are everywhere today. Dutch at Sweet Juniper blogged today about the inappropriate use – okay, theft – of a photo of his daughter by the online magazine Babble, and daysgoby pointed out a a post at Joy Unexpected about how her photo was used to sell a product – without her knowledge or permission. Maybe it’s time to start at least watermarking my photos?