Today I was going to setup the Macworld 2009 Flickr Group for MacworldBound. I had some “issues” with Macworld Magazine’s Flickr group last year. I never published this story but about 2 weeks before Macworld Expo, Macworld Mag posted an article to their website detailing the public Flickr group that you could add photos too if you went to Macworld. The group was called “Macworld Expo – 2008″ but I had created a group over 4 months beforehand called “Macworld Expo 2008″ and this was their way of taking control of the Flickr group and not dealing with some blogger aka me.
I messaged the group’s creator and offered to give them full control of the group I had created and I would relinquish ownership of it but they declined. In the end, their group has 125 members and mine had 66. However, my group had nearly 850 photos and there’s only 650. It looks like my group came out on top in the end without the support of Macworld magazine.
It looks like our little confrontation spurred future planning on the part of Macworld Magazine because they preemptively created Flickr groups for Macworld 2009 all the way through Macworld 2015! Yep, I guess they have the power now. Good for them, I guess. These groups were not meant for me to maintain control over, plug my site or anything else and instead of supporting the community, they chose to maintain control over the process even after I offered to give them full ownership of my group and make myself just a member. That’s how it goes.
I have no problem plugging Macworld Magazine’s Flickr group for the next Macworld and I will not be creating my own Flickr groups from here on but it’s a solid kick in the balls from a magazine and editorial team that I love and respect. It’s too bad Macworld that we couldn’t have a more open communication channel. I spend nearly all year planning and making Macworld Expo easier for attendees. It would be nice if I had a little help with that and wasn’t caught wasting time cleaning up messes and confusion.
Just some links for ya:
Macworld_Mag Flickr Profile.
