Faded Boxers

Before I jumped on the blogging bandwagon, I tried my hand at photoblogging. I got me a Phlog account and became addicted to having my own cyber real estate.

Obviously the next logical progression was to become a full fledged blogger. And with that transition, my phlog pictures have been relegated to the role of being something that purdies up my sidebar with a random pic from my archives.

Unfortunately, the Phlog badge that appears on the sidebar isn’t compatible with Internet Explorer. The png file of the Phlog logo has some transparency issues with IE, and thus looks like shit.

Still, I decided to stick with Phlog even though everybody and their grandmother have all jumped on the Flickr bandwagon. The reason was because it would be a bitch migrating all my phlog pics to flickr. There are some memorable shots I have there that I wouldn’t want to lose.

However, with the migration of this blog to its current host, and its inevitable redesign, I decided to give Flickr a try. It’s been a few days since I started populating my Flickr account and already I’m noticing a few improvements over Phlog, as well as some things that I miss.

Photo Limit
Both services offer free and paid accounts, and they don’t have a limit of maximum photos you can upload. The difference lies in bandwidth allocation.

Flickr has a 20 MB upload limit. Meaning you can only upload 20 MB worth of pictures per calendar month. Phlog has no such limit, but I don’t think anybody has even come close to uploading 20 MB to Phlog because of its relaitvely primitive upload system (more on that later).

Also, Flickr can only display your latest 200 photos. While the older ones are said to still reside on the server, they are simply not seen on your Flickr page or photo stream.

I have mentioned that I now primarily use my photo blog services to flash a random photo on the sidebar to break the monotony. While I’m not that dead set on sharing all my photos to the public, it still makes me feel better to be sure that every one of the photos I’ve taken is given an equal chance of being flashed on the sidebar.

I’m still not sure if Flickr includes my older photos in my Flickr badge. I’m surprised that I haven’t found anything about this yet considering I have made no effort to find out.

Upload System
Hands down, Flickr’s upload system is heads and knees above Phlog. You can upload pictures via email, or through their upload form, or you can use their upload tool which allows you to upload pictures by bulk.

Phlog only employs two upload methods: you can either use email your pics to your phlog account, or you can use their upload form which looks like a webmail interface. Both systems work perfectly enough, but the single flaw that bugs me is that you can’t upload pictures by bulk.

This holds both the problem and appeal that Phlog has. Obviously, users opting for convenience would prefer to be able to upload pictures by bulk. This is why Flickr is so popular. However, being forced to upload pictures one by one encourages users to place captions for each picture, thereby giving Phlog a much more welcoming, warm atmosphere I think.

Organizing Photos
Both services make the use of tags and albums (Flickr calls them photo sets). However, only Flickr sets the number of photo sets you can create for your free account. You can only create up to three, any more than that and you need to upgrade to a Pro Account. As far as I know, Phlog has no such limits.

Longevity
At the start, Phlog was created by Alan. Since he started it, the service was bought from him by a company called 20six. Unfortunately, some sad developments are threatening Phlog’s future. Still, Alan is optimistic that Phlog’s future may be secured if it goes opensource.

There are other nuances and details that each service possess that is different from the other, but these are the ones that has a significant effect on my blogging. Sentimentality dictates that I don’t leave Phlog, and I hadn’t planned on it if not for the reasons stated above. But given its uncertain future, I’m afraid I’m going to have to start backing up my pictures on Flickr from now on. Once my monthly upload limit resets itself. And even if I can’t see all my pictures on my Flickr page.