What's a good, free, simple-to-use photo sharing website?
July 9, 2010 4:55 PM Subscribe
What's a good, free, simple-to-use photo sharing website?
I'm a member of a co-op preschool. The parents take photos on field trips and in the classroom, which we then want to share with each other.
Currently we have a Snapfish account and people are asked to upload their photos to it; we all have the login information. This keeps all the photos in one place, but... well, it's Snapfish. If someone uploads a photo of my kid, I can't download a copy for myself without paying for it.
What would be better? I like Flickr, personally, but the preschool doesn't want to pay for a Pro account ($25 is significant to us) and the free Flickr account would soon fill up.
Some of our members aren't comfortable with computers and some don't speak English as their main language, so easy-to-use is vital.
I'm a member of a co-op preschool. The parents take photos on field trips and in the classroom, which we then want to share with each other.
Currently we have a Snapfish account and people are asked to upload their photos to it; we all have the login information. This keeps all the photos in one place, but... well, it's Snapfish. If someone uploads a photo of my kid, I can't download a copy for myself without paying for it.
What would be better? I like Flickr, personally, but the preschool doesn't want to pay for a Pro account ($25 is significant to us) and the free Flickr account would soon fill up.
Some of our members aren't comfortable with computers and some don't speak English as their main language, so easy-to-use is vital.
Response by poster: Doing it as a pool is an interesting idea, Admiral Haddock. The problem is that we want to not only use the photos each school year, but also archive them.
posted by The corpse in the library at 5:21 PM on July 9, 2010
posted by The corpse in the library at 5:21 PM on July 9, 2010
Can't get any easier than Flickr. If the preschool can't pay the $25 a year, could each parent chip in a buck or two? Maybe approach a local business and ask them to sponsor the Flickr Program, they could pay a couple of years in advance and give them recognition in your Flickr profile, school website, etc.
posted by Gerard Sorme at 6:33 PM on July 9, 2010
posted by Gerard Sorme at 6:33 PM on July 9, 2010
This post should have been answered as followed;
First person: Flickr
everybody else: .
posted by QueerAngel28 at 7:01 PM on July 9, 2010
First person: Flickr
everybody else: .
posted by QueerAngel28 at 7:01 PM on July 9, 2010
Flickr is, sad to say, far too advanced and confusing for inexperienced users like the ones you describe. Asking them to each set up their own Flickr account will likely constitute a deal-breaker for many of them.
How about a Yahoo! group? The last time I set one up (years ago) it was free, had a file upload area where you could share pics, and better yet allowed people to send one email with all the attached pics and have it go to everyone.
(I'm assuming they are accustomed to sending emails with pictures as attachment - most people who have digital cameras are familiar with this procedure.)
posted by ErikaB at 7:30 PM on July 9, 2010
How about a Yahoo! group? The last time I set one up (years ago) it was free, had a file upload area where you could share pics, and better yet allowed people to send one email with all the attached pics and have it go to everyone.
(I'm assuming they are accustomed to sending emails with pictures as attachment - most people who have digital cameras are familiar with this procedure.)
posted by ErikaB at 7:30 PM on July 9, 2010
Flickr has the Flickr for Good program, it would be worth checking if your school qualifies.
I would be careful relying on the cloud (flickr, dropbox, picasa, etc) as your only archive. They are great as a sharing and backup tool but many accounts have been deleted for unexpected or even no reason, causing the account holder to loose everything there.
posted by cftarnas at 10:35 PM on July 9, 2010
I would be careful relying on the cloud (flickr, dropbox, picasa, etc) as your only archive. They are great as a sharing and backup tool but many accounts have been deleted for unexpected or even no reason, causing the account holder to loose everything there.
posted by cftarnas at 10:35 PM on July 9, 2010
Flickr is, sad to say, far too advanced and confusing for inexperienced users like the ones you describe. Asking them to each set up their own Flickr account will likely constitute a deal-breaker for many of them.
We can send each child home with an in-house video tutorial showing them exactly how.
And include vlc.exe in case there are any questions about format.
The Flickr Pool REALLY is the perfect answer.
posted by will wait 4 tanjents at 11:22 PM on July 9, 2010
As far as archiving, I came across a free utility for archiving flickr as well as other social sites.
They are out there.
posted by will wait 4 tanjents at 11:24 PM on July 9, 2010
They are out there.
posted by will wait 4 tanjents at 11:24 PM on July 9, 2010
Flickr is the best. Their new printing options are great.
posted by ColdChef at 8:25 AM on July 10, 2010
posted by ColdChef at 8:25 AM on July 10, 2010
Forget Flickr. Nowhere near as userfriendly as Picasaweb. The bonus is that it integrates very well with the free Google Picasa which in turn has some decent, easy to use photo management options including face recognition and automatic syncing of photos in a local album on your PC to the web. Syncs comments too.
posted by cyniczny at 8:49 AM on July 10, 2010
posted by cyniczny at 8:49 AM on July 10, 2010
live.com offers 25Gb free storage now, I don't really use it for photos but it seems simple enough for document sharing.
posted by jacalata at 1:11 AM on July 11, 2010
posted by jacalata at 1:11 AM on July 11, 2010
Response by poster: A generous Mefite offered to pay for us to get a Flickr Pro account, so we're going to try that out for one year and see how it goes. Thanks for all the suggestions!
posted by The corpse in the library at 11:51 AM on July 16, 2010
posted by The corpse in the library at 11:51 AM on July 16, 2010
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by Admiral Haddock at 5:10 PM on July 9, 2010