The Flickr folks just released their video sharing service with plenty of negative feedback from the vocal (extremist?) Flickr users. These vocal Flickr users want Flickr to stay “Photography only” and I think they are full of (sh)it.

Two of the key anti Flickr Video arguments are (and my counter argument follows):

• Flickr is for photography only. (Me: Flickr over the years been allowing illustration upload. Those aren’t photos. Flickr, as a tool, actually started out as a part of MMORPG which later turn into a chatroom, then the current format. So a “photo site” is actually an after thought)
• Flickr will turn into YouTube. (Me: No, it will not. We have Vimeo for that role, or try to anyway.)

Initially, I feel a little unsure on how Flickr will implement their video user interface, and I am glad to report their video UI is so underwhelm that it should work for both video and non-video users.

In my Flickr contacts, I’ve already start seeing amazing creatives video content from many. In fact some of them are just “strangers” that I so happen to like their pictures over the years. It’s actually very interesting suddenly start seeing their pictures  “come alive”.

Finally, it’s actually sadden me to see the “creative types” on Flickr can be so conservative and close minded on what Flickr is, should, or can be. Shouldn’t the creative type usually the most opened minded to change and new ways of doing things?