Flickr has long been the bastion of photo sharing on the net, but truly it’s like a bastard stepchild for Yahoo. They’ve no idea what to do with it, and nothing they do try makes it better. Quite the opposite is often the case. There are a few new contenders to throne and one of them is 500px. I’m not a bandwagon kind of guy. A lot of my photographers friends often jump on each new thing, but to be honest, I already have enough to do without adding another site to my list of things to maintain online. I let my Flickr Pro go this year and I suspect I’ll be letting it linger.
So after a while of leaving the bandwagon to settle, I’ve taken a closer look at 500px. To me it seems like a mix of Flickr and perhaps 1x.com, but without the secret handshake mysterious deciders of your fate. The photo interaction is community geared, but without the discussion groups. There are blogs however which are interesting in this concept, but I’m not sure that they foster community so much.
So I’ve joined and uploaded my weekly quota of 20 photos as a free user for now. Whether or not I decide to be ‘Awesome’ (or is that too tacky?) remains to be seen.
2 Comments
Hey, long time listener – first time caller, loving your blog.
True what you say about the mix between flickr and 1x.com. The similarity between 1x and 500px.com is extremely close. Even in terms of design and UI they are very similar – somebody was definitely looking at someone else for inspiration…… I think 500px has been around for a long time – 8 years or so in development, not just a new venture at all. Has 1x.com been around longer ?
-Daire
Probably not that long, but long enough to be established. I’m quite liking 500px these days, it has to be said.