Flickr really is fun

Flickr seemed rather daunting at first, as well as full of possibility. I'm realizing that for each new tool that I learn, I have a slow start, where everything seems very complicated. After playing with the tool for a while, the learning process becomes more enjoyable, because it moves faster, and because the peices start to fit. I like things to fit together, to understand the connections that make the tool work. It's sort of like the multi-tools you see advertised on late-night TV. One tool, many functions. If you have a multi-tool, and only use one function, what's the point? The ability to pull out many different functions is only the intermediate step. The full functionality comes when you can not only use several tools by themselves, but you can use two or more tools toghether for greatly increased functionality.

So in learning Flickr, we start with learning to search for photos using keywords, then view the group photos, then add our own photopage with a lonely single photo. The full functionality will come with sharing my photos with others, and finding the inter-connections with others. It's still daunting, especially with the possibilities for abuse of the tool. The ability to create groups so that privacy issues are less of a concern is one of the best tools that Flickr offers.