You Can’t Make Greed Look Pretty – The Flickr Bump Row Continues

There are a number of traits I find particularly unattractive and greed is right up there at the top of the list. It manifests itself in a number of ways within Second Life like clubs that ‘game’ traffic by using bots and alts to stores who put the most popular colours of an item unavailable to buy individually to force you to buy the fatpack (I don’t think that’s clever marketing that smacks of greed in my opinion).

There has been much talk this week on the subject of Flickr bumping. This is the process of changing the date and time on an already posted picture so it reappears at the top of your followers feeds. It’s a complex argument and as with all debates there are two sides to every story. I know a lot of bloggers use flickr as photo storage and therefore have to post the picture on flickr before writing their blog and preparing the credits. Many of these bloggers go back and put in the link to the credits and at that point they ‘bump’ the post. I have absolutely no issue with this at all. It’s sensible and a good reason for bumping.

Some bloggers bump for timezones. I usually post my pictures around midday GMT that’s between 4am and 7am in the USA. Many flickrites choose to ‘bump’ later in the day to gain more even coverage for their post in the US timezone. Again, seems quite sensible and reasonable to me.

What I find unreasonable is when someone bumps a picture several times a day or week to force it back into my feed, especially when the picture already has over 200 favourites.  I follow over 2000 people on flickr. I try to go through my feed often to appreciate and support other people’s work but bumpers who are greedy for attention, views and faves are becoming more and more responsible for missing some great work from other people who are just as deserving of the attention. Of course, I have the choice to unfollow them and I do because as I said, I find greed unpalatable and unnecessary.

I understand the argument that as a blogger you have a responsibility to try and get the most coverage for the brands you blog for. I myself take this very seriously and do my best to garner as many views and favourites and shares and likes as I can without resorting to bumping. But, here’s a flip side to that argument. As a blogger I also believe I have a responsibility to represent the stores I blog for professionally and ethically and to not bring their brand into any kind of disrepute. If you are continually bumping the same picture over and over again and generally ‘pissing off’ a large part of the Flickr community you are NOT representing your brands well…quite the opposite. Not all publicity is good publicity regardless of what the cliche says.

Also if you’re ‘gaming’ flickr faves by putting them in groups with no connection to SL at all…guess what, you’re still not doing yourself or the brand any favours. Yes our supporters want to see their product well photographed and appreciated in the form of views and favourites but if they all come from people that are never going to even log into SL, let alone buy the stores products, then you’re behaving as a fraud.

So in summary, some moderate bumping is acceptable and even necessary in some situations and while I have never done it I don’t see that as an issue. Bumping several times a day or week when you already have a high number of faves and views is irritating, annoying and will get you unfollowed quick smart whoever you are. And, in a an area where we are a marketing tool for the creators we blog for and should be doing our best to build desire for their products via our art remember that you can’t make greed look pretty.

Credits:

Body – Maitreya Lara

Head – Catwa – Jessica

Skin – The Skinnery Maitreya applier and Estee Catwa Head Applier

Eyes – IKON – Sovereign Eyes

Ears – Mandala – Steking Ears

Hair – Exile – Dolly

Tattoo – White Widow – Charade RARE **NEW** at The Epiphany Gacha Opens 12th April

Outfit – United Colors – Floral Corset & Skirt **NEW** at The Liaison Collaborative

Shoes – fri.day – Honey Platforms **NEW** at C88

Head Accessory – Lode – Apple Blossoms **NEW** at Chapter Four

Pose – Shi.s – Butterfly Dance

Location – The Trace Too