[Closed] Flickr does not delete your photo's when asked.

What's your point caller?

It takes flickr a short while to delete the actual link as they need to clear their server and this can take up to a day sometimes. I thought you built websites for a living and thus should know about stuff like this..?

There was a picture on Flickr I didn't want. Deleted it and it's been hanging around for days via links on other sites/forums.

I'll carry on using using Zooomr [they do delete]or my own space in future for hosting a few pix.

Facebook Don't.
Not only do they not close accounts when asked, they store all of your photographs on their servers (you can not claim these back) but they also find loopholes in their own T&Cs to sell on private information.

There was a picture on Flickr I didn't want. Deleted it and it's been hanging around for days via links on other sites/forums.

Then post on the help forum and one of the Yahoo administrators will make sure it gets cleared off the server by hand for you.

@Vanilla83

Might do that, but I'm not that worried. It's just worth remembering that Flickr does not delete anything. I sure they have some weaselly little clause in their T&C's saying than can keep and own it.

As Roper says the same applies to Facebook.

"This photo is currently unavailable"

"The photo you were looking for has been deleted."

What was your point again?

Even so, I still see my sunset pic above.

Just tried another browser to see if was in the caches etc. and it loads there as well. Even though Flickr reckons it's deleted.

My point was i don't

[img] [/img]

Thats weird. Mmmm.

I'll try another machine completely clean of flickr etc and see if I get the same as you.

It seems that if the URL of the image is:

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/{whatever}

The image always shows through even when set to private in Flickr

It seems that if the URL of the image is:

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/{whatever}

The image always shows through even when set to private in Flickr

It will, you are bypassing flickr security by doing that, hence why flickr strongly suggests you dont not direct link images and link to the page using the HTML code thing.

As for the not deleting, i think you'll find thats cookies storing the image for you. Clear your cache and it'll work.

It seems that if the URL of the image is:

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/{whatever}

The image always shows through even when set to private in Flickr

Yes, if you use the static url in a forum somewhere it will display that photo even if it is set to private.

But if the photo is set to private then nobody can discover the URL apart from yourself and if you change a photo from public to private the static url changes so if someone else had used the link on a forum for example, it would break when you changed the photo to private.

i can see the first sunset pic

Thanks Rocket.

I thought I was going mad. Or defo barking up the wrong tree.

Anyone else see the sunset ?
>

@ebygomm
In the piccy at the top I used the Flickr BBcode maker. I'll set future images to private as you say.

I can still see the sunset. My guess is it takes a while for everything to be deleted off their servers. Dynamic content (like the photo page) should be quick to update, static stuff (i.e. the actual images) probably hang around for a while until they're cleaned off all of Flickr's servers and caches, wouldn't be surprised if it took a few days.

That doesn't explain why I get the "Photo not available" message. That you can 'still' see the sunset suggests you saw it before it was deleted so stored on a cache somewhere, no?

Are you going through a Proxy server to connect to the web? If so, clear that cache as well and it should be gone...

@ebygomm Could one of Flickr's caches... they've got over 5bn photos so god knows how many servers they have, and some will be updated faster than others.

Still see the sunset in the first post and direct link 5 posts up, halfway down the page is a dead link.
Only just looked at the thread so not in my cache, must be slow to purge the actual image from the servers.

Try replacing the image with another on the same URL, I'm sure there is a link down the right hand side for this.

I see it! 😛

I wager this image will be around for ages, if not forever.
Lets see if Flickr ever dump their caches.

<

No images here.

Try CTRL-F5 and see if it's still there - could just be in local cache.

@wwaswas and all.

Who sees the Sunset picture at the end of this link ?

<

I still do, after clearing cache and refreshing.

yes I do, and the one in the first post on this thread.

Flickr uses some seriously long cache times in it's header so that every cache on the internet helps save re-serving the image with the associated bandwidth usage:

$ curl -i>

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Date: Mon, 17 Jan 2011 11:46:27 GMT
Content-Type: image/jpeg
Connection: keep-alive
Server: Apache/2.0.52 (Red Hat)
Cache-Control: max-age=315360000
[b]Expires: Mon, 28 Jul 2014 23:30:00 GMT[/b]
Last-Modified: Wed, 15 Dec 2010 19:22:41 GMT
Accept-Ranges: bytes
Content-Length: 163644
Age: 76690
X-Cache: HIT from photocache617.flickr.bf1.yahoo.com
X-Cache-Lookup: HIT from photocache617.flickr.bf1.yahoo.com:81
Via: 1.1 photocache617.flickr.bf1.yahoo.com:81 (squid/2.7.STABLE7)

The only likely way this photograph will be removed from caches is that it drops to being barely requested and gets squeezed out by other more popular content.

This is not unusual, Flickr have a need to reduce load on their servers, and you ISP has a desire to cache as much as possible to make your connection seem super fast.

still get unavailable on that link...

I think Dougal has nailed it.

...although now that it's had a thousand links from this thread, it'll stay around for ages 🙂

I'm not planing to use Flickr any more until I know Deleted means Deleted.

🙁 Spose we'll have to endure the Sunset Pic until...
Expires: Mon, 28 Jul 2014 23:30:00 GMT

So what's this dodgy pic you want removed? 😉

Did you try changing the pic? surely that would update the image in the caches.

The pictue is not dodgy at all. Just don't need to be on there anymore so it's not a real problem. The thing that niggles me is that it's NOT being deleted when I want it to. I don't trust any outfit that hangs on to your pix/data but claims to have deleted it.

My choice is not to use Flickr anymore and that's mine alone. But it's worth pointing out this oddity IMO.

As for changing a picture in Flickr. For the record and I just tried it with another picture. Yes it does change it, but the Flickr Farm url changes. The old image before change also still exists. As with all Content Delivery Networks it will eventually be written over....probably in 2014 😉 Mayby.

Looks like I'm not the only one 🙂

http://www.flickr.com/help/forum/en-us/72157625842691226/

Isn't it being cached by ISPs? If anyone on, say, BT Broadband looks at it, it'll be cached on BT's servers - if anyone else on BT visits that URL, they'll see the BT cache. So not really anything to do with Flickr.

I can't see the Sunset pic either. I get the same message as eybygomm.

You've tried different browsers but it could still be cached by a proxy (either locally or at you ISP for instance).
Such is the way of the internets.

Just ran it through American Proxy:

http://www.webdico.com/blue/browse.php?u=Oi8vd3d3LnNpbmdsZXRyYWNrd29ybGQuY29tL2ZvcnVtL3RvcGljL2ZsaWNrci1kb2VzLW5vdC1kZWxldGUteW91ci1waG90b3Mtd2hlbi1hc2tlZA%3D%3D&b=5#post-2190352

Still there 🙂 Damn Dirty Interweb.

It's gone!