Flickr groups let Flickr members come together around some common interest and share photos (and video) as well as interact with a discussion board.

There are three types of groups on Flickr:

You can search for any public group, but can only join the public groups—unless you have an invitation to a public (invitation only) group. Private groups are not searchable, and you need an invitation to join.

Why join a group? You can often view photos in a group—called the photo pool of the group—without being a member. But membership has its privileges. For example, you can only post photos to the group pool if you’re a member.

We’ll start by taking a look at how to find groups you might be interested in on Flickr.

Let’s say you have a special interest in a particular topic and want to track down photos in that topic—perhaps even discuss that topic with other people. You can do so in Flickr with groups.

For example, suppose you’ve just returned from your vacation to Hawaii and want to see if there are any groups on Hawaii. How can you do that?

You can start on your Flick home page at Flickr.com. After you’ve logged in (not necessary if Flickr has already logged you in), you’ll see a link under the Flickr name that says Groups. Click it to open your Groups page, as shown in Figure 5.1.

Figure 5.1. Your Groups page.

Note the sections in this page. There’s a general welcome message, and underneath that, a link to the (short) Group FAQ.

On the right, you can see a search box that lets you search through the existing groups. Underneath that is a link to creating your own group.

At the bottom on the right is a small section, Groups We’ve Noticed, that the Flickr staff puts up to publicize groups it has noticed and wants to bring to people’s attention. Each group has a group photo, some information about the number of people in the group and the number of items in the group pool, and a text description of the group. To see the group’s page, click the group photo.

Let’s search for groups having to do with Hawaii. Enter the term Hawaii into the search box and click the Search button. Doing so brings up the page shown in Figure 5.2.

Figure 5.2. Groups search results.

Did we find any groups having to do with Hawaii? Well, yes—as you can see in Figure 5.2, Flickr says, “We found 3,875 groups about Hawaii.” Not a bad haul.

Note that the search box has sprouted new options here. Using the drop-down list next to the search box, you can now search among

So now you have the option of searching among the groups you’re a member of as well as searching all groups.

You can also specify where to search for search terms using the radio buttons under the search box:

You can also select how to view the search results; for example, by

Let’s take a look at one of the groups we’ve found—the Hawaii group. (The name seems promising when you’re looking for groups about Hawaii.)

Clicking the Hawaii group in the search results opens that group’s page, as shown in Figure 5.3.

Figure 5.3. A Flickr group.

Each Flickr group is “based” on its group page, such as the Hawaii group’s page in Figure 5.3.

Note the links under the group name, giving you access to the most common features of the group:

You can see an abbreviated version of the group pool on the group page, as shown in Figure 5.3. To see more thumbnails from the group pool, click the Group Pool link. To see the full photo, click the photo’s thumbnail.

To see the current discussions on the discussion board, click the Discussion link, opening the page you see in Figure 5.4.

Figure 5.4. A Flickr group’s discussion group.

You can see the various discussion threads in Figure 5.4. To read a thread, click it, opening the thread’s page, as shown in Figure 5.5.

Figure 5.5. A Flickr group’s discussion thread.

Want to post to the discussion? Only members can post—and we’ll join in a couple of pages.

You might also take a look at the map, by clicking the Map link, which brings up the page you see in Figure 5.6.

Figure 5.6. A Flickr group’s map.

Flickr takes a random sample of the geotagged photos in the group and displays their location on a map (see Figure 5.6). As you can see, all the photos come from Hawaii—no surprise there.

Want to join this group, which will let you submit photos to the pool and join in the discussions? That’s coming up next.

To join a group, go to the group’s page and click the Join This Group link, opening a page like the one you see in Figure 5.7.

Figure 5.7. Joining a group.

To join, click the Join This Group button. That’s all it takes to join a group that’s public and doesn’t need an invitation.

How do you know you’ve actually joined? Go to your Groups page (that is, go to your Flickr home page and click the Groups link) to see the new group listed there, as you see in Figure 5.8.

Figure 5.8. A new group in your Groups list.

In addition, on the group’s page, you’ll find the Join This Group link has become an Invite Friends link.

Okay, now that you’ve joined a group, how about posting some photos to the group?

Want to share a photo in a group’s pool? Follow these steps:

The photo now appears in the group’s photo pool, as you see in Figure 5.10. (You can see the thumbnail at the upper left in the group pool.)

Figure 5.10. A photo shared with a group.

Want to remove a photo from a group? After you’ve added a photo to a group, the name of that group will appear at the right on the photo’s page—along with an X after the group name. To remove the photo from the group, just click the X.

You might also be interested to know there’s a limit to the number of groups you can add a particular photo to. If you have a free account, you can add a photo to up to 10 groups. If you have a Pro account, you can add a photo to up to 60 groups.

What if you’ve posted the photo to the limit of groups you’re allowed? There’s no way around it but to remove the photo from one of the groups you’ve already posted it to.

Now that you’ve become a member of a group, you can participate in the group’s discussions.

To add a comment to a thread, follow these steps:

If everything worked as it should, your reply will appear at the bottom of the list of replies (see Figure 5.11).

Figure 5.11. A reply to a thread in a discussion.

Sometimes nothing but creating your own group will do. You might find to your surprise that there’s no group focused on ostrich beaks or stingray tails and decide that it’s time to create one.

Creating a group isn’t hard, although you should take the responsibilities of group administration seriously. There are thousands of Flickr groups, and because the administrators lost interest, many are more or less dead. As your new groups’ creator, you’re its first administrator.

In this example, we’ll create a public group for vacation photos, named Wish You Were Here - Vacation Photos.

To create a new Flickr group, follow these steps:

Your new group has been created. Congratulations!

Customizing Your Group Icon

The page you see in Figure 5.16 lets you continue the set up of your group, and it lets you administer your group. (You can always reach the group’s administration page by opening the group page and clicking the Administration link, which will be visible because you’re an administrator.)

Note in particular the middle column in Figure 5.16, which lets you customize the following:

• Group Icon

• Flickr Web Address

• Name/URL/Description

• Keywords

• 18+ Info

Let’s customize a few aspects of our group now, starting with the group icon. To set the group’s icon, follow these steps:

1. Click the Your Group Icon link in your group’s administration page.
2. In the page that opens, click the link that describes where your group’s icon will come from:

   • In Your Photostream

   • On Your Computer

   • On the Web

   In this example, we’ll fetch an icon from our photostream, so click that link.

3. The next page displays your photostream. Click the photo you want to make into the group icon.
4. In the next page, click the Make the Icon button.

Now when you open your group’s page (go to your Flickr home page, click Groups, and click the group name you want to open), you’ll see the group’s icon, as shown in Figure 5.17.

Figure 5.17. The new group’s page.

Okay, let’s see about customizing the group’s keywords.

When you create a group, you’re the group’s first administrator. Admins have just about unlimited power in a group. According to Flickr, admins can

• Modify information about the group

• Create or change the group name

• Create or change the group description

• Associate the group with an external URL

• Create a personalized URL for the group (like your photostream, this URL can only be set once so choose wisely)

• Determine whether your group topics or pool can be viewed by nonmembers

• Create a group icon

• Determine group moderation rules:

You can administer the content of your group by deleting photos or discussion items. Just click the Delete link you’ll see (as an admin or a moderator) next to those items.

As the group’s admin, you can also make others into admins or moderators. We’ll take a look at that now.

This lesson covered Flickr groups. You saw how to search for groups and how to join them. You learned how to submit photos to the group pool and engage in discussions. In the second half of this lesson, you saw how to create your own group and how to customize it. You also learned how to administer your new group.