I joined Flickr about a month after it launched in 2004. I am such an early user that I actually got my username without having to use the number 8 as a substitute for the letter b in Brown. Since Michael Brown is such a common name, I invariably have to settle for michael8rown as my username because another Michael Brown always beats me to it. But not here. I was the first michaelbrown.

Recently, Flickr's team began emailing me that I was in violation of their free account terms by having more than 50 photos that were not public. This was an intentional decision on my part: none of my photos of people in my life were public. They were only visible to friends and family. The reason I did this is because I was getting tired of deviant Flickr users adding perfectly normal photos of my friends and family to their creepazoid faves. Pictures of my kids' feet, for example. So instead of making any photos of people public to meet Flickr's new free account policy, I decided to remove all of my photos from Flickr. Almost 20 years' worth of photos. Any of my followers who would like the photos of themselves that I took, please reach out to me and I'll hand them over. Meanwhile, later Flickr.