There ’s an old Firesign Theater sketch call “ Temporarily Humboldt County . ” Some Native Americans are sitting around enjoy nature when the Spanish conquistador show up with a priest . The conquistadors claim the land for Spain and Father Corona bestow , “ Oh ! By the way , Domini Domini Domini , you ’re all Catholics now . ”
I was remind of this study on Tuesday when Flickr decided I was a Christian .
Since Tuesday , if you visit any Flickr member ’s picture with a modern browser app , you ’ll see three small snowflakes beside the Flickr logotype . Click them and you ’ll be address to a cascade of snowflakes over the page and all its picture , as well as a row of wink Christmas light at the top of the Thomas Nelson Page . For an added treat , you may roll over the lights with your mouse and they ’ll down , utter with sound effects . Click the little “ [ x ] ” beside the logotype and it all start away … at least until the next page load when the three slight snowflakes show up again .
It ’s a cute niggling diversion , create without Flash , which is pretty clever . Flickr engineerScott Schillerevenrecorded the sound recording himself . This is obviously apet projectfor him .
Flickr is the community website that ’s faithful to my heart . The site ’s founders are friend of mine and my wife worked there for 5 old age . But more of import than that , it ’s a community that I bonk . I ’ve spent years uploading GiB of pic there , andmy photostreamhas become a practical home for me .
So it ’s straiten when someone puts Christmas brightness level on my virtual home . I ’m not a Christian . I do n’t manage how profane the vacation is now . I recognize about the holiday ’s Pagan root . None of that matters . The fact is , Christmas lights on a dwelling are a signifier that the occupier is a Christian , the same way amezuzahis a signifier of a Judaic resident . These symbols have world power , which is why we use them .
It ’s not just that Flickr is asperse Christmas “ cheer ” all over itself . As a non - Christian in a Christian country , I ’m grudgingly used to that . ( Though it would be nice if clicking that “ [ x ] ” set a biscuit that prevent it from lade on the next pageview . ) It ’s that my Flickr stream is my personal identity in the Flickr community . That ’s my boldness there at the top . Flickr has added a Christian signifier to my virtual base and I have no style to remove it . In the eye of the rest of the community of interests , Flickr has turn me into a Christian .
I ’m aware that Flickr has done other Christmassy thing in the past tense . For a while , you could add a string to a universal resource locator to make it C. P. Snow . Other years , if you put a preeminence on a photo with a special set phrase ( “ ho ho ho hat ” ) , a Santa hat would come out . But these were all hush-hush easter ball . ( Easter ! We ca n’t even babble out about this without more Christian holidays coming up . ) And in the display case of the preeminence , I could easily absent them and controller who has the major power to leave notes on my photograph . But this yr ’s festivity are unavoidable . Do n’t wish the Christmas lights on your practical home ? Too forged .
When you start a practical community , you ’re build up for yourself . you may safely bear that most of the residential area is like you . But as it grows , the community becomes more various . If you ’re super lucky , some of your phallus will put themselves so much , they ’ll come to take in the land site as a sort of home . ( This , by the way , is the success case . It ’s what you plan for . )
Flickr is now a truly globular residential area . I ’m sure that a huge percentage of their members do n’t celebrate Christmas . Heck , half the man is in summer right now , so I ’m not sure what they make of the snowflakes . Flickr should know this undecomposed than anyone .
The decision to put Christmas lights on all of their members ’ practical homes exhibit a profound deficiency of understanding for who their users are and what those symbol have in mind . It ’s the kind of decision you make when you ’re so enamored of a technology you bury to call back through the societal implication of what it ’ll do to the literal people who love your site – real people who are not exactly like you . cause your members feel unwelcome in their own homes is the first footmark in the declivity of a community of interests .
The lights and snowflakes will go aside after Christmas , but I ’ll still be unbelievably disappointed in one of my all - time favorite sites .
Derek Powazekhas been designing and building residential district systems online since 1995 . He is the author of Design for residential area : The Art of colligate Real masses in Virtual Places , the cofounder of JPG Magazine , editor program ofFray , and the founder / CEO ofFertile Medium , an online community consultancy . He only pick apart because he worry .
Christmas
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