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For some while, I had let my pro account (or membership) of flickr lapse. This was partly due to a lack of taking photos, not having the time to process and upload photos when I did take some, and generally falling out of love with the much lauded "Web 2.0". As a consequence, I couldn't access all of my photos (a fair limit of 200 is applied to those accounts which aren't "pro") and had a limited number of sets.
The main reason for not taking the necessary steps to re-activate my pro account was the need to have a Yahoo account. Many folks complained about it at the time — see here, for example — and, though I wasn't overly-fussed about who owned flickr, I was annoyed about having to sign up to a new identity to access a service I had accessed perfectly easily before for reasons that were nothing to do with me.
I've reflected on why this was the case — surely it was just a case of switching sign-in names and carrying on as usual? In a way, yes. But in another way, no. For, without wanting to be precious about it, I had cultivated (to some extent) an "online presence" that had elements of uniformity and consistency about it. Thus, my del.icio.us account was del.icio.us/rich_w, my flickr account flickr.com/photos/rich_w, my Last.fm account last.fm/user/rich_w and my Technorati account richwatts (these all aside from my gmail address the numerous other logins and memberships I have using either rich_w or richwatts). By having to then create a Yahoo account — a process in which it is notoriously difficult to secure a meaningful username (richwatts2007?) — it felt like I was being forced to dilute my own online presence (even allowing for the fact my flickr URL would remain the same).
Silly, maybe, but that's what it felt like.
I've come to terms with all of this and have now rejoined flickr. Even that process wasn't as easy as you might think: after many attempts to upgrade to a pro account myself, I ended up having to ask a friend to buy me a pro account gift and pay the money to him directly. This, of course, having created a Yahoo account.
Nevertheless, or eventhemore, I'm still looking forward to uploading photos to flickr and trying to bring a bit more "visual" to arbitrary constant. It has even inspired me to get out and take more photos, the results of which I hope to share here soon.