Here comes an interesting bit of worldly wisdom from Yahoo! and Flickr.
Many of us I'm sure recall that in past years we stored our various photos and pictures at Yahoo!, right there, next to the email. One day, not discernibly different from many other days, we received an email note in our Yahoo! inbox that our shots could no longer be so stored. They recommended a number of sites, the main one in their recommendation being Yahoo!-owned Flickr. Fine. Pics went to Flickr, which included, if you like, editing, storage, and global display. In fact, an overall improvement!
Today a story has surfaced from a fellow named Mirco Wilhelm, whose 4,000 photos were erroneously deleted by Flickr. Perhaps his life's work. 
Wilhelm describes himself as an architect and blogging-photographer-webmedia-thingy-creation-humor-expert. He mentions he just moved to Zurich, Switzerland. The thing is, our Wilhelm had been complaining to Flickr about his photos being lifted by other Flickr members, who went on to represent the photos as their own. How reprehensible! So, Flickr, in an effort to remove the subject pics from the pages of the competitive photographers, inadvertently LOST the pictures. All 4,000!
Flickr was quick to point out that photo-snatching was a clear violation; unfortunately, in trying to "delete the errant account" a Flickr employee mixed up the accounts, and sent all of Wilhelm's work into the netherworld, from whence it couldn't be recovered. The Flickr employee said, "Unfortunately, I have mixed up the accounts and accidentally deleted yours. I am terribly sorry for this grave error." Flickr did however give the gentleman from Switzerland a free Flickr account for life.
Mirco Wilhelm made a reply, which translates as, "You have to be [slang for intercourse] kidding!!"
Yahoo! has been of late accumulating losses from Flickr. This they blame on the ever-rising number of young people with photo-equipped cell phones. Yahoo! says they are committed to Flickr; "Hell, yes, we are!" Yahoo! product chief Blake Irving said on his Twitter blog. Yahoo! has lost rankings on its search engine, and its blogging/bookmarking site, Delicious, recently fell victim to the axe. Yahoo may be preparing to sell the once trend-setting business.
Article comments
1 - Francesca Goldston
Yahoo bastards! Are they really going to be able to get away with an apology and a 'lifetime account' with the world's sloppiest company? Maybe if they paid their employees a decent wage they would get a modicum of professionalism in their company back.
2 - John Lake
Right there, Francesca!
3 - PhotoMan
It's all good now. His photos were recovered AND he got 25 years of free Pro service.
4 - John Lake
Great! Very good!
5 - ellery chua
Seems like the gentleman in question should have kept his own copies of his pictures rather than relying on a vendor. What happened to keep at least 2 copies in different locations ? Hard disk fail, the only question is when and not if.