Welcome to Part 2 of our Admin Resource Hub series, helping you build and run a great Flickr group. This time around we’re talking about creating your dream team of mods and co-admins to help keep your group momentum going. 

Running a group solo works fine, right until it doesn’t. If you suddenly see a boost in membership, photos submitted to the queue come pouring in and you think, I could use another set of hands, it might be time. Bringing on a co-admin or moderator isn’t an admission that you can’t handle things, it’s how groups outlast any one person’s bandwidth and carryon to flourish and thrive.

Knowing when it’s time

There are a few signs that it’s time to ask for help:

• The photo queue is piling up faster than you can clear it.
• Questions in the discussion threads are going unanswered. Remember, when you’re the only admin, you’re the only one who can respond when something goes wrong.
• There’s been an influx of membership and you stop recognizing everyone who is regularly contributing.

A backlog, whether it’s a mounting photo or unanswered discussions, doesn’t just slow things down, it can make the group feel unattended and members new and old will notice. Remember, Flickr members check in from all over the world and there are whole groups of members who are never online the same time you are. Knowing when it’s getting to be time to line up some help (before you’re drowning) is important. Bringing someone on early before the group is in catchup mode while things are still manageable gives you room to properly introduce them to the group and show them the way you’d love the group to work, all while giving them time to get settled in.

What to look for in a moderator 

The best moderators are often your most consistent community members. Look for people who:

• Post and comment regularly so they already know the group’s rhythm and regulars
• Have a track record of constructive, kind feedback, especially to newer or less experienced members
• Are around during hours you’re not, so coverage actually improves rather than just doubling up on the same ‘shift’
• It’s also worth asking directly rather than waiting for someone to volunteer. Many of your best potential mods won’t nominate themselves. Start a discussion thread and get a feel for who is interested.

Admin vs Moderator: Knowing the difference before you promote

Not every extra set of hands needs the same level of access. Flickr offers two roles to promote members to and that difference matters.

• Moderators can help manage the pending queue and handle day-to-day content and member issues.
• Admins have full control of the group, including access to the Administration tab. All the things like: settings, privacy, appearance and member management. That’s a meaningful amount of trust to hand over so it’s worth being deliberate when choosing who you should give that access to.

Ready to make it official?

To promote someone, head to the Administration tab in your group. Click manage your members, and select Promote next to their name. From there choose Admin or Moderator and save your changes.

For most groups, starting someone as a moderator is the lower-risk move. This will get you real help without permanently handing over the keys. Reserve the admin role for someone you’d trust to run the group in your absence.

Moderator onboarding checklist

A team that communicates well can make a group feel more consistent to members and this will result in members putting in that extra level of care and effort back into the community. As group admins, you are at the heart of this community and your work is important. So make sure to ask for some help, you deserve it!

This is the second post in our Admin Resource Hub series. Missed the first? Check out Setting Up Your Group. Next up: growing and engaging your members. Have a topic you want covered? Let us know.

Not a Flickr member yet? Sign up today to join our community of photographers and find your inspiration.

Rush Hour Solitude. Frankfurt, main train station. © Brice Dufour

Manhattanhenge in Taipei Aug 2022. Sunset moments in summer are always stunning. It’s a scene around Taipei Main station at rush hours. 2022 懸日. © Vera Hung

Rush hours. On July 7, 2023, the total passenger volume of the entire Shenzhen Metro network (including trams) was 9.3373 million, breaking through the 9 million passenger flow mark for the first time, setting a record for the highest passenger flow in a single day, and the intensity of subway passenger flow returned to No. 1 in the country. © QuantFoto

rush hour. Exposición · 0,077 sec (1/13), Aperture· f/5.0, Ojo · 50 mm, ISO · 200. © rromer

Evening rush hour. From the blog post: www.hdrshooter.com/2014/03/27/evening-rush-hour/.

© Miroslav Petrasko

Daily commute. On average, 3 million passengers use the subway system daily in the city of São Paulo.

© Flavio Filipini

Traffic at rush hour on the Grand Canal. © Jose Manuel Sainz de Baranda

Rush Hour. Heavy Traffic at this particular road junction. © Brian Evans

Lime Street station rush hour. Misty morning in Liverpool. I arrived in Liverpool at just after 8.30am – weekday peak travel time: slow-moving crowds. © gerald murphy

Untitled. Great band at the NYC Herald Square 34th Street subway station during rush hour. Wonderful entertainment, great bandleader; draws a crowd.  © Michael Zenilman

Fragments of Hanoi II. Following on from my original image taken back in 2016, I’m pleased to show my latest creation that is an interpretation of the chaos, energy, and character from the busy streets of Hanoi. Using over 100 photos of passing traffic, I select parts from each frame, and with careful masking, build the image together like a jigsaw puzzle. Hanoi, Vietnam. View the original image in the series: Fragments of Hanoi  © Peter Stewart

Rush-Hour. © Heinz-Dieter Schardt

Blade Runner_Rush Hour Commuter. Chicago — rainy evening. © Jeff Stevenson

Occupied at rush hour. During the rush hour commute in the morning or evening, it can be a long, dull and sometimes monotonous wait for some. And so people find many ways to keep themselves distracted or occupied, such as reading or watching videos on their smartphone as one example. No noise reduction was applied in order to give a filmic look. © Dickson P

Rush Hour. © Christoph Hetzmann

We have arrived at our destination. We hope you enjoyed the journey. See you next time!

Not a Flickr member yet? Sign up today to join our community of photographers and find your inspiration.

Welcome to our new series: The Admin Resource Hub. These articles will focus on building and running great Flickr groups, where the heart of the Flickr community comes to life.

Starting a Flickr group is simple. Running one you’re proud of a year from now takes a little more thought and effort and we’re here to help you along that journey. Before you invite your first member, there are some decisions worth slowing down for: who can find your group, what’s expected once they’re in it and how you introduce the whole thing to a stranger scrolling past. Get these right early and eliminate some moderation headaches down the line.

Choosing the right privacy setting

Flickr gives you three levels to choose from and picking the right one from the start will save you from an awkward migration later.

Public groups are open to everyone meaning anyone can find the group and join, no approval needed. This is the right setting for your group if growth and discoverability are a top priority. Think broad interest groups: street photography, black and white, a specific camera model.

Invite-Only groups show up in a search and anyone can view the group page but joining requires an invitation from an admin. This is a nice middle ground if you want visibility without letting everyone into your group without any upfront moderation. You can also make an Invite-Only group fully unsearchable if you want it to stay off the radar entirely.

Private groups are the most closed: they’re hidden from search, invisible on member profiles and invite-only to join. These are good for tight-knit groups like camera clubs, a small circle of collaborators or a family/friend project.

One thing worth flagging: once you switch a group from public to private, you can’t undo it. So make sure to choose this setting with some intention.

Writing rules people will follow

It’s overwhelming to be met with a wall of text before joining a group. Groups that lead with a focused set of 2-3 rules, ones you actually plan to enforce, tend to get a lot more attention from members than groups that bury the important stuff in a long list.  A few things that make group rules land:

• Lead with the spirit of the group, not just a list. For example, “This is a space for constructive feedback” tells people more than a generic “no rude comments” ever will.
• Be specific about what’s off-topic. Vague guidelines create vague enforcement. If your macro photography group doesn’t want landscapes, say so plainly.
• Say what happens when rules aren’t followed. A single line like “posts that don’t fit the group may be removed” sets expectations before you ever have to act on them.

You don’t need a complicated legal document to get everyone on board with the guidelines of your group. A consistent yet inviting start to a new group can be delivered in three or four lines that a new member can read in ten seconds and then actually retain.

Writing a description that does its job

Your group description is doing double duty. It provides that important first impression for someone deciding whether to join, and it’s also the reference point you’ll point back to later when a post doesn’t belong. Name your niche down to the detail that makes it yours. Whether that is referring to format, subject or an aesthetic, the group will read as curated rather than a catch-all. Say who you’re posting for: a group built for critique reads differently than one built for sharing. If there’s a rhythm to the group, like a weekly theme or monthly challenge, mention it here so it doubles as an invitation, and not just an FAQ.

Ready to get started? Take the tips above and start building out your community today! Our help page, Get started with Flickr groups, will walk you through the process step by step as well!

This is the first post in our ongoing Admin Resource Hub series. Next up: building your moderation team. Have a topic you want covered? Let us know.

Not a Flickr member yet? Sign up today to join our community of photographers and find your inspiration.

The grant recipient will receive $10,000 to invest in their practice, along with a two-year Flickr Pro membership and a one-year SmugMug Pro membership. Ten additional recipients will each receive a one-year Flickr Pro membership and one-year SmugMug Pro membership. The grant recipient will be announced live at MODE by Flickr!

“Traces of Connection” 

This year’s theme, “Traces of Connection,” was chosen by Éléonore Menga, recipient of the 2025 Flickr x Black Women Photographers grant and this year’s guest judge.

Connection is often felt more than seen. It lives in gestures, in absence, in the quiet that people and places leave behind. It can be held in light, carried through landscapes, or embedded in the spaces between individuals.

There is no single definition of connection. It may be tender or tense, visible or implied, human or environmental. What matters is the trace it leaves behind. This is an invitation to notice what remains after a moment, a meeting, or a presence has passed.

Wanna join? Here’s how to apply!

• You must be a member of the Black Women Photographers community
• You must also join the Black Women Photographers group on Flickr
• Next, submit a photo aligned with the theme “Traces of Connection” to the BWP Flickr Group
• Here are some tips on how to add photos to the group
• Share a brief description of how your photo connects to this theme
• Be an active member on Flickr (completing the steps above fulfills this requirement!)

Applications will close on August 6, 2026. Please apply and spread the word before the deadline!

This grant is open to Black women and non-binary photographers who are new and longtime members of Black Women Photographers and Flickr. The grant recipient will be selected by Polly Irungu, the founder of BWP; Éléonore Menga, an esteemed member of both BWP and Flickr and winner of the 2025 grant; and MacKenzie Joslin along with the Flickr Community team.

We’re looking forward to hearing from you!

Join the community

Over the last few years, we’ve had the privilege of working closely  with Polly Irungu and getting to know the BWP community firsthand. Founded by Polly Irungu and launched in July of 2020, Black Women Photographers (BWP) is a global community, directory, and hub of over 2,100 Black and African women creatives, spanning over 60 countries and 35+ U.S. states.

Black Women Photographers exists to ensure Black women receive proper recognition and, most importantly, get hired. It supports members by promoting their work through an active database distributed to photo editors, directors, curators, and art buyers, while also offering free educational resources including webinars, workshops, training, grants, and portfolio reviews. To date, BWP has awarded over $230,000 in financial grants and provided an additional $80,000 in cutting-edge camera equipment to help empower their members. 

If you’re a Black woman photographer looking to connect with a larger community, you can learn more and apply to be part of Black Women Photographers. New to Flickr? Check out Flickr 101 and say hello in the Black Women Photographers group.

Note: The photo included in this blog post and in communications about this grant was taken by Éléonore Menga. You can see her work on Flickr and Instagram.

This July 4th marks the 250th Anniversary of America’s adoption of the Declaration of Independence. Throughout that time, photography, artwork, storytelling, music and other forms of art have captured this country’s history and told its story from its beginning to today. This milestone anniversary does not exist within a vacuum. Photography from institutions like the US National Archives, Smithsonian and the Library of Congress show a wide expanse of experiences, triumphs and failures, loss and community building and everything in between. Each moment documented is an important part of this great experiment. 

250 years of dreaming big, searching for justice, searching for freedom and documenting it all for those who come after us. That is what photography does. From pivotal moments in American history to quiet ones, a place, a person, a fleeting scene, these are images of what it has looked like to live in a country many of us call home, across 250 years. 

Raising the first flag at Independence Hall, Philadelphia, circa 1776-77.  Copy of a painting at US National Archives

Unratified California Treaty K, 1852 Installation at National Museum of the American Indian. Smithsonian

Stereograph of Independence Hall, 1875. Library Company of Philadelphia

Theodore Roosevelt at the Army War College, 1903. DC Public Library Commons

Two Boys in Front of a Tipi, documentation of the Flathead Irrigation Project, 1911. US National Archives

On Ellis Island, circa 1900. US National Archives

Votes for Women A Success, 1914. Schlesinger Library

Uncle Sam’s Birthday. 1776- July 4th 1918. 142 Years Young and Going Strong. US National Archives

Abraham Lincoln Statue Installation in the Lincoln Memorial, Washington, D.C. 1920. US National Archives

Basic and Advanced Flying School, Tuskegee, Alabama, 1941. US National Archives

This is America, Where you vote as you please, 1945. US National Archives

D.C. Grocery store owned by Mr. J. 1942. US National Archives

Young Woman at the Civil Rights March on Washington, D.C. 1963. US National Archives

Civil Rights March on Washington, D.C. at the Reflecting Pool, 1963. US National Archives

The Reagans and Michael Jackson at the White House, 1984. US National Archives 

Crewmember in SPACELAB wearing the Acceleration Recording Unit and Collar, 1993. NASA

In Peace Shall She Wave, 2009. Photo by David Goehring

People’s Climate March, NYC, NY, 2014. Photo by Guano

First Family joined others to walk across the Edmund Pettus Bridge, 2015. Photo by Lawrence Jackson

Chicago, IL, 2017. Photo by Alek S.

From the Library of Congress: COVID-19: American Experiences project, 2021.  Photo by Diane Krauthamer

Honoring the 31st Anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities act with activist Tyree Brown in the Rose Garden, July 26, 2021. Photo by Adam Schultz

Robert Morris, George Washington, & Haym Salomon, 2025, Chicago. Sculptor: Lorado Taft. Photo by Don Sniegowski

NASA Artemis II mission specialist Christina Koch, 2026. NASA

The Story Continues

From the very beginning to today, photography has captured America’s history and told the stories along the way, the struggles, the triumphs, the importance of community. The experiment continues and we hope you’ll keep documenting it. Get out there, take those photos and share them with us on Flickr. It’s a story that deserves to be told and your experiences are part of it. We can’t wait to see it unfold. Happy 250th, America!

Want to see more photos from the community featuring their points of view photographing America?  Enjoy this gallery!

Photo by Don Sniegowski