Wired News reports that a disgruntled faction of Flickr users are threatening a symbolic “mass suicide” to protest an upcoming requirement (scheduled for 2006) that all Flickr users must now join Yahoo! (Flickr’s new owner).

At stake is a new user-profile stipulation that reads: “We will be migrating all independent Flickr accounts to Yahoo’s network in 2006. At that time, if you have not done so already, you will be asked to create a Yahoo ID (or link your account to your Yahoo ID if you already have one) in order to continue using your account.”

… and one user threatens:

If Flickr really forces me to join Yahoo in 2006 in order to still use my account, I will quit 24 hours before the deadline.

One thing I appreciate about the article is the snippet taken from Sherry Turkle, director of Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Initiative on Technology. She states:

So many of us don’t have a gathering place that feels comfortable and communal, For those who found that on Flickr.com, its transformation into a ‘service’ on Yahoo is a loss; they are losing something important to them. It is a harbinger of the greater sensitivity we need to show in the future as we take more seriously the psychological importance of our digital lives.

Read the article here.