The “myspace” of community based image shares, which has a very cluttered and busy appearance compared to flickr that appeals more to young people. There isn’t much of a community beyond a message board. It works well enough, if you are a paid subscriber. However, I do not care for it as a free user – too many ads and restrictions on what you can submit.

I tend to prefer flickr because the experience is more genuine – not so removed as deviantart can be. The groups are awesome. There are groups of all kinds from “glitter” award and critique groups, to local meet-up groups. I am a member of a number of local groups, we meet once or twice monthly and I have actually made friends with other flickr users. This link will explain the limits of a free account: I recommend it over most others.

For comprehensive critiques and real education and tips in photography, photo.net is probably the best around. It is also community based. Whenever I want to either learn a particular technique or read the experiences of other “real” photographers who are serious about what they do, I go to photo.net – though I really don’t get much use out of it beyound that.

By far, the best image share and showcase website, is onexposure. It is sort of like a community, only it is VERY selective of what is posted to its pools of images. As a member you can store and share your images, but in order for them to be published publically, they need to be approved by a board of moderators. Though its snobbery can be quite unprecidented, the images found on that site are what many who call themselves photographers consider exceptional.

There are also sites like photobucket, snapfish, tinypic, and the like that are really only places to store images online, and not a community of purposed photographers, nor are they places to receive tips or ideas. Those websites are basically where people who do myspace store their images for hotlinking and such.