I posted a photo to Flickr on Saturday from a friend’s surprise birthday party.  A blindfold was being tied to her head so that she could swing at the piñata.  Easy enough.

Two days later, the photo has 200 views and 7 users have marked it as a favorite.  Now, either this is a truly remarkable photo that is deserving of its attention, or there is something else afoot.

I’m going with the latter.  I’m no Ansel Adams and none of my photos have been favorited by seven people.

I wanted to know more about my newest admirers, so I started clicking through their photostreams (nsfw) and took a brief look at the other photos they find interesting.  Oh god.  These are blindfold fetishists, at the least.

I fell into the underworld of Flickr, seeing images I was sure were prohibited from the family-friendly Flickr-verse.  At this point, it was impossible to stop.  I was imagining people sitting behind their computers searching endlessly for pictures of blindfolds…anything.  Some were like mine – innocent people at parties waiting for a surprise or playing a game – others were, well, not innocent, to say the least.

I continue to watch the numbers climb on that one photo with its neighbors helped a bit with some run-off popularity.  I’m not above exploiting my friends’ blindfolding for a few extra hits of Flickr loving, but do continue to wonder what type of person operates these accounts, sans profile.

These accounts, for the most part, are devoid of character, of community.  They have no profile, no avatar and no personal photos (well, maybe this one counts).  Some accounts lack photos all together and seem to have been created for the sole purpose of collecting favorites.  It’s an interesting departure from the Flickr I’ve encountered in all other instances – friendly, personal, active and engaging.

Even still, Flickr is a community, and it wouldn’t be a community without your token weirdos.