Won't you listen to my tale of flickr woe? It's LONG. →[More:]

I just signed up for a flickr account yesterday, because I like to be on the cutting edge of internet apps. Trust me on this one, this flickr thing is gonna be big.

So I had to register at yahoo first, and then sign up at flickr. I uploaded some pics, added some contacts. I logged out at flickr and now I can't log back in - I get taken on a ridiculous cycle of logins. Has this ever happened to anyone else? It's driving me freaking nuts. I've emailed flickr but don't know how long it will take them to reply, and there's a message at the bottom of the screen saying that while waiting for a reply I should ask other flickr users for advice, because they're all "pretty nice". So can any of the pretty nice people help me?

I start off by obediently signing in using my Yahoo account, like it instructs me to do. So far so good. Then I get a message saying that I have to merge my Yahoo and my flickr accounts:

"Welcome back to Flickr! We noticed that your Yahoo! email address (iconomyatgmaildotcom) is already registered in the Flickr database (yeah, because I just registered it...). You can merge your Flickr and Yahoo! accounts together. That way, you'll only have to sign in once, via Yahoo!, whenever you want to access your Flickr page. Click here to merge your accounts."

So I do that, and I get asked for my flickr email and password. I type them in (I'm positive that the password is correct, and that the email (iconomyatgmaildotcom) is right, because I've been getting flickr contact announcements all night) and then I get this message>

"We can't find a Flickr account with those details. Are you sure you entered the right stuff?"

Grrr. The "details" are just my email address and my password, and yes, I know that they're correct. So I try again, and get the same message. Grrr again. So then I think...ok, it's possible that when I registered at flickr, I mistyped my password. I go to my email, and no welcoming email from flickr there, just one from Yahoo. But I know that flickr has my correct email on file because they've been sending me the contacts emails all night. So I click on the link at flickr to change my password, so I can get a new one and log in at flickr.

"You must have forgotten your password. That's not a problem. It happens to the best of us! Enter your email address below so we can send you an email containing a special link that will help you to make a new password. Please make sure you enter the same email address as your Flickr account, otherwise it won't work."

You know what's coming, right? I type in the same email address, and get this message:

"Hold on!

The Flickr account with that email address has been associated with a Yahoo! account. (I KNOW!!) Go to the Yahoo! password retrieval page."

So I click on the link to the Yahoo! password retrieval page, and it's 404'ed...gah. Dead end. Now I can't get either an email or a new password.

So I try to log in again, but instead of the Yahoo login, I decide to be cunning and try the flickr login, so I type in the same email. Now I get this message>

"The email address "iconomyatgmaildotcom" is tied to a Yahoo account. Please sign in through Yahoo."

But I can't sign in through Yahoo! And if it's "tied in", why do I have to merge the accounts, since flickr already recognizes the email as one tied to a Yahoo account?

Lather, rinse, repeat. Lather, rinse, repeat.

Has this happened to anyone else? It's maddening beyond belief. I must be overlooking some minor or simple detail here.

And. Update. Now my photos are all gone. The tags and descriptions are there but the photos are not. I guess after they read my email they decided that I am an idiot and not worthy to be a flickrarian.

*looks around for Ashton Kutcher*