> I don't really need a photo organizing app, what I need is a photo metadata app.

I completely agree. I also liked flickr's system, but I left a year or two ago, after deciding I would rather not put my photos on someone else's server. I would love a good desktop metadata system that felt like it would be long-lived and widely useable. gthumb and darktable both have tagging capabilities, for example, but I have not gotten the sense that either of their systems are worth going back and tagging the past 10+ years of photos I have taken. A great metadata system would have me doing that.