What are those symbols under our username?

[leaf]

well I'll tell you.

They are a new effort to try and qualify peoples statements.  When one poster says they have had a 200% increase in earnings the last month and the next poster says their earnings went down 5% they seem to carry the same weight of authority.  However if poster 1 has 10,000 images and poster 2 has 10 images that should be taken into consider.

As such - the rankings have been added.
The stats are retrieved from dreamstime and istock for those who have added their user id, and is a simple value of # of sales + portfolio size.  The top amount is 15,000 for dreamstime, which is about the level for the top 10 users at dreamstime are over and 26,000 for istock (the level of most diamond level contributors) with 48 different levels to the bottom.

The stats are only updated once a day so if you just added your dreamstime or istock id to your profile, you might have to wait a few hours before the meter gauge shows.

I realize the graphic is a bit ugly, but i am open to other suggesions!!!
edit:  I have updated the graphic now.. perhaps it is better?
old graphic
new graphic

I have also added a title for new members : a 'new member' label on their name for their first 25  posts  so that we know when someone is new here.

Lastly,
You can also hide your gauges, or portfolio links if you want only one or the other showing.

near the bottom you will see two check boxes.
If you want to have the gauges show when you post but not the portfolio links, check the 'hide portfolio link' box.

If you want to have the portfolio links show but not the gauges, check the 'hide gauges' box.

If you check both boxes, both the portfolio links and the gauges will be hidden.

And remember the gauges are only updated once a day, so no matter if you hide your portfolio links or not, you will not see the gauges for the first 24 hours.

[sharply_done]

Good work, leaf!

Hmm, perhaps a speedometer type of graphic might be clearer. Or maybe a number between 0 and 99.

[Microbius]

that is soooo cool and really useful. Thanks !

[leaf]

Good work, leaf!

Hmm, perhaps a speedometer type of graphic might be clearer. Or maybe a number between 0 and 99.

well it was supposed to be a speedometer type of graphic   perhaps a little unclear.

Anyhow I have updated the graphic now hopefully it is better??

[Freezingpictures]

Really good idea leaf! New graphic looks definately better!

[faber]

Great idea, Leaf, I really like it!


Hey, but it might be dangerous if someone goes into red -> maybe the speed limiter kicks in....

[jsnover]

I have no idea how to read these, but mine look like DT is going "faster" than IS, whereas IS has brought me much more money than DT.

How am I supposed to read these?

[leaf]

it is like a speedometer.  the more to the right the dial is the better.. in your case the istock dial is much more to the right (faster if it was a car speedometer) which means you are doing better on istock... quite well in fact.

[vikavalter]

sweet, let's see how well I'm doing... tomorrow

[jsnover]

Thanks - I do drive a car, so I don't know why these looked so hard to read at first!

[sharply_done]

Yes, these look much better.

I think the IS meter needs to be tempered a little, though - there's no way I was going that fast, officer!

[leaf]

well you might be right, but you ARE doing very well on istock.

Maybe I should make it so the diamond contributers get full throttle and go down from there??!!

[leaf]

ok, i adjusted the istock gauge so to a level of sales+images=26000 for full throttle which is basically all the diamond photographers...... which shows how bad I am doing on istock 

and wow, I am surprised how many diamond photographers have UNDER 1000 images!!!
istock diamond list

[lclark]

Good work Leaf!

A bit humbling but at least it makes me want to try harder.

[madelaide]

I must be ashamed of my meters... 

[CofkoCof]

I must be ashamed of my meters... 

Yours are still better than mine 

[jsnover]

Leaf, can we have a suicide hotline for those of us who are so depressed looking at our meters that we can't go on?

I understand it's nice to know who's really new at this versus who's got a longer track record or larger portfolio, but I feel a bit bummed by having to look at a meter that say I'm not doing well every time I post.

[Opla]

Leaf, can we have a suicide hotline for those of us who are so depressed looking at our meters that we can't go on?

I understand it's nice to know who's really new at this versus who's got a longer track record or larger portfolio, but I feel a bit bummed by having to look at a meter that say I'm not doing well every time I post.

I got more depressed looking at the diamondlist ;-)

But perhaps a more logarithmic scale would be better for our souls...

[leaf]

Leaf, can we have a suicide hotline for those of us who are so depressed looking at our meters that we can't go on?

I understand it's nice to know who's really new at this versus who's got a longer track record or larger portfolio, but I feel a bit bummed by having to look at a meter that say I'm not doing well every time I post.

depressed?... your meters look quite nice!

[lclark]

Yeah really jsnover. You have nothing to be depressed about.

I will try to always post right after you if it makes you feel better.

[GeoPappas]

Very interesting concept.

I think that they will be very useful.

[jsnover]

Yeah really jsnover. You have nothing to be depressed about.

I will try to always post right after you if it makes you feel better.

What a nice person you are

So I suppose I sound ungrateful complaining but the needles are less than the half-way mark and visually (to me) that symbol screams "Looser!!" at me. I do realize that you need to know "Less than half of what" before interpreting, but the immediate impact not positive.

I generally try not to focus on the "mine is bigger than yours" aspects of such comparisons - I don't think they're helpful. I do like the idea of what Leaf's trying to get at though - knowing roughly what sort of player in the microstock sites a poster is.

[sharply_done]

I can see how people are going to get discouraged about their 'meter readings' - maybe things should be tweaked a little to avoid this.

If I could make one more suggestion it would be to have the gauges reflect sales rate (e.g. DLs/month) instead of sales volume + portfolio size. This is, to me, a more meaningful measurement of expertise than total sales and/or number of images online.

[melastmohican]

My meters are glued to zero :-) Please add ShutterStock :-)

[Trebuchet]

 

My meters are glued to zero :-) Please add ShutterStock :-)

Mines too 
But SS doesnt give the sales information

[suwanneeredhead]

Hmmph... I'm only seeing one and I'm on both agencies... (reminds me to get uploading, glued to zero indeed!)

[j2k]

In my browser the speedometer images are downscaled a little bit which makes them fuzzy. It would be better if they were showing at 100% original size, or resized in ps or similar and not in the web browser

(I have firefox under windows xp)

[hd]

jsnover - don't be depressed - I aspire to get my speedometer to look like that! I don't have much hope of iS looking better any day soon, but I'm pretty happy with DT sales...and those make me think I'm aiming too low.

I'm not really all that unhappy - many of the files I submitted early on were weak and don't sell well. One of these days I'll delete them, but then a few sell and I'm encouraged to keep them alive.

[madelaide]

I don't know if it is necessary to compare to the top contributors.  I mean, for the purpose of classifying a serious microstocker from a hobbyist like me or a novice, isn't a portfolio of let's say 1,500 enough to qualify someone in the "top" category and then rank others proportionally?

Regards,
Adelaide

[DanP68]

This is great!  Now I don't have to track my earnings.  I'll just log in to MSG and check my speedometers daily.   



Nice work Leaf.  I think it is a good idea.

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