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Author Topic: isyndica.com  (Read 27777 times)

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« on: March 17, 2009, 16:31 »
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Who knows anything about it?
http://www.isyndica.com/
« Last Edit: March 17, 2009, 16:39 by noam »


« Reply #1 on: March 17, 2009, 16:42 »
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« Reply #2 on: March 17, 2009, 20:00 »
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They had a thread on iStock and I replied them technically. Basically, it's a glorified FTP uploader from one point, they need your passwords, and of course you have to pay. I'm fine with Filezilla.

« Reply #3 on: March 18, 2009, 01:17 »
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Thanks,

Maybe I will try their free subscription and see how it goes.

If income will increase in (much) more than subscription fee so why not?

« Reply #4 on: March 18, 2009, 01:44 »
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If income will increase in (much) more than subscription fee so why not?

It doesn't have anything to do with income! Not even with time saving. You still have to do all dirty work (attach MRF, catgorize, submit) on the site itself. The only thing it does is that it uploads from FTP server to FTP server. The only advantage is when you are on limited bandwidth. If not, Filezilla just does the same, and free. If you like an easy solution that does more, like tracking what's where, use ProStockMaster.

j2k

« Reply #5 on: March 19, 2009, 21:46 »
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As far as I remember from the shutterstock thread it is also supposed to give you cross site statistics - on image basis.

The idea behind using this site for uploads is that you only upload once to them, and they take care of distributing it to all agencies.  If one uploads to 10 agencies the bandwidth / time savings would be quite significant.

J.

« Reply #6 on: March 20, 2009, 00:09 »
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As far as I remember from the shutterstock thread it is also supposed to give you cross site statistics - on image basis.

No, that's Lookstat.

The idea behind using this site for uploads is that you only upload once to them, and they take care of distributing it to all agencies.  If one uploads to 10 agencies the bandwidth / time savings would be quite significant.

Yes, the bandwidth savings are considerable. That's all you get for a hefty fee per month.

« Reply #7 on: March 20, 2009, 00:44 »
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There is also problem that they select the 'channels' (that's how they call microstock sites) for you. So you are not limited in any given subscription plan only by number of images but also by what sites are available in that plan.

As an example - if you want to distribute to 123RF, you will have to do it either on your own or pay the premium subscription $49 per month.


« Reply #8 on: March 20, 2009, 02:27 »
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As an example - if you want to distribute to 123RF, you will have to do it either on your own or pay the premium subscription $49 per month.

That won't save you time as they just upload but you still have to do the bulk of the submit work (categories, MRF attach) on the site itself. Filezilla can do exactly the same for free. Many people don't know you can schedule with Filezilla to many sites and then just let it go in the background. Prostockmaster is a much better deal for less money, for those who have money to burn. The $49 fee/month is just outrageous. For 7$/month you have unlimited bandwidth/unlimited space on hostgator.com and Filezilla can handle server-server FTP too.

« Reply #9 on: March 20, 2009, 02:43 »
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I didn't know you could schedule Filezilla! How do you do that?

Oh the wasted hours!!! The angst..... :(

« Reply #10 on: March 20, 2009, 03:24 »
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I didn't know you could schedule Filezilla! How do you do that?

The easiest way is to put all your sites in the site manager: fill in FTP url, name, pass. For SS and BigStock, also put the "number of simultaneous connections" to 1 (Transfer Settings tab).

At the left pane (Local site) open the folder you want to upload from on your disk. Select the files you want to upload by CTRL-click or SHIFT-click if they are in a contiguous row, just like in the windows file manager.

Open site 1 in your site manager and click "Connect", then wait till in your right pane (Remote site) the folder on the remote site comes alive. Drag the files from the left to the right pane. Transfer starts for site 1.

The bottom pane has three tabs: Queued files, Failed transfers, Successful transfers. Your uploads will show in the Queued files where you can monitor Site to upload to, local file name/folder, and transfer progress bar.

Now open site 2 in your site manager and "Connect". It will ask whether to break the current connection, and answer "yes". This is the part where most people get fooled since they think it will interrupt the ongoing queue. That's not true, the queued transfers will just go on. So once on the right panel the remote folder for site 2 goes live, drag and drop the batch from the left pane again there. This queues the transfer as you can see in the bottom pane.

Now go back to site manager and connect to site 3. You will be asked again to break the current connection, so answer "yes". When site 3 goes live in the right pane, drag the local files from the left pane there again. Etc...

Do this for all your sites that have FTP. At the end, you will see all files in progress plus the queued ones in the bottom pane. You're set now. Take a walk, take a bath, go shopping, or minimize filezilla and go on with whatever you're doing on your PC.

When all is finished, the bottom pane with Queued files will be empty. If some transfers failed, click the Failed transfers tab, and there you will see a list of the failed ones. You can easily reschedule them by selecting them all, Right-click and choose "reschedule" or whatever from the context menu that popped up.
To make sure, you can also check the Successful transfers tab to verify what was uploaded where.

How just to schedule and not really upload now? Instead of dragging the files to the left pane, Right-click on the files and choose "Add files to queue" in the context menu that pops up. You will see that the scheduled files are added to the bottom pane with Queued files, along with the site to which they are queued to, but they don't start yet. If later you want to delete one of more files from the queue, just select them there and press Delete.

Ah, and right clicking on the queued files gives you also the choice what to do after all uploads are done: play a sound, close Filezilla, shut down the PC (in case you start before going to bed), reboot, etc...




« Last Edit: March 20, 2009, 03:32 by FlemishDreams »

« Reply #11 on: March 20, 2009, 03:25 »
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« Reply #12 on: March 20, 2009, 03:28 »
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ahh nice tutorial FlemishDreams.  Thanks.

As an additional note, you can also drag from windows explorer into the right panel in filezilla.

« Reply #13 on: March 20, 2009, 03:49 »
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As an additional note, you can also drag from windows explorer into the right panel in filezilla.


Hahaha, I didn't know that! You can also upload from server to server by the way (like isyndica does). If you have your own webhosting (7$/month on hostgator, unlimited space, unlimited bandwidth, unlimited domains) you can make a folder "uploads" there somewhere, and upload from server to server, which will limit your bandwidth from home considerably. At the same time you have a backup. Just make sure your remote folder is hotlink- and password-protected (on hostgator you can do it all), since if the folder becomes known (e.g. "http://mysite.com/private/uploads") and you forget to put an "index.html" there, anybody with the right URL can leech all your files.

« Reply #14 on: March 20, 2009, 06:51 »
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Thanks for that FlemishDreams, I appreciate it.

« Reply #15 on: March 20, 2009, 08:00 »
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As an additional note, you can also drag from windows explorer into the right panel in filezilla.


Hahaha, I didn't know that! You can also upload from server to server by the way (like isyndica does). If you have your own webhosting (7$/month on hostgator, unlimited space, unlimited bandwidth, unlimited domains) you can make a folder "uploads" there somewhere, and upload from server to server, which will limit your bandwidth from home considerably. At the same time you have a backup. Just make sure your remote folder is hotlink- and password-protected (on hostgator you can do it all), since if the folder becomes known (e.g. "http://mysite.com/private/uploads") and you forget to put an "index.html" there, anybody with the right URL can leech all your files.


How do you do that?  How do you have your 'local site' your online web space?  And doesn't filezilla want to donload then images then upload them to the stock site?

« Reply #16 on: March 20, 2009, 13:36 »
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How do you do that?  How do you have your 'local site' your online web space?

Yes I have a hosting account with hostgator.com, baby croc plan, 7$/month. The domains are with Namecheap (10$/domain/year for a .com or .net). I have several domains in my hosting account. The server is a shared machine, so the monthly fee is reasonable. For the sake of simplicity, just look at it as a remote disk with folders and subfolders. Every domain is a master subfolder, but you can add other folders too, like /private, /public, /mystuff, /anything which aren't mapped by a nameserver on the net hence not easily accessible by a browser.

You can upload anything, e.g. your port there. I wouldn't recommend to upload sensitive stuff there since there are clever hackers around. I got hacked once by Russians to host their warez links and once by Turkish for one of their political groups (my fault, I left the anonymous FTP port open by accident on one of the subdomains). For sensitive stuff like ID copies, passwords, I'd use Google Documents, as Yuri Arcurs recommends in his blog. For top private stuff like your PayPal account, never trust it to any machine. ID theft is on the rise by stolen/robbed/lost laptops and smartphones.

With Filezilla, you can transfer files (FTP = Files Transfer Protocol) from local to remote, remote to local, remote to remote, and local to local. The last option is of course obsolete since you can do it easier with the Windows file manager. You just have to select the proper sources in the left and right panes in Filezilla.

If the server on your host (the best is Apache under Linux) has the proper (host) software, I think you can even let it handle the server to server transfers itself, so you can turn off your PC. That's beyond the scope of Filezilla, but the question popped up in another thread here.

So back to the essence, yes Filezilla can handle server-server traffic which doesn't involve your own bandwidth for the files. But since Filezilla on your local PC directs the process, you still have to leave your PC on for Filezilla to issue the proper commands. The volume involved then is extremely small as compared to the files themselves.

Sorry if I was too exhaustive, but many people don't know exactly how it all works. I would stay out of the server stuff if you don't know what you're doing and just use Filiezilla the simple way: local to (microstock agency) server.
« Last Edit: March 20, 2009, 13:41 by FlemishDreams »


« Reply #17 on: March 20, 2009, 14:52 »
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Hi,

I figured I'd chime in on the thread.  We are going in iterative steps in our implementation, so yes, for our first release you could compare us as a "glorified FTP uploader".  This is not were we plan to stay however.  Some of you are technical enough to have found alternative solutions for this already, as I could have done on my own if I only wanted to do this as well.  Similarly, if you do have a super-duper internet connection the initial service might not be very helpful.

You have to understand however that I am not coming into this project "just" because it is a business opportunity but also very much because I do sell stock and I do have a personal problem with the hoops and loops I have to go through to make this a sensible proposition for the time I spend on it - currently, it isn't.

Over the coming months, we will add more functionality to help centralize MRF management, categorization and all the little things that currently force us to visit each site separately, along with keywording tools (including translation so we can approach international markets), and reporting.

"My" personal ultimate goal is that I might be able to sell my content without even ever having to visit the 10, 20 or 30 channel sites I sell that content on (there are a lot more sites than most commonly know of, in regional markets), beyond the initial registration step.  However much a "techie" I might be, I find it personally quite pleasant when I can do something without having to write a batch script, and I think a lot of other photographers might enjoy the simplicity of our service, be it even a simple "glorified FTP uploader" that allows you to upload in a tenth of the time it would usually take you, even with a good internet connection, or obviously a service that actually cuts down on the finicky management we have to do on the stock sites.

Regarding the fact you "can't" choose the channels.  This might change in the close future based on your feedback and what makes sense for our business.  Clearly there is a difference building a system for yourself and fording the costs you personally incur and weight that against my additional gains from selling in more places (and the time I no longer waste), and building the service for thousands of photogs.  While we do use the channel lineup as a type of upsell strategy, we did not lump all the slow channels in the cheap subscriptions and the good channels in the most expansive subscriptions - we used the selling statistics of several photographers and the information on MSG (and a few other sites) to come up with a gradual scale as fair as possible that blends additional upload volume with sale potential with each increasing subscription level.  You can easily compare the information on the right side of this page with our subscription lineup to see it.

But yes, the ability to pick and chose your channel is a common enough request that it still is a matter of discussion at iSyndica.

I hope this answers some of your questions.

Thank you.

Seb / iSyndica USA Inc.

« Reply #18 on: March 20, 2009, 15:19 »
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I would stay out of the server stuff if you don't know what you're doing and just use Filiezilla the simple way: local to (microstock agency) server.
Wow, that's mind blowing information. Please do teach us, if you don't mind, how to do that remote to remote file transfer from our machine with Filezilla. After all I suppose most of us are here to get educated.

Thanks a lot.

« Reply #19 on: March 20, 2009, 15:35 »
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Over the coming months, we will add more functionality to help centralize MRF management, categorization and all the little things that currently force us to visit each site separately, along with keywording tools (including translation so we can approach international markets), and reporting.


Reporting: lookstat.com is a year ahead.
Management & tracking: prostockmaster.com is years ahead.
Categorizing/submitting on site: it needs HTML parsing since no site offers APIs to do that. Dreamstime hates third-party bots doing parsing, as they showed by adding a captcha just to block Prostockmaster from HTML upload. It consumes too much resources at the detriment of the buyers speed.

What it will lead to is that Dreamstime will also add captcha on the submission page (for every image that is), causing extra work for all uploaders that don't use isyndica.

On Dreamstime, it's against the TOS for bots to access the site. Any contributor giving out his password to a third party that will crawl the site could be considered as an accomplice.
Quote
"Additionally, we do not allow the use of automated software or other crawling techniques for searching our web site and/or retrieve Images or related information."


A fairy queen  ::) passed by me a while ago and whispered this in my ear:
Quote
Any sysadmin would probably hate bots trying to behave like human users - every site can have it's resources sucked up and it's a pattern of usage (or expected peak pattern of usage)  that determines the safeguards to be taken, whether it's a small business or Myspace - when you have scripts thinking they are peoples, it messes up the agenda. I for one have no illusions why an agency would actively block robo-microstockers from accessing the websites in human areas,  via automated methods: extra resources being consumed potentially at the expense of customers.

The clerk sitting at the counter is very easily able to tell you how much you've sold, but it's not really going to be a good use of resources to come up to them asking again every 10 minutes "so did I sell, huh huh?" - especially if the main purpose of the inquiry was solely to compare which golden cow gave the most milk that day.
« Last Edit: March 20, 2009, 20:12 by FlemishDreams »

« Reply #20 on: March 21, 2009, 07:43 »
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How do you do that?  How do you have your 'local site' your online web space?

With Filezilla, you can transfer files (FTP = Files Transfer Protocol) from local to remote, remote to local, remote to remote, and local to local. The last option is of course obsolete since you can do it easier with the Windows file manager. You just have to select the proper sources in the left and right panes in Filezilla.


Yeah, I get how web hosts work as I have MSG with one and a number of other sites on another (blue host).  And get how the .htaccess files work to stop people peering into the directories.  however, what I still don't get is how to set filezilla to go to a remote server in the 'local server' area.

maybe I am blind but...
On the left side of filezilla I have 'local server' .  On the right side I have 'remote server' 
I am guessing in order to transfer remote -> remote I have to have 'remote server' on the left side as well.  How do I get it there?  Or how do I connect to two sites at once to transfer from remote -> remote.

I tried searching on google a bit but didn't come up with anything.

« Reply #21 on: March 21, 2009, 08:32 »
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Ok, after spending a while looking I finally found out that server -> server transfer is called fxp

Older versions of filezilla don't do fxp (version 2)  I still haven't figuered out if filezilla 3.X does.. or I guess it does since FlemishDreams figured it out, but I still don't know how.

« Reply #22 on: March 21, 2009, 08:43 »
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maybe I am blind but...
On the left side of filezilla I have 'local server' .  On the right side I have 'remote server' 
I am guessing in order to transfer remote -> remote I have to have 'remote server' on the left side as well.  How do I get it there?  Or how do I connect to two sites at once to transfer from remote -> remote.


Maybe I'm wrong on this one, sorry. I worked with so many FTP clients over the past years that I might well mix up features. I know I did it for a job last year in London but I used their machines and what was available there. They had fxp. I just started using Filezilla end last year when SmartFTP turned to be paying. I need to check it out...

Update: got it, but the FTP server needs to support it. The Filezilla Server version does it (ref in Dutch on tweakers.net). So basically, you will have to check the FTP server that is running on your host, and not much you can do about that. The Filezilla client is powerless when the FTP server doesn't support it. I can ask for a support ticket on hostgator.com or check the forums there.

I'm on low bandwidth in Asia but it's unlimited so what I mostly do is go to bed or go out while the transfers take place.
« Last Edit: March 21, 2009, 08:55 by FlemishDreams »

« Reply #23 on: March 21, 2009, 08:47 »
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Ok, then I think filezilla doesn't do that. I just downloaded the latest beta version and still no sign of it.  I also found this after a while of searching
http://forum.filezilla-project.org/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=10371

That thread is from march 2009 so it is probably still current.

What I did find though, is that SmartFTP (as you mentioned) and FlashFXP both do FXP transfers.

« Reply #24 on: March 21, 2009, 09:05 »
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What I did find though, is that SmartFTP (as you mentioned) and FlashFXP both do FXP transfers.

Since they added FXP recently to the Filezilla server, it can be in the pipeline for the Filezilla client too. We will just have to wait. A feature I really miss is handling shortcuts. I keep my main folder shooting-oriented (year-country-studio) and when uploading mixes, I still have to make a temporal copy of the images in a separate folder. It would be far more efficient to have upload batch folders existing just out of shortcuts. I tried it but Filezilla uploads the shortcut itself, not the file the shortcut points at. Maybe I missed it...

« Reply #25 on: March 21, 2009, 09:09 »
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Can ftp server upload actively as well, or can it just take requests? 

also, I'm testing out flashFXP, I'll let you know how it goes.
« Last Edit: March 21, 2009, 09:11 by leaf »

« Reply #26 on: March 21, 2009, 09:17 »
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can you use the filezilla server for regular ftp as well?  I didn't really get the difference between filezilla ftp and filezilla server.

The FTP server is different software that runs remotely on the server machine, and it accepts the commands from the FTP client on your local PC. The commands have a certain syntax and functionality (a protocol) that needs to be implemented by both the server and the client of course. That protocol is standardized (File Transfer Protocol) and it's even older than the HTTP protocol that gave us the web. SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) is also older. Email is older than the web, and so is FTP  :P

also, I'm testing out flashFXP, I'll let you know how it goes.

I just installed FlashFXP. It works on my own site. If it works on microstock sites, I'll have to find out on my next upload. But I'm going to do a small experiment on Mostphotos since it won't bother anybody there.
« Last Edit: March 21, 2009, 09:50 by FlemishDreams »


WarrenPrice

« Reply #27 on: March 21, 2009, 09:52 »
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Very interesting.  I'm wondering if I can use any of this.   My website is hosted by GoDaddy and built around WordPress.  I have a "folder" on the GoDaddy server that contains uploaded images used in my blogging and in a flash procedure that scrolls images on the home page.   

Most of that paragraph is probably only noise and confusion since I had someone do all the technical stuff and don't really know what I am talking about.  Can I build a folder to contain my "microstock" images on the GoDaddy server and transfer images from there to individual sites? 

I think that is what FlemishDreams is talking about?


« Reply #28 on: March 21, 2009, 10:21 »
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Can I build a folder to contain my "microstock" images on the GoDaddy server and transfer images from there to individual sites?

Yes, that's what we were trying out now. You will have to make a folder on your site apart from the Wordpress one, because you will run into a serious security risk if you upload the images in one of your Wordpress folders. Anybody clever enough can download your original photos from there just from his browser.

You will need to access your remote folder system directly and create a folder outside your Wordpress install, and call it for instance "_uploads". Make sure to put an empty "index.html" in there first, or any hacker or lucky user will get a file list from there and can start downloading in his browser.

Then you need to upload your images in that folder by any FTP program. Of course you need to know your own FTP URL, user name and password. The Godaddy control panel can give you that.

Then install FlashFXP and you can transfer from your own host (folder "_uploads") to the microstock site and it will not be done on your PC but between the two FTP servers. So it doesn't cost you bandwidth and it will probably be much faster too since those servers are on a backbone, unlike your home connection. You can do the same for any microstock site. As a bonus, you have your own backup online.
« Last Edit: March 21, 2009, 10:24 by FlemishDreams »

« Reply #29 on: March 22, 2009, 19:20 »
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FXP must be enabled on both FTP servers, which obviously includes the microstock agency FTP servers in this situation. Flemmish, have you successfully uploaded files with FXP before? I read that it opens some vulnerabilities, so I don't expect microstock agencies would have it enabled.

« Reply #30 on: March 22, 2009, 21:55 »
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FXP must be enabled on both FTP servers, which obviously includes the microstock agency FTP servers in this situation. Flemmish, have you successfully uploaded files with FXP before? I read that it opens some vulnerabilities, so I don't expect microstock agencies would have it enabled.

No, it didn't work on hostgator from my side. My server only wants to deal in and out with my own IP, obviously the IP that I logged in with. Perhaps it can be reconfigured since I put security and restrictions maximum after an incident. I didn't check the hostgator forum yet.

microstockphoto.co.uk

« Reply #31 on: May 23, 2010, 03:02 »
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FXP must be enabled on both FTP servers, which obviously includes the microstock agency FTP servers in this situation. Flemmish, have you successfully uploaded files with FXP before? I read that it opens some vulnerabilities, so I don't expect microstock agencies would have it enabled.

That's the problem actually. I tried FXP with all major microstock sites but it's NOT enabled.

We'd need a free or cheap FXP disguised as FTP; that's what iSyndica and PhotoShelter do, but it's way too dear in my opinion.

EDIT: I know it's an old thread but I searched and searched but the problem is still unsolved
« Last Edit: May 23, 2010, 03:04 by microstockphoto.co.uk »

« Reply #32 on: May 23, 2010, 05:34 »
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I think its unsolved because most people have worked out that the time saving from using Isyndica rather than trying to faff around with all of the channels themselves is well worth the subscription prices they charge.

« Reply #33 on: May 23, 2010, 13:50 »
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I think its unsolved because most people have worked out that the time saving from using Isyndica rather than trying to faff around with all of the channels themselves is well worth the subscription prices they charge.

rather - those who continue to USE isyndica have found that to be true, but that's a tautology.  it's not a cure for everyone

steve


 

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