For those who don't get the newsletter:
    
"Contributor News: Collections Changes - June 13, 2013

We are happy to announce we will be launching the NEW Collections structure on the afternoon of June 13th, 2013.  We've compiled the FAQs and a breakdown of the Collections changes here in the last newsletter. Please take a moment to review these links.

Please note:
        Uploads will not be disabled during the transition.
        Inspections will be disabled on June 13, 2013 at 2pm until 6pm MST
        The Connector will be offline from June 13, 2013 2pm until approximately June 14, 2013 9am MST

If you would like to be notified of any changes to this schedule you can subscribe to the Announcement thread here

We expect this transition will only take 24-48 hours and will be actively monitoring all aspects of the launch to ensure things roll out smoothly.

It's important that we clarify to the contributor base that the migration process will happen gradually in phases over the coming days and weeks. This approach will let us monitor each change more closely and ensure the results are right before moving to the next migration. Your patience during this process is much appreciated.

It's an exciting change and we expect this will provide the buyer community with a more simplified experience.

Join the discussion here.

Which leads me to the next line item in our newsletter today�
Updated Pricing Filter


In addition to the Collections restructure we are launching our Updated Price filter. The slider has been greatly improved to make it far more noticeable and easier for the customers to use. The logic that classifies each asset into the price tiers has been improved to give customers a better ability to find the right image at the right price.

For photos this means:

    $: Main
    $$: Signature
    $$$: Signature+
    $$$$: Vetta


The logic that classifies each assest has also been updated to accommodate collections and complexity for Illustration, Video and Audio content. Due to changes to the collections structure we will also see an increase in content in the 3rd($$$) and 4th($$$$) levels of the price filter. This will allow customers who use the price filter to find higher priced, quality content to see more results. We should also note that regardless of what setting the buyer selects, Exclusive content will be featured in their searches.

This feature will go live Thursday June 13, 2013.
Join us in the discussion forum.

Forum Downtime
The Forums will be coming down on the afternoon of Tuesday June 18, 2013 due to some back end maintenance that needs to be done. So Lobo, Kelvinjay, and RobMattingely are going to have a Spa day. We should have things back up and running for the evening."


Announcement also in the announcement forum oddly placed in the discussion forum:
http://www.istockphoto.com/forum_messages.php?threadid=354349&page=1

so the photo + will jump to signature +, will exclusives and indies have the same pricing?

thanks for sharing Sue

FAQs second article in this thread:
http://www.istockphoto.com/forum_messages.php?threadid=353725&page=1

Photo+ files are now listed as (DEACTIVATED) Photo+ but still seem to have premium pricing if you try to find a purchase price. It's a bit scary seeing (DEACTIVATED) next to all your best-selling files.

All my files are now main collection, not a single file made it to signature.

The price slider is very visible and easy to understand. But I certainly miss being able to choose a price point.

Anyway, let's see what the site looks like on Monday or Tuesday.

All my exclusive plus are now in Signature, including the better-sellers, only my old Vettas are in Sig+, including the lower sellers.
Wonder if they'll tell us when the process is completed.

They are also doing it in June, not september, so they can use the slow summer to fix any bugs.

That is probably the biggest improvement, no September drama.

When I used the slider, I can see some of mine were moved into different collections.

Are there any new icons for the new collections? I can't see any, except Vetta which is shown in text below the file name. For S+, below the file name, I can see "Stock Photo", the same as S. You can only tell it's S+ because the price is higher than S.

When I use the slider all of mine are in the lowest pricing.  That is worrying.  Also I only have collection filters for Main
or Value Bin and about 80 of my worst sellers are now in the value bin.

I forgot, if I ever knew, that they were retaining the Value Bin. So it's five collections/price points, not four?

Quote from: ShadySue on June 13, 2013, 17:59

Quote from: fotografer on June 13, 2013, 17:48

When I use the slider all of mine are in the lowest pricing.  That is worrying.  Also I only have collection filters for Main
or Value Bin and about 80 of my worst sellers are now in the value bin.

I didn't think they were retaining the Value Bin. Is it actually five collections/price points, rather than four?

I have never had anything in the Value Bin, my slider only has 4 choices. What are the prices for small size in Value Bin and S?

If you look in My Uploads at the dropdown for Collections, there are 5 choices, one being Value Bin. All my old VB files seem currently to be in the main collection, from the two which flamed there, to those that never sold even in the VC; as usual, I can't find any link to the value collection  , but others can usually help me with this.

Quote from: ShadySue on June 13, 2013, 18:20

Quote from: Freedom on June 13, 2013, 18:09

Quote from: ShadySue on June 13, 2013, 17:59

Quote from: fotografer on June 13, 2013, 17:48

When I use the slider all of mine are in the lowest pricing.  That is worrying.  Also I only have collection filters for Main
or Value Bin and about 80 of my worst sellers are now in the value bin.

I didn't think they were retaining the Value Bin. Is it actually five collections/price points, rather than four?

I have never had anything in the Value Bin, my slider only has 4 choices. What are the prices for small size in Value Bin and S?

If you look in My Uploads at the dropdown for Collections, there are 5 choices, one being Value Bin. All my old VB files seem currently to be in the main collection, from the two which flamed there, to those that never sold even in the VC; as usual, I can't find any link to the value collection  , but others can usually help me with this.

I did what you said, I don't have the DB choice, perhaps because I don't have anything there.

There are only 4 choices from the slider, $-$$-$$$-$$$$. For $, the lowest price is $5, right?

I also have 4 choices from the price slider, but in �.
Like I said, I do have VC available in the dropdown, but no files currently in the VC.

A bit upset. My exclusive content has all been put into signature level...which is fine except they won't mirror to Getty anymore...apparently only Sig+ and Vetta get mirrored now. Outside of that little kick in the nuts, I don't have a problem with where my content was placed.

Looks like my few Agency files have become Vetta, my old Vettas have become S+ and all my previous E+ have been demoted to S along with all my other images.

So I've gone from thousands of images selling at E+, Vetta and Agency to 450.

The higher prices were the only thing that kept my returns afloat since sale numbers are so poor. Looks like this is a method for making the majority of the collection cheaper. Good for buyers, bad for artists.

Hmmm.... All my P+ appear to have been demoted to main. I don't think that will benefit me or iStock. Hopefully they have simply not gone through everything yet.