I think all this fuss is once again over the evasive communication and not the real issue. I don't believe JJ is maliciously being evasive. he is a very sincere person and is another of the HQ people who is truly behind the community. saying that, I wish they would just scrap this type of announcement and stick to facts. I would gladly take point form lists of changes we'll be seeing, without any drama.

How can you be a 'sincere person' whilst at the same time being famously 'evasive' in your communication. They are surely mutually incompatible qualities? I've always thought that his supposed sincerity was a painfully obvious act, that even a child could see through, and have always been amazed how many seem to fall for it.

Quite frankly he might as well have written that 'communication' in his native French or even Swahili for all the information I got out of it. From what I understand they are planning to do something to some things at some time in the future. Er ... that's it.

he may be required to release information in bits and pieces, a function of his role and part of the culture at iStock--the whole F5 business.

That was a previous 'iteration' of iStock.

If they surprised us with something good more often we might like it and look forward to it.

speaking of which, I'm reading Onward by Howard Schultz right now. My sister gave it to me. I like Starbucks coffee as much as anyone else, but Schultz is about as egomaniacal as it gets. talk about taking yourself way too seriously. has kind of turned me off Starbucks, lol.

I don't know if it has fully dawned on istock yet, but I think it is probably dawning.  It HAS to be, right??

My take is that all of this downward spiral is due from pressure from Getty to grow.  It's an incredibly well entrenched, though I believe old-fashioned and out-dated, business belief that a company must grow in order to survive.  Companies aren't allowed to remain static, but rather must grow... if they aren't growing, they are dying.  I'm not sure I think business model really applies to microstock, though I'm sure some people here will say otherwise.  But if you have the market share that iS once did, I don't think its possible to grow much, in this business.  Getty pressured them to grow or get slapped on the wrist, and that forced their hand with all these changes.

Some might call attention to the fact that SS is growing without these changes, but that's because it didn't have the marketshare iS once had, so it is growing by stealing its market share.  If it once reaches that near-monopoly status, I don't think it can grow anymore (besides the things stated in the SS forum like exclusivity options, etc).  My hope is that if and when it reaches that status, it is happy with sitting on that throne, and does not feel immense (outside or inside) pressure to grow.  Because if it does, that's when we get screwed.

It may be part of the business book-reading legacy from Bruce.

There are books out there that give marketing staff all the best phrases to use to whip up enthusiasm (God I hate those books).  I sometimes think they've read those, employed the phrases, and neglected to include the actual point.  When I used to read KT's messages, they struck me exactly the same way.  So I don't think it's a language issue.  I think it's a legacy issue.

I love this characterization of the original announcement from the IS forums (alanphillips): I'm copying here as I think it may not survive on IS.

"Really, the OP is so full of jargon, mumbo-jumbo and meaningless verbo-pompostic phrases that the true message is totally obscure. Its almost as if we have gone right back to the dark and fuzzy days before Sir Ernest Gower did his magic to clarify incromprehensible pompous bureaucratic English."

I did a search on Ernest Gower and found this page full of fun quotes and ways of describing this type of writing.

Never met the man (JJRD) so I have no opinion of him but based on his istock forum communications I`m not terribly impressed. Everything is always a huge success on one hand but not sustainable on the other. Huge bag of double speak. In the long term this tends to erode his credibility. So happy not to be exclusive there anymore. Don`t care for Lobo`s watch what you say or I`ll lock this thread bully tactics either.

On a personal level, I'm positive that JJRD is an ethically-minded individual. But you must bear in mind he is also a deconstructionist piss artist of the most superior order, someone who perceives the making of money from the labours of others as an art form. Marrying his persona with his job, he is consistent in warning us before the bombshell. This is now his third or fourth warning about the new inspections coming up. All he's really saying is "Tie up your loose ends, upload now as much as you can. Later you may not be so pleased with how your files are accepted." It's not as if he has any power in this. He's merely doing the best he can.

This is exactly what I am afraid is happening.  Prelude to a kiss, so to speak.

When I read this interview with Jonathan Klein, I wondered if he was talking about some company other than Getty, or some Getty from a parallel universe - this champion of values and social responsibility seems to me to bear no resemblance to the guiding hand squeezing the life out of iStock in pursuit of minimum costs and compliant contributors.

Thanks to StockPhotoTalk for the link

I think thet are going to install some automated process for artifacts, noise, out of focus etc

So it's now been a week since JJRD made his cryptic announcment. Have I missed something - where is the follow up?

And not a word from Andrew since?

The longer the silence, the worse I assume the changes are...

So it's now been a week since JJRD made his cryptic announcment. Have I missed something - where is the follow up?

And not a word from Andrew since?

The longer the silence, the worse I assume the changes are...

As I look into the crystal ball, I see... They are going to start telling us what photos they want based on, what content thinks we should be doing, search analysis and customer requests.



"My new job is to now come to you and say 'we would like more pictures of this or that subject.' Basically, I'll be highlighting our needs - letting you know what subjects our clients need more of, and giving advice on different ways of producing those subjects."