MicrostockGroup

As an uploading 'artist' (quotations because well...) I don't really care too much about 'community action' or whatever it is they call it.  I'd rather have the 30 cents in my pocket instead of downloading someone else's photos and I get nothing but a photo that I can't really use for anything because I'm not a designer.  So how about if LO starts handing out credits and allowing us to convert them to coin....doesn't have to be 30 cents, could be 20 cents per photo....otherwise the point of these stupid tokens is lost on me

Has anyone tryied downlaoding your own photos. Is it against the rules.

I agree it is pointless for me to be able to buy photos.  I take photos and would only uses ones that are significant to me in some way.

I'm currently studying to be a designer but i would also rather have money then tokens. Tokens are useless for designers unless they feel good about paying the company expenses out of their own pocket. And the handfull of succesfull self-emploid designers don't have the spare time to take pictures so i guess this feature is pretty useless.

I agree 100% I loaded up 39 pictures which are good ones and do well on other sites and only got 2 views in 2 weeks. Not for me if it is not cash I won't bother!

Hmmm ... let's see.... if I download someone's photo and he download mine, do we both get paid   

It says on Lucky Oliver's site that we are not supposed to download our own images.

If you start trading credits with eachother, you will get an email fairly quickly from Lucky Oliver that this is frowned upon as well.

I would have to agree, that credits are pretty useless to me, it would be great to be able to get something that is of value to me the photographer if they are first going to give something out.

I'm confused about the tokens too...I do some small design projects at times and download other people's photographs. What is wrong with using the tokens for this purpose? Or if we see a nice pic for our desktop? Can you clarify why we have tokens Bryan?

In response to Boylet:

Not a fan of 'fake' traffic.  There are a few steps that need to be taken to make the site work, so I would hope that they do it that way.  I know you're just trying to justify what they are doing, so this is not an attack on your argument.  I just think they are better off letting us cash them in.

I'm glad no offense was taken.  I don't want to harass or make anyone feel uncomfortable in the community like some people have on SS forums (hehehe and have been censored from everywhere). 

I think that LO should be investing in the community of photographers that will make their product work well for them.  I htink that is the best way to go and this token for others but not for me program just doesn't cut it.  We all would like the money more than the other guy and Fotolia saw this (unfortunately I missed out on that) but its worked wonders for them - I sound like a broken record -

Where in the world is Bryan?  lol - reminds me of something........

I shared a gallery space in Sausalito with an artist for a year.  It was a part time thing- perhaps a hobby gone wrong- where I worked the studio space once a week.  She lived in it.

It was a pretty cool experience.  I learned a lot about people on the strip. Artists would occasionally give their work to each other for favors, gifts, or just to say thanks for being a friend. I thought it was a neat gesture considering that I was selling to tourists most of the day.

LuckyOliver is still early in development- we don't have many community tools yet for being a 'community site'- but we'll get there. I'm hopeful that as we continue to grow you'll notice that we do things differently. We realize there are many sites trying to sell photos.  We also know that doing things like everyone else is certain death.

The tokens are a small way of saying thanks.  It creates some activity- however not all our business decisions are purely money driven. We're focused on creating a solid business that is built on ideas, energy and people. For a pure photographer the tokens may not mean much, but I'm assuming no harm is done with a few of 'em sitting in your piggy bank!

Thanks for the input...I look forward to seeing more of everyone's work. The images submitted are truly amazing. It's very inspiring and has me shooting more photos!

They've been really good about approving photos. Pretty much all of mine have been approved either the same day or the next. On the right hand side of the Submit Photos page under the upload more box there should be all the thumbnails of pending images. If they aren't there then they probably aren't queued for review.

I see from the latest LO newsletter that they have introduced affiliate earnings

$5 for a new buyer

$1 for a new photographer when they have first three photos accepted (they might want to start checking IDs)

and they used one of Leaf's photos in the newsletter.

I don't agree with your analogy. It's like McDonalds gave you a toy with your happy meal and said, but you can't play with it or thanking their customers with a coupon worth 0% off their next meal. . You are a designer and photographer, so the tokens have some value. They are a thank you  with some meaning. To us photographers, we are amassing huge somes of 'tokens' that don't mean anything. No we're no worse off than if we weren't given the tokens, but we were - so they should mean something. I'll bet they mean something somewhere on LO's accounting system.