MicrostockGroup

though the open concept forum is much appreciated and needed, I do wish you would moderate a bit more to keep discussions on topic and to prevent the type of ridiculous off-roading that happens regularly here. particularly when it gets ugly. it doesn't add anything to the site.

Yeah - I know.  That's the mentality I'd like to destroy but I know my odds in this industry. I've gotta say there are definitely groups who do it better and succeed because of it.

more sales! 

Yep.  I agree.  Also, maybe those who know could post links to sites/forums for buyer discussions.  I would love to hear their thoughts on all elements of using pictures.

We have a former lawguy.  I don't enjoy looking at TOS's tho lol

There if you haven't see yet http://www.microstockgroup.com/general-stock-discussion/designer-thoughts-on-microstock/

Not a very apt analogy - hockey is a team sport, so the athletes must practice together. It's not uncommon for elite athletes in individual sports to train in isolation - just look at Shaun White, Shani Davis, Lindsey Vonn, etc.

You will be disapointed to see that they actually never talk about stock photography. It look like I have been lucky that this designer was recovering from swine flu and wanted to talk about our standard happy smiling people pictures... and jumping gold fishes

Although this sounds like a good idea in reality it would be pointless, most microstock buyers that are classed as 'designers' are in actual fact not designers per se but just someone who buys images and sticks them on websites and the like, and there are thousands of them and each one has a different perspective on how they buy images and what they look for, any input they would give you would be of no real value to you at all. Every once in a while you'll see a buyer ask for more shots of 'real people' and you'll see a flux of amateurs uploading shots of their neighbours that of course then don't sell or have the odd one or two sales, these wannabe designers think they want real people but they don't what they want is models with the 'girl (or guy) next door' look which doesn't actually mean the person next door but the person you'd like to live next door. Real people suck, they're fat, ugly, dress badly and don't take care of themselves.

As strange as it may seem it is us the photographers that dictate what sells and that is by providing the images that the 'designers' can then take the credit for, a lot of them don't know what they need until they see it.

If you want some valuable input then get hold of a good art director or marketing manager and speak to them, or just do some of your own market research.

Edit: After having typed this I read that thread you linked to earlier, that just goes to highlight what I mean about some 'designers' are clueless, getting folk like the ones who answered your questions on that site to come here would be counterproductive, I feel sorry for any real designers who might read the replies you got and then cringe at being tagged into the same group as them.

I was just thinking ... John at Cutcaster and Achilles at Dreamstime have access to all the buyers ... especially the ones who buy their products.  Wonder what they think of this idea.   

That's a good idea. It's like the sticky notes at the top of IS and SS's forums. I sometimes write articles on my blog about things I want to remember, so I have easy access to them later.    It works great for things like old royalty and price rates that disappear from sites. But sometimes you wonder what you used to get paid.

Definitely agree with this, more stats. We as users could make them, if people will often participate. I feel like the group here can offer some nice information.
I suppose we could always just use posts with polls, or surveymonkey.com or something.

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