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Author Topic: What do you strongly dislike about Dreamstime?  (Read 49048 times)

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ap

« Reply #100 on: September 26, 2009, 12:56 »
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you'll need to read his earlier posts.

i think their commission dropped from 50 to 30%.
« Last Edit: September 26, 2009, 12:59 by ap »


« Reply #101 on: September 26, 2009, 13:13 »
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you'll need to read his earlier posts.

Thanks __ my tongue was firmly in my cheek. I was pointing out that he's overstated his case about 45x both here and on the DT forums over the last couple of weeks and yet is still going.

ap

« Reply #102 on: September 26, 2009, 13:17 »
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 :D :D

« Reply #103 on: September 26, 2009, 13:27 »
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traveller1116, i see what you feel...if you don't have money pendig to request...have you raised baout "breaking their rules" intentionally in order to get your account cancelled? I mean... not doing anything illegal of course  ;D but arguing with the admins , discussing their policies and critizising them at blogs and forums, uploading all youir refused files and leting them know (I read about people having their accounts removed for doing that),etc... getting them angry  ;D ;D ;D

Of course if you are planning in a future to return to DT DON'T do that  ;D ;D ;D

traveler1116

« Reply #104 on: September 26, 2009, 14:16 »
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...sounds like my credit card company...

however, you may have acted on principal, but the end result just were of no benefit to you. to be fair, is does have subscription sales and the commission on the per pic sold is the highest at dt.

IS subs don't really seem to affect anything, they still use an almost regular credit price for those, it's not a huge difference and I don't (or anyone else i think) get a lot of them.  30% is hardly the highest anymore is it?  I think 123rf is still 50% right?

traveler1116

« Reply #105 on: September 26, 2009, 14:23 »
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traveller1116, i see what you feel...if you don't have money pendig to request...have you raised baout "breaking their rules" intentionally in order to get your account cancelled? I mean... not doing anything illegal of course  ;D but arguing with the admins , discussing their policies and critizising them at blogs and forums, uploading all youir refused files and leting them know (I read about people having their accounts removed for doing that),etc... getting them angry  ;D ;D ;D

Of course if you are planning in a future to return to DT DON'T do that  ;D ;D ;D

I have argued with admins, and have relayed the response ( TOS says: we can do what we want, change price for any reason and you have to keep images on for 6 months),  breaking their rules just causes them to lock all keywords and descriptions forever, mine have been locked for over a year, I have written on their forum and been banned from them before (i'm not now, but i will if I say what I want) for saying that everyone should protest their policy of "holding images hostage", I don't want to upload refused images because who knows if they will accept one and then I have to wait 6 more months to get out.  They are a little erratic with their reviews but most companies are to an extent, if they get angry they will just block your posting privledges and then make you wait it out so there isn't much point in that.  That's why I chose to post my issues here.

The thing is they have shown that they want ME more than I want them, they won't ban me forever because they need CONTRIBUTORS to make money. We should all realize this and stop putting up with these kind of terrible policies.
« Last Edit: September 26, 2009, 14:34 by traveler1116 »

traveler1116

« Reply #106 on: September 26, 2009, 14:25 »
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you'll need to read his earlier posts.

Thanks __ my tongue was firmly in my cheek. I was pointing out that he's overstated his case about 45x both here and on the DT forums over the last couple of weeks and yet is still going.

If its not an issue for you to get the commission dropped from 50% to 30% then I say good for you.  For me it's an issue that really bothers me, why are you saying that it has been said way too much?   I find it strange that you can honestly say that you don't care if your % of earnings has been dropped by 40%.  Please explain what is overstated: they changed the % I get when I uploaded and I can't delete my images because of that(if any company besides BigStock does that I can leave them.
« Last Edit: September 26, 2009, 14:31 by traveler1116 »

traveler1116

« Reply #107 on: September 26, 2009, 14:48 »
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you'll need to read his earlier posts.

Thanks __ my tongue was firmly in my cheek. I was pointing out that he's overstated his case about 45x both here and on the DT forums over the last couple of weeks and yet is still going.

If its not an issue for you to get the commission dropped from 50% to 30% then I say good for you.  For me it's an issue that really bothers me, why are you saying that it has been said way too much (i only said I couldn't delete any images on the DT forums, they fixed that)?   I find it strange that you can honestly say that you don't care if your % of earnings has been dropped by 40%.  Please explain what is overstated: they changed the % I get when I uploaded and I can't delete my images because of that(if any company besides BigStock does that I can leave them.

« Reply #108 on: September 26, 2009, 21:19 »
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Two weeks here of "learning" mandarin and then 2.5 months traveling around before another 3 in India then Europe for a few days or until the money runs out.  Go to patagonia, el chalten is amazing if you get good weather (a big if), but I think it was the most amazing place we went in the six months in SA.  BTW did you stop uploading, I haven't seen any new images for a while?

Yep... just to get the thread back off topic... I stopped uploading for about 6 weeks while at Machu Picchu and in Bolivia - I'm now in Buenos Aires for at least a month to do a bit of work. Finally have some files back in my upload que and will be working through a backlog of about 400 photos, so there should be plenty of new photos online soon ;)

traveler1116

« Reply #109 on: September 26, 2009, 23:56 »
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Two weeks here of "learning" mandarin and then 2.5 months traveling around before another 3 in India then Europe for a few days or until the money runs out.  Go to patagonia, el chalten is amazing if you get good weather (a big if), but I think it was the most amazing place we went in the six months in SA.  BTW did you stop uploading, I haven't seen any new images for a while?

Yep... just to get the thread back off topic... I stopped uploading for about 6 weeks while at Machu Picchu and in Bolivia - I'm now in Buenos Aires for at least a month to do a bit of work. Finally have some files back in my upload que and will be working through a backlog of about 400 photos, so there should be plenty of new photos online soon ;)


Good, can't wait to see them.  Enjoy Argentina. 

« Reply #110 on: September 28, 2009, 01:21 »
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Traveller might be onto something here.  If DT has a 6 month rule to delete your photos, they should really have a 6 month notice with price changes.  I have to say they give us better notice than most of the others - like FT.  Oh, I forgot - they don't give notice, we just find out policy changes by accident.

In all fairness Dreamstime has done a very good job of communicating changes and giving fair warning.  As most of us have experienced, there has been fairly recent history of sites making major changes to both pricing and contributors share without any warning and news of the changes only coming long AFTER the change, if at all.

And yes I like Dreamstime, but why I am not exclusive there... because it simply doesn't make sense to be exclusive. Even if I liked 100% of the things Dreamstime did, I wouldn't be exclusive.  I make more money submitting to multiple agencies.

Noodles

« Reply #111 on: September 28, 2009, 06:58 »
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I like Dreamtime too!  Level 5 imagery pays well and often.

« Reply #112 on: September 28, 2009, 07:28 »
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Traveller might be onto something here.  If DT has a 6 month rule to delete your photos, they should really have a 6 month notice with price changes.  I have to say they give us better notice than most of the others - like FT.  Oh, I forgot - they don't give notice, we just find out policy changes by accident.

In all fairness Dreamstime has done a very good job of communicating changes and giving fair warning.  As most of us have experienced, there has been fairly recent history of sites making major changes to both pricing and contributors share without any warning and news of the changes only coming long AFTER the change, if at all.

And yes I like Dreamstime, but why I am not exclusive there... because it simply doesn't make sense to be exclusive. Even if I liked 100% of the things Dreamstime did, I wouldn't be exclusive.  I make more money submitting to multiple agencies.

I find DT okay, but I think 'fair warning' should be at least the same as the lock-in period. You can't have your cake and eat it too (I've never really understood that phrase, surely the reason you would want cake is to eat it???).

« Reply #113 on: September 28, 2009, 07:52 »
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Traveller might be onto something here.  If DT has a 6 month rule to delete your photos, they should really have a 6 month notice with price changes.  I have to say they give us better notice than most of the others - like FT.  Oh, I forgot - they don't give notice, we just find out policy changes by accident.

In all fairness Dreamstime has done a very good job of communicating changes and giving fair warning.  As most of us have experienced, there has been fairly recent history of sites making major changes to both pricing and contributors share without any warning and news of the changes only coming long AFTER the change, if at all.

And yes I like Dreamstime, but why I am not exclusive there... because it simply doesn't make sense to be exclusive. Even if I liked 100% of the things Dreamstime did, I wouldn't be exclusive.  I make more money submitting to multiple agencies.

I find DT okay, but I think 'fair warning' should be at least the same as the lock-in period. You can't have your cake and eat it too (I've never really understood that phrase, surely the reason you would want cake is to eat it???).

From the point of view of contract law, you're probably right - if someone felt strongly enough about the issue to challenge DT on the lock-in having significantly changed their terms, they'd probably be successful. Obviously this wouldn't apply if you've already accepted the new terms by submitting more images. Problem is that most independent contributors are pretty much locked in through circumstances anyhow, and mostly don't want to - or can't- now change.


traveler1116

« Reply #114 on: September 28, 2009, 09:01 »
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Traveller might be onto something here.  If DT has a 6 month rule to delete your photos, they should really have a 6 month notice with price changes.  I have to say they give us better notice than most of the others - like FT.  Oh, I forgot - they don't give notice, we just find out policy changes by accident.

In all fairness Dreamstime has done a very good job of communicating changes and giving fair warning.  As most of us have experienced, there has been fairly recent history of sites making major changes to both pricing and contributors share without any warning and news of the changes only coming long AFTER the change, if at all.

And yes I like Dreamstime, but why I am not exclusive there... because it simply doesn't make sense to be exclusive. Even if I liked 100% of the things Dreamstime did, I wouldn't be exclusive.  I make more money submitting to multiple agencies.

I find DT okay, but I think 'fair warning' should be at least the same as the lock-in period. You can't have your cake and eat it too (I've never really understood that phrase, surely the reason you would want cake is to eat it???).

From the point of view of contract law, you're probably right - if someone felt strongly enough about the issue to challenge DT on the lock-in having significantly changed their terms, they'd probably be successful. Obviously this wouldn't apply if you've already accepted the new terms by submitting more images. Problem is that most independent contributors are pretty much locked in through circumstances anyhow, and mostly don't want to - or can't- now change.



My guess is that I am not locked legally locked into these terms either and have not uploaded since the change in policy was made official, but dreamstime is an eastern european company I think so I don't have much choice in terms of legal recourse.  I have voiced my concerns with them and they have totally ignored me, that's why I feel as though my only choice is to tell as many people as I can that I don't like or trust this company.  It's sad really that they can be so unbending on something that at least to me seems so wrong, they can use the TOS to justify absolutely anything as they have said before.  I just hope I get out before they do anything else worse to us (like a 1 year lockin period or lowering commissions to 20%, it's in the TOS "we can change anything for any reason").  Well I hope someone has listened and at least thought a bit more before continuing with them and Holgs have fun down there.

abimages

« Reply #115 on: September 28, 2009, 11:57 »
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Traveller might be onto something here.  If DT has a 6 month rule to delete your photos, they should really have a 6 month notice with price changes.  I have to say they give us better notice than most of the others - like FT.  Oh, I forgot - they don't give notice, we just find out policy changes by accident.

In all fairness Dreamstime has done a very good job of communicating changes and giving fair warning.  As most of us have experienced, there has been fairly recent history of sites making major changes to both pricing and contributors share without any warning and news of the changes only coming long AFTER the change, if at all.

And yes I like Dreamstime, but why I am not exclusive there... because it simply doesn't make sense to be exclusive. Even if I liked 100% of the things Dreamstime did, I wouldn't be exclusive.  I make more money submitting to multiple agencies.

I find DT okay, but I think 'fair warning' should be at least the same as the lock-in period. You can't have your cake and eat it too (I've never really understood that phrase, surely the reason you would want cake is to eat it???).

From the point of view of contract law, you're probably right - if someone felt strongly enough about the issue to challenge DT on the lock-in having significantly changed their terms, they'd probably be successful. Obviously this wouldn't apply if you've already accepted the new terms by submitting more images. Problem is that most independent contributors are pretty much locked in through circumstances anyhow, and mostly don't want to - or can't- now change.



 I just hope I get out before they do anything else worse to us (like a 1 year lockin period or lowering commissions to 20%, it's in the TOS "we can change anything for any reason").  Well I hope someone has listened and at least thought a bit more before continuing with them and Holgs have fun down there.

Yikes I hope not too :o I'm serving my time out there too!
Actually they could surely only change the lockin for new images following an announcement?

« Reply #116 on: September 28, 2009, 12:34 »
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I too have been thinking lately about starting to pull out of DT because of the 6-month period.  If a better way to market my images suddenly comes along, I don't want them locked in at DT for 6 months.  That's a totally unreasonable condition and had I not been such a clueless newbie at the start, I wouldn't have signed on with DT because of it.

ap

« Reply #117 on: September 28, 2009, 12:41 »
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  If a better way to market my images suddenly comes along, I don't want them locked in at DT for 6 months. 


it would only make sense if the new market requires your exclusivity. otherwise, why not collect the pennies till your time is up? (why do you all sound like jailbirds?)

« Reply #118 on: September 28, 2009, 14:28 »
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it would only make sense if the new market requires your exclusivity.

... or if a new site could bring me significantly higher prices, and I didn't want to compete with myself for the first 6 months.
« Last Edit: September 28, 2009, 15:21 by stockastic »

traveler1116

« Reply #119 on: September 29, 2009, 04:22 »
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abimages, they said to me and it's in their TOS that they can change anything at anytime for any reason and you will be bound to it, I really doubt this is legal anywhere but they would really need to piss off a lot of people before they got sued. 

« Reply #120 on: September 29, 2009, 08:38 »
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I'm pulling images.  Too many subscription sales... which would be Fine, but they only pay minimum amount for both small and large images. IStock pays more for large / x-large subscriptions.


Just my quick list:
1.  6 months of holding images
2.  increased amount of subscription sales
3.  falling RPI
4.  new pricing policy
5.  disabling images not deleting them
6.  slowest disabling process for images, having to put a reason for each one
7.  getting images rejected for having a model release
8.  locking keywords on basically every image
9.  giving away free images

edited because hate is too strong

« Reply #121 on: September 29, 2009, 13:24 »
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... or if a new site could bring me significantly higher prices,....

Do you actually forsee this in the future?  Call me pesimistic, but I dont!

RacePhoto

« Reply #122 on: September 29, 2009, 15:00 »
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is anyone up for a thread on 'things you like about dreamstime?' there are a few off the top of my head. but will get i get stoned if i do this? 

Actually I have nothing for either, except the navigation and design which I like on DT. Nothing that I strongly dislike, it's a little to heavy for my taste.  ;D

Since the thread has moved into removed images, why do they all show as disabled, after I waited 6 months so I could delete them, including one that was disabled and I re-activated which started the clock all over again.

They are all still there? When do files get removed, instead of de-activated? It makes me wonder.

lisafx

« Reply #123 on: September 29, 2009, 18:50 »
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But something is keeping you back from being exclusive there, I assume there is something you at least moderately dislike?  

Sorry to disappoint, but the reason I am not exclusive anywhere has nothing to do with how much I "like" a site.  It is a purely financial decision.

I continue to be happy with Dreamstime for all the reasons previously stated, but they are currently only around 11% of my earnings.  So no, I am not tempted to be exclusive there.

My top seller, Istock, is under 40% of earnings so I won't be going exclusive there either in case you were going to ask ;)
« Last Edit: September 29, 2009, 18:58 by lisafx »

traveler1116

« Reply #124 on: September 30, 2009, 01:46 »
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Last 20 sales:  10 subscription sales, 8 of those at large or maximum size, and 6 of them level 2.  Not much more to say I guess, but weren't we told that higher levels would be easier to reach?  My RPD is down to 88 cents now from last year at 1.12 and down from last few months by at least 13%.  This even though I have deleted most of my level one files (down from over 1300 files to under 300 now), my RPD should be much higher since most of my files are level 2 now.  Compare that with RPD at Istock of 1.85.
« Last Edit: September 30, 2009, 01:49 by traveler1116 »


 

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