Quote from: sjlocke on October 03, 2011, 20:40

Ah, ok, well ... a couple minutes of searching will bring up things like photaki and the israeli micro and yay, etc.

Anyways, yes, the whole punishment program is confusing.

This is hilarious, watching sjlocke calling out Fotolia, while submitting to IStockphoto - talk about pot calling kettle black...LOL.

Sean's point is either a fair call or not. Whether or not iStock are are steaming pile of whatever doesn't alter what Fotolia's doing in any way. If you think his point in flawed, point out how.

I haven't yet seen anything logically consistent in Fotolia's various explanations for its recent policy on changing prices and/or commissions for independents. I think Sean's just pointing out one or two of the many gaping holes in their purported explanations.

Regular readers here already have got the message that you're not a member of the sjlocke fan club.

We have worked with industry leaders such as Yuri Arcurs and Mark Butler (Monkey Business) to convince agencies like deposit photos to sell at sustainable prices reflected by the current online market leaders. We applaud their recent success and hope the trend will continue. We encourage all photographers with portfolios on this and similar sites to do the same.

Chad Bridwell
Director of Operations
Fotolia.com

Mentioning Yuri Arcurs and Mark Butler puts them in a spot. It will make it easier to put blame not only you, but also Yuri and Mark for any negotiations that will not benefit Fotolia contributors. Since you have worked with them, I think contributors will expect replies from both of these industry leaders. Fotolia contributors have a right to hear from Yuri and Mark since you put them in the middle! Now, if you wrote what you wrote without their consent, in my opinion it is unprofessional coming from a Director of Operations. But that's just my opinion! 

Quote from: nruboc on October 04, 2011, 01:25

Quote from: sjlocke on October 03, 2011, 20:40

Ah, ok, well ... a couple minutes of searching will bring up things like photaki and the israeli micro and yay, etc.

Anyways, yes, the whole punishment program is confusing.

This is hilarious, watching sjlocke calling out Fotolia, while submitting to IStockphoto - talk about pot calling kettle black...LOL.

Maybe it is, I don't know... but it is not a bit less hilarious than watching nruboc calling out constantly istock while submitting to Fotolia and affiliates and supporting their new policies.

I've submitted to both agencies, so yes I can clearly say, IStock is 10x worse. 

Quote from: loop on October 04, 2011, 05:54

Quote from: nruboc on October 04, 2011, 01:25

Quote from: sjlocke on October 03, 2011, 20:40

Ah, ok, well ... a couple minutes of searching will bring up things like photaki and the israeli micro and yay, etc.

Anyways, yes, the whole punishment program is confusing.

This is hilarious, watching sjlocke calling out Fotolia, while submitting to IStockphoto - talk about pot calling kettle black...LOL.

Maybe it is, I don't know... but it is not a bit less hilarious than watching nruboc calling out constantly istock while submitting to Fotolia and affiliates and supporting their new policies.

I've submitted to both agencies, so yes I can clearly say, IStock is 10x worse. 

I'm always interested in what Sean has to say even about sites he doesn't contribute too.

I finally reached silver today and I hope they won't throw me back into white level.

Chad's post says specifically that "this rule only applies to Emerald, Ruby, Sapphire, and Diamond ranked images that are non-exclusive, and selling at prices above the standard XS price."


You should be good to go ibogdan.  Congrats on your rank increase by the way.

Mat

I finally reached silver today and I hope they won't throw me back into white level.

congrats! you should be at 31% not 25%

Sooo trippy. What is FT saying here, I mean, if we are concerned about "destructive retail pricing" Fotolia will be about the second of the many sites we submit to to be dropped. I'm not sure how their minds are working on this one if at all.
Again, if they were one of the higher priced agencies it may make a bit of sense, but they have been leading the race to the bottom as far as the retail price goes. Suddenly now that their bottom line isn't sustainable it's a problem. They've had no concern at all about our bottom line all these years. I don't know where they get the balls.

It becomes clear that iStockphoto works on ThinStock and is about to compete with newcomers using this very website with its prices and opportunities it gives without damaging the existing relationship model with iStock's suppliers.

We can also observe that DepositPhotos confidently follows iStock's and not Forolia's policy and therefore, is surely going to increase prices as soon as some particular level is reached. 123RF obviously keeps to low pricing even though it has reached positive results.

I believe that prices on the microstocks like DepositPhotos will rise while on some others they never will. Still, the market itself will determine the consumers' needs. It's important to raise payments for authors and I'll never delete my portfolio from the source where I'm treated with full understanding and where I'm able to earn money.
The industry is in no danger. It's silly.

His influence?  Never heard of him.

http://www.deke.com/content/about-our-contributors His bio on his website

Quote from: chad_fotolia on October 03, 2011, 16:26

We have worked with industry leaders such as Yuri Arcurs and Mark Butler (Monkey Business) to convince agencies like deposit photos to sell at sustainable prices reflected by the current online market leaders. We applaud their recent success and hope the trend will continue. We encourage all photographers with portfolios on this and similar sites to do the same.

Chad Bridwell
Director of Operations
Fotolia.com

Mentioning Yuri Arcurs and Mark Butler puts them in a spot. It will make it easier to put blame not only you, but also Yuri and Mark for any negotiations that will not benefit Fotolia contributors. Since you have worked with them, I think contributors will expect replies from both of these industry leaders. Fotolia contributors have a right to hear from Yuri and Mark since you put them in the middle! Now, if you wrote what you wrote without their consent, in my opinion it is unprofessional coming from a Director of Operations. But that's just my opinion! 

No comment ?

Yuri posts here when he wants our opinions.  It would be good to know what he thinks about this.  If he said that he can't talk about it, that's fine.  At least we would know why there's no response from him.

Quote from: sjlocke on October 06, 2011, 10:21

Quote from: ProArtwork on October 04, 2011, 10:52

Quote from: chad_fotolia on October 03, 2011, 16:26

We have worked with industry leaders such as Yuri Arcurs and Mark Butler (Monkey Business) to convince agencies like deposit photos to sell at sustainable prices reflected by the current online market leaders. We applaud their recent success and hope the trend will continue. We encourage all photographers with portfolios on this and similar sites to do the same.

Chad Bridwell
Director of Operations
Fotolia.com

Mentioning Yuri Arcurs and Mark Butler puts them in a spot. It will make it easier to put blame not only you, but also Yuri and Mark for any negotiations that will not benefit Fotolia contributors. Since you have worked with them, I think contributors will expect replies from both of these industry leaders. Fotolia contributors have a right to hear from Yuri and Mark since you put them in the middle! Now, if you wrote what you wrote without their consent, in my opinion it is unprofessional coming from a Director of Operations. But that's just my opinion! 

No comment ?

We have "a right" to hear from them?  I'd love to hear from them as well to hear about the deals they struck, but do you really think they're going to come in here and tell us all about it?  They don't owe us anything.  Face it, we're all capitalists here.  We're all trying to create the best images and hoping that buyers will choose our stuff over everyone else's.  If you were in Yuri's or Mark's shoes, would you feel obligated to put your competition's interests on the same plane as yours, and report back to your competitors about deals you're striking with agencies? 

I don't see Yuri and Mark as carrying my fate in their hands.  If I want to succeed, it's on me to make that happen.  Yuri and Mark got where they are because they're  good, and if I want their success I have to reach out and grab it for myself.

+1