Guys like that are totally irrelevant to Shutterstock and they should be to us too. It is just a distraction trying to understand the bootlicker mentality.

Ignore and move on.

Shutterstock is losing. The community is winning. A few misguided die-hard supporters or PR agency plants talking things up will not help them.

They should have addressed their community on their own forums.
They should have addressed their community when they started their own Facebook group.
They should have addressed their community when an organisation was formed.
They sure as hell should have got the negotiating table out when the first press release went out.

Now they have lost the only thing that really matters in business, and perhaps in life - trust. Oh, and don't be a dick.

It's a sinking ship. Those manning the bilge pumps are wasting their time.
For those that work at SS, get your CVs out like Stan said you should (only this time on your terms). I'm pretty sure Adobe, Pond5 and others will need your services soon.

Clients - Move to agencies that treat their contributors better if you need stable and long-term relationships.

Send the word.

At the end of the day people can do whatever they wish with their time and images

All I have control over is my own dignity and self respect - which will not be undermined for dimes while the fat cats get the lions share

We all know where this was heading - but instead of coasting downhill, SS put the pedal to the metal And I�m not going to sit in that car and wait for the crash at the bottom

I don't automatically show respect for someone just because they happen to be older.  Just because you're older doesn't make you automatically right or somehow always smarter.  A lot of them don't deserve any respect anyway.

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Are we older people to be respected for building this crappy society that we give as a legacy to our children and grandchildren?
Certainly not!

Why do people expect for a single generation to solve ALL the problems of the world? Are we handing over a world full of problems to the younger generations? Yes. But what world have we inherited?

People talk like these are the worst of times and older people have done nothing but wrong. Did any of you went to school at all?

Up until recently there were countries where apartheid was the norm. In the US there are a lot of people still alive who lived in legally institutionalized racial discrimination. Where black people could not attend to school. It was the older people (at least part of them) that fought against that system allowing today for people from the minorities to go the the university and become highly respect intellectuals and scientists. Does that count for nothing?

European countries let go of their colonies, much to the struggle of the people in those colonies. But would that independence have been granted if the governments hadn't also faced internal support for the liberation of those colonies and against colonialism?

Labour laws are under attack in Europe in a clear regression regarding workers rights. Weren't all those rights a conquer from the older generations? Have people forgotten that working 8 hours a day wasn't something universal so long ago? In fact it's the lack of spine and cowardice of the younger generations that's allowing for all the benefits conquered in the past being lost.

Or the rising of the idea of ecology. This is not a concept invented by the 20 year olds. From the 1960/70s that people have been fighting for it with increasing success.

Is 2020 all that worst than the 1950/60's with all the racial discrimination and colonialism? Or the 1930/40s with the fascist and nazi regimes and a World War? And so on and so on?

Let's be real. Life isn't a Marvel cartoon where a superhero solves all the problems with his super-powers during the course of a 90 minute film. Things evolve in smaller steps.

Honestly it's what this generation of thin-skinned snowflakes, keyboard SJW, radicalized in puritan views of right vs. wrong, totally dependent on technologies that killed their privacy like social media and location devices that allow for control from the authorities that I fear.

The older generation that in 40 years will have 80 years old may be the last to remember how it was to be free. Just look at the Big Brother being built in China and surreptitiously copied in Europe.

This elderly man clearly says he's only in it to circulate his images and enjoys his images being seen. A small time hobbyist who is not in it for the money, and why should he? He's had a good career, and he want to spend his retirement doing what he loves. He has zero influence on the current situation. Do you really expect him to drop his portfolio in support of the younger generation? 

He is totally irrelevant to the professional microstock industry, and you should direct your anger at the real enemies. He doesn't owe you anything.

I don't see this as young vs old issue in the first place. It's just people who depend on the income vs those who don't. Sure there aren't as many young who will say they are in this as a hobby, but there sure are more who do rely on the income. And there are older people who probably built their collections, depending on the residual income from Microstock.

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