Now that Getty's announced their curve ball on Stockxpert, things are getting even more discouraging.
Did we dig our own grave but letting sub kill micro like "video kills radio"?

Be as explicit as you wish, this is as open talk as it's ever going to be.
Cheers.

Almost every player from traditional stock industry has a presence in micros. I am afraid they will dominate this space eventually cause their universe is collapsing. There will be no independents in top 10.

No!

We are not dead!

Problem is in owners of sites... They sell site after respectable career.

BigStockPhoto is only "big" cause they called themselves so :-)

I am only one year old in microstock, so really it's a bit discouraging to see it all go into the sewer with subs and or freebies.  We know that at Dreamstime  (at least, from my experience and other comments in this forum) the reviewing has been tougher and they are setting the bar higher. Also, they have been cleaning house with IP, MR, and or just getting rid of the excess fat.  I hope this means they are getting ready for some big punch up with Getty (IS, StockXpert), and Corbis (Veer).
Maybe eventually, as the standard of images go higher, we can see a return to higher commissions to somewhere much better than subs, and somewhere much lower than trad and mid stock, to give us a middle way. With buyers being told they have to expect to pay for better images, and not expect to get freebies or throw peanuts to us contributors like we are some chimpanzees they see at the zoo

Then we the contributors can be happy we stayed and the surviving sites can come out and reward us for our faith in them?
If not, oh well, we'll all go back to just shooting for fun and just throw in the towel. Not sure. I am too recent to be able to get emotional affected.
But I , like Perseus, sure like to hear what old timers have to say.

btw, I voted #2 (still hoping with FT and DT).

Need an option for #2 and #5, the get drunk part isn't such a bad idea.  

I didn't respond because my choice:

 "Rumors of (microstock's) death have been greatly exaggerated",  is not one of the options

I voted IS all the way as it seemed to be the only rational choice for an IS exclusive

However, the issues of pressure on commissions across the board - including at DT and FT recently - is obviously of concern. Even as an IS exclusive, I think I have a huge interest in viable competition and good commissions for contributors. Getty will only pay the minimum they have to and one of the factors in the calculation is what other sites are paying.

And for any independent who opts their whole IS portfolio in to the partner program, the only rational choice in the poll is "We're dead."

It's dead. Game over. No point in submitting anymore. Financially it's a joke __ just not worth the time & effort and it's going to get even worse too. Ah well __ we had some fun anyway.

Move along now. Nothing to see here.

We're dead, but I have a bottle of Scotch next to me, so as Fred Sandford (Red Foxx) use to say on the old TV show...Elizabeth, this is the big one, I'm coming to join you honey...I'm the one with a camera in one hand, the silly smile and the smell of alcohol........

Yes, it's definitely dead. Now all stop uploading and go and do something else.

(And let me have all the sales  )