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Author Topic: Why you should never ever work with Wirestock  (Read 19171 times)

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ribtoks

  • Founder of Xpiks
« Reply #50 on: July 15, 2022, 13:28 »
0
Also you suppose: That they are actually going to hold all the images they can, to squeeze out every penny, and prevent you from uploading to other places? And that's based on your personal logical deduction, because "otherwise they would not have the unreasonable ...clause" (I don't like that bit of the terms and maybe people who like to join and quit and join and quit, shouldn't like it either, but you are accusing and attributing motivations, based on your own imaginary reasons, not evidence?)

You bet that's what they are doing? Is that a fact or a hypothetical?  ;D

This is hypothetical. Just as the point of the article says: this is a legally possible situation and I'm stating that you probably do not want to check on yourself if this will hold true or not. Because if it will, you will be in trouble.

I agree with your statement that the tone of the article could be classified as a bit too strong, and I'm truly sorry if somebody's feelings were hurt in a way.


Uncle Pete

  • Great Place by a Great Lake - My Home Port
« Reply #51 on: July 15, 2022, 13:42 »
+1
Also you suppose: That they are actually going to hold all the images they can, to squeeze out every penny, and prevent you from uploading to other places? And that's based on your personal logical deduction, because "otherwise they would not have the unreasonable ...clause" (I don't like that bit of the terms and maybe people who like to join and quit and join and quit, shouldn't like it either, but you are accusing and attributing motivations, based on your own imaginary reasons, not evidence?)

You bet that's what they are doing? Is that a fact or a hypothetical?  ;D

This is hypothetical. Just as the point of the article says: this is a legally possible situation and I'm stating that you probably do not want to check on yourself if this will hold true or not. Because if it will, you will be in trouble.

I agree with your statement that the tone of the article could be classified as a bit too strong, and I'm truly sorry if somebody's feelings were hurt in a way.

My feelings sure aren't hurt.  :)

I was just saying you used conjecture and hypothetical to make accusing claims and I didn't think that was fair or valid. And now you're asking if this will hold true. I'm not the one making the claims or attacking them. And I'm not going to defend a bad TOS that allows WS to hold images for months and months. I'm just saying, some assumptions are not based on facts, but personal opinions or what could happen or what might happen, and that's the bases of "Why you should never ever work with Wirestock"

I would have called it, Why I think people should take a close look at Wirestock and their terms ?

Some would say no, some have said YES, and I'm personally using the service to spread images to agencies that I'd never want to have an with, but I work the places I care about, on my own. We all have personal views, options and choices.

Yeah, what if they go out of business? Yup, what if an airplane should fall on my house...  ;)

« Reply #52 on: December 08, 2022, 05:05 »
+1
Has anyone here tried getting Wirestock to remove files. I made a request over 90 days ago, but my images, which numbered less than 100, are still being sold on Adobe. Wirestock claim to have asked Adobe to remove them, but theyre still on Adobe for sale. Im not quite sure what I can do.

« Reply #53 on: February 22, 2023, 08:08 »
0
" we have made the difficult decision to make marketplace submissions a paid service. As of 02/23/2023, only users with an approval rate of 85% or more will be entitled to receive 300 monthly marketplace submissions for free."



« Reply #54 on: February 22, 2023, 08:54 »
0
That sounds like a very reasonable demand. Inspection costs time and money and 85% acceptance rate should be the norm to any agency you submit too.

Brasilnut

  • Author Brutally Honest Guide to Microstock & Blog

« Reply #55 on: February 22, 2023, 08:59 »
+1
" we have made the difficult decision to make marketplace submissions a paid service. As of 02/23/2023, only users with an approval rate of 85% or more will be entitled to receive 300 monthly marketplace submissions for free."

Surprised it has taken them this long to implement this. I can only image the number of crap images that they have to sort out on a daily basis. At least this will keep some of junk and junkies out.

ribtoks

  • Founder of Xpiks
« Reply #56 on: February 22, 2023, 10:19 »
0
" we have made the difficult decision to make marketplace submissions a paid service. As of 02/23/2023, only users with an approval rate of 85% or more will be entitled to receive 300 monthly marketplace submissions for free."

All venture companies are pressured to find more ways to deliver returns for investors these days.
« Last Edit: February 22, 2023, 14:40 by ribtoks »

ribtoks

  • Founder of Xpiks
« Reply #57 on: February 22, 2023, 10:20 »
+1
I can only image the number of crap images that they have to sort out on a daily basis. At least this will keep some of junk and junkies out.

How will it decrease amount of junk coming in? They still need to review images. Submissions are files they send to their microstock account after their review, or they count it differently?
« Last Edit: February 22, 2023, 14:40 by ribtoks »

« Reply #58 on: February 22, 2023, 11:53 »
+6
overly simplistic -- if you're running a business and your concerns are "not all about money and percentage", you're not going to be in business very long!  as a business i choose WS because they save my business time & energy & my net income is higher

I understand your answer and my opinion was of course only my point of view :)

What I would like to underline is that in general, in any business, in middle and long term, you have to be ready to change your mind, to react to external move, to adapt your offer to the market. Giving all to an external agent is big limitation on any future change.
Of course is up to you to define your business but I can't remember a good business story with someone that gives all the business choices to someone else.
I wasn't talking simply about money and percentage, not at all!
This is only my opinion
I give my opinion too:
I was only few months at wirestock and closed my account for:
-quite poor keywording
-not my name on the images
-no way to delete any image from my account.
I don't miss them.

Uncle Pete

  • Great Place by a Great Lake - My Home Port
« Reply #59 on: February 22, 2023, 12:53 »
+2
" we have made the difficult decision to make marketplace submissions a paid service. As of 02/23/2023, only users with an approval rate of 85% or more will be entitled to receive 300 monthly marketplace submissions for free."

Surprised it has taken them this long to implement this. I can only image the number of crap images that they have to sort out on a daily basis. At least this will keep some of junk and junkies out.

But if you pay them, you can upload all you want? All they ended was free uploads of 300 a month for anyone unfortunate enough to run into their inconsistent AI reviews. Same as some other places, sand, leaves, water are rejected for focus issues.

They make all kinds of reviewing errors and if you write they have answered "it was a mistake" although my funniest was, We made an error in the review rejection reason... the reason should have been.  ::)
« Last Edit: February 23, 2023, 12:24 by Uncle Pete »

« Reply #60 on: February 22, 2023, 15:59 »
+4
overly simplistic -- if you're running a business and your concerns are "not all about money and percentage", you're not going to be in business very long!  as a business i choose WS because they save my business time & energy & my net income is higher

I understand your answer and my opinion was of course only my point of view :)

What I would like to underline is that in general, in any business, in middle and long term, you have to be ready to change your mind, to react to external move, to adapt your offer to the market. Giving all to an external agent is big limitation on any future change.
Of course is up to you to define your business but I can't remember a good business story with someone that gives all the business choices to someone else.
I wasn't talking simply about money and percentage, not at all!
This is only my opinion
I give my opinion too:
I was only few months at wirestock and closed my account for:
-quite poor keywording
-not my name on the images
-no way to delete any image from my account.
I don't miss them.

Lety me support you :)

. my image are waiting for ,,approval,,  from WS over 2-3 months /my acceptance is above 95% Thank You =NO
. I upload to all my agency manually and I am happy :) This is not about money for service it was about wasting money for nothing. I prefer support poor homeless person on street
« Last Edit: February 22, 2023, 20:05 by fotoroad »

« Reply #61 on: February 23, 2023, 08:20 »
0
Did anybody get a 1099 from Wirestock?

« Reply #62 on: February 23, 2023, 10:09 »
+3
Glad I'm not the only one who sees Wirestock is a negative light. The main thing is that the 15% cut of the contributors sales is not worth it when you have tools like Xpiks and StockSubmitter that don't take a percentage of your sales. Then I have other issues with Wirestock, like how contributor content is not being held under their own marketplace accounts, but under Wirestock's accounts instead. I think Wirestock is bad for the contributor and the industry as a whole. With Wirestock's new announcement about charging a flat fee for submissions on top of the 15% sales cut, I predict they are going the way of Netflix by angering their custom base and causing many to leave.
« Last Edit: February 23, 2023, 10:11 by chillbilldill »

« Reply #63 on: February 23, 2023, 11:48 »
0
Since the email is out, slack is for me not able to reach anymore.
I guess they select the most critical persons not to critic anymore or just closed slack for all, because now also the last prayers for Wirestock will search alternatives.
I'm very disappointed, but not really surprised about their decision.
I'm pretty sure it is the nail to go bankrott in less than a year from now.

« Reply #64 on: February 23, 2023, 13:08 »
+4
Since the email is out, slack is for me not able to reach anymore.
I guess they select the most critical persons not to critic anymore or just closed slack for all, because now also the last prayers for Wirestock will search alternatives.
I'm very disappointed, but not really surprised about their decision.
I'm pretty sure it is the nail to go bankrott in less than a year from now.

Yes, they also communicated the shutdown of their Slack channels yesterday... on Slack.
They mentioned to be working on another way to have direct contact with contributors, but did not went into detail.

Too bad. It's one of the few things they did well. They had direct contact with their contributor base, which provided them very helpful feedback, mainly in reporting bugs and errors. I was not a very frequent visitor there, but from what I saw, it was a constructive and positive community. So I really wonder why on earth they decided to shut it down.

Wirestock lost me a year ago, and they didn't really improve since then. 
They don't seem to review content anymore (lots of complaints), and the content that was reviewed has an uncertain status.
Will they submit it? Nobody knows. To where? Unclear.
To which bottom of the barrel future agency? Hope for the best. (they seem to automatically submit all your content to new agencies they onboard, it happened with Getty for my content and I don't like what they did with "Extra Channels")
When will their front-end be free of bugs? Never, probably.

They still have the potential to be  useful, even with the 300 images/video's cap, but as things stand now... even if you're only half-serious on submitting to stock agencies, you're better off with maintaining your personal accounts.


« Reply #65 on: February 23, 2023, 14:24 »
+1
They lost you. did you delete all images and your account or you just stopped uploading and kept what was uploaded in the past?
The submitting to GettyIstock without your permission: If I did not read regulalry on Slack, i would not know it early enough and might were to late to tell them NOT to submit my images to Getty. The time range to decide and tell them per EMAIL (requested!), was very short! Luckily I go the email early enough to them.
For some reasons I got less than 85% accepted last time I uploaded. NOW I cannot upload any images. I have to buy 100 or so to get on board again.
Not with me! Wirestock is dead for me!
I am thinking about taking all my images back and upload again on my private accounts of each agency. But I am not sure, if it is worth it.



« Reply #66 on: February 23, 2023, 15:09 »
+3
They lost you. did you delete all images and your account or you just stopped uploading and kept what was uploaded in the past?
The submitting to GettyIstock without your permission: If I did not read regulalry on Slack, i would not know it early enough and might were to late to tell them NOT to submit my images to Getty. The time range to decide and tell them per EMAIL (requested!), was very short! Luckily I go the email early enough to them.
For some reasons I got less than 85% accepted last time I uploaded. NOW I cannot upload any images. I have to buy 100 or so to get on board again.
Not with me! Wirestock is dead for me!
I am thinking about taking all my images back and upload again on my private accounts of each agency. But I am not sure, if it is worth it.

I just stopped uploading. I kept my content there because it is still generating payouts.
And I'm afraid it will be a real pain to get it removed, wand wait for ... I don't know how long. 3 months + another month for every 100 images before I can upload it to my personal accounts? So I just let it be and take whatever they give me.

I missed the email announcing the iStock/Getty submissions and possible opt-out, and I also missed it on Slack.
So my content is on iStock/Getty now, which is fine by me I guess, but I'm worried about possible duplicates. Didn't check that one yet.

I don't mind the 300 images / month limit. That's enough for me, and I guess for most of us.
I have a 95% approval rate or so, and I'm not really worried about it to drop below 85% unless they go funny again with AI reviewing.

It's more about the way they handle things, how they make it a real hassle to upload, get content reviewed, how everything is so fuzzy and completely lacks transparency, how I get the feeling that they just do as they like, that made me stop uploading there and just submit everything to my personal accounts.





Brasilnut

  • Author Brutally Honest Guide to Microstock & Blog

« Reply #67 on: February 24, 2023, 09:02 »
+3
What I didn't appreciate much was the lack of advanced notice about this latest change. For instance, I'm at 76% acceptance rate, they could have warned me like 2 months ago that they would be implementing the minimum 85% acceptance to get the free 300 images a month submissions (which is enough for me). If I had this notice I would have worked hard to only submit quality images that I knew would certainly be accepted to get above the 85% threshold.

Anyway, not the end of the world. My focus remains on book covers and aerial footage. The rest is just beer money.
« Last Edit: February 24, 2023, 09:08 by Brasilnut »

« Reply #68 on: February 24, 2023, 09:34 »
0
Just saw this article now. (Apparently OP was in June 2022).

Thanks, well written article, I agree with the points made.

a) Never used blackboxguild/wirestock/etc - because a legit concern was what if something happened to them.
b) Didn't realize they were a "ycombinator" featured biz, and had gotten 2+ million in funding. Would have been a couple red flags to me.
c) Another concern was yes - what if in the future you wanted to do certain things with your own assets. Could potentially have 'issues'.

Good article, thanks. I don't normally say that (beacuse I find many 'internet' articles nowadays are simply regurgitated spam designed to get SEO traffic so people click on ads). But I actually learned something from yours, thanks. Is that someone who works for your company, or a 3rd party? (I noticed the name is different from yours/the creator of the software).

Also - can vouch for your software. I have used it for video keyworded, and found it very useful.

Thanks!

« Reply #69 on: February 24, 2023, 13:31 »
+1
here's part of an email i sent WS

How does charging us for a formerly free service serve us?

You keep releasing buggy updates with no warning and refuse to take responsibility when obvious bugs are reported you ALWAYS blame the user first and only reluctantly admit any fault

Your interface remains buggy -; it still doesnt show actual portfolio size even tho that was promised real soon more than a year ago but one of few cases where you admitted a bug

Its hard to achieve an 85% acceptance when your reviews are terrible rejects for vertical off when reviewers are ignorant of the fact thats how buildings look and are shown on ALL agencies. And once you have a low acceptance rate & over 1000 images, it nigh impossible to raise it to 85%

you reject images the majors would accept because some undefined other channels dont like them and those channels produce hardly anything. You replied:
Over the recent months, we have been asked to be more selective with the content that we submit by our partners  which partners?

In the beginning you promised an instant pay service that did pay me for 100 images early on hard to believe that after THOUSANDS of more uploads there have been no further payments


here's their reply:

I am sorry to hear you feel this way. It was a big decision but it was made to be able to give our users a better service.
I will pass along your feedback to our Product Team



I did support and submit earlier, as it was a fast way to get images online w/o having to add meta data

i wont submit any more, but leave my portfolio online a deleting it would just shoot me in the foot and then i'd have to find & re-submit those images

Uncle Pete

  • Great Place by a Great Lake - My Home Port
« Reply #70 on: February 25, 2023, 12:31 »
+1

How does charging us for a formerly free service serve us?

You keep releasing buggy updates with no warning and refuse to take responsibility when obvious bugs are reported you ALWAYS blame the user first and only reluctantly admit any fault

Your interface remains buggy -; it still doesnt show actual portfolio size even tho that was promised real soon more than a year ago but one of few cases where you admitted a bug

Its hard to achieve an 85% acceptance when your reviews are terrible rejects for vertical off when reviewers are ignorant of the fact thats how buildings look and are shown on ALL agencies. And once you have a low acceptance rate & over 1000 images, it nigh impossible to raise it to 85%

you reject images the majors would accept because some undefined other channels dont like them and those channels produce hardly anything. You replied:
Over the recent months, we have been asked to be more selective with the content that we submit by our partners  which partners?

In the beginning you promised an instant pay service that did pay me for 100 images early on hard to believe that after THOUSANDS of more uploads there have been no further payments



"Hi Pete,
 
Thanks for reaching out. We re-checked the images and they were rejected incorrectly, we are sorry for the inconvenience. We'll fix it and accept the file."

"Hi Pete,
 
Thanks for reaching out. We have seen that kind of issue occur from time to time where the number of photos or agency selection is showing incorrectly. However, after refreshing the page, it should automatically be fixed. Please try refreshing, and then hard refreshing (ctrl+shift+R). Please let me know if you still experience the same issue and we will investigate further. "

"The agencies showing Instant Pay and Dreamstime is a technical issue. I have shared that with our engineering team to review. We will fix those asap. We don't have an IP program for videos and don't support video for Dreamstime at the moment. "

"Hey Peter,

Were emailing you to let you know that all the issues related to the uploading, including FTP as well as video processing are fixed! You can now continue uploading your images and videos as usual."

No reviews until I write, usually over a month, I include the title and keywords with my images:

"Hi Pete,

Thanks for contacting us!

Normally, it takes around ten business days for content to be evaluated and keyworded. I've already asked our content team to take care of your submissions and ensure you don't face further delays. We apologize for the delay, there were some technical issues but they are already fixed."

Me: I had 21 or so credits of 3 cents each, for Extra Channels. Why so small of an amount?

"The Extra Channel sales are mostly from a platform called Miricanvas, and this is their usual price for the images. They can be downloaded several times and this is why you may see several sales on the same day.
You can read more about the Extra Channels on our FAQ page.
I understand the earnings may look little compared to other channels, but the images are sold several times which can make the earnings increase easily."

And I found the all time favorite:
"Hi Pete,

Thanks for the email. Our curators revisited the rejected images and noticed that because of some technical issues the reasons for rejection have been altered. Below you can see the real reasons for rejection along with the examples of problematic areas on your photos."

...the reasons for rejection have been altered? So how did an image that was rejected for crooked horizon, turn into a focus issue?  :o

I don't know, I don't check that close but some friends have said, the stats and the image counts don't match at all? Last time I wrote about the number of images being different in three places, the answer was (paraphrased) don't worry about that, the buyers can't see those pages. OK, fine, but I can see those pages?  :)

January 15th upload is still in review, I'm not writing. If I click upload, here's what I see now. Marketplace submission limit: expired




« Reply #71 on: April 29, 2023, 06:18 »
0
Anyone getting any credits from Wirestock this month?  I have a small no new image account with them and no sales at all this month for the first time since i joined...  Have they moved to a month end reporting for all the agencies like they do for DP and P5?

« Reply #72 on: April 29, 2023, 13:15 »
+1
Anyone getting any credits from Wirestock this month?  I have a small no new image account with them and no sales at all this month for the first time since i joined...  Have they moved to a month end reporting for all the agencies like they do for DP and P5?

I think adobe sales are updated daily (I got some on 20th April), and shutterstock used to be reported weekly, but I can see only some sales reported on 5th April, so I'm not sure about other weeks. I didn't have sales from other agencies this month, so probably waiting few more days will give us more answers...

ribtoks

  • Founder of Xpiks
« Reply #73 on: April 30, 2023, 04:43 »
0
Good article, thanks. I don't normally say that (beacuse I find many 'internet' articles nowadays are simply regurgitated spam designed to get SEO traffic so people click on ads). But I actually learned something from yours, thanks. Is that someone who works for your company, or a 3rd party? (I noticed the name is different from yours/the creator of the software).

Thank you for your feedback! Article is written by me.

« Reply #74 on: May 01, 2023, 08:11 »
+2
Anyone getting any credits from Wirestock this month?  I have a small no new image account with them and no sales at all this month for the first time since i joined...  Have they moved to a month end reporting for all the agencies like they do for DP and P5?

I think adobe sales are updated daily (I got some on 20th April), and shutterstock used to be reported weekly, but I can see only some sales reported on 5th April, so I'm not sure about other weeks. I didn't have sales from other agencies this month, so probably waiting few more days will give us more answers...


looks like shutterstock has now moved to monthly reporting also, with no communication.  Glad i stop using them for anything else then throw aways. 


 

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