No it wasn't sent to everyone at the same time. I got my notice in July. That's when the new Instant Pay program was added. The article you linked to was also in an alert posted here using that December date. Someone new will be notified shortly after joining, as they are new. Logically impossible to be notified before they joined. He joined in November or December, he was notified in December.

Yes maybe it wasn't sent, maybe you got it in spam and maybe it just looked like spam? Look at July 1, 2020?

Update: I contacted their support and explained the situation. They seemed to understand my concerns and opted me out for instant pay. Well done by them, and I appreciate how they handled it. I also opted out for extra channels, and I'm now able to select instant pay and extra channels per image. What happens in the background remains somewhat unclear for me.

I still don't like the way they implemented instant pay or extra channels. It feels like they want to have the complete freedom to include whatever agency they sign up for in the future under extra channels or instant pay without giving notice or transparency to contributors. Canva seems to be one of them, why not add an extra "Canva" checkbox next to the other ones? Same for instant pay. Why not just include "Freepik (instant pay)" as an extra checkbox? Both are worth mentioning, and contributors still want to know to which agencies their content is distributed to. That way they can check royalty rates and decide whether they agree with it or not. And as far as direct marketing to premium customers goes: I think sales like that are scarce yet profitable enough to make the extra effort to contact the contributor directly and discuss terms. With Extra Channels you give them the complete freedom to sell a premium image (which I don't recommend uploading to Wirestock, but that's another discussion) way too cheap.

I thought the article you linked to was interesting. Facts mixed with opinion, but at least he took the time to find real information before jumping to some presumptions. I'd have to say, I did look around when I joined and did find the Armenian connection. Nothing unusual about someone starting a company and being in a few places for tax reasons or other benefits.

Deposit Photos, pretended to be a US company incorporated in Florida, has a NY address, but they are really, Kyiv Ukraine, and Limassol Cyprus.

Part of my assumption about Wirestock that wasn't in the German blog, was they are trying to mask the identity of the investors as well.

The terms being lifted from SS was pretty amusing. Not saying it's a good idea, but that's not the first one to do the same and miss words like Shutterstock or some other agency name, Getty was in one, or the wrong country. Welcome to Microstock? There have been self hosted that did the same thing. Nice to copy some legal boilerplate, which is common, but there needs to be better proof reading.

Well, I actually care very little about where an agency is located or who's behind it. Same for their tax optimization. Not that I agree with it, but every company tries to exploit legal loopholes to optimize earnings. Totally different discussion that goes way beyond microstock. If I had to take ethics and contributor treatment into account, I would not have a lot of agencies left to upload to.

The copied terms from Shutterstock is indeed another example of them being sloppy and in line with their buggy interface. Both feel like they rush to get things in place and afterwards slowly fix their errors, or don't fix them at all.
Now, I had a good experience with their support, and that's not nothing. Way better than most of the microstock agencies. 

Hopefully more people will read your questions and answers, and those from kall3bu, and be able to make an informed decision for themselves.

I think I've added this to every post but I don't know any reason why anyone would enable Instant Pay, unless they only uploaded non-selling images to Wirestock.

I use Wirestock to have access to agencies that I don't want an account. I use Wirestock because the automatic payment is $35 accumulated earnings and I don't have to deal with the agencies. I upload on my own to SS, AS and Alamy, because I want 100% not 85%.

There are some hypothetical advantages like placement, maybe higher earnings because the agency will be at the highest level and rank. That could possibly make up for the 15% fee for distribution. I don't think it does.

#1 reason I upload to some agencies using Wirestock for distribution? I'm Lazy, but also because I don't care about those agencies.

That's what we're here for Pete And I appreciate the discussion. I use Wirestock for the same reasons as you, and that would also be my advice to others.

Use it for uploading to agencies and content you don't care about, but keep the agencies and content you care for under own control. You never know what happens with Wirestock in the future, and how they will change their terms of condition. Removing your content via them from agencies can be a lengthy process: 30 days per 100 images, considered their support remains on par.
Opt out for both instant pay and extra channels, include content separately and carefully (in other words, content you even care less about and again: keep control).

Exception: I think Wirestock is a good platform for newcomers to microstock to test the water, but once you see things are taking off, sign up for the agencies you think it's worth for having personal accounts.

So Extra Channels is a choice selection in the future. I'd love to see the same for Instant Pay.

From what I understood, both Instant Pay and Extra Channels are a choice per image. If you opted out to include all before.

Not to open a completely new thread, can anyone tell me what is the Wirestock take on uploading similars/photos from the same series that I already have uploaded through my accounts?
 

Quote from: qunamax on March 13, 2021, 07:48

Not to open a completely new thread, can anyone tell me what is the Wirestock take on uploading similars/photos from the same series that I already have uploaded through my accounts?

Duplicates are not allowed, and will be rejected.
As far as I know, similars/other content from the same series are fine, but whether it's a good idea to do that is subject of discussion.

Maybe uploading image A from a series to your personal account using your own keywording and uploading image B from that shoot to Wirestock using their keywording service might be a strategy to consider. Just don't stretch similarity, and make sure there's a distinctive difference between the two images.

That's what I was thinking, as an experiment, I would surely avoid submitting bestsellers, but for additional shots from series - never uploaded, it might be a good idea to give it a go, to see how would they do in a more exposed portfolio.
Thanks.

i'm pretty sure similars are only checked within your portfolio and are done only on the image itsself (possibly by AI as rejects come days before others in tha batch are reviewed),  theydefiitely dont use metadata as i often have same (or no) metadata for multiple images that are not at all similar (eg same mtn wildflowers but different plants or bkgds). these are are accepted

Unsure but when I first started they automatically unchecked the agencies where the images were already uploaded by me over the years. Back then they did check against similar on other platforms as where they were going to put images. I don't know about now.

I did get this rejection recently:
Rejection Reason
"Image found on one or more stock agency sites and may infringe on another person's intellectual property rights."

I did ask to be removed from Instant Pay a couple days ago, and this morning, everything has "not submitted" indicated, except those that have been purchased in the past. also all of my images now indicate Submitted on Extended channels, which is what I accepted. From what support told me, in the future, images would only be added when I click "Submit" for either of these options.

I'd like to steer out of trouble as much as I can on part, regardless of their way of checking similars. Down the road, something like Eyeem - Getty thing could happen and threads of account closures.

Don't know Pete, now as a new user I can easily select, per image or global in account settings and I opted out of Instapay right from the first batch.

Nice they changed that automatic opt in. Mine remembers what I hit for the last image.

So if I upload to P5, DT, DP and 123RF, it doesn't switch on SS, AS or Alamy. If the settings remember no Instant Pay for the future, I'm fine with that.

I don't have a problem with similars, I only make about one of anything. 

Quote from: qunamax on March 15, 2021, 14:46

I'd like to steer out of trouble as much as I can on part, regardless of their way of checking similars. Down the road, something like Eyeem - Getty thing could happen and threads of account closures.

Don't know Pete, now as a new user I can easily select, per image or global in account settings and I opted out of Instapay right from the first batch.

Nice they changed that automatic opt in. Mine remembers what I hit for the last image.

So if I upload to P5, DT, DP and 123RF, it doesn't switch on SS, AS or Alamy. If the settings remember no Instant Pay for the future, I'm fine with that.

I don't have a problem with similars, I only make about one of anything. 

they keep making changes that mess up the submission system - i've had options turned on & off randomly - at first they say it couldnt be their software until i send screenshots - then they correct my images.  obviously a random error is difficult to track down, but it seems to be more waiting for reports

by similars i meant images from the same shoot - not minor changes in angle, etc