Quote from: ADH on June 03, 2020, 19:22

Oringer was wrong about exclusivity in microstock, having a base of exclusive contributors is essential today to continue obtaining quality material for customers.

I hope you're right about that, because "going exclusive" is starting to look like the only way to survive in this game.

And even exclusivity is no guarantee that the agency won't screw us over down the road. But right now, it does seem to offer the least bad of several awful options.

I made over 1k on SS last month, mostly video. I have done this as my living for the past 10 years. I am happy to say I have disabled my images today and am watching video closely! I am now only submitting to Adobe Stock at this time

Very frequent selling image on several agencies, with about 1000 downloads on Shutterstock alone. Top line in relevant search results for "patriotic" and "patriotism" among 800,000 results. Not any more. Not on Shutterstock.

I disabled everything while they still owe me a payout. I don't have any reason to believe I won't get it and I see no reason to delay disabling. They rightfully owe the money and so they will pay it. Screwing contributors on what they rightfully owe them is not how these large companies operate. It's my right to disable my portfolio at any time and it doesn't mean they are no longer obliged to pay me my royalties if and when I do so. No rules have been broken on my side and I have not violated any terms of the supplier agreement.

Quote from: Atomazul on June 03, 2020, 23:04
Very frequent selling image on several agencies, with about 1000 downloads on Shutterstock alone. Top line in relevant search results for "patriotic" and "patriotism" among 800,000 results. Not any more. Not on Shutterstock.

Are you on twitter? I see an account for @Atomazul - is that you. You should tweet about that (and where it can be found now)

From 4900+ to 68 in 48h:



I'm even happy. I have read the Pond5 commissions and they pay 50%! normal now seems exceptional to me. Bye SS, I'm worth more.

Quote from: Allsa on June 03, 2020, 19:13

Quote from: Jogga0 on June 03, 2020, 18:57
Have disabled all files for now, if nothing changes in the next month may as well close the account. Was hoping enough people would disable to prompt some action from SS, but can understand not everyone can afford to, especially while other income sources for creators have dried up with the virus. Almost like they knew people would be desperate at the moment, quite evil really.

Don't forget there are a lot of people like me who are waiting for their final payout before disabling. I just got notified that my earnings were calculated, so as soon as the money turns up in PayPal, I'm disabling everything. The email said I'd receive the money by June 15th, so I think we can expect another wave of portfolios going down around mid-month.

My payout made it to PayPal, so I disabled my portfolio. No more 10 cent downloads.

Well, I did it.
I got paid for the month of May.
So I deactivated my portfolios.

I'm curious to know how many have closed their accounts and how many have deactivated their portfolios...

Quote from: Chichikov on June 04, 2020, 19:44
Well, I did it.
I got paid for the month of May.
So I deactivated my portfolios.

I'm curious to know how many have closed their accounts and how many have deactivated their portfolios...

I just deactivated over 5,000 images and videos.

Edit. My apologies it is 7,000 assets I removed.

Quote from: Mantis on June 04, 2020, 20:21

Quote from: Chichikov on June 04, 2020, 19:44
Well, I did it.
I got paid for the month of May.
So I deactivated my portfolios.

I'm curious to know how many have closed their accounts and how many have deactivated their portfolios...

I just deactivated over 5,000 images and videos.

Edit. My apologies it is 7,000 assets I removed.

Congratulations!!
That's comforting to feel in good company

(Me too 7000+)

Just logged into the site and there was a pop up survey asking me about my experience with them, and numerous questions, finished it with this:-

Sort out how much you are charging your buyers, so that you can pay a decent commission to your contributors, and don't take advantage of them as you are now doing. Adobe actually increased their commission last year.

Then you had the bonkers idea last year, to change the way we upload Vectors, no other site does this because it is stupid basically, even though every contributor told you this you took no notice.

So I don't expect you to take any notice of what I have written, but I along with all the other Contributors who make your content are extremely upset at being treated like SLAVES, and you should all be ashamed of yourself's.

Your CEO Stan Pavlovsky is nothing more than a bean counter who is only interested in ripping off, stealing our money, it is a absolutely appalling way to treat people.

Spend a day or two reading the comments on your Forum and you will see what people think of you.

Quote from: Chichikov on May 31, 2020, 06:42
Just a thought (question):
by deactivating the portfolio on June 1, isn't there a risk of not receiving the earnings for May that should be paid at least in June?
And if this is the case, isn't it better to wait until you have been paid before you deactivate your portfolio?
I don't really trust Shutterstock any more these days...

I deactivated my portfolios (images + videos) on 1st of June.
Got my paypal payment for may today.

Quote from: rene on June 04, 2020, 21:43

Quote from: Chichikov on May 31, 2020, 06:42
Just a thought (question):
by deactivating the portfolio on June 1, isn't there a risk of not receiving the earnings for May that should be paid at least in June?
And if this is the case, isn't it better to wait until you have been paid before you deactivate your portfolio?
I don't really trust Shutterstock any more these days...

I deactivated my portfolios (images + videos) on 1st of June.
Got my paypal payment for may today.

Same here.

You're definitely not alone. I deactivated 7000 assets June 1st. I had a 4 digit ID number at shitterstock if that tells you how long I had been there.

The number of images in SS are actually shrinking

June 1 - 326.401.446
June 4 - 325.718.566

Contradictory, the number of "new images this week" increase:

June 1 - 1.146.506
June 4 - 1.157.726

I deactivated my video portfolio on June 1 and am watching my photo sales closely...

Quote from: Mrblues101 on June 05, 2020, 02:49
The number of images in SS are actually shrinking

June 1 - 326.401.446
June 4 - 325.718.566

Contradictory, the number of "new images this week" increase:

June 1 - 1.146.506
June 4 - 1.157.726

Not necessarily "contradictory" - this just tells us that people delete/deactivate at a faster rate than others upload. I'm pretty sure a large percentage of contributors hasn't yet noticed what's happening. Some may re-activate their ports within the next couple of days in order to being able to evaluate stats based on their own portfolios, but I guess (hope) the *real* storm is yet to come.
I'll try and keep mine down as long as numbers are decreasing. (I'd actually like to have a look at my own stats, too, but on the other hand I'm almost sure I'm going to permanently delete my account, anyway.)

How do you disable your photos? Can't find it.

Quote from: Dumc on June 05, 2020, 04:40
How do you disable your photos? Can't find it.

Go to your account settings. At the bottom right there's a box reading "licensing options". Check "no" for photos and/or video and save.

922,200 less images than three days ago.

So glad we have this forum, I read the latest post and it prompted me to check my settings, turned out I had forgotten to hit save when I disabled my images. Another 7500 images disabled.

Disabled

After 10 years and with the top tier within close proximity, I disabled both my video and image sales (5000+).  It hurt but felt good at the same time.  My time passion and effort are worth more than what they are willing to share.
Adobe has been quickly closing the gap in $ with far less assets anyhow.

Quote from: izzikiorage on June 03, 2020, 10:18

Quote from: Jo Ann Snover on June 03, 2020, 05:22
Wind of portfolios being disabled has reached the investor community - in a Seeking Alpha article about Shutterstock's dividend. I submitted a comment explaining that the fury and exodus of portfolios is very real

https://seekingalpha.com/news/3579529-shutterstock-goes-ex-dividend-tomorrow

Anyone else want to help investors understand how Shutterstock's idiot move has damaged the company?

Amazing Jo Ann, seems the investing community is taking notice. The shared intelligence bit is very true and at this time when the indexes themselves seem overbought investors will be wary of where they invest.

Warren buffet and many other big investors have moved to cash holding and others will do so too if they find any hint of weakness in a stock.

Sent from my HD1901 using Tapatalk

The investing community also has stock artists

Vanadas Cobalticus will keep educating and sharing information

My analysis app considers sstk to be a fair value at 11 dollars, not 37. It sees the share overvalued by 223%

However, the algorythms cannot factor in an online crap storm.

When sstk publishes their next results and shows more profit because it cut supplier costs, the app will ,of course, consider sstk to be of higher value.

So it is important to get the information out now on what is really going on.

So please keep contributing and informing the investor communitx.

There are many,many other investing boards, facebook groups etc...

So if you get overall involved in the wider investment community and provide real information with links to articles, at some point the banks or brokers that write recommendations will notice.

I suggest to be as factual as possible, maybe do a calculation how expensive media production is. You could link to a series and explain in detail the total cost of hiring models, make up artists, post production and the total number of people hours that goes into a shoot.

Cost of camera and lighting gear, studio rent, software costs, general insurance and other overheads.

Most people have no idea how expensive professional production is.

The really interesting thing is how much of an influence does Oringer with his 45% ownership have on the stock price.

Because I am surprised at the current share price, even with the rate change it should be much lower.

By raising profits by cutting suppliers and then aggressively increasing ,,growth" by blitz selling nanostock packages all over the world, they can indeed and at least on paper, make the company look very attractive.