Quote from: donnelt on September 16, 2008, 14:34
This is no different from how Getty Images operates.  So in that regard it's nothing new for us. 

If it's going to be like the warranty offered by Getty on its RF stock then I think it's a step in the right direction. It is definitely a way differentiate the site.

VZ Contributor agreement at:

http://submit.vivozoom.com/docs/ContributorTerms

Tom

Seems fairly fair .  I like the part about death benefits - nice to see that.

Quote from: donnelt on September 16, 2008, 13:31

So this difference boils down to new and substantial incremental sales by increasing the market for Microstock in a way that has never been done before.

A week ago I got a sitemail on IS from a buyer who works for a big advertising agency. She asked me about model releases of one of my images. They liked the image they wanted to buy it but they needed the release to be proven.
I told them that every image contains recognizable people on IS has a model release attached so she can be sure the given shot is also released. And I suggested her to ask IS support if she need more proof. 24 hour later she came back to me and old that they still need the image but IS support is not aswering. This time I emailed her the releases - I am not sure I allowed to do this.  Next morning I saw they paid 150$ for it.
I think this is the new marked segment Tom is talking about.

Quote from: sjlocke on September 16, 2008, 16:59
Seems fairly fair .  I like the part about death benefits - nice to see that.

agreed, quite nice

What is the time frame?  How long before they start promoting the site and selling images?  vivozoom.com doesn't even load yet.

I'm watching this thread with great interest. I hope that those who have first hand knowledge of this new site can provide some feedback for us. I'm also one of the contributors who have been approached by email and a phone call about joining up with this new site but after the LuckyOliver fiasco I'm treading pretty carefully.

But some of the comments here make it sound fairly promising...

They sound very impressive. They do a heavy recruiting via emails... I got it twice already. What is a letdown that the do not answer the questions I asked, even thought they encouraged me in every email and on every forum to ask if I have further questions. I did have some. No answer yet.

Valaaami -not sure what's happening here.  Please email me directly:

[email protected]

Or call +44 75123 69400.

Tom

I uploaded a few files via ftp, but they are not showing up on the website.  Do i have to click somewhere to 'process' the files.

Leaf - got your email. 

Our FTP processor puts them in MANAGE queue automatically.  It will even process sub-folders, so you can drag and drop a complete folder.

Delays can occur when there is heavy activity, but I'll check your folder and get back to you via email.

Tom

I submitted 3 files via browser and checking the site a few days later I discovered that they disappeared.
Then I submitted again 3 files (btw I use FireFox) and double-checked I see them in Pending. 1 or 2 days later I received mail that the files appear blank!

something seems to be wrong with the web interface

and it's EXTREMELY annoying that IPTC information isn't read from the files.

Leaf - it was the back-tick in your file-names that caused our FTP script to ignore the files.

The images should now be in your MANAGE queue.

We have modified our ingestion system to accept back-ticks but will display them in your account area without the back-tick.

Thanks for reporting this,

Tom

MikLav - we most certainly do extract IPTC data from images.

I uploaded 15,000 images last weekend and only one failure occured.

We may have a bug here.

Let me know your username (email to [email protected]) and I'll investigate and get back to you.

Sorry for the inconvenience,

Tom

Yeah when I saw empty fields I thought it wasn't the case at my first attempt, but then I thought it's just my bad memory. Good to hear that IPTC is used; and hope you will find what's the issue with the upload. Email sent.

Quote from: donnelt on September 18, 2008, 10:17
Valaaami -not sure what's happening here.  Please email me directly:

[email protected]

Or call +44 75123 69400.

Tom

Thanks for your help Tom, but meanwhile Lawrence answered my questions.

Donnelt@  Aren´t you afraid others will take after Vivozoom, when you tell every secret ?

Magnum - imitation is the sincerest form of flattery!  Anyway, we're building an image business, not a nuclear device. 

Tom

After getting my invitation to join on Sept 10th I took a wait and see approach, because I had questions. Well 2 days ago Lawrence Gould called me to personally re-invite me and to answer any questions I might have. I have since signed up.

I also contacted support about a problem with firefox and Tom responded to me right away.

I'm liking what I see from them so far.

Steve

I too am intrigued by the business plan of this new company. If their research is accurate, and there really is large market for a microstock agency that is willing to back the photos with a guarantee, then Vivozoom may really be about to strike oil. Anyway, I decided to take the invitation. I joined and uploaded 10 images for review. The upload went flawlessly, although the images have yet to be reviewed. I assume they are busy getting the company up and running. I do have a question for any insider. I noticed during the submission process that there are no categories. Does this mean that the customers will not have links to categorized images? Search only?

Quote from: JBrizendine on September 23, 2008, 00:31
I too am intrigued by the business plan of this new company. If their research is accurate, and there really is large market for a microstock agency that is willing to back the photos with a guarantee, then Vivozoom may really be about to strike oil. Anyway, I decided to take the invitation. I joined and uploaded 10 images for review. The upload went flawlessly, although the images have yet to be reviewed. I assume they are busy getting the company up and running. I do have a question for any insider. I noticed during the submission process that there are no categories. Does this mean that the customers will not have links to categorized images? Search only?

You mean you actually like spending more time ticking boxes and adding categories that customers will probably have little or no use for in their searches? 

Someone correct me or inform me, how categories help sales or do anything functional. I think they are a waste of time and effort and don't do anything but make the site more complicated for no useful reason. They can't be effective because they are too vague. Once you makes the categories include all the possibilities and variations, you are back to keywords. Searching keywords gives the buyers everything they need. I just don't see the sense in having categories?

Is anyone having problems logging on this morning? All I get is this weird pulsing like there is a constant retry to load the page. This happens after I enter the login info.

Zeus, our upload site was down for a short while... we added a second pipe from our web-servers to the image RAID. 

Sorry for the interrupt.

Tom

Racephoto - "adding categories"?  Not us.

Over a year ago I asked a bunch of microstockers via the Yahoo microstock group what they liked and didn't like about existing sites.

Almost everyone said "don't implement categories!".

We listened.  There are no categories on VZ. 

Tom

Looks like after logging on I only can view the Manage page. All links bring me to the Manage page and the Upload link brings me back to the front page with the star.