Author Topic: iStock | 15 Year Anniversary (Read 43389 times)

bunhill · « **Reply #125 on:** April 25, 2015, 11:49 »

Quote from: cobalt on April 25, 2015, 09:13

If they want the valutation and the money, they can make it look nice. even keeping them online and visible as is, would bring more value then deleting their whole online history.

Nothing wrong with building a new community centre. but I don't see why they need to lose valutation while doing it.

No value would be lost by them dumping a load of cliquey old forum posts. Nobody is buying old forum posts.

cobalt · « **Reply #126 on:** April 25, 2015, 12:10 »

There are many companies online that don't sell anything but are valued at millions of dollars. All they have is people posting and discussing issues,nothing else.

I wouldn't be surprised, if they ignore the value of their own history and again hand over the advantage to fotolia and shutterstock. shutterstock is aggressively building their community, trying to be more public. it will be good for them if istock starts fresh and keeps everything closed and invisible.

but who knows, maybe they are working on an intelligent integration of their history. We will see what comes in may.

bunhill · « **Reply #127 on:** April 25, 2015, 12:46 »

Quote from: cobalt on April 25, 2015, 12:10

There are many companies online that don't sell anything but are valued at millions of dollars. All they have is people posting and discussing issues,nothing else.

Yes. But you need to understand some of the reasons why those companies achieve the values which they do. It certainly isn't based on the same relatively few people and their legacy forum posts. iStock is not that sort of business.

iStock's legacy forum is never going to be an analytical measure of the value of the company. For example, unlike the few companies you might be thinking of, iStock is not about the forum. The forum is not what defines iStock. The forum is not the thing.

A very few people have ever contributed to the forum. iStock is not a communications medium or a community forum which millions of people belong to.

gbalex · « **Reply #128 on:** April 25, 2015, 14:46 »

Quote

I hope they keep the old forums as an online archive somewhere and don´t begin the next 15 years by destroying their own history.

Fotolia and SS are doing a much better job at community building these days and it shows in their commercial success as well. These things go hand in hand. Understanding people goes all around, from customers to suppliers and the contributors are both.

I would say the majority of the microstock community has become immune to Microstock Kool-Aid. The sites do appreciate wooo yay comments, which facilitate attracting new contributors to the table.

However wooo yay's are few are far between on any of the site forums these days and forums are losing their luster in regard to owners.

iFlop · « **Reply #129 on:** April 25, 2015, 15:05 »

I think everyone is reading the Getty message wrongly. The point is they don't want community anymore. Never did in fact. Those were left over warm fuzzy Brucie remnants. They were never Getty's thang. They were just slow to start tearing down the walls.

They have been dismantling it bit by bit, piece by piece for the last few years though. Haven't we all noticed?

No more about/blog pages on profiles, no more light box linking, no more iStock contributor friend following, no more descriptions, etc.

I think it's clear what they want. No visible human element to the buyer experience. No more old rants that buyers can pick through in forums posts dating back through 15 years. They want to shove all their sorry, dirty laundry under the bed and out of sight now for good.

What they want to be selling simply is the notion that a picture is worth a thousand words and that's it. See it, you like it, buy it, goodbye, but come back when you want another picture please.

Forums? Of course they don't want those or to preserve 15 years of contributor chatter history. Meaningless to someone who wants to buy a photo, no? And I'm not saying it's good or bad, but that's just how it is and will be.

Frankly, I can live without all of it though and I do. I never post anything on the iStock forums and hardly read them. It's as censored and full of fake high fives as reading a North Korean propaganda newspaper anyway.

So just show me the money Getty. That's all I want. But you can't even do that anymore.

ShadySue · « **Reply #130 on:** April 25, 2015, 15:10 »

Quote from: iFlop on April 25, 2015, 15:05

What they want to be selling simply is the notion that a picture is worth a thousand words

Certainly, they don't want an image that takes more than ten words to explain, and even the ten had better be short, as the buyer might never realise the ellipsis is a link

Quote

So just show me the money Getty. That's all I want. But they can't even do that anymore.

Sad, but true.

lewis larkin · « **Reply #131 on:** April 25, 2015, 16:14 »

Quote from: iFlop on April 25, 2015, 15:05

It's as censored and full of fake high fives as reading a North Korean propaganda newspaper anyway.

I think that's a bit unfair to the People's Republic of North Korea....

Semmick Photo · « **Reply #132 on:** April 26, 2015, 03:41 »

Maybe it's a loss for some that the forum will be gone but let's put in a prayer that they will get rid of that ubermuppet Lobo in the process.

iFlop · « **Reply #133 on:** April 26, 2015, 08:56 »

Nah, keep him. I just skip over his posts, so it's just 5-10% less posts I would have to read when going through a thread. Good, forgettable filler.

ShadySue · « **Reply #134 on:** April 26, 2015, 09:00 »

Quote from: iFlop on April 26, 2015, 08:56

Nah, keep him. I just skip over his posts, so it's just 5-10% less posts I would have to read when going through a thread. Good, forgettable filler.

You seem not to be the only one. Several people post here questions he has already answered over there. Whether true/accurate or not, that's what he's been told to post, so is as much as an 'official' line as we're going to get.

shudderstok · « **Reply #135 on:** April 26, 2015, 10:12 »

Quote from: Semmick Photo on April 26, 2015, 03:41

Maybe it's a loss for some that the forum will be gone but let's put in a prayer that they will get rid of that ubermuppet Lobo in the process.

I personally have never understood why they keep him. Even when he is attempting to be helpful he is still a snark. As far as I am concerned he does more damage than good.

iFlop · « **Reply #136 on:** April 26, 2015, 12:44 »

Quote from: shudderstok on April 26, 2015, 10:12

Quote from: Semmick Photo on April 26, 2015, 03:41
Maybe it's a loss for some that the forum will be gone but let's put in a prayer that they will get rid of that ubermuppet Lobo in the process.

I personally have never understood why they keep him. Even when he is attempting to be helpful he is still a snark. As far as I am concerned he does more damage than good.

I totally agree. I never understood his attitude and the whole unappealing "hammer-time" de moniker he exudes. Who needs it really? It's not cute or funny at all to me.

If iStock is going to have someone act as the face of iStock to interact with its thousands of contributors then you would think they would choose someone with the right interpersonal skills to be a positive representation of the company.

Well, I guess I need not wonder why iStock has hired the wrong guy for the job. Every corporate decision they have made since early 2012 has done nothing but damage the individual contributor on one level or another. So he just falls into a long line of bad corporate decision making. But hey, at least their consistent in their bad decisions because consistency seems to at least count for something.

I am glad I am not him though. It would bother me to know I am generally disliked by over 30,000 people. But I guess it pays the bills so...

gbalex · « **Reply #137 on:** April 26, 2015, 13:13 »

Quote from: shudderstok on April 26, 2015, 10:12

Quote from: Semmick Photo on April 26, 2015, 03:41
Maybe it's a loss for some that the forum will be gone but let's put in a prayer that they will get rid of that ubermuppet Lobo in the process.

I personally have never understood why they keep him. Even when he is attempting to be helpful he is still a snark. As far as I am concerned he does more damage than good.

It is called Trickle-down management. The fact that management condones Lobo's actions and attitudes toward contributors tells you a great deal about the mindset of uppermanagment.

The contempt for contributors has been thick on many sites for years. The business actions they take or don't take, the bugs they do not fix etc etc tell you everything we need to know about who they are.

shudderstok · « **Reply #138 on:** April 26, 2015, 13:49 »

Quote from: gbalex on April 26, 2015, 13:13

Quote from: shudderstok on April 26, 2015, 10:12
Quote from: Semmick Photo on April 26, 2015, 03:41
Maybe it's a loss for some that the forum will be gone but let's put in a prayer that they will get rid of that ubermuppet Lobo in the process.

I personally have never understood why they keep him. Even when he is attempting to be helpful he is still a snark. As far as I am concerned he does more damage than good.

It is called Trickle-down management. The fact that management condones Lobo's actions and attitudes toward contributors tells you a great deal about the mindset of uppermanagment.

The contempt for contributors has been thick on many sites for years. The business actions they take or don't take, the bugs they do not fix etc etc tell you everything we need to know about who they are.

True. I think all the contempt towards contributors stems from the fact that our assets and the royalties we make on our copyright is their liability and if they could actually stuff more in our corn holes they would.

Justanotherphotographer · « **Reply #139 on:** April 27, 2015, 02:40 »

I like the stats in the video. A lot of "sold X times more in the fourth quarter". Utterly meaningless dribble. Sold more than when, the third quarter, well duh, the fourth quarter is always far and away the strongest overall in stock. Or do they mean over last years fourth quarter? who . knows. Clearly this piece of propaganda is not meant to help contributors get a better handle on what's happening at IS is all I can gleam from it.

Semmick Photo · « **Reply #140 on:** April 27, 2015, 03:10 »

Quote from: gbalex on April 26, 2015, 13:13

Quote from: shudderstok on April 26, 2015, 10:12
Quote from: Semmick Photo on April 26, 2015, 03:41
Maybe it's a loss for some that the forum will be gone but let's put in a prayer that they will get rid of that ubermuppet Lobo in the process.

I personally have never understood why they keep him. Even when he is attempting to be helpful he is still a snark. As far as I am concerned he does more damage than good.

It is called Trickle-down management. The fact that management condones Lobo's actions and attitudes toward contributors tells you a great deal about the mindset of uppermanagment.

The contempt for contributors has been thick on many sites for years. The business actions they take or don't take, the bugs they do not fix etc etc tell you everything we need to know about who they are.

Completely agree with this. I wanted to post a similar thought. Customer service is your business card. Its how your customers will see you as a company. The fact they let this Ogre run amok in the forum says everything about Getty as a company and the people managing it.

I have been contacted on 3 occasions by a recruiter if I wanted to work for Getty in Ireland as Dutch speaking sales executive. Seems they have some trouble filling that position (!). I declined three times as I simply cant work for them. It would have been hilarious though to be Lobo's colleague and send him a nice Whatsup? email

. And they pay they offered was simply a reflection of the greedy company they are.

ShadySue · « **Reply #141 on:** April 27, 2015, 08:05 »

Quote from: iFlop on April 26, 2015, 12:44

I am glad I am not him though. It would bother me to know I am generally disliked by over 30,000 people.

That wouldn't bother me half as much as being forced to peddle the lies, half-truths, puffery, smoke and mirrors that he seems to get from TPTB to convey, often with "excitement", to the masses.

Quote

But I guess it pays the bills so...

Digital66 · « **Reply #142 on:** April 27, 2015, 08:33 »

Quote from: Semmick Photo on April 26, 2015, 03:41

Maybe it's a loss for some that the forum will be gone but let's put in a prayer that they will get rid of that ubermuppet Lobo in the process.

And kelvinjay as well.

sharpshot · « **Reply #143 on:** April 27, 2015, 09:12 »

The video only has 97 views so far, just shows that few people care about istock now. They have successfully alienated buyers and contributors and I don't see any way back from that. If the video contained the word "sorry" about 100 times, it might indicate that they understand what has happened to ruin their reputation over the past many years.

iFlop · « **Reply #144 on:** April 27, 2015, 09:45 »

Most iStock contributors may not be aware of the YouTube link to the video.

Exclusive contributors were originally told to log into the Getty Images Contributor Community site to watch it in a secure area. Non exclusive contributors didn't have access to it.

Shortly after that, iStock decided to provide a public link to the video within the iStock public forum. That link is here and I believe where most iStock contributors went to watch it:

http://video.vzaar.com/vzaar/vz9/657/target/vz96577e3841f5425182340470bc14a455-http-streaming/vz96577e3841f5425182340470bc14a455.m3u8?response-content-disposition=inline&AWSAccessKeyId=AKIAJ74MFWNVAFH6P7FQ&Expires=1430147464&Signature=UQxb1jo4qXu1jM8is0SJnw6Lo8g%3D

Unfortunately the above link doesn't allow any place to leave comments on the video though.

spangoat · « **Reply #145 on:** June 04, 2015, 23:55 »

istock have died , they (lobo, kelvinjay) are not allowed to talk about the real opinions sad

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Author Topic: iStock | 15 Year Anniversary (Read 43389 times)

bunhill

cobalt

bunhill

gbalex

iFlop

ShadySue

lewis larkin

Semmick Photo

iFlop

ShadySue

shudderstok

iFlop

gbalex

shudderstok

Justanotherphotographer

Semmick Photo

ShadySue

Digital66

sharpshot

iFlop

spangoat

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