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Author Topic: Nippyish note from Rebecca Rockafellar  (Read 70461 times)

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ShadySue

  • There is a crack in everything
« Last Edit: December 08, 2012, 11:18 by ShadySue »


« Reply #1 on: December 07, 2012, 17:46 »
+1
pure strategy and it will work out for most, even if communication gets to a sweet spot and they get rid of the RCs I am sure most indies won't got back and be happy, I feel sad for most exclusives dealing with this crap day after day

« Reply #2 on: December 07, 2012, 17:47 »
+1
"The rumors of our demise have been greatly exaggerated."
 ;D ;D ;D

« Reply #3 on: December 07, 2012, 17:58 »
0
ISTOCK MANAGEMENT QUOTE OF THE YEAR AWARD!

"We get it, you guys are mad. And reading the forums for the past year has made it clear that some of you think we are lazy, incompetent, greedy or uncaring."

Gawd I love it!

« Reply #4 on: December 07, 2012, 18:04 »
+1
Very much looking forward to some civilized and constructive payouts with you, iStock.

« Reply #5 on: December 07, 2012, 18:32 »
+3
Its an honest post. the best I have read in the whole year, actually.

If they continue being frank and honest without a condescending tone towards the "silly little artist who shouldnt worry his pretty head over business", they might have a chance to recover.

But what we need most is results. Fix the site, kill the RC system, talk to us.

And be honest. None of this denial and the world is pink when it is obvious things are really off.

« Reply #6 on: December 07, 2012, 18:36 »
+1
Its an honest post. the best I have read in the whole year, actually.

If they continue being frank and honest without a condescending tone towards the "silly little artist who shouldnt worry his pretty head over business", they might have a chance to recover.

Unless they start speaking in dollar signs, it doesn't really matter.

Quote
We are still, by far, the number 1 microstock site revenue-wise.

That may be true as a corporation, but not so true for most of us.

« Reply #7 on: December 07, 2012, 18:44 »
+6
She is completely out of touch. She talks as if their lack of communication skills are my main concern. Seriously? No my main concern is my bottom line. And iStock is hurting my bottom line the way they are treating us contributors. No, Rebecca, paying contributors 15-19% on iStock, moving and promoting content on thinkstock for less than 30 cent pr download are my two main concerns when it comes to iStock.

« Reply #8 on: December 07, 2012, 18:45 »
+2
Until my earnings show some signs of recovery, I'm going to find it hard to have any interest in istock.  Don't know why they think it's so complicated.  If they want a happy forum, get back to how things were a few years ago.  If they took the bold decision to go back to the 20% commission for non-exclusives, I think it would give a lot of us the incentive to work harder at increasing our earnings there again.  They would make a lot more money from non-exclusives than they do now.  I don't think they're capable of admitting they got that wrong and making changes though.

« Reply #9 on: December 07, 2012, 18:46 »
+1

Quote
We are still, by far, the number 1 microstock site revenue-wise.

That may be true as a corporation, but not so true for most of us.

That's true ... but for how much longer? With SS going up and IS going down I reckon the change-over will be in late 2013 or sometime in 2014. If the site problems continue it will be sooner rather than later.

WarrenPrice

« Reply #10 on: December 07, 2012, 18:47 »
+1
As always Lobo will be there to provide additional support and to help us keep the conversation productive.

That seems significant to me.  "We will not tolerate unwanted questions."

 ::)

« Reply #11 on: December 07, 2012, 18:47 »
+2
istock again..

boring boring boring..

the only sentence that makes sense is : We get it, you guys are mad. And reading the forums for the past year has made it clear that some of you think we are lazy, incompetent, greedy or uncaring.
 

PaulieWalnuts

  • We Have Exciting News For You
« Reply #12 on: December 07, 2012, 18:51 »
+1
She talks as if their lack of communication skills are my main concern. Seriously?

That's what I was thinking. So are they now just going to have more people telling us more frequently that something is still broken? And it was supposed to be fixed but is still broken? And is was already fixed but is broken again?

I think she's missing the underlying causes of the anger and until that is addressed more communication is only going to result in even more communication.

ShadySue

  • There is a crack in everything
« Reply #13 on: December 07, 2012, 18:59 »
0
I think she's missing the underlying causes of the anger and until that is addressed more communication is only going to result in even more communication.
Yup, totally glossed over the point. My thoughts exactly.
« Last Edit: December 07, 2012, 19:31 by ShadySue »

ShadySue

  • There is a crack in everything
« Reply #14 on: December 07, 2012, 19:03 »
0
I don't think they're capable of admitting they got that wrong and making changes though.
They could just blame it on the ancien regime and start over.

« Reply #15 on: December 07, 2012, 19:07 »
+1
I wonder what prompted this.  I wonder if it had something to do with the buyer that posted and instigated an eight page thread, ending with him mildly but directly chastising iStock for its attitude towards the contributors.  Maybe that finally got someone's attention. 

One thing in Rebecca's post that bugs me -- her closing statement that "when iStock is successful, we're all successful."   Um, no, not really.  I think it's the other way around.  Because if you listen to iStock's newsletter talk about the new customers and results as expected, and then seeing contributors overwhelmingly report severely down month, iStock's "success" doesn't seem to be trickling down. 

« Reply #16 on: December 07, 2012, 19:18 »
0
IS are definitely rattled by what they are hearing on the forums, but are not willing to apologise or accept any blame. I am sure it is all about the bottom line. It always is.

« Reply #17 on: December 07, 2012, 19:19 »
0
I tried to post in that thread over at IS but I just can't "can't" think of anything civilized..

Every time I start a civilized sentence it triggers my hatred towards them..

her ridiculous idea of "istock's success being our success" is the biggest BS I have heard in my life.. the fact is, with their %15 commission rate, they better go to hell.. because when they do, we will truly be successful as some of those customers will go to agencies that pay us %50..

btw, I believe there is no point in taking her thread serious..

her thread title assures that nothing good will ever happen at istockphoto.. they are just posting to let us know about that.. so +1 for the communication..

for the people who didn't understand what she really wanted to say, here is the translation: "Next time I am going to screw you all, I will let you know in advance! Sorry for the lack of communication before.."

That's all she says.. nothing worth to have a discussion about!
« Last Edit: December 07, 2012, 19:24 by cidepix »

« Reply #18 on: December 07, 2012, 19:21 »
0
IS are definitely rattled by what they are hearing on the forums, but are not willing to apologise or accept any blame. I am sure it is all about the bottom line. It always is.

I can assure you they are losing money.. and they know word of mouth is going to kill them eventually.. you don't underestimate the "word of mouth" because it is the biggest power in the world right now!
« Last Edit: December 07, 2012, 19:25 by cidepix »

« Reply #19 on: December 07, 2012, 19:28 »
0
Maybe they will do a 'Starbucks' and realise how important their contributors are and start to listen to them, but more importantly change.

« Reply #20 on: December 07, 2012, 19:31 »
0
And now the Sr. Director of Search Strategy for Getty is posting in the best match Discussion thread  (although she's basically saying it's all working like it should) -- what is happening here?   :)   

« Reply #21 on: December 07, 2012, 19:32 »
0
Maybe they will do a 'Starbucks' and realise how important their contributors are and start to listen to them, but more importantly change.

 nahh ;D ;D ;D

« Reply #22 on: December 07, 2012, 19:32 »
+1
And now the Sr. Director of Search Strategy for Getty is posting in the best match Discussion thread  (although she's basically saying it's all working like it should) -- what is happening here?   :)

Fairy dust got into her eyes!!!  :o

« Reply #23 on: December 07, 2012, 19:33 »
+1
It probably was the thread opened by the customer that made the obvious undeniable.

But again it is sad, that it went this way. It reenforces the impression that they dont consider us as paying customers. I really loved the post by track5. We have all been there a lot longer than whoever is officially in charge of the site now. And the fact the people in charge didnt present any kind of social media communication and public leadership skills...I mean why on earth did they buy a crowd sourcing site, if they dont know how the economics of such a site work??

Until we see results in site stability, RC improvement and genuine interaction, it will be best for exclusives to prepare files for the inevitable. If istocks earnings keep going down at some point there will be a mass exodus of high quality exclusive content.

If anything, I have learnt I cant rely on someone else to truly push my business. This is my job and it might be much better to be independent and work with different sites.

Like many I follow the alexa traffic and read whatever info I can get. When SS goes over 300 million in revenue and fotolia breaks 200 million, I guess it will be safe to say that they have enough customer/sales volume to bring appropriate returns.

Most of all I dont understand why they have people in charge who dont live and breathe social media or just totally love to interact with the community. If being involved with a crowd sourcing site is not your true passion, then maybe the place should be run by someone who does.

All companies run best if positions are filled by people who completly love what they do. And the community has a lot of talented people they can hire. Bruce used to do it. istock was the talent pool for everything, not just images.

I dont know if it is too late to save the community, it will take years to rebuild the trust that has been destroyed.

And yes, if they really believe it is just a "communication problem", they dont get it.

But the community still exists, we will just move on to the next marketplace. Just a click away...

« Last Edit: December 07, 2012, 19:47 by cobalt »

« Reply #24 on: December 07, 2012, 19:33 »
+8
This reminds me of a time when I worked for a computer company that was struggling in a recession and after a round of layoffs and various belt tightening moves that made work life pretty unpleasant, management suggested we all go to stress management classes.

I rather thought that removing the source of the stress was a much better approach :)

While they do have a communications problem, the anger and lack of trust stem from having our pockets picked, being directly and explicitly lied to and having the site - that we're paying them a ton of money to run - operating like an ailing Trabant. They can't fix this by talking nicely to us.

And as far as why now - it's the old "leave them to stew over the weekend and it'll quiet down by Monday" routine.

I do think that having specific people from management post is a good idea. I do not think that suggesting that contributors need to clean up their act and play nicely is appropriate - not quite such a tin ear as KKT, but close. You take a dump all over us and when we are vocal about how much we dislike it, you ask for our help in returning to civil discourse?! How about something to clean up the mess you made and a promise not to dump on us any more?

The woman's a waste of space.


 

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