I know there has been some discussion of Rob Sylvan's (Sylvanworks) departure from administration at Istock.  I am hesitant to speculate about why he's leaving when he hasn't had the opportunity yet to say goodbye.  He has posted his official farewell in the istock forums HERE:
http://www.istockphoto.com/forum_messages.php?threadid=259091&page=1

It seems to me that he deserves his own thread here at MSG.  

Personally, I think Rob has always been a calm, evenhanded, and positive force at Istock.  He was always friendly, helpful and respectful to both exclusives and non-exclusives alike.  I wish him all the best wherever his life takes him from here.  (Hopefully he will at least remain an IS contributor).  

I was not planning to, but I am going to buy his book to support him and as a thank you for all his contributions to making Istock the wonderful place it had has  been all these years.  

http://www.amazon.com/Taking-Stock-microstock-creating-photos/dp/0321713079/ref=sr_1_1?s=gateway&ie=UTF8&qid=1285426710&sr=8-1

And if he is leaving in protest of these changes, which we may never know for sure, $20 seems like a very small price to say "Thank you" for his integrity and support of contributors.  

Yes indeed. I posted a while ago that although he's a fair bit younger than me, he comes over as so avuncular in the forums that I'll always think of him as Uncle Rob.
Good luck whatever the future holds.
His Goodbye post is up now:
http://www.istockphoto.com/forum_messages.php?threadid=259091&page=1

It would seem rather obvious from his IS posting, that Mr. Sylvan has a problem with the things that are coming down at IS.
In solidarity with Lisa, I am going to buy his book now.

Best of luck to Mr. Sylvan!

As I posted in the other thread that touched on this, Rob Sylvan is a wonderful guy and I'm very sad to see him leave his job as iStock's Site Director. 

I was lucky enough to meet him in person last August (at the iStockalypse HQ), although we didn't get much time to chat, unfortunately. He was everything he had seemed to be via the many virtual meetings - except much taller than I expected (I'm short, but even accounting for that lack of perspective, he's tall!).

I think he has done an outstanding job in keeping the iStock forums in order, and the contrast in style when things do have to be reined in between Rob doing it and some of the other admins (not you pieman, you're more acerbic, but your sense of humor more than compensates) only serves to highlight what a gentle, respectful touch he had in doing his job.

Any other organization he joins will be very lucky indeed. I think I'll buy his Lightroom for Dummies book - I've recently started using it after a long time of brushing it off as not for me - and I'm definitely a dummy who could use some avuncular wisdom.

Oh, and he does look so good in boots

Cheers mate!

A man to be respected, he walks the walk!

You said it.

As I posted in the other thread that touched on this, Rob Sylvan is a wonderful guy and I'm very sad to see him leave his job as iStock's Site Director. 

I was lucky enough to meet him in person last August (at the iStockalypse HQ), although we didn't get much time to chat, unfortunately. He was everything he had seemed to be via the many virtual meetings - except much taller than I expected (I'm short, but even accounting for that lack of perspective, he's tall!).

I think he has done an outstanding job in keeping the iStock forums in order, and the contrast in style when things do have to be reined in between Rob doing it and some of the other admins (not you pieman, you're more acerbic, but your sense of humor more than compensates) only serves to highlight what a gentle, respectful touch he had in doing his job.

Any other organization he joins will be very lucky indeed. I think I'll buy his Lightroom for Dummies book - I've recently started using it after a long time of brushing it off as not for me - and I'm definitely a dummy who could use some avuncular wisdom.

Oh, and he does look so good in boots

Cheers mate!

-----------------------------
Note that his book is for lightroom 2 and lightroom 3 just came out with significant changes, so despite Rob's inherent goodness, the book will still be a bit dated :-).  Try Kelby's book for version 3.  I did buy Rob's stock book but have not had a chance to read yet

I disambiguated Rob's departure post that I read over in the IS forums and came up with a suitable phrase:

"Facta Non Verba"

May we all take away something of value, from what we have shared and learned.

With respect, and best regards for your future endeavours,

Tara

Just wanted to pop in and thank everyone for the kind words. Thanks also to Lisa for the book plug, though please only purchase it if you think you will find it helpful (I'm quite sure Lisa could write a book of her own). Though my role is changing I do hope to see you all around the interwebs.

Thanks Rob. Maybe one day you can write another book __ about the internal shenanigans at Istockphoto.

It is indeed a good book. :-)

Thanks Rob. Maybe one day you can write another book __ about the internal shenanigans at Istockphoto.

I want to reserve an advanced copy of that one! 

Quote from: nruboc on September 26, 2010, 14:40

As opposed to Lobo who appears to be enjoying himself while censoring, deleting and joking as users are going through a tough period.

FWIW, I seriously doubt Lobo is enjoying any of what's going on.  I think the sarcasm and testiness are more likely to be a result of the strain he's under.  He's been with Istockphoto from the very beginning.  There is no way he is enjoying watching it fall apart in front of his eyes.  

This is just my opinion, I don't know for a fact.  But my personal dealings with Chris have shown him to be a very helpful and conscientious person.  Hope I don't get in trouble for revealing he's not the scary guy he seems in the forums....  

Fair enough, just my impression from not knowing the guy

... When you have a real community, there are a lot of members willing to make things for free (from Critique Forum, to attending fairs, organizing lypses, programming utilities, etc.) When it's just a business, this part disappears and the business has to pay for anything. I repeat, I supposse this wasn't Rob's case, because he was an Administrator, but I know of a lot of people that willingly did many things for free.

I'd be an example of that. There certainly were others too.

I used to spend quite a bit of time in the iStock Critique Forum, plus a little bit in other places. That's all stopped since this last announcement (it stopped briefly during the cannister change announcements at the end of 2009, but resumed after they agreed to grandfather contributors to the next level).

I don't have any ill will toward my fellow contributors, but the current system pits us all against one another competing for the small number of slots at the higher commission levels. No reason to help anyone else in those circumstances unless you're getting paid to do it.

I think it's shortsighted thinking by an entity that doesn't care one iota about the long term health of iStockphoto.com as a business. But perhaps management didn't set any value on it and don't care that it's gone away. Hard to say what management's opinion is as no one's saying anything any more.

Quote from: lisafx on September 26, 2010, 15:21

FWIW, I seriously doubt Lobo is enjoying any of what's going on.  I think the sarcasm and testiness are more likely to be a result of the strain he's under.

That's my sense/opinion, too.

While he may not be enjoying all of it, I think there are parts of it that he has. My intuition tells me there are some people he took special delight in banning.

Rob most certainly will be missed, though. At least I get to see him on Facebook. He was always nice to me, even when spanking me for being naughty in the political threads. Wait. That didn't sound right.

FWIW, and I'll admit my bias as I consider Lobo a good friend, but I do want to say that I think he is doing a incredible job under the circumstances (which are completely beyond his control), and to be honest, he has always been a solid contributor/community advocate behind the scenes. He's never applied a hammer to anyone who wasn't looking a little bit like a nail.