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Author Topic: The Fall Of An Empire  (Read 38910 times)

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« Reply #100 on: December 06, 2012, 11:05 »
0
Strange thinking here. Its seems as if many here which they would fall? malicious thinking is no good for microstockers. Remember: what goes around comes around.
Microstockers should instead invest their time producing not lend themselves to gossip and jealousy.

I'm not sure if the recent revamped version of MSG still has this info but a few months ago I found the hours that we'd all spent logged in here and thought how many more images we'd have produced if we'd stayed away, and how lower some peoples blood pressure may be.


ShadySue

  • There is a crack in everything
« Reply #101 on: December 06, 2012, 11:09 »
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Strange thinking here. Its seems as if many here which they would fall? malicious thinking is no good for microstockers. Remember: what goes around comes around.
Microstockers should instead invest their time producing not lend themselves to gossip and jealousy.
I often wonder if your regular out-of-context use of 'jealous/jealousy' is somehow lost in translation.

MetaStocker

    This user is banned.
« Reply #102 on: December 06, 2012, 11:12 »
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The point is, should we follow actual trends (ie : Retro-look) or wait for the next trend in the hope we like it ?

I mean, it's an important thing considering the next trend we like could never ever materialize before 2050.


MetaStocker

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« Reply #103 on: December 06, 2012, 11:30 »
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As for retro, it's pure BS and a fad, a sign of desperation if they have to go back to the '60s look
It's general cultural fashion at the moment. Most young women round about here (of those who care) are going around in black eyeliner and false lashes. Looks h*llish on anyone with fair skin and blonde to mid-brown or red hair, but do they care?

No they never cared, ever.

Historically women followed fashion trends imposed from the above and if you dare to ask them they will tell you that "i just follow trends, i don't make them", yeah sort of saying i'm a follower and happy about being one, a sheep paying exorbitant prices for clothes that were fashionable when their grandmas were young !

BUT ... let's look a bit deeper on this ... girls don't give a sh-it about all this, all they care is the final result, looking GOOD, no matter what, or if their clothes are modern clones of rags sold used by hippies in the '60s.

Where's the different with the editorial market after all ? magazine want to look good and grab your attention especially on their covers, who cares if it looks retro or whatever ?

And what's "modern" anyway ? If now we all look at Retro in both photography and music and fashion is because there's simply NOTHING new around, anything has been done to death already, over and over, and new cameras are only bringing us more MegaPixels and faster shutter speeds but nothing revolutionary compared to the past.

And here's the point, it's very very hard to make something new using something OLD, we simply reached the point where "new" means a little improving on the latest technology, digital imaging just reached its apex and i can't see anything making a breakthru soon, maybe in pocket cameras but never ever in DSLR.

And yet, imagine having your 100 megapixel pocket camera with F1.4 micro lens .. please tell me where will be the amazing difference with a DSLR with similar specs ?

May we like it or not, anyone can "be" a photographer nowadays, don't you see all these exibitions of people shotting polaroid or iPhone or even webcams ?

Sooner or later it will be just a matter of having big budgets for expensive shoots or being able to reach places nobody else can reach, that's exactly why Paparazzi will never feel the heat from amateurs' competition.

ShadySue

  • There is a crack in everything
« Reply #104 on: December 06, 2012, 11:35 »
0
Strange thinking here. Its seems as if many here which they would fall? malicious thinking is no good for microstockers. Remember: what goes around comes around.
Microstockers should instead invest their time producing not lend themselves to gossip and jealousy.

I'm not sure if the recent revamped version of MSG still has this info but a few months ago I found the hours that we'd all spent logged in here and thought how many more images we'd have produced if we'd stayed away, and how lower some peoples blood pressure may be.
Wouldn't make a scrap of difference to me. I only come in when I've got nothing to photograph (e.g it's raining, which it is a lot of the time) or I've got a big processing job under way (e.g. I'm sorting, selecting and processing hundreds of images, not mine and not for stock just now) and I need a break, or lots of breaks. Keeps me sane, really.

« Reply #105 on: December 06, 2012, 11:36 »
0
Strange thinking here. Its seems as if many here which they would fall? malicious thinking is no good for microstockers. Remember: what goes around comes around.
Microstockers should instead invest their time producing not lend themselves to gossip and jealousy.

I'm not sure if the recent revamped version of MSG still has this info but a few months ago I found the hours that we'd all spent logged in here and thought how many more images we'd have produced if we'd stayed away, and how lower some peoples blood pressure may be.

I've never looked at that info, but I leave a tab open in my browser most of the time. I'm not looking at it, but I bet it registers as me being here, so the number isn't really about active time

ShadySue

  • There is a crack in everything
« Reply #106 on: December 06, 2012, 11:46 »
+1
Strange thinking here. Its seems as if many here which they would fall? malicious thinking is no good for microstockers. Remember: what goes around comes around.
Microstockers should instead invest their time producing not lend themselves to gossip and jealousy.

I'm not sure if the recent revamped version of MSG still has this info but a few months ago I found the hours that we'd all spent logged in here and thought how many more images we'd have produced if we'd stayed away, and how lower some peoples blood pressure may be.

I've never looked at that info, but I leave a tab open in my browser most of the time. I'm not looking at it, but I bet it registers as me being here, so the number isn't really about active time
^^ That too. I've got about seven tabs open all the time, one of which is msg.

WarrenPrice

« Reply #107 on: December 06, 2012, 12:18 »
0
Strange thinking here. Its seems as if many here which they would fall? malicious thinking is no good for microstockers. Remember: what goes around comes around.
Microstockers should instead invest their time producing not lend themselves to gossip and jealousy.

I'm not sure if the recent revamped version of MSG still has this info but a few months ago I found the hours that we'd all spent logged in here and thought how many more images we'd have produced if we'd stayed away, and how lower some peoples blood pressure may be.

I've never looked at that info, but I leave a tab open in my browser most of the time. I'm not looking at it, but I bet it registers as me being here, so the number isn't really about active time
^^ That too. I've got about seven tabs open all the time, one of which is msg.

Me too.  I think it must be a common practice.

« Reply #108 on: December 06, 2012, 14:23 »
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I wonder.. I haven't uploaded any images in a few months and vectors I haven't uploaded in a few years - and I didn't get any email telling me how much they miss me.
I haven't submitted anything to IS for a long time either, but have received no email. For those who have gotten one, I'm curious, was it sent by Peebert, or Lobo?

Unless this is an in-joke, it must have been an incredibly long time. Peebert was  MIA and of legendary status only at iStock when I started in Dec 2006.
I just thought that - given IS's track record for making low quality business decisions - they might have brought Peebert back and put him or Lobo in charge of Customer Relations. It just sounded like something they might do (still haven't gotten my own return-invitation email, and I used to be Gold there).

aspp

« Reply #109 on: December 06, 2012, 14:33 »
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Another one from that Glassdoor site which which jsnover pointed us to where they have the insiders' accounts of working at IS and Getty

Quote
Getty Images, the parent company is slowly but surely deprecating the company and destroying key elements of the culture.(Former Web Applications Developer in Calgary)


I think that pretty much sums it up for the customers and contributors too.

« Reply #110 on: December 06, 2012, 14:44 »
0
Strange thinking here. Its seems as if many here which they would fall? malicious thinking is no good for microstockers. Remember: what goes around comes around.
Microstockers should instead invest their time producing not lend themselves to gossip and jealousy.
I often wonder if your regular out-of-context use of 'jealous/jealousy' is somehow lost in translation.

You mean lost in transition dont you. As a matter of fact........................

dbvirago

« Reply #111 on: December 06, 2012, 15:47 »
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The upload limit was increased recently.

Non-Exclusive Upload Limits
Default now 28/week (was 18)
Bronze now 30/week (was 20)
Silver now 40/week (was 24)
Gold now 50/week (was 30)
Diamond now 60/week (was 38)
Black Diamond now 70/week (was 40)

Really? That's news to me. Can't find any announcement about that and my upload limit (non exclusive) still says 18 per week. Anyone else know anything about this or have a link?  Regards, David.

News to me too. Mine remains at 38.

Yeah, mine is still 24, but that is irrelevant as I stopped uploading there earlier in the year. After being a solid contender for 2nd place each month for years, they fell into last and stayed there. Not even tracking month to month sales there any more, it's in the same bucket as my trial and test accounts.

aspp

« Reply #112 on: December 06, 2012, 16:14 »
+2
in their eyes even providing free coffee is a matter of "culture" while others take pride in not having smoking rooms or allowing/forcing developers to not wear a tie.

It must be a while since you worked or lived in Europe. Most (if not all) European countries long ago banned smoking in the workplace. I cannot be certain about every single European country but in most European countries companies would not be allowed to have smoking rooms. It comes down to national law.

Much of the other stuff you are concerned with is to do with rights legislation. Companies do not get to choose.

« Reply #113 on: December 06, 2012, 16:38 »
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Poncke

« Reply #114 on: December 06, 2012, 16:57 »
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in their eyes even providing free coffee is a matter of "culture" while others take pride in not having smoking rooms or allowing/forcing developers to not wear a tie.

It must be a while since you worked or lived in Europe. Most (if not all) European countries long ago banned smoking in the workplace. I cannot be certain about every single European country but in most European countries companies would not be allowed to have smoking rooms. It comes down to national law.

Much of the other stuff you are concerned with is to do with rights legislation. Companies do not get to choose.

Smokers go outside in Europe. At least at the two large US global companies I worked and work for. You may not even have a roof over your head and be in the pissin rain for all they care.

« Reply #115 on: December 10, 2012, 08:35 »
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pretty sure that it is SPAM, to get more traffic from google, nice job kobajagrande ;D

my bad, thanks Cory

Yeah right... what do I have from that traffic dude...   ;D

And yes, I got that info in the e-mail, one of those "we miss you, come back and upload more (vectors)" as ShadySue said.  ;)
This might not be the case with photo contributors, maybe only illustrators, not sure.  ???

« Reply #116 on: December 10, 2012, 10:07 »
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And actually i'm wondering if i could make more money writing photography apps or PS plugins rather than selling photos

Me too. But I just keep reading that the all the money in apps goes to a handful of developers with mega-hits.   I think the days of the profitable one-man app ended long ago - and maybe they never happened.  Successfull apps and plug-ins are big projects like any other money-making software.     Sure it would be fun to create an app that other photographers started buying and using... but wait, I'm only getting 50 cents a sale - it's a familiar feeling, somehow... :)

ShadySue

  • There is a crack in everything
« Reply #117 on: December 10, 2012, 10:23 »
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And actually i'm wondering if i could make more money writing photography apps or PS plugins rather than selling photos

Me too. But I just keep reading that the all the money in apps goes to a handful of developers with mega-hits.   I think the days of the profitable one-man app ended long ago - and maybe they never happened.  Successfull apps and plug-ins are big projects like any other money-making software.     Sure it would be fun to create an app that other photographers started buying and using... but wait, I'm only getting 50 cents a sale - it's a familiar feeling, somehow... :)
Probably better to develop an app, use it yourself while the mobilestock trend is still live, then sell it later. Why encourage the opposition, as Sean would say!

MetaStocker

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« Reply #118 on: December 10, 2012, 15:33 »
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And actually i'm wondering if i could make more money writing photography apps or PS plugins rather than selling photos

Me too. But I just keep reading that the all the money in apps goes to a handful of developers with mega-hits.   I think the days of the profitable one-man app ended long ago - and maybe they never happened.  Successfull apps and plug-ins are big projects like any other money-making software.     Sure it would be fun to create an app that other photographers started buying and using... but wait, I'm only getting 50 cents a sale - it's a familiar feeling, somehow... :)

Actually i was referring about DESKTOP apps.
I don't even own a smartphone but i could start developing on WinRT/WP8 using the emulator in Visual Studio 2012.

PS Plugins are a BIG mess, the CS6 SDK has near zero decent documentation, you basically use it as a hook to include your own standalone app (as a DLL).

Said that, you must be an expert in Computer Graphics algorithms, and that's not the case for me, i can have the raw idea but i should simulate it using Math tools like MathLab etc you can imagine how long it can take do all this from scratch alone, and not surprisingly there are very few free samples of PS plugins around, the few ones i've found are about very simple stuff, nothing with complex layers and complex tunings.

For instance, there are excellent PS tutorials around that required maybe 20-30 manual steps, wouldn't it be good to make a PS plugin out of it ? Yes, but ... this can really take ages if you have to develop your own standalone app to simulate PS commands, as PS doesn;t give a common API ! the only way you can batch is using PS actions, but on a PS plugin you can't ! So you must do it on your own with the .NET framework, now imagine coding from scratch algos for radial blur etc etc ... c'mon .. it's crazy unless you use 3rd party libraries with ready made CGI apis and that's another big mess anyway ... you've no idea how complex it can get, not to mention if you want to port it to OSX it must be recoded in Objective C using Cocoa framework.

I've the nasty feeling Adobe is keen on keeping PS developming difficult to master as they know it's a gold mine and they don't want the market to be flooded by small plugins as in the past or as now with the 1000s of LR presets.




« Reply #119 on: December 10, 2012, 15:45 »
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And actually i'm wondering if i could make more money writing photography apps or PS plugins rather than selling photos

Me too. But I just keep reading that the all the money in apps goes to a handful of developers with mega-hits.   I think the days of the profitable one-man app ended long ago - and maybe they never happened.  Successfull apps and plug-ins are big projects like any other money-making software.     Sure it would be fun to create an app that other photographers started buying and using... but wait, I'm only getting 50 cents a sale - it's a familiar feeling, somehow... :)

Actually i was referring about DESKTOP apps.
I don't even own a smartphone but i could start developing on WinRT/WP8 using the emulator in Visual Studio 2012.

PS Plugins are a BIG mess, the CS6 SDK has near zero decent documentation, you basically use it as a hook to include your own standalone app (as a DLL).

Said that, you must be an expert in Computer Graphics algorithms, and that's not the case for me, i can have the raw idea but i should simulate it using Math tools like MathLab etc you can imagine how long it can take do all this from scratch alone, and not surprisingly there are very few free samples of PS plugins around, the few ones i've found are about very simple stuff, nothing with complex layers and complex tunings.

For instance, there are excellent PS tutorials around that required maybe 20-30 manual steps, wouldn't it be good to make a PS plugin out of it ? Yes, but ... this can really take ages if you have to develop your own standalone app to simulate PS commands, as PS doesn;t give a common API ! the only way you can batch is using PS actions, but on a PS plugin you can't ! So you must do it on your own with the .NET framework, now imagine coding from scratch algos for radial blur etc etc ... c'mon .. it's crazy unless you use 3rd party libraries with ready made CGI apis and that's another big mess anyway ... you've no idea how complex it can get, not to mention if you want to port it to OSX it must be recoded in Objective C using Cocoa framework.

I've the nasty feeling Adobe is keen on keeping PS developming difficult to master as they know it's a gold mine and they don't want the market to be flooded by small plugins as in the past or as now with the 1000s of LR presets.

 I'm an old school guy and can't get used to desktop applications being called "apps".  So if it's for a phone, do we  call it a "phone app" or maybe an "app store app"? 

I was in software development for a long time, but got out of it last year and recently removed VS2012, XCode and the rest from my hard drive. Nirvana!   

My experience is that doing something like a 'plugin' always requires inside-track support from the big boys (Adobe in this case).  The publicly available tools and documentation never cut it; to really get anywhere you need to be on the inside track - you have to 'matter' - i.e. your plugin would have to be something Adobe actually wants to happen.   

WP8 could be a serious opportunity right about now.  The tech press keeps putting it down, discouraging developers, but I think it's going to come on strong.

ShadySue

  • There is a crack in everything
« Reply #120 on: December 10, 2012, 15:52 »
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I'm an old school guy and can't get used to desktop applications being called "apps".  So if it's for a phone, do we  call it a "phone app" or maybe an "app store app"? 
I'm a clueless girl who hasn't a clue what the difference between a 'desktop application' and a 'program' is. Is it like a 'proglet' or mini-program?
Care to share? TIA.

Poncke

« Reply #121 on: December 10, 2012, 16:12 »
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Its gone a bit off topic. Maybe move this part to a new thread?

« Reply #122 on: December 10, 2012, 16:37 »
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I'm a clueless girl who hasn't a clue what the difference between a 'desktop application' and a 'program' is.

They are synonyms. 

Originally, computers ran programs.   Over the years marketing people decided that "program" wasn't cool, so end-user programs became "applications".  Strictly speaking, it means a program having a UI with which a user performs high level tasks (i.e. word processing). 

When smartphones hit the scene, "application" was replaced with the trendier "app" which I thought meant an application for a phone; but now, people are calling desktop applications "apps" as well, so I give up.   :)




ShadySue

  • There is a crack in everything
« Reply #123 on: December 10, 2012, 16:45 »
0
I'm a clueless girl who hasn't a clue what the difference between a 'desktop application' and a 'program' is.

They are synonyms. 
... explanation ...

Tx

« Reply #124 on: December 10, 2012, 17:03 »
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I just read this on twitter.

"Do not look where you fell, but where you slipped." - African Proverb

Take a look at the download stats that Sean posted in IS forum; this link was first posted on msg here.

They still refuse to attempt to go back to the point where things began to go wrong for them, and continue to pursue plans which clearly aren't working. I am astonished by that, considering their objective is to increase revenue.

Unless they somehow turn things around with the course they're taking, looks like in a few years time we will be able to do a post-mortem. Of course by that time everything would have been said already as it wasn't sudden death.


 

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