http://www.istockphoto.com/forum_messages.php?threadid=268662&page=1

From Lobo:
I can assure you I will keep up the pressure on my end for the folks at HQ to provide some kind of wiggle room for the folks who are just coming up short.

Wouldn't you hate to be a spin doctor at iStock.
http://www.istockphoto.com/forum_messages.php?threadid=279912&page=1#post5318352
Basically, iStock is offering a sale of Vetta files until the end of December, but 'sweetening the blow' by doubling RCs on Vetta sales during the Sale.
So I guess that's Good News for the Buyers, and for those Exclusives who are near to their next RC target and who have a lot of good-selling Vettas.
No news for non-exclusives and exclusives with no Vettas, or none which sell within that time.
Bad news for exclusives who sell Vettas during the Sale, but aren't near their next target, as they're getting less $$$ and the extra RCs won't make a scrap of difference.
As I'm nowhere near the Gold Target (but over 9,500 dls), I'm definitely a Boo-hoo not a woo-way on this one.
Added: they can work out the code for this, but not to pay us our missing 10%, for several weeks. Ha!

Quote from: SNP on December 07, 2010, 17:54

Lisa - in reply to your other question...adjusting the RC targets downward is good...isn't it? Andrew's just said they won't be adjusted up. meaning, if anything, if people aren't reaching targets en masse, they'll adjust the targets to be more reasonable.

translation, they want to see contributors producing. that's my take anyways.

I don't think they will raise targets for this year, unless they're trying to get rid of loads of contributers; and if they wanted to do that, they'd just do it.
What they do in the future, who can tell.
As Susan says, we can't take their 'word' at face value. Even if they genuinely mean it at the time, tomorrow, next week, next month, who knows?
The RC targets are very demotivational. I've no chance of reaching the 35% target, and my uploads of the past 18 months aren't selling, so it doesn't seem worth the effort, so if they want to see the humble minions producing, they've gone a funny way about it.

 they are desparate enough to cut Vetta prices indicates to me an overall sales slump

Quote from: SNP on December 07, 2010, 22:25

I guess it depends on how you look at. I upload my butt off. I work at producing better content everyday. I'm serious about my business. I guess that comment will ruffle feathers, but it's not meant to...

I don't have as large a portfolio as you do, but I work hard at producing high quality work. I became exclusive with a set of royalty schedules in place that made financial sense. Within weeks of making the 40% royalty rate I've been working towards I lose it because they've changed the rules.

I worked my effing butt off, made it, and had it taken away. I'm pi@#ed, demotivated and deeply, deeply distrustful of just about anything that HQ says.

 It was last December I was overjoyed that they grandfathered the next cannister level only to have them play weasel word games with that promise. They did keep the canister level, but they uncoupled the royalty rate that had always been tied to it (and which they knew no one would ever think would be uncoupled when contributors parsed the sentence promising grandfathering). The joy then makes the anger now even more profound.

The fact that there's some utter hogwash about earning back our trust in the September announcements and then KT goes into hiding around IS just pours fuel on the fire. Yes, he'd get yelled at if he came to the forums, but he just chickened out and abandoned contributors to lick their wounds.

We have recent evidence that just because they say something doesn't mean it'll still be true a short time later. That's not being conspiratorial, it's just being sentient given all the data in front of us.

The whole situation is just so ugly and grasping and greedy. And to think that when they said they were given the target of growing the business by 50% this year, I naively thought they'd actually grow the business, vs. grow their profits by squeezing contributors.

So I really don't appreciate comments about how you work your butt off and it'll all be all right. I did, and it isn't.

Quote from: SNP on December 07, 2010, 22:25

I guess it depends on how you look at. I upload my butt off. I work at producing better content everyday. I'm serious about my business. I guess that comment will ruffle feathers, but it's not meant to...

I don't have as large a portfolio as you do, but I work hard at producing high quality work. I became exclusive with a set of royalty schedules in place that made financial sense. Within weeks of making the 40% royalty rate I've been working towards I lose it because they've changed the rules.

I worked my effing butt off, made it, and had it taken away. I'm pi@#ed, demotivated and deeply, deeply distrustful of just about anything that HQ says.

 It was last December I was overjoyed that they grandfathered the next cannister level only to have them play weasel word games with that promise. They did keep the canister level, but they uncoupled the royalty rate that had always been tied to it (and which they knew no one would ever think would be uncoupled when contributors parsed the sentence promising grandfathering). The joy then makes the anger now even more profound.

The fact that there's some utter hogwash about earning back our trust in the September announcements and then KT goes into hiding around IS just pours fuel on the fire. Yes, he'd get yelled at if he came to the forums, but he just chickened out and abandoned contributors to lick their wounds.

We have recent evidence that just because they say something doesn't mean it'll still be true a short time later. That's not being conspiratorial, it's just being sentient given all the data in front of us.

The whole situation is just so ugly and grasping and greedy. And to think that when they said they were given the target of growing the business by 50% this year, I naively thought they'd actually grow the business, vs. grow their profits by squeezing contributors.

So I really don't appreciate comments about how you work your butt off and it'll all be all right. I did, and it isn't.

They don't need to make next year's targets higher than the current ones, because the continual dilution of sales will gradually reduce the number of people achieving these levels over time.

It's like the old "bad guy - good guy" interrogation technique, except that they are both the same person.

I don't really expect them to fiddle getting their chums to a higher level since the owners would be outraged (it would cost them money). They will have to stick to the time-honoured method of approving each other's photos when they deserve to be rejected or promoting each other's pictures into high-priced collections, both of which involve subjective judgements that are hard to question and only need collusion between a couple of old pals, rather than half the HQ staff.

I don't think the RC system is perfect or even great by any means...but I think it is slightly more fair in theory than canister levels. maybe not in terms of the levels they've set...and I'm hoping those will be modified if contributors aren't making their targets.

Bit OT but there was a programme on TV the other night about the food production industry, it mentioned that one of the biggest growth products within that industry reached a profit margin of 17% which apparently is astronomically high within the industry, on average food producers aim to reach a 15% profit.