Quote from: ThomasAmby on April 06, 2011, 04:29

...On topic: I decided I need the money and since we act as individuals there's nothing we can do to prevent royalty cuts in the future, simple as that. However I stopped making "IS friendly" content, but use my energy on stuff I know will get accepted at the other agencies. For instance, icon sets of 25+ items that IS wouldn't allow on their site. If I get a rejection for "too many blend steps" or such imaginary issues, I won't correct and resubmit.

We will never know if we could of prevented cuts in the future because so many people have just continued uploading there.  We do act as individuals but I think there's a lot of heard mentality here.  People see others uploading and think why should they miss out.

I don't think we disagree. I think it's fairly safe to say that we could have prevented the cuts if we acted as a group. I've also had high hopes for something like that, but have finally come to the conclusion that it's practically impossible. Every thread taking up this topic has been dissolved because people can't agree on what to do in unison to make things better for all of us.

Make 20 prominent contributors pull their port, and I'll do it too.
Get 500 contributors to stop uploading and I'll be a part of that group.

No one wants to be the first, because as individuals we're redundant. I'm wondering if IS' business would be hurt by Yuri leaving (count out the possibility of others following his decision). I honestly think it wouldn't - that's what it has come to, they already have the buyers. Maybe if all the black diamonds left though, it would have some impact.

Actions like the above stated requires some managing efforts and a great speaker. I'm not up for the task but if anyone wants to step up and start the group action revolution we need, sign me up. I think the most significant problem here is that we're artists, not businessmen nor union leaders - but I'd be happy to be proven wrong.

One more thing to further hinder a group action is that the high-end contributors are almost always pleased when it comes to royalty cuts. Little to no changes in the top level royalties, and that's clever. That way the contributors with the most power are kept happy.

I think there's only been the one actual royalty cut, unless I have somehow expunged the pain of previous cuts.
I wonder if all/most of the top contributors who submit over multiple media kept their percentage rate over all media. That was a really low move, IMO.

We will never know if we could of prevented cuts in the future because so many people have just continued uploading there.  We do act as individuals but I think there's a lot of heard mentality here.  People see others uploading and think why should they miss out.

There isn't much point in me trying to hold back the tide here, I'm still not in the least bit inclined to start uploading to istock again.  I have been using the extra time to work with the other sites and I don't think I have lost much income, I might even be better off.  I haven't spent as much time worrying about things like the best match, it has less effect on me now.

I respect other peoples decisions, I will just have to agree to differ on this one.

Well said and I feel the same way.

Re: the bold type: And there are also the people who are convinced that a little something (and I do emphasize little) is better than nothing. Like you said, if that's how they see it, so be it, but I disagree.