Probaly just a bug but I just uploaded an editorial image and got a tick box inviting me to nominate it to the Signature+ collection.
I haven't seen anything here or on the Istock forum about this -so did I miss something?
I ticked the box anyway, just to see what would happen really
Anyone else know more about this?
Regards, David.

As far as I know, there is no S+ any more, but files can be nominated for consideration for Getty.

I read this by indie Lagereek: "I haven't followed this much but I sincerely hope it takes off, benefiting everybody. My only concern as an independent is the, Essentials/Premium. If I got that right, a totally unique and big-time selling image would then end up in the Essentials, only because is an Independent file??"
http://www.istockphoto.com/forum_messages.php?threadid=362716&messageid=7045477, which was subsequently confirmed.

I was surprised by the question, because I was under the impression that before the weekend, all indie files were in the Main collection (with some demoted exclusive content). Although there had been talk of moving some files 'up', I didn't think it had happened. Does anyone know otherwise?

The Main collection is the Essentials collection.  There is still S+, for exclusives only.

Quote from: ShadySue on September 15, 2014, 13:50

As far as I know, there is no S+ any more, but files can be nominated for consideration for Getty.

I read this by indie Lagereek: "I haven't followed this much but I sincerely hope it takes off, benefiting everybody. My only concern as an independent is the, Essentials/Premium. If I got that right, a totally unique and big-time selling image would then end up in the Essentials, only because is an Independent file??"
http://www.istockphoto.com/forum_messages.php?threadid=362716&messageid=7045477, which was subsequently confirmed.

I was surprised by the question, because I was under the impression that before the weekend, all indie files were in the Main collection (with some demoted exclusive content). Although there had been talk of moving some files 'up', I didn't think it had happened. Does anyone know otherwise?

The Main collection is the Essentials collection.  There is still S+, for exclusives only.

Is there any value of S+ other than being mirrored on Getty (double-edged sword, with lots of sub-$1 sales as well as larger value sales), allegedly [1] getting search boosting, and getting a higher subs percentage?

[1] I've just checked, and the since-2011 'curse of the download', still apparent in other searches I tried this morning, also demotes E+. In one very low-demand, low supply (78, most added in the past few months) area, my former E+ file is 5th by downloads, but second last in best match below lots of indie files with 0 dls, one set of which is very good, but some of which aren't even of the keyword. Also below my never-was-E+ file of the same subject with fewer dls. It still seems that ten downloads are still needed to bring a file up again from the bottom of a search where it goes after its first download in certain searches.

Thanks for the replies. I just double checked that I hadn't gone exclusive while sleepwalking  but I'm still an indie -just a bug then I guess. Regards, David.

Not only you:
http://www.istockphoto.com/forum_messages.php?threadid=362985

"Presumably it shows to everyone for the sake of simplifying the programming and not having to have different things appear depending on the exclusivity status of the contributor. It doesn't affect anything though, nothing will blow up if you accidentally tick the box. As I said, please just ignore it."
Have they ever managed to attract/retain a programmer who can cope with 'complex', like on other commercial websites?