I had a portfolio on Totally Photos, and some earnings. I think the photographers there have been 'Totally' ripped off, and I am concerned about what is happening to my images.

TP has only been offline for a week or two - and maybe we should give them a bit of time to work things out. But I do understand the concern for your $ and images, i'm just suggesting we be patient.

The approvers forum, where such questions should have been addressed before the site closed, was dominated buy a nice group, whose niceness choked any freedom of speech. Any questions and comments that were not complimentary to the site were jumped on and accused of being negative, we were continually exhorted to be patient and wait, until it was too late. The 'Rah rah' element there made Istock seem quite timid.
Now I have seen a similar comment in this forum, and it concerns me. I love coming here and reading forthright and honest views and criticism of the stock sites. It has opened my eyes to a few things I had not thought about.
That is what we are here to do, not to criticise each others writing style.� If we only write in an upbeat positive way the site will become stagnant and boring. Some people do take a negative view, it is in their personality. Good for them! It is another valid viewpoint to consider.

I assume your talking about me because of my comments in the Lucky Oliver thread. And it seems that i didn't really communicate very well my thoughts. I am in no way saying everyone has to post nothing but rosy, happy, the world is perfect comments. What i wanted to get across was that it is so easy to come to these forums and be negative (and believe me, i've done it myself)... what is more challenging and what i was hoping to communicate was that people maybe should think about the impact of their comments - and maybe just reconsider the tone of the comments because of how others might react. If you're considering XYZphoto and then read somewhere that site XYZphoto sucks and has an ugly website, I'll bet you won't go there to contribute. I know that i've read about some sites like that and made mental notes about not going there. All I ask is that you consider the impact of your comments before posting. Pretend you are the CEO of XYZphoto and think about how you'd feel if you read the comment you are about to post.

I posted several somewhat negative comments in the totally photos forum and i later regretted it because i didn't go to their managment with comments and questions first. If you think about it, it is much easier to come to a forum like this and say things and if you think about it, if you would write the comments as if you were sending them to the CEO of the company, i'll bet you'd say them in a bit nicer way than if you were just coming to a forum and vent... and that's the way i would like people to think about posting here. Doesn't in any way mean you can't vent or be negative, but if you spent a few more minutes composing your comments as if you were saying them directly to the CEO, I'll bet you'd word things a little more on the positive side.

As it was my post that started this, I think I'll chime in.  I both agree and disagree with Maunger.  In general, it is my policy to be polite with negative criticisms.  You can be negative without screaming and whining and moaning.  In general, the polite approach works best and is most likely to engender a decent discussion without all the heat that can distort the argument.  What Maunger is saying is that we can both be critical AND polite at the same time.  Those of you who read my comments will recognize that I usually try for this approach unless I am provoked.

However, I also believe that sometimes a more radical response is called for.  Sometimes, you have to stir people up to get them out of their lethargy.  I believed this to be the case when I posted my comments about Lucky Oliver.  I really like that site; it runs well, and the people who run it seem to be energetic and intelligent.  However, no one was questioning their marketing strategy, one that I felt would potentially turn the buyer away by being too silly.  Silly sites don't get taken seriously, and they fold.

So, I guess what I'm saying is this:  We should not make blanket comments or commandments about how to post on this forum.  It is best to think before we post about what we hope to achieve by posting--and then post with regard to that intent.  This is not to say, however, that I think we should post inflammatory comments just to rile people up.  We should treat each other here with respect.

This is a great suggestion.  I reserve the right to be a bit more confrontational, though--but only if I really need to .

I think each of us have different experiences at each site (ok, come sites are a bad experience to everyone!), so I think the best way to put such experiences in the forum is "for me..." "in my case..." "I haven't..." instead of more absolute remarks as "The site is ____" (bad, slow, awful, etc). 

But isn't that already implied?

Maybe.  But some people really need all the words being said (maybe it's the lack of eye contact and body language - who knows?). I take part in a critique forum in which people get upset if you point out directly a problem with an image, you must instead say good things first and then use "but" or "however". 

Regards,
Adelaide