MicrostockGroup
Agency Based Discussion => Envato => PhotoDune => Topic started by: Mantis on December 24, 2016, 10:31
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Just curious if anyone has been told their portfolio doesn't cut it at Envanto and had their accounts closed. I only make about $30 a month there and expect that email, but haven't received it yet. Just wondering if the culling has started yet.
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only a message about "set your own prices"
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Nothing for me confidently awaiting sack.....
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I'm asking the same question...
Got the message about pricing, not fired for the moment.
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still part of the machine
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I'm asking the same question...
Got the message about pricing, not fired for the moment.
I guess it's still forthcoming. I don't expect to be part of the machine as microstockphopto calls it much longer.
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I'm still in the running to becoming America's next top model.
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Just curious if anyone has been told their portfolio doesn't cut it at Envanto and had their accounts closed. I only make about $30 a month there and expect that email, but haven't received it yet. Just wondering if the culling has started yet.
Why should anybody worry about it? I missed some kind of early warning there? :)
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Just curious if anyone has been told their portfolio doesn't cut it at Envanto and had their accounts closed. I only make about $30 a month there and expect that email, but haven't received it yet. Just wondering if the culling has started yet.
Why should anybody worry about it? I missed some kind of early warning there? :)
I am not asking if anyone is worried. I am clearly asking if anyone has been booted yet. Envanto sent out an email telling everyone they turned off uploading and will be reviewing portfolios. Those ports that don't pass their "liking" will be terminated. That's why I'm asking......essentially have they started closing accounts yet.
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I have just been booted out. Told that my images (that sell) don't meet their ivory tower standard and I should go and crawl under a rock somewhere and die.
As part of our library-wide assessment of photos on PhotoDune, we’ve done a review of your portfolio. Unfortunately, the sample we looked through resulted in a very high number of photos that did not meet our new library standards.
So they are not deleting just a few but all of them. baby and bathwater spring to mind. Oh well, their loss and SS gain.
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I got fired from PhotoDune today. No big loss, I hadnt uploaded anything to them in a long time.
I wonder what the new standards are that I didnt meet. Oh well, I am not re-applying
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Got canned as well.
Thousands of images that passed inspection with flying colors apparently are simply not good enough.
Years of work - gone.
Bummed.
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Got the termination e-mail today. Doesn't bother me, very low earner for me and I already stopped uploading long ago. Only concern I have is if they will pay out the remaining balance since it hasn't reached the minimum yet. I did post that question in the forum post they made and linked to in the e-mail. I'll let you know if they answer that question.
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I've been booted out, bit of a blow to be be told your files aren't worthy. :'(
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I'm out too, obviously don't meet their new higher standards (but not new higher payments!). No mention of paying what they owe and being under the $50 minimum I don't know what will happen. I'm hoping they pay up as I'd prefer to avoid legal action.
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I'm out. Just posted before this appeared.
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They are probably going 'Stocksy' on us thus most of us will get dumped (Donald Trump just told me 'Your Fired')... :(
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Over 2500 sales in almost 3 years, 5 star rating - not good enough. Oh well.
Envato contributed to around 2% of my monthly earnings, so they won't be missed. Best of luck to them with the rebranding and new type of content.
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Hi Photodune,
As part of my microstock-wide assessment of agencies that offer my work, I’ve done a review of your company. Unfortunately, the financial results I looked through resulted in a number of photos that did not sell well (i.e. at all) despite being high performers at the real agencies.
Here are some general reasons why agencies don’t meet my guidelines:
- Low (i.e. no) sales
- Laborious uploading process
- Voted a "Low Earner" in MicrostockGroup poll results (see right --> )
I apologize for the lateness of this message. I reached this decision as part of my clean up process more than 5 YEARS AGO, though a small number of my photos linger on your pages because, frankly, I forgot you existed.
I’ve written a forum post with a few more details (which you've just read) and I encourage you to note the number of pluses it receives from my fellow contributors.
If you are interested in selling my photos in the future, don't call me. I'll call you.
All the best with your future endeavours,
Stockmarketer
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I've been given the shove, as well! :o https://photodune.net/user/phillipminnis/portfolio
Here are some general reasons why (your) photos didn’t meet our guidelines:
Inappropriate content type
Composition/Lighting
Authenticity and commercial viability
Too many similar images
I have been selling my photos on the site since October 2011. I have a 5-Star Author Rating (58 ratings).
No great loss! I couldn't care less! Just as long as they pay out my current balance of $51.72 before they delete my profile from their site!
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Add me to the dumpee list. Exactly the same list of reasons for my dismissal as Phillip Minnis. I joined in May of 2011, have/had 14,000 photos on the site and earned thousands of dollars for them and for me. (More for them, of course.) I'm just over a dollar away from a payout. I certainly expect them to pay me what they owe, assuming I don't hit the minimum before the great purge.
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After more than 5 years being contributor and according to their site still among the top 50 authors,sold more than xx.000$, became top 20 authors of the month with an item that was trending,port size with more than 14k items, today I received mail from PD:
"As part of our library-wide assessment of photos on PhotoDune, we’ve done a review of your portfolio. Unfortunately, the sample we looked through resulted in a very high number of photos that did not meet our new library standards.Over the coming weeks we’ll be removing your PhotoDune portfolio as part of our clean up process"
Guess they need images from the moon with signed property release form!
I'll survive without Envato :) but one day if I go to the moon I'll be happy to upload more images from space
Wish you all the best and see you in the next life ENVATO!
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I'm "terminated" too guys. I stopped uploading to them many years ago. No big deal.
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Oh yeah, they kicked my shin too. Every stock site wants high end photos, taken with high end pricy cameras and sell the photos for crap. They're not the first to fold and they will eventually. On the other side of the coin I will avoid to buy anything from Themeforest as well.
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And me - I've been kicked out
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I got the PFO letter too.
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Just curious if anyone has been told their portfolio doesn't cut it at Envanto and had their accounts closed. I only make about $30 a month there and expect that email, but haven't received it yet. Just wondering if the culling has started yet.
Yes I am out also finally out today (I ask about that in Jan 2016) but you know how slow is this company, I can not send Thank You note to
James Giroux
Author Development Lead
Envato
because I can not find e-mail contact only phone or mail :( maybe this communication problem is bad for company also.Thank You Envanto team and good luck I am fine with SS, Fotolia and DT ;) and couple other leaders in this business.I am not missing you for sure ;)
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I wonder if it's coincidence that I decided to close my account and had withdrawn my measly $6.84 and I get the email today. And they aren't going to pay me until Mar 15th.
Good riddance.
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If you are interested in selling with PhotoDune and Elements in the future, you’ll always be welcome to reapply when we reopen applications to the public (we hope you do).
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Just curious if anyone has been told their portfolio doesn't cut it at Envanto and had their accounts closed. I only make about $30 a month there and expect that email, but haven't received it yet. Just wondering if the culling has started yet.
You're good.. I make 50 dollars monthly and got terminated.
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Hmm - looks like I actually had $72 over there in my account (I don't log in there much anymore). I applied to withdraw it all, hopefully that will process soon.
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You know it is kind of funny that I joined this site to see if I could "Stop some Complaining" and today I got FIRED by Envato- talk about Karma hitting me in the balls! Now I fully understand why there are so many folks complaining. So I will leave before I say something nasty about Envato- spilling more blood will just not help out the sad situation.
Good luck and hopefully someday things will more positive for all of us...
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Wow! For a rock bottom tier (for photos) agency, they really have big ideas about themselves :)
I'm sure I would have been booted too except that I left when they reworked their tax approach as I did not want to add any complexity to my tax situation for such a low payout (yes, I do pay all my taxes on all my income)
The idea that anyone would reapply (unless they started selling like Adobe/FT or SS) after being booted out is pretty silly IMO
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I just got the e-mail too. I only had a couple hundred online there and stopped uploading years ago due to low sales. Was planning to get rid of them after last week when they sent a tax statement with a lot more than I ever earned there - will have to go through all past sales and record their weird fees to deduct from earnings to complete my taxes. They are the only agency to do that so being rid of them will make life easier. Have about a $70 balance so just hope they pay it all out.
Looks like they are trying to become the next Stocksy or Offset. Good luck to them, and good riddance!
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Yes I am out also finally out today (I ask about that in Jan 2016) but you know how slow is this company, I can not send Thank You note to
James Giroux
Author Development Lead
Envato
because I can not find e-mail contact only phone or mail :(
I have an account here at Microstock and do read all your comments. I specifically pointed email recipients to our forum post because responding to authors via email would not have been scaleable.
If you have any questions about the process or next steps, please feel free to ask them on the forum post.
A lot of the comments here are around low earnings, and that is part of the reason we're working to transform PhotoDune. Library growth has consistently outstripped sales growth, and an increasing number of items (and authors) have never made a sale. All of this despite an ever-increasing stream of customers we know frequently use photos in their projects.
Our updated quality and commercial demand guidelines are more detailed than before, so it's clear what we're evaluating and, based on our data, what we believe customers are looking to buy.
Some authors haven't posted new content in several years, other items while meeting previous guidelines if reviewed again would likely not pass. Some authors were posting the same image with small variations or in a sequence. These actions filled up the library without providing true choice to customers and lowering the overall quality of the library.
Sales on other marketplaces didn't factor into our decision-making. For Envato, what we're aiming for is a sustainable library of photos that gives customers a genuine choice and provides more opportunities for authors to earn.
As far as balances go, at the moment we're finalizing amounts owed and preparing our systems for a final payout. As the forum post says, for anyone with balances under the minimum threshold who sold on PhotoDune exclusively, you'll be sent an email with the final balance and our finance department will send you a payout.
Exact timelines are still being worked out for this last part but it's not going to take long.
Again, if you have questions about the process, please feel free to ask them on the Envato forum post.
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I have an account here at Microstock and do read all your comments. I specifically pointed email recipients to our forum post because responding to authors via email would not have been scaleable.
If you have any questions about the process or next steps, please feel free to ask them on the forum post.
A lot of the comments here are around low earnings, and that is part of the reason we're working to transform PhotoDune. Library growth has consistently outstripped sales growth, and an increasing number of items (and authors) have never made a sale. All of this despite an ever-increasing stream of customers we know frequently use photos in their projects.
Our updated quality and commercial demand guidelines are more detailed than before, so it's clear what we're evaluating and, based on our data, what we believe customers are looking to buy.
Some authors haven't posted new content in several years, other items while meeting previous guidelines if reviewed again would likely not pass. Some authors were posting the same image with small variations or in a sequence. These actions filled up the library without providing true choice to customers and lowering the overall quality of the library.
Sales on other marketplaces didn't factor into our decision-making. For Envato, what we're aiming for is a sustainable library of photos that gives customers a genuine choice and provides more opportunities for authors to earn.
As far as balances go, at the moment we're finalizing amounts owed and preparing our systems for a final payout. As the forum post says, for anyone with balances under the minimum threshold who sold on PhotoDune exclusively, you'll be sent an email with the final balance and our finance department will send you a payout.
Exact timelines are still being worked out for this last part but it's not going to take long.
Again, if you have questions about the process, please feel free to ask them on the Envato forum post.
Summary: Sales at PhotoDune are so low lately that no one will earn anything unless we remove 99% of portfolios. Reviews are so meaningless and random that people tried to upload everything, before giving up.
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I have an account here at Microstock and do read all your comments. I specifically pointed email recipients to our forum post because responding to authors via email would not have been scaleable.
If you have any questions about the process or next steps, please feel free to ask them on the forum post.
A lot of the comments here are around low earnings, and that is part of the reason we're working to transform PhotoDune. Library growth has consistently outstripped sales growth, and an increasing number of items (and authors) have never made a sale. All of this despite an ever-increasing stream of customers we know frequently use photos in their projects.
Our updated quality and commercial demand guidelines are more detailed than before, so it's clear what we're evaluating and, based on our data, what we believe customers are looking to buy.
Some authors haven't posted new content in several years, other items while meeting previous guidelines if reviewed again would likely not pass. Some authors were posting the same image with small variations or in a sequence. These actions filled up the library without providing true choice to customers and lowering the overall quality of the library.
Sales on other marketplaces didn't factor into our decision-making. For Envato, what we're aiming for is a sustainable library of photos that gives customers a genuine choice and provides more opportunities for authors to earn.
As far as balances go, at the moment we're finalizing amounts owed and preparing our systems for a final payout. As the forum post says, for anyone with balances under the minimum threshold who sold on PhotoDune exclusively, you'll be sent an email with the final balance and our finance department will send you a payout.
Exact timelines are still being worked out for this last part but it's not going to take long.
Again, if you have questions about the process, please feel free to ask them on the Envato forum post.
Summary: Sales at PhotoDune are so low lately that no one will earn anything unless we remove 99% of portfolios. Reviews are so meaningless and random that people tried to upload everything, before giving up.
« and an increasing number of items (and authors) have never made a sale »
But these have mane many sales on other sites. So, excuse me, but if they have not made a sale on Photodune it is probably because Photodune is not able (not good enough) to sell them…
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Yes I am out also finally out today (I ask about that in Jan 2016) but you know how slow is this company, I can not send Thank You note to
James Giroux
Author Development Lead
Envato
because I can not find e-mail contact only phone or mail :(
I have an account here at Microstock and do read all your comments. I specifically pointed email recipients to our forum post because responding to authors via email would not have been scaleable.
If you have any questions about the process or next steps, please feel free to ask them on the forum post.
A lot of the comments here are around low earnings, and that is part of the reason we're working to transform PhotoDune. Library growth has consistently outstripped sales growth, and an increasing number of items (and authors) have never made a sale. All of this despite an ever-increasing stream of customers we know frequently use photos in their projects.
Our updated quality and commercial demand guidelines are more detailed than before, so it's clear what we're evaluating and, based on our data, what we believe customers are looking to buy.
Some authors haven't posted new content in several years, other items while meeting previous guidelines if reviewed again would likely not pass. Some authors were posting the same image with small variations or in a sequence. These actions filled up the library without providing true choice to customers and lowering the overall quality of the library.
Sales on other marketplaces didn't factor into our decision-making. For Envato, what we're aiming for is a sustainable library of photos that gives customers a genuine choice and provides more opportunities for authors to earn.
As far as balances go, at the moment we're finalizing amounts owed and preparing our systems for a final payout. As the forum post says, for anyone with balances under the minimum threshold who sold on PhotoDune exclusively, you'll be sent an email with the final balance and our finance department will send you a payout.
Exact timelines are still being worked out for this last part but it's not going to take long.
Again, if you have questions about the process, please feel free to ask them on the Envato forum post.
We are out too and it's quite excusable with just couple of sales or so...
James, it is some really bad thing Envato just did to all those people who posted above. It's just something like a lazy and crazy African dictator does. Why search for a criminal in village? Let's burn down the whole village. It's too obvious those hardworking people really HAVE a lot of very good sellers on Photodune. In fact all of them could make up a nice new stock site selling like Stocksy or so. They spent a lot of their precious time to learn, shoot, process and upload their items and went through not the fastest upload process of Photodune. They sold photos for Envato salaries and their own bills. And they trusted you. Just believe me they won't come to your Envato forum to discuss their termination. You know it's quite strange for an artist to talk something like that: "I know you've just told me my work is crap but please let me stay!" Let other people there enjoy discussing new forum threads in Russian or Spanish or just brag about some new fancy icon.
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Got the FON email. Why on earth would I want to reapply ? There is no way I can spend time uploading to a site that just chucked countless hours of my time in the bin. Especially when the returns spending my time elsewhere are 20-25 times greater.
Disappointing, however I can't see how removing everybody's content that is selling will help. You could have chucked out the content that hadn't sold in 12 months out and had a restricted upload limit related to a contributors approval rate from now.
Taking the majority of sale price then shafting the suppliers seems like a strange move to me. Hang on ! That's microstocks number one playbook !
Please post if you do get accepted
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When they will realize how silly is they decision, it will be too late.
That said, I am Emerald level on Fotolia, Gold level on Istock, top level on Shutterstock, diamond level on Turbosquid, but not good enough for them...
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I'm out too...
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Well I was retained for some reason but they emailed to say they are to delete over 75% of my portfolio.
I'll get to payout never so I'll save them the trouble and just delete the rest.
Eitherway I'll not upload any more to this outfit it's just not worth the hassle for a few bucks a month
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booted too, thousands of images,
the thing that annoys me most is the arrogance of Mr. James, bigshot CEO, sending out a canned email to all contributors with the same reasons for elimination and then write a big forum post telling everyone discussion is not possible.
admin edit: threats / attacks removed.
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Received my email yesterday, it seems they didn't like any of the three photos from my portfolio there, such a shame.
Sent from my SM-J510FN using Tapatalk
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Received my email yesterday, it seems they didn't like any of the three photos from my portfolio there, such a shame.
Sent from my SM-J510FN using Tapatalk
Hope that careless reviewer will be penalized :)
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Received my email yesterday, it seems they didn't like any of the three photos from my portfolio there, such a shame.
Sent from my SM-J510FN using Tapatalk
Hope that careless reviewer will be penalized :)
I hope he receives the email too :D
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Im out as well, no surprise here.
I didn't upload for years, because their rejections were ridiculous from the start and returns were too small.
Actually I'm happy they will boot me, because as I understand they will force everyone into their "elements" plan, which means unlimited downloads for something like $49 / month. I would have left them about that anyway.
So that's what they want: highest quality and then give it away for next to nothing.
We can just hope that they die quickly.
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No email yet the put me on the naughty step long ago perhaps they wont bother...I'm shocked at some of you who have been booted you do top quality stuff. Just wrong
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I'm out too!
Top 100 author, Top 20 Author of the Month, Trendsetter and Weekly Top Seller...
I don't care much about their badges. But that's an indicator of High Commercial Value images...
They will never be like Stocksy with mostly non-exclusive content sold for lower prices everywhere in the world!
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I just got the boot too. No great loss. I had my own hand hovering over the delete button in any case as a result of their dodgy tax practices. Wish I'd have pushed the button before them - but hey ho...
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I am kicked out too. about 50 dollar every month, and last year in october this:
Dear Ivonne Wierink, Congratulations! We love your files and have decided to make you PhotoDune's featured author of the week. You won't be featured until the 18th of October, but you already have the shiny new badge. Enjoy!
It's a kind of a déception, well, I can live without them 8)
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I am kicked out too. about 50 dollar every month, and last year in october this:
Dear Ivonne Wierink, Congratulations! We love your files and have decided to make you PhotoDune's featured author of the week. You won't be featured until the 18th of October, but you already have the shiny new badge. Enjoy!
It's a kind of a déception, well, I can live without them 8)
The shiny new badge of The most idiotic agency goes to...
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Just curious if anyone has been told their portfolio doesn't cut it at Envanto and had their accounts closed. I only make about $30 a month there and expect that email, but haven't received it yet. Just wondering if the culling has started yet.
mine too, they says " Unfortunately, the sample we looked through resulted in a very high number of photos that did not meet our new library standards"... hahaha...
thats so strange, I have almost 5000 images on sale which has consistts mostly iconic 3d renders, photodune already poor sale site, but I dont understand why they are deactivate so many images while other agencies accepting so many crappy images...
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I am kicked out too. about 50 dollar every month, and last year in october this:
Dear Ivonne Wierink, Congratulations! We love your files and have decided to make you PhotoDune's featured author of the week. You won't be featured until the 18th of October, but you already have the shiny new badge. Enjoy!
It's a kind of a déception, well, I can live without them 8)
The shiny new badge of The most idiotic agency goes to...
really thats so terrific ... :o
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Agencies that bragged about their superior quality:
- Veer
- Crestock
or limited uploads for other reasons:
- Scanstock
- Graphic Leftovers
One is gone, and the others are not doing very well.
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I begin to think that they have reviewed nothing (frankly I wonder how they could do that) and they will closed all the portfolios hoping that then somebody would be enough stupid to upload again on their site…
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I got the boot from them too.
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I have an account here at Microstock and do read all your comments. I specifically pointed email recipients to our forum post because responding to authors via email would not have been scaleable.
If you have any questions about the process or next steps, please feel free to ask them on the forum post.
A lot of the comments here are around low earnings, and that is part of the reason we're working to transform PhotoDune. Library growth has consistently outstripped sales growth, and an increasing number of items (and authors) have never made a sale. All of this despite an ever-increasing stream of customers we know frequently use photos in their projects.
Our updated quality and commercial demand guidelines are more detailed than before, so it's clear what we're evaluating and, based on our data, what we believe customers are looking to buy.
Some authors haven't posted new content in several years, other items while meeting previous guidelines if reviewed again would likely not pass. Some authors were posting the same image with small variations or in a sequence. These actions filled up the library without providing true choice to customers and lowering the overall quality of the library.
Sales on other marketplaces didn't factor into our decision-making. For Envato, what we're aiming for is a sustainable library of photos that gives customers a genuine choice and provides more opportunities for authors to earn.
As far as balances go, at the moment we're finalizing amounts owed and preparing our systems for a final payout. As the forum post says, for anyone with balances under the minimum threshold who sold on PhotoDune exclusively, you'll be sent an email with the final balance and our finance department will send you a payout.
Exact timelines are still being worked out for this last part but it's not going to take long.
Again, if you have questions about the process, please feel free to ask them on the Envato forum post.
You think this makes sense, but it doesn't. You are just blaming the contributors for your own failure. You could have been more strict and tasteful at the reviews all along. Now you are dreaming of a library that is better than everywhere else for your relatively small "stream" of customers. You think the microstock contributors will come to you and give you only their top 10 bestsellers or something? After showing such attitude towards us?
I can't specifically speak for the others here, so I'll tell you something about myself. I live in Western Europe and comfortably live from my small microstock portfolio. Just saying. I believe the "filling up the library without providing true choice to customers and lowering the overall quality of the library" can't really apply to me, how else do I generate a whole lot of sales elsewhere? Anyway, I don't need Envato, it's your loss if you don't want us and I don't think it will work out for you.
Edit: a question about payouts was answered below by Microstockphoto.
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well, this comment on the form just shows that they didnt put a lot consideration in reviewing our portfolios and that they are full of baloney
ToivoMedia14h
I was very pleased to find my portfolio has been reviewed and was found to have a VERY HIGH number of photos that didn't reach the high standards necessary. It would appear the fake news problem has spread to Envato, as I currently have zero items in my photodune portfolio, high standard or otherwise. Tremendous!
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sandeel, what they mean by that is that if you have files on other marketplaces your account remain active. if you are only selling on photodune marketplace then you will get paid your balance, even if its under the payout threshold. i have to say, thats very nice of them, that they decided not to keep your money.
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Anybody left there? Looks like quite the large crowd was shown the door. I'm not, I never applied. I don't feel so bad now that they have changed to strangly exclusive and never have said what they wanted.
For the record, poll says 29 for Evanto right now.
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Booted too.
60-ish on the list of top contributors.
It was fairly regular income, but still a low earner and stupid tax system, won't be missed much, one less site to deal with
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sandeel, what they mean by that is that if you have files on other marketplaces your account remain active. if you are only selling on photodune marketplace then you will get paid your balance, even if its under the payout threshold. i have to say, thats very nice of them, that they decided not to keep your money.
Oh thanks, I did get it wrong then. I hope it's okay with you if I modify my post.
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I actually wish other low earners commit suicide this way so I do not have to go through process of closing accounts :-) I only upload to 3 agencies right now anyway but keep logging so called "earnings" for dozen others. Now I get emails with not sales for 4 years from Dreamstime every single day :-)
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Who follows what they are up to - is there a page that boasts about how many photos they have for sale? How much has it gone down? Sheesh... if they are deleting top 50's and Photographer of the week's (from only a few weeks ago) are they starting again from scratch?
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... if they are deleting top 50's and Photographer of the week's (from only a few weeks ago) are they starting again from scratch?
Even if they are (starting from scratch) does anyone care?
We already have a number of non-mainstream looks at other stock agencies, such as Photocase and Stocksy, plus special collections at the bigger microstocks (Offset, Infinite, Evo). This isn't a new idea
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I haven't receive any notice email yet. But I will be out soon I guess !
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Me too. Among top 50 contributors.
Looks like they fired majority of the contributors.
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Me too. Among top 50 contributors.
Looks like they fired majority of the contributors.
Well, with the weekly top images only selling 3 times even #10 didn't make much money. Let alone #50...
They're not going to compete with Shutterstock type images.
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They tossed me out, too. My lowest earner, good riddance.
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I got the email and assumed it was automated process. Here is my portfolio: https://www.shutterstock.com/g/leoblanchette (https://www.shutterstock.com/g/leoblanchette)
I respectfully request being added back in James Giroux.
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great port, obviously not what they are looking for.
did they tell you
• Inappropriate content type
• Composition/Lighting
• Authenticity and commercial viability
• Too many similar images
Which seems to basically cover all of their 15 million images then
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I am out too..
but I knew it since the original announcement as they had already said that there would be no illustrations..
it's going to be a "photos only" marketplace..
Leo, you should send those to graphicriver or 3docean.. they sell much better than photodune anyway :)
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I am out too..
but I knew it since the original announcement as they had already said that there would be no illustrations..
it's going to be a "photos only" marketplace..
Leo, you should send those to graphicriver or 3docean.. they sell much better than photodune anyway :)
Oh no illustrations! That would explain it What if I said this here is a photo (https://www.shutterstock.com/image-illustration/grey-alien-isolated-on-black-3d-444514033?src=5ovTj4Hlvc2wUPjJGD9D4w-1-1) -- I caught this little guy abducting chickens for genetic hybridization one particular night. The conspiracy theorists love him. Now if I can just find a model to wear a tin foil hat (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tin_foil_hat). Problem is I don't know any models and I'm not usually a photographer.
I'll take a look at those two places on my spare time. I haven't uploaded to an agency in ages though, and I don't want to break my fast.
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James, it is some really bad thing Envato just did to all those people who posted above. It's just something like a lazy and crazy African dictator does. Why search for a criminal in village? Let's burn down the whole village. It's too obvious those hardworking people really HAVE a lot of very good sellers on Photodune. In fact all of them could make up a nice new stock site selling like Stocksy or so. They spent a lot of their precious time to learn, shoot, process and upload their items and went through not the fastest upload process of Photodune. They sold photos for Envato salaries and their own bills. And they trusted you. Just believe me they won't come to your Envato forum to discuss their termination. You know it's quite strange for an artist to talk something like that: "I know you've just told me my work is crap but please let me stay!" Let other people there enjoy discussing new forum threads in Russian or Spanish or just brag about some new fancy icon.
First of all, thank you for the time and effort you and all authors take in creating and uploading items to PhotoDune. In speaking with photographers and knowing the limitations of our platform (including cumbersome uploading procedures), we felt it would be much easier and more successful for authors to resubmit a fresh portfolio based on our new guidelines than to ask them to go and clean out their existing individual photos manually. For portfolios that had a higher percentage of items that would need to be removed, this would be a particularly unrealistic request to make. For example submitting 100 fresh photos is much easier and less time consuming than going through and deleting 900 out of 1000.
the thing that annoys me most is the arrogance of Mr. James, bigshot CEO, sending out a canned email to all contributors with the same reasons for elimination and then write a big forum post telling everyone discussion is not possible.
I am sorry if you felt offended by the tone of the email. This is not intended as an ultimate judgement on any photographer’s skills/merit. We reviewed a representative sample of each portfolio (including a spread of newest, oldest, high and low selling, etc). The general reasons for why a photo might not have been accepted were based on the most common issues we identified in our library-wide review, it was not meant to be applied to any one author’s portfolio specifically. I apologize that that wasn’t clearer.
If we’re removing a portfolio, it’s because we felt a high enough percentage of photos reviewed did not meet our new guidelines to the point that starting fresh would be the best and most successful way forward. While we aimed to minimize the impact as much as possible, we know there are unfortunately some quality photos that will be removed in the mix, and we do hope you’ll consider reapplying with them in the future.
You think this makes sense, but it doesn't. You are just blaming the contributors for your own failure. You could have been more strict and tasteful at the reviews all along. Now you are dreaming of a library that is better than everywhere else for your relatively small "stream" of customers. You think the microstock contributors will come to you and give you only their top 10 bestsellers or something? After showing such attitude towards us?
No one at Envato blames authors or holds them at fault in this process. What we’re hoping to do is create an environment and experience that works much better, including:
- More control over the pricing of individual items
- Instantly able to publish photos (no more review queue!)
- Greater exposure on a streamlined and updated PhotoDune
- A new channel for earning via subscriber share on Elements
- Better support tools and resources for managing a microstock business
In order to do this well, we needed to update our quality guidelines, let photographers know what kinds of photos Envato’s customers are looking for and create a marketplace where those types of items are easily discoverable. It’s not about being ‘better’ than another agency but about understanding our customers, how they make purchasing decisions and exposing them to the content that best meets their needs.
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Hey James, what is the real reason for this bad business decision?
Has Envato trouble with the tax authorities? ;D
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Our updated quality and commercial demand guidelines are more detailed than before, so it's clear what we're evaluating and, based on our data, what we believe customers are looking to buy.
Dear Mr. Giroux,
Several years your company was very actively looking for contributing photographers and it was then that I performed extensive research about your agency. After a very thorough analysis of the gathered data and available information, I came to the conclusion that your firm did not meet my quality standards and that adding it to the roster of agencies that were allowed to display and to sell my masterpieces would not be appropriate. I have observed your agency for several years, but there has been no event that would invalidate the results of my initial research.
The recent developments confirm that the findings of my research were correct and that your firm may not be considered a serious agent. In the past, I warned the members of this forum on several occasions, but most of them chose not to listen. While I sympathize with individual contributors who have been dumped, on the whole I must admit that the current situation is hilarious. Your perception of yourselves is very amusing!
Cheers!
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I got out of PD a while back over the non-industry standard way they decided to report taxes.
But honestly do they really think anyone who has been tossed out like this to re-apply?
Incredibly arrogant stance by them.
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Dear Mr. Giroux,
Firstly , YOU recruited ME for Photodune based on the quality of my work. The same work which is no longer up to your standards. I have won badges galore on your site, and based on the incomes quoted here, I am one of your higher earning/selling artists. Which means I am a high earning artist on other sites, so I don't really need your couple hundred $ a month.
Thank you for coming in and clarifying what you are doing, but if you think that closing the accounts of a huge number of people, including bestselling artists, is going to motivate anyone to upload or reload their best work, or ever give another thought to your site - an EXTREMELY LOW EARNER- then you are completely delusional. You tried to hose us on taxes, now you throw us to the curb like last week's garbage. Good riddance.
Enjoy the death of PhotoDune. You know we will.
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I'm goneski too! They won't miss me and I won't miss them ;D Just hope they pay me my $12 otherwise I will never afford that cappuccino!
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Just curious if anyone has been told their portfolio doesn't cut it at Envanto and had their accounts closed. I only make about $30 a month there and expect that email, but haven't received it yet. Just wondering if the culling has started yet.
Why should anybody worry about it? I missed some kind of early warning there? :)
I am not asking if anyone is worried. I am clearly asking if anyone has been booted yet. Envanto sent out an email telling everyone they turned off uploading and will be reviewing portfolios. Those ports that don't pass their "liking" will be terminated. That's why I'm asking......essentially have they started closing accounts yet.
Yes, I received the message tomorrow. I think I can use this to improve my quality level. Of course I can say I'm selling (now)elsewhere everything Photodune considered
Inappropriate content type, with Composition/Lighting problems, that doesn't fit their Authenticity and commercial viability, and groups of "Too many similar images". I sell each and every one of these files in SS, but of course not how much I like to.
So I'll use this failure to improve my quality.
Of course I'm tempted to say they suck, that their not-optoutable ( ;D ) Essentials is a crap and so on. But... if I were selling lots (I were selling, but not lots) of pieces and earning lots of money ... I probably overlooked everything in Envato as like as I do in iStock and Shutterstock: they do something wrong? But I'm earning a lot? I don't mind.
Maybe I'll re-submit one day. They have an upload system that's really no-time-consuming for me ... so my balance work-earn was acceptable.
But my work wasn't for them: so ... I say KCUF off so far.
One day... I maybe change my mind. But NOT if they'll keep making impossible to opt-out to a non-author-driven price section like Essentials.
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I left a "photopunish" (VAT issue) two years ago, but now I am wondering, who are left there. Who did not receive this letter, who are they? Is there some common denominator or not.
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James, it is some really bad thing Envato just did to all those people who posted above. It's just something like a lazy and crazy African dictator does. Why search for a criminal in village? Let's burn down the whole village. It's too obvious those hardworking people really HAVE a lot of very good sellers on Photodune. In fact all of them could make up a nice new stock site selling like Stocksy or so. They spent a lot of their precious time to learn, shoot, process and upload their items and went through not the fastest upload process of Photodune. They sold photos for Envato salaries and their own bills. And they trusted you. Just believe me they won't come to your Envato forum to discuss their termination. You know it's quite strange for an artist to talk something like that: "I know you've just told me my work is crap but please let me stay!" Let other people there enjoy discussing new forum threads in Russian or Spanish or just brag about some new fancy icon.
First of all, thank you for the time and effort you and all authors take in creating and uploading items to PhotoDune. In speaking with photographers and knowing the limitations of our platform (including cumbersome uploading procedures), we felt it would be much easier and more successful for authors to resubmit a fresh portfolio based on our new guidelines than to ask them to go and clean out their existing individual photos manually. For portfolios that had a higher percentage of items that would need to be removed, this would be a particularly unrealistic request to make. For example submitting 100 fresh photos is much easier and less time consuming than going through and deleting 900 out of 1000.
"Author Development Lead" - this was said below your name in the email. I assure you this is not a development. It's a scorched earth policy. What's the problem of making deletion of 0-views photos automatic? Let's say, 0-views photos would be deleted automatically in 6 months and 0-sales items with some views in 12 months. It's a task for advanced schoolboy programmer. The key point of many posts in this thread is that contributors are not going to resubmit later. This is not because they are offended (and you could be sure they are), this because they rationally don't want to waste their time once more.
Could you imagine the situation when some stock agency reaching their last year buyers and asking to pay some extra $$ for already downloaded items? Or make them to type in their blood type and dog's name while downloading every photo? No, it's too inconvenient for the buyers and they'd surely leave for some "easier" agency, right? Why are you so sure those contributors wouldn't do the same? You've invited programmers to your "development" meetings but you should have added some even inexperienced HR specialist as well.
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"For authors who agree to participate, we’ll be doing a complete portfolio review and removing items that don’t meet our new guidelines. We'll email each author in this group with an estimate of how much of their portfolio may be removed." anyone had this....the Envato portfolio will be miniscule just bizarre
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James,
I appreciate you coming here and listening to us unworthy beings. Nevertheless, I cannot direct many kind words - and at this level neither any constructive criticism - towards Envato. In the past years I attempted countless times to be constructive without any result. Personally, I am not a Envato contributor any more.
Main point of critique in context:
Basically, you have been unable to inspect and edit our submissions properly and in accordance with YOUR needs and requirements and now you simply trash whole Portfolios, hours/month/years of work and uploading and make Contributors bleed for you own failure.
It was your decision what to accept and what not, not ours. It is your responsibility to maintain a library which attracts enough sales for you AND us, not ours. Basically, there is no rational explanation for this other than incompetence in editing a media library properly upon inspection or after acceptance or pure ignorance towards our work.
Main point towards Envato:
Your "Marketplace" definition is simply fake. You act on every level like a Agency or Store. It just brings trouble, forces people into weird and potentially illegal situation in their home countries, provokes tax audits etc. The same scheme visible here: disrespect towards those who feed you to make Envatos own life easier. This is the main reason why I never will submit anything to or buy anything from you.
You should question the companies attitude - or the attitude of those who are in charge. I know you make lots of money for many people, but beyond the simple fact that it would be legally impossible for me to submit to your "marketplace" I just can repeat what I said in other threads: my respect cannot be bought. Not everything has a price tag.
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... In speaking with photographers and knowing the limitations of our platform (including cumbersome uploading procedures), we felt it would be much easier and more successful for authors to resubmit a fresh portfolio based on our new guidelines than to ask them to go and clean out their existing individual photos manually. For portfolios that had a higher percentage of items that would need to be removed, this would be a particularly unrealistic request to make. For example submitting 100 fresh photos is much easier and less time consuming than going through and deleting 900 out of 1000.
It sounds simple when you write down some numbers, but how are we supposed to know which 100 of the 1000 you like? :o
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It sounds simple when you write down some numbers, but how are we supposed to know which 100 of the 1000 you like? :o
The real question should be: How are they supposed to believe that we will trust them once again?
They are not Shutterstock, that can (within limits) abuse us since they have sales.
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James,
I appreciate you coming here and listening to us unworthy beings. Nevertheless, I cannot direct many kind words - and at this level neither any constructive criticism - towards Envato. In the past years I attempted countless times to be constructive without any result. Personally, I am not a Envato contributor any more.
Main point of critique in context:
Basically, you have been unable to inspect and edit our submissions properly and in accordance with YOUR needs and requirements and now you simply trash whole Portfolios, hours/month/years of work and uploading and make Contributors bleed for you own failure.
It was your decision what to accept and what not, not ours. It is your responsibility to maintain a library which attracts enough sales for you AND us, not ours. Basically, there is no rational explanation for this other than incompetence in editing a media library properly upon inspection or after acceptance or pure ignorance towards our work.
Main point towards Envato:
Your "Marketplace" definition is simply fake. You act on every level like a Agency or Store. It just brings trouble, forces people into weird and potentially illegal situation in their home countries, provokes tax audits etc. The same scheme visible here: disrespect towards those who feed you to make Envatos own life easier. This is the main reason why I never will submit anything to or buy anything from you.
You should question the companies attitude - or the attitude of those who are in charge. I know you make lots of money for many people, but beyond the simple fact that it would be legally impossible for me to submit to your "marketplace" I just can repeat what I said in other threads: my respect cannot be bought. Not everything has a price tag.
I agree with everything you said.
But the positive thing is that they just started their self-destruction.
Buyers won't disappear, they'll just move to another agency.
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[…] It’s not about being ‘better’ than another agency but about understanding our customers, how they make purchasing decisions and exposing them to the content that best meets their needs.
You still have customers?
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Dear Mr. Giroux,
Firstly , YOU recruited ME for Photodune based on the quality of my work. The same work which is no longer up to your standards. I have won badges galore on your site, and based on the incomes quoted here, I am one of your higher earning/selling artists. Which means I am a high earning artist on other sites, so I don't really need your couple hundred $ a month.
Thank you for coming in and clarifying what you are doing, but if you think that closing the accounts of a huge number of people, including bestselling artists, is going to motivate anyone to upload or reload their best work, or ever give another thought to your site - an EXTREMELY LOW EARNER- then you are completely delusional. You tried to hose us on taxes, now you throw us to the curb like last week's garbage. Good riddance.
Enjoy the death of PhotoDune. You know we will.
Standing ovation!!!
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First of all, thank you for the time and effort you and all authors take in creating and uploading items to PhotoDune. In speaking with photographers and knowing the limitations of our platform (including cumbersome uploading procedures), we felt it would be much easier and more successful for authors to resubmit a fresh portfolio based on our new guidelines than to ask them to go and clean out their existing individual photos manually. For portfolios that had a higher percentage of items that would need to be removed, this would be a particularly unrealistic request to make. For example submitting 100 fresh photos is much easier and less time consuming than going through and deleting 900 out of 1000.
Actually a 90% cull of low selling material would be far better. Customers would continue to find the product they are currently buying. Contributors who invested considerable time would continue to receive most of their income and the end product would be attractive and concise.
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First of all, thank you for the time and effort you and all authors take in creating and uploading items to PhotoDune. In speaking with photographers and knowing the limitations of our platform (including cumbersome uploading procedures), we felt it would be much easier and more successful for authors to resubmit a fresh portfolio based on our new guidelines than to ask them to go and clean out their existing individual photos manually. For portfolios that had a higher percentage of items that would need to be removed, this would be a particularly unrealistic request to make. For example submitting 100 fresh photos is much easier and less time consuming than going through and deleting 900 out of 1000.
Actually a 90% cull of low selling material would be far better. Customers would continue to find the product they are currently buying. Contributors who invested considerable time would continue to receive most of their income and the end product would be attractive and concise.
Excellent point, but OTOH they would miss out on insulting the vast majority of their (former) contributors, so where's the fun in that? ;)
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Maybe it's time for me to apply. From the looks of things, I would be the only tog and will gobble up all the sales.
But then, there's those funny tax shenanigans...
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I wish Shutterstock would do this kind of culling get rid of all the chit they took in recently ;D
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I wish Shutterstock would do this kind of culling get rid of all the chit they took in recently ;D
I agree to a point. Culling is fine. Being selective is fine. Closing whole accounts is neither the most effective way to improve your collection, nor a way to retain good will among the contributor community.
Something else these sites forget with scorched earth policies is that many of their contributors are also BUYERS, or know a lot of people who are. I have never seen a site screw over contributors without losing lots of buyers in the bargain.
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I wish Shutterstock would do this kind of culling get rid of all the chit they took in recently ;D
I agree to a point. Culling is fine. Being selective is fine. Closing whole accounts is neither the most effective way to improve your collection, nor a way to retain good will among the contributor community.
Something else these sites forget with scorched earth policies is that many of their contributors are also BUYERS, or know a lot of people who are. I have never seen a site screw over contributors without losing lots of buyers in the bargain.
Thats because they forget some contributors are also buyers too
But there's no telling the corporate bean counters once they get the bit between their teeth
The odd thing is I make less than $10 a month on Photodune but they decided to keep mosty of my images where as contributors who obviously make far more money for them are being dumped.
Talk about stupid.
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I'm out too.
Did you receive their last email "trending photoshop actions"?
I think they want to specialize their collection into unnatural pictures and computed "art".
Computer algorithms will produce, in a not so far future, all the images "so clean" and "new standards compatible", that the industry n(f)eeds.
Genetically Modified Images still need real ones, but one day, they will be self-produced, without the protesting humans, claiming their copyright and royalties.
Since I find this kind of images soulless, I don' want to go this way.
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I'm out too.
Did you receive their last email "trending photoshop actions"?
I think they want to specialize their collection into unnatural pictures and computed "art".
Computer algorithms will produce, in a not so far future, all the images "so clean" and "new standards compatible", that the industry n(f)eeds.
Genetically Modified Images still need real ones, but one day, they will be self-produced, without the protesting humans, claiming their copyright and royalties.
Since I find this kind of images soulless, I don' want to go this way.
Those are actions that are sold on GraphicRiver... nothing to do with PhotoDune. And I'm sure I read that the new rules are no illustrations or CG, so if anything, they're moving further away from that kind of stuff... not closer to it.
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Anyone did NOT get the e-mail ?
I did not, so does it mean I am still in ?
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I got the mail. My account balance is at 48 and change. I was just able to enter a withdrawal request even though i am short of the 50 threshold. Or dI'd the min amount change in the past and I was not aware?
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I wish Shutterstock would do this kind of culling get rid of all the chit they took in recently ;D
I agree to a point. Culling is fine. Being selective is fine. Closing whole accounts is neither the most effective way to improve your collection, nor a way to retain good will among the contributor community.
Something else these sites forget with scorched earth policies is that many of their contributors are also BUYERS, or know a lot of people who are. I have never seen a site screw over contributors without losing lots of buyers in the bargain.
Thats because they forget some contributors are also buyers too
But there's no telling the corporate bean counters once they get the bit between their teeth
The odd thing is I make less than $10 a month on Photodune but they decided to keep mosty of my images where as contributors who obviously make far more money for them are being dumped.
Talk about stupid.
Yep same here, I only have a sale or two/month there, yet, they somehow decided, they "like what they see". Weird thing. I was sure I would be dumped and because of such low sales I didn't even care.
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Aside from quality, maybe it has something to do with sales per image? I get that it might seem strange that top sellers are being ditched, but if one person sells $1000 a month with 25,000 images, then it's maybe not quite as impressive as somebody who sells $50 a month with 500 images.
Or not. Who knows!
Just to note, were people following the launch and 'unlaunch' of Unstock on the forums? Unstock was an experimental site that they ran for a year to try out a few different approaches to selling stock photography. Different prices, a different way of presenting content, a highly curated portfolio of the kind of images they're now looking to keep etc etc....
https://forums.envato.com/t/unlaunching-unstock/74125
I have no idea what the results were, but based on the post above, their research must have show that you can make a whole bunch of changes, get rid of 90% of your portfolio, and still end up making more money (or at least more money per image). So I'd like to think that they actually researched this decision and tested it out before deciding on this 'brave new world' of theirs. Time will tell if it was the right way to go.
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This is actually very very good that they delete so many photos and portfolios. Because their are planning to offer unlimited (!) subscription for $49/month (!). This is just insane. But with very limited selection of photos this has no chance to change industry and affect prices on other sites.
Why would anyone upload Stocksy like content to Photodune to sell with unlimited subscription and get pennies?
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We are in - But if the actually make it a reality with a 49$ unlimited download, with no opt-out, then we are gone in a second! They have promised me an answer shortly!
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Hmm...
Having "Top Authors" means:
- More Royalties % ( less profit to them... )
- Less margin setting low prices and/or cutting commissions rate. If we look back on time what happen when some low earners decide "offer" images with this kind of "subscription"? Top Authors run away...
- On other hand, each day, they have more and more "wannabe photographers", with the ability to give same content. It's true that quality is far away from top, but clients are always wiling to forget about it, in change of more lower prices than ever.
So, I think that PD it's only avoiding some steps on a process made by others in a past... More than blame agency's , the contributors should blame clients too.
BTW, I'm still there, and got a message informing that could set own prices. In general I'm not uploading since 2013 ( anywhere ) and probably a few dozen of images can be ranked as "salable". Having that images on hard disk will cost me more than sale them for 5 cents...
Anyway this doesn't mean that I agree with this business model.
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plus, having authors that earn only $10 per month means they keep their money for 5 months!
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10$ for 5 months, wohooo, they are going to get nasty rich, lol.