MicrostockGroup
Other ways of making money => Print on Demand Forum => Topic started by: stockastic on April 30, 2014, 19:07
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A new photo POD site, Crated.com, has just announced itself and supposedly will be running towards the end of May. This one is curated to the extent that you need to be approved to get in; it claims contributors will get 80% and have some control over pricing, and it looks likely to be a clean modern design. And that's about all I know.
Why is this one any more interesting than all the others? Someone recently started a thread on FAA to discuss it, and Sean McDunn soon jumped in and rather rudely shut it down. This seems especially odd because there have been long-running discussions on FAA about Zazzle, SmugMug and other PODs.
McDunn's censoring of the discussion was accompanied by an oddly defensive post, claiming he's not worried about Crated, it's just like all the others, etc., leaving one wondering why he wouldn't allow discussion of it.
My conclusion is that Crated.com might be one to watch for the future.
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http://petapixel.com/2014/04/29/new-online-photography-marketplace-crated-offers-an-end-to-end-platform-like-never-before/ (http://petapixel.com/2014/04/29/new-online-photography-marketplace-crated-offers-an-end-to-end-platform-like-never-before/)
http://www.prweb.com/releases/Crated-art-marketplace/sell-art-online/prweb11794194.htm (http://www.prweb.com/releases/Crated-art-marketplace/sell-art-online/prweb11794194.htm)
The PRWEB release is reprinted here (I don't think anything is added) http://www.digitaljournal.com/pr/1880081 (http://www.digitaljournal.com/pr/1880081)
There's a mention in the press release of a pop-up gallery to show works from the first 100 artists to join... off to read these two and see what might make them interesting.
Getty made photos.com into a very lackluster site - when you compare the options for framing or printing surface they have almost nothing. So their big deal is the images they have of old movie stars or famous people?
FAA has a lot going for it, but doesn't have worldwide fulfillment options. Someone must believe there's a big enough market for stuff to put on walls...
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"CURATION: The artwork is heavily curated to ensure it reflects the high standards of Crated’s community of artists."
I have no problem with this, but where can we see the high standards of the community?
How does 'heavy curation' work with "At no cost, sign up now at http://www.crated.com (http://www.crated.com), upload your images and in just a few minutes you can have a free online gallery with ready to support sales, production and distribution."
Just askin'. I'd be interested in a POD outlet which had printing in Europe, to cut shipping costs. This looks like a US company, but there are no "other details" I can find on the site.
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With regard to 'curation' I think it makes sense to have prospective contributors provide a link to some of their work, and if it looks reasonably professional, sign them up - and after that let them upload whatever they want. It's not practical to screen every image. I applied, will see what happens. Hope they're not just looking for more fake Instragram-y cr@p with the camera tilted and the subject half out of the frame.
The most likely outcome is that Crated turns out to be another dream site that has everything photographers want - except buyers. Good presentation, good content, fair TOS. But no sales. How many times have we been there...
I just thought that McDunn's reaction indicated there was something about Crated that he saw as a threat. For example, Crated says that "your gallery page is designed to look minimalist and highly functional on any device" - which FAA definitely does not. There are also references to European printing partners, which is a real sore point with FAA right now.
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Seems like the backers have spent some time thinking about the weakness of the existing PODs. For example scaling images into standard sizes 5x7, 10x14 etc Uploading on FAA always comes out in strange sizes.
Of course it will take a while to find buyers and get the word out but looks promising. Curation is a good thing so you don't get lost among all of the family vacation photos.
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Curation can be fine - if you can figure out what they want clearly. I have neither the time nor the stamina to play the upload guessing game. Once there's something to look at I'll see if it fits what I do. If it's Photocase or Stocksy, then I have nothing to offer anyway
At a minimum it might encourage FAA to tart up their site a bit. It could use some visual oomph
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"All they've done is create yet another POD site and made it look nice"
Um, that's a major selling point, especially to buyers of VISUAL art...
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At least curation will keep out those who post images with date stamps. I swear I've come across two people lately on FAA who uploaded images with date stamps and can't understand why their images don't sell.
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Why do none of these freaken art sites read IPTC ?!?!!?!?!?
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Why do none of these freaken art sites read IPTC ?!?!!?!?!?
FAA does
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Why do none of these freaken art sites read IPTC ?!?!!?!?!?
Yeah I just tried to upload one and saw that right away. Didn't matter at this time, because the upload never completed :-) but of course it's a beta site, not expecting things to work smoothly all the time.
I just sent Crated an email, asking about IPTC data, and also whether images would be forced to standard sizes (5x7, 8x10). I said that both these issues are potential non-starters for me. And by "potential non-starters" I mean total, absolute non-starters.
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Why do none of these freaken art sites read IPTC ?!?!!?!?!?
FAA does
I know, I have 600 images there. You get my point though :D
http://semmickphoto.artistwebsites.com/ (http://semmickphoto.artistwebsites.com/)
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Hey Ronald,
At the moment our uploader doesn't grab IPTC data but we have had a bunch of photographers ask for that feature and plan we do on adding it in. The timeline for this is a few weeks though but I agree that it is a super helpful feature to have and would benefit many artists in initial onboarding.
All the best,
Steve
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Hey Ronald,
At the moment our uploader doesn't grab IPTC data but we have had a bunch of photographers ask for that feature and plan we do on adding it in. The timeline for this is a few weeks though but I agree that it is a super helpful feature to have and would benefit many artists in initial onboarding.
All the best,
Steve
Thanks.
They seem like smart guys and will no doubt get IPTC working eventually. The standard size thing is what worries me - that's probably up to their printing vendor(s). Many photographers are ok with forced cropping to standard sizes, but many are not, and this has always been a key advantage of FAA.
FAA definitely needs competition, it's falling way behind the times in important ways. But if you want to go up against FAA you need to match them on the things they do well, not just attack their weak points.
UPDATE - got this reply from Stephen:
"We do not force print sizes, our system actually offers the prints at unique sizes based on the resolution of the image so that there is no cropping."
So things still sound promising there.
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"All they've done is create yet another POD site and made it look nice"
Um, that's a major selling point, especially to buyers of VISUAL art...
LOL. Yeah, that's all they've done: made it look nice.
McDunn just doesn't get this part, which is why FAA so desperately needs competition.
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Why do none of these freaken art sites read IPTC ?!?!!?!?!?
Yeah I just tried to upload one and saw that right away. Didn't matter at this time, because the upload never completed :-) but of course it's a beta site, not expecting things to work smoothly all the time.
I just sent Crated an email, asking about IPTC data, and also whether images would be forced to standard sizes (5x7, 8x10). I said that both these issues are potential non-starters for me. And by "potential non-starters" I mean total, absolute non-starters.
What is their email? I can't seem to find it anywhere. Thank you!
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You can reply to the acceptance email, in that email you will get a direct email of Steve as well.
I believe its [email protected] the direct email from Steve I wont share here as that wouldnt be ethical.
http://support.crated.com/hc/en-us (http://support.crated.com/hc/en-us)
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Up and running - looks good, clean and modern
http://crated.com/edwardfielding (http://crated.com/edwardfielding)
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Up and running - looks good, clean and modern
[url]http://crated.com/edwardfielding[/url] ([url]http://crated.com/edwardfielding[/url])
I don't see any images - it's described as a "future gallery". Can you only see images if you are signed up/in?
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Must be closed unless signed up --- until the launch.
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Up and running - looks good, clean and modern
[url]http://crated.com/edwardfielding[/url] ([url]http://crated.com/edwardfielding[/url])
I don't see any images - it's described as a "future gallery". Can you only see images if you are signed up/in?
Yes. If you are not logged in you cant see the galleries.
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Thanks! I found it in the acceptance email (:
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there is no watermark feature as well (from my research)
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the search engine (results) is awful, it's showing pictures that haven't got the keywords searched for
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Sounds interesting....
I found the PR article, you can see who is the co founder, and if you google you'll find out some interesting projects of his.
http://www.prweb.com/releases/Crated-art-marketplace/sell-art-online/prweb11794194.htm (http://www.prweb.com/releases/Crated-art-marketplace/sell-art-online/prweb11794194.htm)
I was reading another article on mashable about a company that turns small facebooks pics into wall art...and If I'm not mistaken the same cofounder?
http://mashable.com/2012/03/13/canvaspop-facebook-pictures-into-canvas-prints/ (http://mashable.com/2012/03/13/canvaspop-facebook-pictures-into-canvas-prints/)
Interesting stuff.
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I joined, uploading seems ok ... sizes I have not looked into.
IPTC reading would have been nice.
Search for keywords gives odd results.
Having an option to find specific artists would be great as well.
Lack of watermark is a bit of a worry.
I will be interested to see how it goes.
https://www.crated.com/hereswendy (https://www.crated.com/hereswendy) (coming soon lol)
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I joined, uploading seems ok ... sizes I have not looked into.
IPTC reading would have been nice.
Search for keywords gives odd results.
Having an option to find specific artists would be great as well.
Lack of watermark is a bit of a worry.
I will be interested to see how it goes.
https://www.crated.com/hereswendy (https://www.crated.com/hereswendy) (coming soon lol)
Did they HEAVILY curate your images?
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I joined, uploading seems ok ... sizes I have not looked into.
IPTC reading would have been nice.
Search for keywords gives odd results.
Having an option to find specific artists would be great as well.
Lack of watermark is a bit of a worry.
I will be interested to see how it goes.
https://www.crated.com/hereswendy (https://www.crated.com/hereswendy) (coming soon lol)
Did they HEAVILY curate your images?
We can joke, but I hope they do maintain high standards. FAA is just stacked to the rafters with repetitious junk.
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Just got my acceptance email so I'll give it a try and see how it goes. 8)
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Curated - looked at the website of my images before acceptance. Not individually curated. Unless there is something I don't see. I think a lot of it is done by the other artists on the site?
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I joined, uploading seems ok ... sizes I have not looked into.
IPTC reading would have been nice.
Search for keywords gives odd results.
Having an option to find specific artists would be great as well.
Lack of watermark is a bit of a worry.
I will be interested to see how it goes.
https://www.crated.com/hereswendy (https://www.crated.com/hereswendy) (coming soon lol)
Did they HEAVILY curate your images?
We can joke, but I hope they do maintain high standards. FAA is just stacked to the rafters with repetitious junk.
I'm not joking. Heavily curating in my mind is a lot like Stocksy, being not just selective on the physical quality of the image but the content. And my half whit comment really was based on what I already knew...there was really no way a start up in fine art prints can heavily curate unless they have tons of curators. otherwise they would not have enough images to attract ample buyers in a volume large enough to compete with FAA. I do hope they do well, though. I will apply. I stopped getting sales on FAA about nine months ago, not a single sale. All my new uploads go right to the back pages.
So while I poke a little fun at Crated, I hope they do things well and attract customers. It's worth a try.
Their Facebook is no longer active and sign up sharing to FB is also not working.
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FAA allows just about anything. Search for jewelry and you'll find blurry pictures of necklaces someone is trying to sell like its Etsy.
It gets depressing when you are trying to put up quality work. Kind of like trying to sell fine art at a flea market.
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FAA allows just about anything. Search for jewelry and you'll find blurry pictures of necklaces someone is trying to sell like its Etsy.
It gets depressing when you are trying to put up quality work. Kind of like trying to sell fine art at a flea market.
Agreed.
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Their Facebook is no longer active and sign up sharing to FB is also not working.
No their FB page is still there, I just looked at it.
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Their Facebook is no longer active and sign up sharing to FB is also not working.
No their FB page is still there, I just looked at it.
Hmmm tried to get there from their page. That link must be broken.
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Why do none of these freaken art sites read IPTC ?!?!!?!?!?
Yeah I just tried to upload one and saw that right away. Didn't matter at this time, because the upload never completed :-) but of course it's a beta site, not expecting things to work smoothly all the time.
I just sent Crated an email, asking about IPTC data, and also whether images would be forced to standard sizes (5x7, 8x10). I said that both these issues are potential non-starters for me. And by "potential non-starters" I mean total, absolute non-starters.
Hey Guys,
My name's Steve and I'm the community ambassador for Crated, I just notice this thread and thought I'd jump on and answer a few questions it that's ok.
Since the PetaPixel article we've had a HUGE increase in beta application and that has also meant a lot of great feedback from photographers and artists. One of the things we heard time and again was IPTC integration, so we listened :)
Tomorrow (tentatively) all uploads will get IPTC data read and transferred for titles, decriptions, tags.
Hope to see you over on Crated.
Cheers,
Steve
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Curated - looked at the website of my images before acceptance. Not individually curated. Unless there is something I don't see. I think a lot of it is done by the other artists on the site?
To clarify what curation means on Crated a little, we will be allow anyone to create an account and gallery on Crated, and it's completely free. However all art uploaded is view and curated for the sites discover flow and search indexing. So we curate the art that shows to buyers in those too areas. Artists whos work is not approved into search etc can certainly still link and share their galleries using our tools and their gallery url though.
Hope that help :)
Cheers.
Steve - Community ambassador @ Crated.
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Their Facebook is no longer active and sign up sharing to FB is also not working.
No their FB page is still there, I just looked at it.
Hmmm tried to get there from their page. That link must be broken.
Sorry about that, we fixed the link in our footer but for those who aren't signed up yet:
FB: https://www.facebook.com/getcrated (https://www.facebook.com/getcrated)
Twitter: https://twitter.com/getcrated (https://twitter.com/getcrated)
IG: http://instagram.com/getcrated (http://instagram.com/getcrated)
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the search engine (results) is awful, it's showing pictures that haven't got the keywords searched for
Since we're in the very early stages of the community we did have our search 'fuziness' turned up until we reached an amount of images and works that would return results under most searches. We'll definitely be dialling this back as we continue to get more uploads etc and the search should be acting much more 'normal' by the time we launch in a few weeks.
Cheers,
Steve
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Why do none of these freaken art sites read IPTC ?!?!!?!?!?
Yeah I just tried to upload one and saw that right away. Didn't matter at this time, because the upload never completed :-) but of course it's a beta site, not expecting things to work smoothly all the time.
I just sent Crated an email, asking about IPTC data, and also whether images would be forced to standard sizes (5x7, 8x10). I said that both these issues are potential non-starters for me. And by "potential non-starters" I mean total, absolute non-starters.
What is their email? I can't seem to find it anywhere. Thank you!
Hey BD,
My personal email is stephen[at]crated[dot]com, feel free to contact me with any questions etc.
Cheers,
Steve
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Curated - looked at the website of my images before acceptance. Not individually curated. Unless there is something I don't see. I think a lot of it is done by the other artists on the site?
To clarify what curation means on Crated a little, we will be allow anyone to create an account and gallery on Crated, and it's completely free. However all art uploaded is view and curated for the sites discover flow and search indexing. So we curate the art that shows to buyers in those too areas. Artists whos work is not approved into search etc can certainly still link and share their galleries using our tools and their gallery url though.
Hope that help :)
Cheers.
Steve - Community ambassador @ Crated.
Oh.
So I can upload all I want - but unless Crated likes an image and chooses to present it, it won't appear in search results?
I thought I'd been 'approved' in some sense already, because Crated requested a portfolio link, then sent me an 'approval' email. So how and when would I find out if a photo has been approved for search?
I already have a web site that no one looks at - guess I don't need another...
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Why do none of these freaken art sites read IPTC ?!?!!?!?!?
Yeah I just tried to upload one and saw that right away. Didn't matter at this time, because the upload never completed :-) but of course it's a beta site, not expecting things to work smoothly all the time.
I just sent Crated an email, asking about IPTC data, and also whether images would be forced to standard sizes (5x7, 8x10). I said that both these issues are potential non-starters for me. And by "potential non-starters" I mean total, absolute non-starters.
What is their email? I can't seem to find it anywhere. Thank you!
Hey BD,
My personal email is stephen[at]crated[dot]com, feel free to contact me with any questions etc.
Cheers,
Steve
Hello Steve,
Thank you for your response. I sent you an email two day ago. I am having trouble uploading my images. Do we need to crop to certain proportions? All of my vertical images look wonky when I try to upload them. It looks like they are being made shorter and wider. They are the same proportions as my horizontal images, which look like they will be fine. These are standard sizes from a dslr camera.
Thank you,
BD
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Curated - looked at the website of my images before acceptance. Not individually curated. Unless there is something I don't see. I think a lot of it is done by the other artists on the site?
To clarify what curation means on Crated a little, we will be allow anyone to create an account and gallery on Crated, and it's completely free. However all art uploaded is view and curated for the sites discover flow and search indexing. So we curate the art that shows to buyers in those too areas. Artists whos work is not approved into search etc can certainly still link and share their galleries using our tools and their gallery url though.
Hope that help :)
Cheers.
Steve - Community ambassador @ Crated.
really? that doesn't sound exciting, its a new feature in POD sites I guess, it will be a major turn down, I have submitted a picture a few days ago, how can I know if I passed the "curation"?
guess you need to erase that cool (sarcasm) feature and give exposure to all pictures (if you don't like them just reject them), don't forget we as stock photographers are quite worried about not having a watermark and the lack of IPTC isn't great too
anyway thanks for showing up here at MSG
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Curated - looked at the website of my images before acceptance. Not individually curated. Unless there is something I don't see. I think a lot of it is done by the other artists on the site?
To clarify what curation means on Crated a little, we will be allow anyone to create an account and gallery on Crated, and it's completely free. However all art uploaded is view and curated for the sites discover flow and search indexing. So we curate the art that shows to buyers in those too areas. Artists whos work is not approved into search etc can certainly still link and share their galleries using our tools and their gallery url though.
Hope that help :)
Cheers.
Steve - Community ambassador @ Crated.
really? that doesn't sound exciting, its a new feature in POD sites I guess, it will be a major turn down, I have submitted a picture a few days ago, how can I know if I passed the "curation"?
guess you need to erase that cool (sarcasm) feature and give exposure to all pictures (if you don't like them just reject them), don't forget we as stock photographers are quite worried about not having a watermark and the lack of IPTC isn't great too
anyway thanks for showing up here at MSG
The curation isn't done on a per-image basis, so if you are 'approved' ie curated-in, then all your current and future images are indexed etc.
As I said we allow any and all artists to create their gallery and sell through Crated, our curation will help us offer and inspire customers to buy art.
I totally understand photographers concerns about watermarks, and in these early stages we're always in discussion about features and functionality to add so it could be offered down the road. We realize that it could be a deal-breaker for some but we've had a great response so far from our beta-artists.
As I mentioned in another comment last night, IPTC integration is going live today too :)
Cheers,
Steve
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Curated - looked at the website of my images before acceptance. Not individually curated. Unless there is something I don't see. I think a lot of it is done by the other artists on the site?
To clarify what curation means on Crated a little, we will be allow anyone to create an account and gallery on Crated, and it's completely free. However all art uploaded is view and curated for the sites discover flow and search indexing. So we curate the art that shows to buyers in those too areas. Artists whos work is not approved into search etc can certainly still link and share their galleries using our tools and their gallery url though.
Hope that help :)
Cheers.
Steve - Community ambassador @ Crated.
Oh.
So I can upload all I want - but unless Crated likes an image and chooses to present it, it won't appear in search results?
I thought I'd been 'approved' in some sense already, because Crated requested a portfolio link, then sent me an 'approval' email. So how and when would I find out if a photo has been approved for search?
I already have a web site that no one looks at - guess I don't need another...
The curation isn't done on a per-image basis, so if you are 'approved' ie curated-in, then all your current and future images are indexed etc. We send an email notification if/when you are approved too.
The nice thing about Crated (not different from other POD sites) is that we have a team here that is dedicated to getting people and customers to the site to get exposure for our artists. A lot of factors can help convert this traffic into sales and we're working on maximizing that with an online gallery that is visually appealing, a community that is engaged and active, and a product(s) that is the best quality on the market.
Cheers,
Steve
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Why do none of these freaken art sites read IPTC ?!?!!?!?!?
Yeah I just tried to upload one and saw that right away. Didn't matter at this time, because the upload never completed :-) but of course it's a beta site, not expecting things to work smoothly all the time.
I just sent Crated an email, asking about IPTC data, and also whether images would be forced to standard sizes (5x7, 8x10). I said that both these issues are potential non-starters for me. And by "potential non-starters" I mean total, absolute non-starters.
What is their email? I can't seem to find it anywhere. Thank you!
Hey BD,
My personal email is stephen[at]crated[dot]com, feel free to contact me with any questions etc.
Cheers,
Steve
Hello Steve,
Thank you for your response. I sent you an email two day ago. I am having trouble uploading my images. Do we need to crop to certain proportions? All of my vertical images look wonky when I try to upload them. It looks like they are being made shorter and wider. They are the same proportions as my horizontal images, which look like they will be fine. These are standard sizes from a dslr camera.
Thank you,
BD
Oh sorry about that, can you PM me your email address?
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I've applied three times and not gotten any response.
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Curated - looked at the website of my images before acceptance. Not individually curated. Unless there is something I don't see. I think a lot of it is done by the other artists on the site?
To clarify what curation means on Crated a little, we will be allow anyone to create an account and gallery on Crated, and it's completely free. However all art uploaded is view and curated for the sites discover flow and search indexing. So we curate the art that shows to buyers in those too areas. Artists whos work is not approved into search etc can certainly still link and share their galleries using our tools and their gallery url though.
Hope that help :)
Cheers.
Steve - Community ambassador @ Crated.
Oh.
So I can upload all I want - but unless Crated likes an image and chooses to present it, it won't appear in search results?
I thought I'd been 'approved' in some sense already, because Crated requested a portfolio link, then sent me an 'approval' email. So how and when would I find out if a photo has been approved for search?
I already have a web site that no one looks at - guess I don't need another...
The curation isn't done on a per-image basis, so if you are 'approved' ie curated-in, then all your current and future images are indexed etc. We send an email notification if/when you are approved too.
The nice thing about Crated (not different from other POD sites) is that we have a team here that is dedicated to getting people and customers to the site to get exposure for our artists. A lot of factors can help convert this traffic into sales and we're working on maximizing that with an online gallery that is visually appealing, a community that is engaged and active, and a product(s) that is the best quality on the market.
Cheers,
Steve
Thanks but... I think I'm still a bit confused. I got an email saying "you've been invited to join", I've uploaded a few photos, but they don't show up in search. So apparently I'm in un-curated limbo until some future time when Crated looks at those photos, or at the portfolio link I supplied.
I guess I'll just put Crated on my list of future possibilities for now.
[sound of air being let out of balloon...]
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Curated - looked at the website of my images before acceptance. Not individually curated. Unless there is something I don't see. I think a lot of it is done by the other artists on the site?
To clarify what curation means on Crated a little, we will be allow anyone to create an account and gallery on Crated, and it's completely free. However all art uploaded is view and curated for the sites discover flow and search indexing. So we curate the art that shows to buyers in those too areas. Artists whos work is not approved into search etc can certainly still link and share their galleries using our tools and their gallery url though.
Hope that help :)
Cheers.
Steve - Community ambassador @ Crated.
Oh.
So I can upload all I want - but unless Crated likes an image and chooses to present it, it won't appear in search results?
I thought I'd been 'approved' in some sense already, because Crated requested a portfolio link, then sent me an 'approval' email. So how and when would I find out if a photo has been approved for search?
I already have a web site that no one looks at - guess I don't need another...
The curation isn't done on a per-image basis, so if you are 'approved' ie curated-in, then all your current and future images are indexed etc. We send an email notification if/when you are approved too.
The nice thing about Crated (not different from other POD sites) is that we have a team here that is dedicated to getting people and customers to the site to get exposure for our artists. A lot of factors can help convert this traffic into sales and we're working on maximizing that with an online gallery that is visually appealing, a community that is engaged and active, and a product(s) that is the best quality on the market.
Cheers,
Steve
Thanks but... I think I'm still a bit confused. I got an email saying "you've been invited to join", I've uploaded a few photos, but they don't show up in search. So apparently I'm in un-curated limbo until some future time when Crated looks at those photos, or at the portfolio link I supplied.
I guess I'll just put Crated on my list of future possibilities for now.
[sound of air being let out of balloon...]
We curate based on the images uploaded to Crated, not the beta-application form. If you aren't curated into search/featured categories you still have an account and can share and sell as any other artist can.
Here's a link to the help article on the topic: http://support.crated.com/hc/en-us/articles/201669104 (http://support.crated.com/hc/en-us/articles/201669104)
Let me know if I can further clarify anything.
Cheers,
Stephen
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I am still confused.
But the lack of a watermark, incorrect display of thumbnails, limited available sizes and not knowing where my work is curated or not, in the search or not, whatever it means, means I will not submit my images.
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We curate based on the images uploaded to Crated, not the beta-application form. If you aren't curated into search/featured categories you still have an account and can share and sell as any other artist can.
...
Let me know if I can further clarify anything.
Cheers,
Stephen
I suggest that if you're doing it this way, you send out emails on acceptance AND rejection, so we know where we stand. I expect you'll get many applicants like myself who have no outside promotion and would be relying on keyword search for any sales and would have no other reason to want to be at Crated.
I uploaded a number of photos, but apparently didn't get 'curated'. If I'd understood the system I'd have uploaded a very different group of images right at the start - but I thought the portfolio link would be used for approval. So now I don't know what to do - whether to give up, keep waiting, upload something different...
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I am still confused.
But the lack of a watermark, incorrect display of thumbnails, limited available sizes and not knowing where my work is curated or not, in the search or not, whatever it means, means I will not submit my images.
No worries,
To clarify though, thumbnails do display correctly - as the full image (not cropped to square). Some users might see minor bugs in some older browsers that we are fixing shortly. All artists are notified by email the minute they are curated too.
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Its still very confusing, how does the process work exactly?
Will there be a watermark?
If you want to compete with FAA you need to offer custom size work. My panoramas are never standard ratios, for example.
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Its still very confusing, how does the process work exactly?
Will there be a watermark?
If you want to compete with FAA you need to offer custom size work. My panoramas are never standard ratios, for example.
Hey Ron,
We currently do not watermark image on the site but only reveal a low-res version and protect from right-click and drag.
We offer custom sizes. Our site will offer available sizes in a range (small med large) based on the aspect ratio of the image so that there is no cropping.
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We currently do not watermark image on the site but only reveal a low-res version and protect from right-click and drag.
We offer custom sizes. Our site will offer available sizes in a range (small med large) based on the aspect ratio of the image so that there is no cropping.
Stephen,
I'm excited that I've been invited to join but am also concerned about the lack of a watermark. As with everyone on this forum, I license hundreds of images for the web each month, so someone being able to steal a low-res unwatermarked image via a screengrab is still a concern.
Hope that is something you will consider more carefully. Even a small watermark will let people determine if the file has been stolen vs. licensed legitimately from a stock site, so infringers can be chased down.
Thanks for staying in the loop here and listening to our concerns.
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Stephen,
ITPC: Had to input info manually today. When do you expect to have the ITPC reader online?
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Stephen,
ITPC: Had to input info manually today. When do you expect to have the ITPC reader online?
Happy to say that ITPC officially went live at 3:23pm today. So it should be active for all users now, sorry about that you must have just missed it on that upload.
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All artists are notified by email the minute they are curated too.
Do you also notify artists if they do not 'pass' the curation process?
Too many agencies leave you in limbo nowadays as to whether you've been accepted, or not....
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Haven't test ITPC yet but love that you've responded so quickly.
Echoing the sentiments that we'd like to know when we're rejected as well as accepted (even better if we could be given some idea as to why).
Also, if our initial 10-20 uploads are rejected, is our gallery ever considered again for curation or are we forever in the reject pile? Again, if I know the reasons for initial rejection, I can work to improve and upload better in the future, which surely benefits both Crated and artists.
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IPTC isn't working properly, the only field importing well is the tags (keywords)
title goes blank and the description has a ton more things
I have IPTC and XMP on my files
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All artists are notified by email the minute they are curated too.
Do you also notify artists if they do not 'pass' the curation process?
Too many agencies leave you in limbo nowadays as to whether you've been accepted, or not....
We keep artists that have not been approved in queue so there's not a point of rejection per-se. We monitor sales, traffic, shares, and future uploads and continually have the option of approval for non-curated artsits.
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IPTC isn't working properly, the only field importing well is the tags (keywords)
title goes blank and the description has a ton more things
I have IPTC and XMP on my files
We've found a few bugs in the first 12 hours of the feature that are being resolved.
If possible, could you use the 'beta-feedback' link in the footer to provide these types of messages since we can't monitor forums as much as actively as we'd like.
Cheers,
Steve
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IPTC isn't working properly, the only field importing well is the tags (keywords)
title goes blank and the description has a ton more things
I have IPTC and XMP on my files
We've found a few bugs in the first 12 hours of the feature that are being resolved.
If possible, could you use the 'beta-feedback' link in the footer to provide these types of messages since we can't monitor forums as much as actively as we'd like.
Cheers,
Steve
done that seconds ago but haven't got a message on site saying it went over, cheers!
looks like it have been sent!
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All artists are notified by email the minute they are curated too.
Do you also notify artists if they do not 'pass' the curation process?
Too many agencies leave you in limbo nowadays as to whether you've been accepted, or not....
We keep artists that have not been approved in queue so there's not a point of rejection per-se. We monitor sales, traffic, shares, and future uploads and continually have the option of approval for non-curated artsits.
Stephen,
IMHO, this is unnecessarily confusing, vague and mysterious. I think you'll be getting an awful lot of emails from people saying "I created a gallery, why am I not showing up in search?" and "I just uploaded some new photos, will you look at them?".
At minimum, Crated needs to make all of this clear right at the start, when an account is created.
The signup page requests a portfolio link - why not just cut to the chase, look at that portfolio and give a thumbs up/thumbs down right away?
I really like the look of Crated, and there's an obvious opening for a new player in POD. But I can't see creating and promoting a personal gallery with big 'Search' and 'Discover' boxes at the top that will only show my visitors photos by other photographers. And I don't know what Crated's curators are looking for, so I can't really get in the game.
I'll keep Crated in mind but will put it on the back burner until things are clearer.
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Hi Stephen,
I filled out the application, provided a portfolio link and was invited to join. Does that mean I'm approved and will appear in search? Or is this step 1 of a process? I uploaded a couple of things, but I can't find them via the search.
Thanks.
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Hi Stephen,
I filled out the application, provided a portfolio link and was invited to join. Does that mean I'm approved and will appear in search? Or is this step 1 of a process? I uploaded a couple of things, but I can't find them via the search.
Thanks.
The application filled out is to access out beta, so the invitation gets you an account. We base the curation on your Crated gallery so we take a look at your uploads and you will receive an email notification if you are approved and indexed into search etc.
Cheers,
Steve
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Hi Stephen,
I filled out the application, provided a portfolio link and was invited to join. Does that mean I'm approved and will appear in search? Or is this step 1 of a process? I uploaded a couple of things, but I can't find them via the search.
Thanks.
The application filled out is to access out beta, so the invitation gets you an account. We base the curation on your Crated gallery so we take a look at your uploads and you will receive an email notification if you are approved and indexed into search etc.
Cheers,
Steve
I also thought I was approved when I had got the invitation to get an account, after you had checked my portfolio elsewhere. I have uploaded a gallery, but not my very best images, because you do not add watermarks yet. What happens if I will not be accepted with these initial images, will there be another chance soon?
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Hi Stephen,
I filled out the application, provided a portfolio link and was invited to join. Does that mean I'm approved and will appear in search? Or is this step 1 of a process? I uploaded a couple of things, but I can't find them via the search.
Thanks.
The application filled out is to access out beta, so the invitation gets you an account. We base the curation on your Crated gallery so we take a look at your uploads and you will receive an email notification if you are approved and indexed into search etc.
Cheers,
Steve
I also thought I was approved when I had got the invitation to get an account, after you had checked my portfolio elsewhere. I have uploaded a gallery, but not my very best images, because you do not add watermarks yet. What happens if I will not be accepted with these initial images, will there be another chance soon?
We keep artists that have not been approved in queue so there's not a point of rejection per-se. We monitor sales, traffic, shares, and future uploads and continually have the option of approval for non-curated artsits.
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Very confusing. You must simplify or be clearer because a lot of artists will spend a great deal of time uploading in the hopes of getting sales when in fact all of their hard work isn't really in the search after all but they think it is. That stinks.
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Without rejection notification, you should at least notify if our photos are approved. We can at least assume that no news means our photos don't make the cut. You can't leave contributors in the dark guessing.
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Without rejection notification, you should at least notify if our photos are approved. We can at least assume that no news means our photos don't make the cut. You can't leave contributors in the dark guessing.
All artists are immediately notified by email when they are approved/promoted.
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Without rejection notification, you should at least notify if our photos are approved. We can at least assume that no news means our photos don't make the cut. You can't leave contributors in the dark guessing.
All artists are immediately notified by email when they are approved/promoted.
Approved/promoted to what? Just asking, but if I upload, say, 500 images, will I CLEARLY know that only 250 made it into the "main sellable collection" and the rest that reside in my own personal, non public gallery I can delete?
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Without rejection notification, you should at least notify if our photos are approved. We can at least assume that no news means our photos don't make the cut. You can't leave contributors in the dark guessing.
All artists are immediately notified by email when they are approved/promoted.
Approved/promoted to what? Just asking, but if I upload, say, 500 images, will I CLEARLY know that only 250 made it into the "main sellable collection" and the rest that reside in my own personal, non public gallery I can delete?
From a previous post: "The curation isn't done on a per-image basis, so if you are 'approved' ie curated-in, then all your current and future images are indexed etc."
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Without rejection notification, you should at least notify if our photos are approved. We can at least assume that no news means our photos don't make the cut. You can't leave contributors in the dark guessing.
All artists are immediately notified by email when they are approved/promoted.
Approved/promoted to what? Just asking, but if I upload, say, 500 images, will I CLEARLY know that only 250 made it into the "main sellable collection" and the rest that reside in my own personal, non public gallery I can delete?
The images I uploaded are listed in the internal Crated search results, but I have not received a Curated / approved email. What does that mean?
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Without rejection notification, you should at least notify if our photos are approved. We can at least assume that no news means our photos don't make the cut. You can't leave contributors in the dark guessing.
All artists are immediately notified by email when they are approved/promoted.
Approved/promoted to what? Just asking, but if I upload, say, 500 images, will I CLEARLY know that only 250 made it into the "main sellable collection" and the rest that reside in my own personal, non public gallery I can delete?
The images I uploaded are listed in the internal Crated search results, but I have not received a Curated / approved email. What does that mean?
You may want to check your spam filter for the message, it's sent automatically but if you can see your images in search you are promoted. :)
Cheers,
Steve
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Note to Stephen_S_Crated
Just a helpful suggestion worth considering:
In this forum thread is a minute fraction of the amount of people who will be signing onto Crated when the floodgates are opened.
Yet, in this thread note the large amount of confusion, complaint, and rejection about the curating policy.
Now multiply that by a hundred- or even a thousand-fold when the gates are opened.
You either need to change your curation policy or go to great strides to make it perfectly clear and understandable by all.
Just a thought...
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Happily I am witnessing some amazing work on Crated. True fine art photography. Very inspiring.
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Note to Stephen_S_Crated
Just a helpful suggestion worth considering:
In this forum thread is a minute fraction of the amount of people who will be signing onto Crated when the floodgates are opened.
Yet, in this thread note the large amount of confusion, complaint, and rejection about the curating policy.
Now multiply that by a hundred- or even a thousand-fold when the gates are opened.
You either need to change your curation policy or go to great strides to make it perfectly clear and understandable by all.
Just a thought...
I agree! I believe the "Sell your art" section needs to be clarified
(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/8294845/crated.JPG)
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Stephen S,
I have a few questions. Perhaps best to do them one per post.
Question:
Regarding the addition of the named gallery feature.
When available, will we be able to move images from one gallery to another? And especially, from the one gallery images are now uploaded to.
I think this a valid question at this point because it would be frustrating to upload 500 images now only to learn they cannot be moved, and need to be uploaded again.
Thanks,
- dan
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Stephen S,
Once live, how heavily do you plan on marketing / promoting Crated? Not our art - the Crated product itself?
I can understand if you do not wish to publicly announce your plans, and if so, perhaps you can answer this: do you plan to promote casually, medium, aggressively, or ultra-aggressively?
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Stephen S,
I have a few questions. Perhaps best to do them one per post.
Question:
Regarding the addition of the named gallery feature.
When available, will we be able to move images from one gallery to another? And especially, from the one gallery images are now uploaded to.
I think this a valid question at this point because it would be frustrating to upload 500 images now only to learn they cannot be moved, and need to be uploaded again.
Thanks,
- dan
Hey Dan,
If by 'move' you mean the ability to organize your gallery into sub sets/categories, we are definitely working on that and it should be available in the coming months.
If you mean transferring uploads to an entirely new account, it's something we could maybe be manually since I don't see this coming up often.
If you mean rearranging the positioning in your galley, we have a basic tool for that now, it's cumbersome so we are improving it as we speak. If you click the 'rearrange art' tab under 'My Art' in the dashboard you can move them around. This tool will soon be drag and drop to increase usability.
Hope that helps, if I misunderstood your questions please let me know.
Cheers,
Steve
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My apologies. I should have been more clear:
All uploads are now going into a single gallery. When the feature to create different / various galleries is added, will we be able to move images from the single gallery they are now in to the new galleries we create, or will the new galleries we create only be populated by uploads directly to the gallery? Hope that made sense.
On the other hand, what you said below is interesting.
You are going live in a couple of weeks, but below state the ability to create galleries will be available in "coming months."
Does this mean that upon going live we will continue to upload all images into a single gallery and that categorization into different galleries will not be available for weeks / months?
Regards,
-Dan
Stephen S,
I have a few questions. Perhaps best to do them one per post.
Question:
Regarding the addition of the named gallery feature.
When available, will we be able to move images from one gallery to another? And especially, from the one gallery images are now uploaded to.
I think this a valid question at this point because it would be frustrating to upload 500 images now only to learn they cannot be moved, and need to be uploaded again.
Thanks,
- dan
Hey Dan,
If by 'move' you mean the ability to organize your gallery into sub sets/categories, we are definitely working on that and it should be available in the coming months.
If you mean transferring uploads to an entirely new account, it's something we could maybe be manually since I don't see this coming up often.
If you mean rearranging the positioning in your galley, we have a basic tool for that now, it's cumbersome so we are improving it as we speak. If you click the 'rearrange art' tab under 'My Art' in the dashboard you can move them around. This tool will soon be drag and drop to increase usability.
Hope that helps, if I misunderstood your questions please let me know.
Cheers,
Steve
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My apologies. I should have been more clear:
All uploads are now going into a single gallery. When the feature to create different / various galleries is added, will we be able to move images from the single gallery they are now in to the new galleries we create, or will the new galleries we create only be populated by uploads directly to the gallery? Hope that made sense.
On the other hand, what you said below is interesting.
You are going live in a couple of weeks, but below state the ability to create galleries will be available in "coming months."
Does this mean that upon going live we will continue to upload all images into a single gallery and that categorization into different galleries will not be available for weeks / months?
Regards,
-Dan
Hey Dan,
You will be able to populate the sub set/categories with previous uploads when that feature is available.
Yes the feature for organizing images into set/categories (like Flickr has) is being worked on but is still a little ways out.
Cheers,
Steve
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Thank you, Stephen. Good to know.
One final question:
Any specific POD (competitors) you are going after?
(Hey!... It never hurts to ask!). ;) ;)
- Dan
My apologies. I should have been more clear:
All uploads are now going into a single gallery. When the feature to create different / various galleries is added, will we be able to move images from the single gallery they are now in to the new galleries we create, or will the new galleries we create only be populated by uploads directly to the gallery? Hope that made sense.
On the other hand, what you said below is interesting.
You are going live in a couple of weeks, but below state the ability to create galleries will be available in "coming months."
Does this mean that upon going live we will continue to upload all images into a single gallery and that categorization into different galleries will not be available for weeks / months?
Regards,
-Dan
Hey Dan,
You will be able to populate the sub set/categories with previous uploads when that feature is available.
Yes the feature for organizing images into set/categories (like Flickr has) is being worked on but is still a little ways out.
Cheers,
Steve
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Ok has anyone posting here actually received an "acceptance" email? The real one, that says your images will show up in search?
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The fact that uploaded work is not publicly available in searches is completely unclear. This needs to be fixed.
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Ok has anyone posting here actually received an "acceptance" email? The real one, that says your images will show up in search?
I have
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Thank you, Stephen. Good to know.
One final question:
Any specific POD (competitors) you are going after?
(Hey!... It never hurts to ask!). ;) ;)
- Dan
We're not focussing on 'going after' anyone, it was a natural progression from our sister companies (CanvasPop and DNA11) and we think we can offer a really great product on a beautiful and functional platform that, not only will appeal to awesome artists but attract engaged visitors and more importantly create lots of sales.
So far the response has been great! We're really encouraged by the feedback and all the amazing art that's already been uploaded in our beta. We're listening to every suggestion and bit of feedback and using it to rapidly improve as we move forward.
I'm really grateful that our name came up in this forum and I'm glad I had the opportunity to add to the discussion, everyone here is very savvy, respectful, and helpful!
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Could we perhaps just upload our best work, and request a curator to look at it and give us a thumbs up or down, so we could move on?
I don't want to leave my best photos sitting there, if they're never going to appear in search.
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Yes, but as Stephen replied previously, yours may have been grabbed by a spam / junk filter.
Ok has anyone posting here actually received an "acceptance" email? The real one, that says your images will show up in search?
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I get more confused with every comment posted and I still have no clue how the curation works. I think 4 or 5 people have asked for an explanation but it seems to be ignored.
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I get more confused with every comment posted and I still have no clue how the curation works. I think 4 or 5 people have asked for an explanation but it seems to be ignored.
Hey Ron,
Here is my first post that I explained the curation process:
"we will be allow anyone to create an account and gallery on Crated, and it's completely free. However all art uploaded is viewed and curated for the site's discover flow and search indexing. Artists whos work is not approved (ie curated-in) into search etc can certainly still link and share their galleries using our tools and their gallery url."
Artist are notified the moment they are curated into search/discover, all current and future uploads from that user are indexed. Artist who are not are still held for future review based on the images they upload.
If I can further explain or clarify anything at all please let me know.
Cheers,
Steve
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So the acceptance email I got was just a carrot dangling in front of me out of reach?
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So the acceptance email I got was just a carrot dangling in front of me out of reach?
The beta-invite email is an invitation to join the site before it's release.
We base the curation on the content that is uploaded to Crated so once a user adds images to the site, they are reviewed and if approved, an email notification is sent.
Let me know if you have any other questions.
Cheers,
Steve
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Artist are notified the moment they are curated into search/discover, all current and future uploads from that user are indexed. Artist who are not are still held for future review based on the images they upload.
If I can further explain or clarify anything at all please let me know.
Cheers,
Steve
Maybe I missed it but are artists notified if they don't pass the initial curation review? If not, how would we know that the review even took place?
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LOL
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I get more confused with every comment posted and I still have no clue how the curation works. I think 4 or 5 people have asked for an explanation but it seems to be ignored.
Crated definitely did not have me at hello. I am still completely unclear on the original point of discussion on HEAVILY CURATED and what that process looks like and how it works.
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So the acceptance email I got was just a carrot dangling in front of me out of reach?
The beta-invite email is an invitation to join the site before it's release.
We base the curation on the content that is uploaded to Crated so once a user adds images to the site, they are reviewed and if approved, an email notification is sent.
Let me know if you have any other questions.
Cheers,
Steve
Why not also send an e-mail if the images are not approved????
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"Maybe I missed it but are artists notified if they don't pass the initial curation review? If not, how would we know that the review even took place?"
LOL
LOL ! Me, too!
(Help! This merry-go-round keeps going around and around and it won't stop and I can't get off! Aaaarrrrggggg!)
Stephen,
Perhaps it might be helpful to create a "stickie" blog article or make a relevant FAQ addition on the crated site with similar questions and answers that repeat, then you can simply link to it from the thread.
Regards,
- Dan
P.S. I'm tellin' you my friend, you ain't seen nuthin' yet. Wait until the gates open! When the public site opens, I would consider explaining the curation process on the Create an Account page, in the Welcome / Verify email, and again on the site blog and FAQ to boot. ;)
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So the acceptance email I got was just a carrot dangling in front of me out of reach?
Basically yes.
See, that portfolio you initially sent them isn't really your porfolio. And that acceptance email doesn't mean you're accepted. Just start uploading photos and if, at some point, someone from Crated looks at them and likes them, you're in. Otherwise, just keep uploading, and visiting crated.com, and linking to it, and (incidentally ) pushing up its traffic numbers and search ranking, and hope you get reconsidered someday.
Does that help?
Crated is an 'art' site. Those of use used to microstock and FAA (which is not an 'art' site) can't wrap our heads around what is probably an all-too-familiar process for artists that try to sell through galleries.
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Crated is an 'art' site. Those of use used to microstock and FAA (which is not an 'art' site) can't wrap our heads around what is probably an all-too-familiar process for artists that try to sell through galleries.
I'll have to disagree with this. I do not do any stock, but I am on FAA and have been there for two years. I can wrap my head around crated just fine. And I fully understand their marketing concept, the curation process and its intent. But if you're going to ask to explain it, please don't. That is up to Stephen if he wishes to.
Edit: actually, in thinking about it I would add this: FAA also (in essence) curates their art. In search results, they give weighted return results to art that has sold, the number of favorites, comments, features, and so forth. In other words, they try to influence search results bringing the more popular pictures to the top. The only difference between that and Crated is that Crated is doing in manually. I am not saying I agree or disagree with either, nor promote either. I am simply saying it is easily understandable. It's basically simple: both FAA and Crated curate art. FAA does it by influencing or biasing search results, Crated does it manually.
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Society6 is a similar art site with certain works selected to be in the "store"
FAA is basically a printer, totally open with no selection process or quality control. Only when an image is ordered is there any check on quality.
Microstock sites have screening processes mainly for quality issues (noise, white balance, commercial viablity etc.) These tend to be non-subjective like "no shadows"
Boutique stock agencies have curation where images are selected based on the agencies aesthetic.
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Hello Steve,
I found this work http://crated.com/art/523/desolation-by-caseymac (http://crated.com/art/523/desolation-by-caseymac) and I love it, just busy with my home decoration, can I start to buy in Beta stage?
Thanks,
Kalevi
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So the acceptance email I got was just a carrot dangling in front of me out of reach?
Basically yes.
See, that portfolio you initially sent them isn't really your porfolio. And that acceptance email doesn't mean you're accepted. Just start uploading photos and if, at some point, someone from Crated looks at them and likes them, you're in. Otherwise, just keep uploading, and visiting crated.com, and linking to it, and (incidentally ) pushing up its traffic numbers and search ranking, and hope you get reconsidered someday.
Does that help?
Crated is an 'art' site. Those of use used to microstock and FAA (which is not an 'art' site) can't wrap our heads around what is probably an all-too-familiar process for artists that try to sell through galleries.
as usual you are too dramatic, just upload a few pictures and after a while you will be in, stop complaining!
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Crated is an 'art' site. Those of use used to microstock and FAA (which is not an 'art' site) can't wrap our heads around what is probably an all-too-familiar process for artists that try to sell through galleries.
I'll have to disagree with this. I do not do any stock, but I am on FAA and have been there for two years. I can wrap my head around crated just fine. And I fully understand their marketing concept, the curation process and its intent. But if you're going to ask to explain it, please don't. That is up to Stephen if he wishes to.
Edit: actually, in thinking about it I would add this: FAA also (in essence) curates their art. In search results, they give weighted return results to art that has sold, the number of favorites, comments, features, and so forth. In other words, they try to influence search results bringing the more popular pictures to the top. The only difference between that and Crated is that Crated is doing in manually. I am not saying I agree or disagree with either, nor promote either. I am simply saying it is easily understandable. It's basically simple: both FAA and Crated curate art. FAA does it by influencing or biasing search results, Crated does it manually.
Well, not really the 'only' difference. On FAA I'm guaranteed to show up in search, somewhere. If I have something unusual, with the right keywords, it might get seen even without previous sales. Crated is all or nothing.
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Well, not really the 'only' difference. On FAA I'm guaranteed to show up in search, somewhere. If I have something unusual, with the right keywords, it might get seen even without previous sales. Crated is all or nothing.
Two points: "On FAA I'm guaranteed to show up in search, somewhere" Technically, yes. But for any useful purpose, no.
User behavior is well-known. Some may go back to page 2 or 3 of results, some may even go as far as 7 or 9. But if your "...show up in search..." is on page 20 - no. For all intents and purposes you're not there.
And on FAA this point is amplified. Do a search there of almost any common search phrase and you will see. Results are voluminous, making a "...show up in search..." that much more meaningless. It is very easy to get buried on FAA and never seen. Which is why their intent is to do the best they can to automatically move the best to front, other stuff to the back.
"Crated is all or nothing" - correct. For one simple reason: Crated's methodology - manual culling - is far more accurate that FAA's. Yes, subject to the personal preferences of the (Crated) person evaluating the work, but even considering that it is much more accurate. And that accuracy may translate to success.
Not to mention, of course, all in this subject is a moot point. It is well known on FAA artists are told not to rely on the search engine there at all - to market themselves externally. Which is nothing different than being on Crated, but not in the search where you are told to market externally, bring users back for the purchase. Same thing.
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Crated is an 'art' site. Those of use used to microstock and FAA (which is not an 'art' site) can't wrap our heads around what is probably an all-too-familiar process for artists that try to sell through galleries.
I'll have to disagree with this. I do not do any stock, but I am on FAA and have been there for two years. I can wrap my head around crated just fine. And I fully understand their marketing concept, the curation process and its intent. But if you're going to ask to explain it, please don't. That is up to Stephen if he wishes to.
Edit: actually, in thinking about it I would add this: FAA also (in essence) curates their art. In search results, they give weighted return results to art that has sold, the number of favorites, comments, features, and so forth. In other words, they try to influence search results bringing the more popular pictures to the top. The only difference between that and Crated is that Crated is doing in manually. I am not saying I agree or disagree with either, nor promote either. I am simply saying it is easily understandable. It's basically simple: both FAA and Crated curate art. FAA does it by influencing or biasing search results, Crated does it manually.
This is a forum for people to share ideas and information. There are also some very talented artists here who have figured out how to upload and manage their accounts with a dozen or more agencies, all different. And some simply cannot understand Crated's system, yet you do but refuse to share with this group your understanding of a still unanswered question, and I would say a very fair question and a very IMPORTANT question. Yet you come into this forum to sponge information but not reciprocate? Are you afraid you will post mis-information? If so, you don't really understand after all, if not, might help a few people out with a different version of your understanding.
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Changing the subject slightly. When using Safari I can log in to the site and everything works fine until I scroll down a/any page at which point nothing is clickable any longer.
I don't see this with FF.
Just me?
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Well, not really the 'only' difference. On FAA I'm guaranteed to show up in search, somewhere. If I have something unusual, with the right keywords, it might get seen even without previous sales. Crated is all or nothing.
Two points: "On FAA I'm guaranteed to show up in search, somewhere" Technically, yes. But for any useful purpose, no.
User behavior is well-known. Some may go back to page 2 or 3 of results, some may even go as far as 7 or 9. But if your "...show up in search..." is on page 20 - no. For all intents and purposes you're not there.
And on FAA this point is amplified. Do a search there of almost any common search phrase and you will see. Results are voluminous, making a "...show up in search..." that much more meaningless. It is very easy to get buried on FAA and never seen. Which is why their intent is to do the best they can to automatically move the best to front, other stuff to the back.
"Crated is all or nothing" - correct. For one simple reason: Crated's methodology - manual culling - is far more accurate that FAA's. Yes, subject to the personal preferences of the (Crated) person evaluating the work, but even considering that it is much more accurate. And that accuracy may translate to success.
Not to mention, of course, all in this subject is a moot point. It is well known on FAA artists are told not to rely on the search engine there at all - to market themselves externally. Which is nothing different than being on Crated, but not in the search where you are told to market externally, bring users back for the purchase. Same thing.
Well I can't really argue with any of that. And yet, I've made several sales on FAA in my first year, with about 200 photos, relying only on keyword search. I have no marketing of my own.
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Are you afraid you will post mis-information? If so, you don't really understand after all,
I do not do stock, but was led here from another forum because of the subject matter: crated. So I am new to this forum. However, I am not new to forums and as such, learned long ago how to identify (and ignore) somewhat pathetic and obvious attempts to troll.
If you don't get it, you don't get it. Not much I can do to help. You have an actual Crated representative active in this thread (Stephen) - he's actually a principal at crated. If you have any questions about any aspect of crated, I suggest you ask him. He may choose to answer you, he may not.
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Well I can't really argue with any of that. And yet, I've made several sales on FAA in my first year, with about 200 photos, relying only on keyword search. I have no marketing of my own.
And I am glad you have (made sales). Neither can I explain why. Is it possible your keywords and images were "niche?" I don't know who you are nor what art you sold, so I cannot say. However, it is obvious you have had keywording success so I would certainly continue that.
However, this post and subject has strayed from the OP topic which was crated. I don't want to to that. However, this forum is interesting and if there are any good FAA threads on it I would appreciate links. I would be very interested. Especially considering the fact that for the first time in the two years I have been on FAA, they are censoring threads about a competitor: crated. I've never seen FAA do this before and find it all very interesting.
Regards,
- dan
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Well I can't really argue with any of that. And yet, I've made several sales on FAA in my first year, with about 200 photos, relying only on keyword search. I have no marketing of my own.
And I am glad you have (made sales). Neither can I explain why. Is it possible your keywords and images were "niche?"
Not quite 'niche' but not common subjects either.
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Not quite 'niche' but not common subjects either.
Than that's probably the answer. And a smart marketing tactic, too.
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Why the name "Crated"? Sounds like a shipping company.
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Limited names to choose from is my guess. As long as they spend the money advertising, it doesn't matter what its called. What was Amazon?
At least they won't have the embarrassment factor FAA has when someone goes there expecting fine art and finds a bunch of squirrel photos.
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tested it. dont understand.. is there a limit of of 5 images uploading at once? This will take many many hours.. ::)
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tested it. dont understand.. is there a limit of of 5 images uploading at once? This will take many many hours.. ::)
Yes. And before you spend all that time, understand that your photos won't show up in Crated's search unless you're 'accepted' by curation - i.e. they look at your uploaded photos and like them well enough to offer them through the site. Otherwise you're just creating a private gallery and it's up to you to market it.
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tested it. dont understand.. is there a limit of of 5 images uploading at once? This will take many many hours.. ::)
Yes. And before you spend all that time, understand that your photos won't show up in Crated's search unless you're 'accepted' by curation - i.e. they look at your uploaded photos and like them well enough to offer them through the site. Otherwise you're just creating a private gallery and it's up to you to market it.
Thanks for this information. I keep Uploading within next weeks. lets see it works maybe.
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Doesn't work in Safari for me either, have to switch to Chrome. Pain.
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Doesn't work in Safari for me either, have to switch to Chrome. Pain.
At least I'm not alone....gotta decide whether to download FF or just wait and see if they get this 'fixed'.
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Its not for me. At least on FAA I know I show up in the search and have the occasional sale. I am not going to promote an agency for others to get sales. 5 images at a time? Same as FAA, but that is uploaded as I go. I am not going to upload 600 images, 5 at a time. No watermark. etc. Good luck to all.
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Its not for me. At least on FAA I know I show up in the search and have the occasional sale. I am not going to promote an agency for others to get sales. 5 images at a time? Same as FAA, but that is uploaded as I go. I am not going to upload 600 images, 5 at a time. No watermark. etc. Good luck to all.
+1
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Its not for me. At least on FAA I know I show up in the search and have the occasional sale. I am not going to promote an agency for others to get sales. 5 images at a time? Same as FAA, but that is uploaded as I go. I am not going to upload 600 images, 5 at a time. No watermark. etc. Good luck to all.
It's probably not for me either as my work isn't very "fine artsy". I'll use it as someplace where I can refer customers when I get requests for prints, which is about once every 5 years or so.... ;)
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I use FAA and my own site for that.
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Being an early contributor means advantages and disadvantages. Crated is beta, you could not expect everything to work smoothly in the beginning. But I do hope they will add a watermark feature soon. If this site will generate sales, I guess it is an advantage to be an early contributor.
I think they might be smart when they only let you upload 5 at a time. Maybe they want people to upload their best work only, the images best suited for print.
I thought the Canva concept was very interesting, so I decided to become an early contributor there last year. I think it took more than 6 months before my portfolio finally got online in April. But so far they are my best earner in May. I think that is because parts of my portfolio is well suited for Canva, but also because I am an early contributor. I do not have large portfolios (200-400) so the statistics about my sales may vary a lot, except for SS, where they are quite stable. But so far in May, I have got twice as much sales on Canva than on SS. I know it is a very short time, but the trend is obvious. Therefore I think it might be a good idea to become an early contributor at Crated also. And take the disadvantages with being an early contributor.
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It could also be like Stockbo and invest an awful lot of time submitting images and never get a sale. And you dont make it into the search, you never get a sale either.
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It could also be like Stockbo and invest an awful lot of time submitting images and never get a sale. And you dont make it into the search, you never get a sale either.
Of course, we do not know yet if they will generate sales, therefore it might be a good idea to upload just a few images suitable for prints, to start with. If you do not get them into the search (it took 7 days in my case) it is probably not worth the effort to continue. And I do think they could offer rejection mails as well as acceptance mails.
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Ok, I'll give it a shot.
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I think it is a good thing they also have an office in Europe (Helsinki). If they will print and ship from there.
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I must admit I don't understand the image sizing. I often crop my verticals to 5x7 then position accordingly, but some of them have ended up with the "small" being huge sizes (eg 32" x 23"). It's something to do with how they're standardising the sizing but I don't entirely understand how it works - I read that it's to do with the aspect ratio, yet most of my 5x7 images are fine, it's just a handful that aren't.
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About application: is a portfolio link mandatory?
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What does it mean when someone "collects" something?
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What does it mean when someone "collects" something?
from my research it looks like it has search relevancy, would be interesting to hear Stephen regarding this matter
noticed on the left a curated option with 4 pages only as well
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I had given up on Crated because (apparently) I haven't been approved and don't show up in search. But I just logged in and noticed that I'm greeted by a message that begins with "You have been hand picked by our curators to join Crated". Let me guess: this doesn't mean what it says.
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Warning: When you decide to follow someone on Crated, that person gets a mail with copies of the top four images in your Crated gallery. And these images are larger than those on the homepage, but still not watermarked. I mailed their support about this, so I hope they will change that soon. These images are of course only given away to other artists that hopefully will not use them for free. But I do not like that!
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Yup, you're right. I got a bunch of people's images in my inbox and was able to right click and save images that are certainly large enough for a blog, for example. I'll be holding off uploading there.
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Yeah, I have seen enough, not going to try this.
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Yeah, I have seen enough, not going to try this.
Like you, I was ready . . . . . . but am now backing away.
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You're in control though - don't follow anyone until that issue is fixed. It's not like someone can trigger receiving that email to steal your images.
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Warning: When you decide to follow someone on Crated, that person gets a mail with copies of the top four images in your Crated gallery. And these images are larger than those on the homepage, but still not watermarked. I mailed their support about this, so I hope they will change that soon. These images are of course only given away to other artists that hopefully will not use them for free. But I do not like that!
I just got an answer from Steve via their support, and they have fixed this issue now. It looks quite OK in the last "new-follower"-mail I got, almost only thumbnails.
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I uploaded one file and deleted two minutes later. it is dead easy to save a non watermarked image from any artist`s gallery. it comes 960 width which is enough for web usage. I know its beta at the moment and i will wait till they fix this
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Hello Stephen,
I was ready to join and sell my work with Crated but have my daubts after reading this thread ::)
(Please, forgive my poor english).
I already sell my images successfully and I have few private and public sites/galleries so I'm definitely interested in selling work with your site, not interested in publicating for fun and friends... (I rather like taking photos than sitting in front of my screen clicking for "fun"). So, for the moment let's just forget about the gallery only. Lets focus on selling work.
You say:
"Artists whos work is not approved (ie curated-in) into search etc can certainly still link and share their galleries using our tools and their gallery url."
I wouldn't like to spend my (working) time on looking for friends and sharing work just to show them the same what they can see on my other few sites :) I'm looking for (pro) seller of my work rather than only sharing place. From reading in articles I understood you are the one (pro) :)
... and we think we can offer a really great product on a beautiful and functional platform that, not only will appeal to awesome artists but attract engaged visitors and more importantly create lots of sales.
So far the response has been great! We're really encouraged by the feedback and all the amazing art that's already been uploaded in our beta. We're listening to every suggestion and bit of feedback and using it to rapidly improve as we move forward.
Please, let me know if watermark is ready already :) For example FAA has great option where I can choose if I want to put watermark or not. It's small but it is there. It's needed, it's wanted, it's expected...
I still don't get the curation idea. It just doesn't make big sense to me. I mean, at the beginning of reading about Crated it was great to read about curation - we need that, we need quality control surely! Wow, at least some quality level...
But then I read about no email when rejected ( ??? ). All this curations is some dark magic for me to be honest. Maybe I'm missing something. In a part way it seams like Alamy curation, where you pass batch if one or two images are ok in pending batch. However, we always get email with info yes or no (and it should be obvious).
Above are two most important questions before I (we?) start investigating the time:
1. when will I have option to set my watermark (that's determinating my joining) and
2. I need to get confirmation if images passed or rejected (and all this magic idea explained better).
Do you consider above and when can I expect results so I could join and start selling my work with you?
Thanks and good luck!
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I noticed that images over 25 MB aren't accepted. Would it be better to downsize these stitched panoramas or to degrade the quality to get them down to 25MB?
Anyone have any idea on what the time frame is for being "curated" or not?
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I noticed that images over 25 MB aren't accepted. Would it be better to downsize these stitched panoramas or to degrade the quality to get them down to 25MB?
Anyone have any idea on what the time frame is for being "curated" or not?
A week in my case.
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Two weeks ago I asked some questions to Crated here on the forum, but still waiting for reply... Not motivating.
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Two weeks ago I asked some questions to Crated here on the forum, but still waiting for reply... Not motivating.
just email them, Stephen have been replying to many of mine
https://crated.com/help/contact-us
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There's no watermarks and they promote sharing sites. Not a good sign.
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just email them, Stephen have been replying to many of mine
I thought maybe more people here would like to know... they were asking the same with no results. Do you think it's good to keep facts quiet? It's easy question (above) and I believe it's not a secret :)
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There's no watermarks and they promote sharing sites. Not a good sign.
elaborate the sharing sites please
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just email them, Stephen have been replying to many of mine
I thought maybe more people here would like to know... they were asking the same with no results. Do you think it's good to keep facts quiet? It's easy question (above) and I believe it's not a secret :)
I understand what you mean, guess he must be busy doing other stuff but do email him and then paste the answers here, I am quite interested in hearing about the watermark too
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How in the world do you know rather you are on there or not. I have a gallery, I have photos on there...only 8 but they don't come up in the search results. Are they just sitting there?
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New features announced:
https://crated.com/blog/2014/05/new-features-update/
The best feature is sales. I'll be happy when that feature happens.
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New features announced:
https://crated.com/blog/2014/05/new-features-update/
The best feature is sales. I'll be happy when that feature happens.
Thanks for sharing that link, Shelma. The improved process for rearranging images is great.
Now… if they could just improve their communication process!