So how did it all go? You managed to find out if she really had problem or was it a scam? Btw if she can't download photos from istock, why not giving her link to your portfolio on other stock? (If you have one?) 

Quote from: sjlocke on April 17, 2011, 12:58

Quote from: seawhisper on April 17, 2011, 11:48
Ok, iStock is definitely going down these days... Just out of curiosity, anyone knows what is happening this time? I just got this kind of message when trying upload:

Did you look in the discussion forum: http://www.istockphoto.com/forum_messages.php?threadid=324302&page=1

No I didn't, I tend not to read theirs forum since they simply delete unwanted treads. :/
Thanks for linking this one, it explains things. I hope they will deal with the problems they have rather then making things worse what usually takes place under such time pressure...

Not that I qualify for these limits but for me it's quite ridiculous that money / banking website has this kind of limits. Seems like a good reason to move to competition. Lately I hear all the bad things about paypal. :/ 

Ok, iStock is definitely going down these days... Just out of curiosity, anyone knows what is happening this time? I just got this kind of message when trying upload:

"File uploads have temporarily been deactivated for all users. Please try again later"


Woot? O.o

You know I might not like all that dreamy look in photographs (and I do have a feeling these photos in some points are simply too blurry), but OMG this all looks so sweet thanks that specific blurry - pastel feeling. I mean I could virtually eat all these photos!!! ^_^

Quote from: leaf on April 13, 2011, 15:14
There is also a pretty long discussion on MicrostockGroup here
http://www.microstockgroup.com/dreamstime-com/important-dreamstime-announcements/

Thanks so much, this is all very interesting.

Quote from: BaldricksTrousers on April 13, 2011, 13:05
see the news http://www.dreamstime.com/thread_26512

and watch out for the April Fool joke...

Lol what? Tell me this IS the April Fool joke?
Honestly I should read stock sites news more often, but usually they gives me shivers of what next they might 'invent'... 

I got a sale today that is '0 level purchase'. I thought the lowest level is level 1? I never had 0 level purchase, has something changed? Lol I wonder if they will think of -x level purchase.

Quote from: Chelsey Schaffel on April 11, 2011, 19:30

The image you're referencing is part of 123RF's partner program, not Veer's. (Our skus on Photogenica are prefaced with the three letters "VMP.")  You'll want to get in touch with them regarding the keywording problem you noticed.

http://www.123rf.com/photo_9042254_red-squirrel-in-the-natural-environment.html

With respect to selling your photos both directly through Photogenica and Veer, there's no conflict--Photogenica may vet for similars, but since Veer doesn't have an exclusivity program, you can offer your images on any number of additional sites besides Veer.

Thank you for fast and accurate reply Chelsey! I'm not sure whether to join Photogenica or not (but since they're from my city I will give them a call and also tell about the keywords issue, I think that's the fastest way). But Veer already gained my liking, I love sites that does communicate with their users!

Oh and one more thing - this is absolutely brilliant. They have keywords limit (?) because when I look at my squirrel photo on their website: http://photogenica.pl/zoom/9042254/ I see keywords only to letter 'p'. That means that even it's obviously a squirrel in the photo, no one will find it because the 'squirrel' keyword is missing. LMAO!

Hm I'm wondering - I'm from Poland, Photogenica is from Poland, so maybe it would be more beneficial for me to create account on Photogenica and sell photos here. (Because mine photos are here as well, though it's not said where from.) Wouldn't that be in conflict with selling them on Veer...?

Ok, now that's to put it lightly strange to me. This is my first conversion so I may not know it works, but...
In the conversion section, in the field 'credit value' I have 3 polish zlotys ($1). BUT in the faq section it's quite clearly stated that 1 credit = 4 polish zlotys ($1.33). ( http://pl.fotolia.com/Info/Faq#a07 ) (Might upload screenshots if someone want.)
On this little 'mistake' I'm loosing about $20.  (50 credits * 4zl = 200 zl (~$70) while 50 credits * 3 zl = 150 zl ($50).

Might seem not much but nevertheless it's really pissing off. :/ Can anyone explain what happened? I always lived in a world where one fotolia credit is worth more then what they now want to graciously pay me. :/ Because from my point of view at the moment (like I said maybe I'm missing something) it's like they're lying straight to your face. :facepalm: :headwallhit: and so on...  

*EDIT
Well I found two other conversion values on the fototolia website and one is correct... :sigh:
Since I don't see any option to delete the post I think it has to stay. It will be a proof of my irritation and grief, lol. 

Quote from: Chico on March 30, 2011, 16:33
I don't know if it's a correct word, but this interview looks like a MOCKERY.

How about another one: "bull_shit", because honestly after reading it I don't know if to laugh or cry. Lol.

Quote from: luissantos84 on March 29, 2011, 13:13
you can find that on the main page of Dreamstime, then look above on the right News and Announcements

March 18, 2011 (09:11)
Contributors: The upload limit has been decreased to 5 submissions/day (35/week). Such measure was taken in order to limit the massive number of similar and identical uploads. We kindly ask you to be more selective with your uploads. - posted by Tangie

Thanks for the answer! I did noticed that statement (and probably somewhere on this forum too), but this brings me even more questions. If the limit is daily, why I can use all the weekly limit during the one day. And what's the 'normal' (old) base on which the limit is counted? (Not to mention WHY they have changed it so drastically...)

Sorry if this subject was already raised dozen of times (thought I still can't find answer) but it seems something has changed.

Lately my submission limit in Dreamstime has dropped to 12 photos a week. I'm in a 30%-50% acceptance ratio section. That means I have 1/3 of the MAXIMUM AMOUNT of photos to submit each week. Now my question is what is this magical maximum amount? I can't find it anywhere in the Dreamstime faq. And it's quite frustrating not to know because it's quite important number.

Just to have something to discuss during upload.

Which stock is in your opinion most contributor / user friendly? Mind I don't mean the one where you earn most!
Just the ones where you have easy upload (or have features that makes even 'many steps' upload fast and not painful), logical information architecture (easy to navigate and find what you want), or shiny cool features - statistic, graphical info.

I think that Yay is extremely friendly, but well we know all how Yay is about sales... Shutterstock is nice, VERY simple but have the most information I need in simple form. Depositphotos is for me the example of usability and very well thought information architecture, and well it's just simply aesthetic. It also has easy upload, again well thought feature.

What do you think?

I was wondering what kind of ftp software are you guys using for uploading photos to stock sites, and why (what are advantages of the software you choose).

I'm using CuteFtp, but for example I do lack the possibility to set my files in specific order - for example first upload ss files, the dreamstime etc. (Or I don't know how to force the programme do it. )
Other nice feature would be closing the client to tray so when it uploads I don't have to have it on my main bar. (Which is usually quite some time...)

Quote from: rimglow on March 18, 2011, 13:29
Shutterstock has been less that forthcoming on this matter. Although there have been several threads on their forums complaining about captcha, they have all been removed. A forum search about captcha crashes the site. (Proxy error) Obviously they don't want any discussion about it, no matter how civil.

ROFL!!!! This is just amazing. I really hate this kind of behaviour. I had just a touch better opinion on ss. Not much because most of stocks treat photographers lousy, but just a touch. F... censorship. :/ 

I think the question would be stated more precisely if you asked how many downloads a day and how many photos do you have in your portfolio. It's hard to compare ppl who have few hundreds with ones who have few thousands.

For me that would be few downloads daily with max 9 as well. Not a very good result I'm afraid.

Quote from: cclapper on March 11, 2011, 17:49

Quote from: rimglow on March 11, 2011, 14:38
I hate it! To all who post that they don't mind it along as it keeps the site secure, I have to ask.
If it works so well at keeping a site secure, how come banking sites (like Chase) and PayPal don't use it? The answer is that there are better ways that don't irritate the user base. Somebody did a hell of a sales job on Shutterstock to get them to use this Draconian measure in the name of security.

It will go away one day in the name of progress. There will be a shake up to make the site more professional, and more in line with current security standards. Can't happen fast enough for me.

I'm not sure it's keeping the whole site secure but I am hoping that it's keeping phishers from logging in to my account. To answer your question about why banking sites and Paypal don't use it, I will ask another question. If it's totally useless, why does anyone use captcha? I don't necessarily think that it is 100% foolproof, but I do think it must be somewhat effective.

Because captcha is being misused here. As obviously time consuming method captcha was invented to prevent bots from registering fake accounts, writing spam and so on.
It's not developed as a mechanism for actions performed such often as logging in. It's just the wrong tool for this kind of human - system interaction.

Quote from: Zeus on March 11, 2011, 17:21
Someone should forward the URL of this thread to the folks at Shutterstock.

Hell YES!!! I didn't imagine so many ppl respond to my little rant. It would be nice if they changed their security behaviours.

Quote from: KB on March 10, 2011, 17:17
Thanks for posting this; I thought it was only me!   

I usually have to refresh half a dozen times before I get one I think I understand.

No, no, from what I see most of us have an 'issue' with this captcha. I usually don't whine about such things since they're mostly unavoidable, but I guess it wasn't my day that day. And I'm happy I started this thread - makes me feel better that I'm not the only one who hates that thing.

Quote from: microstockphoto.co.uk on March 10, 2011, 13:33
.

rofl rofl, brilliant!


* edit sth went wrong I was referring to 'hate catpcha' captcha

Quote from: wolf on March 10, 2011, 12:25
Mostly just typing the first word (if it's longer than the second) will get you in. Also capitals and punctuation marks don't have to be typed. But it stays annoying.

Oooh, this VERY useful info! For some reason the second word seems to be harder for me to decode. Thanks!

I just had to say that aloud - this stupid way of logging is really irritating. (SS has really a little safety paranoia...)  Lately ss captcha is either playing tricks on me (because it knows I hate it) or it changed and started to be more human then bot obstacle...  I had to reload it 3 times today.

Is there anyway to stay logged in ss? Block cookie? Hack your way into your account, bite it and not let go? Anything? Expiring cookies into stock sites are such a bad idea on your own computer that only you use... Maybe someone has some cleaver software that keeps you logged in into all the websites you're using daily?