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Messages - gbalex
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1001
« on: June 25, 2013, 19:38 »
positive sales data is in short supply because when you offer real numbers, you can expect legions of plagiarizers following your port so that they can reproduce your best selling images.  Expect to see hordes of small children sporting super hero gear in the near future.
1002
« on: June 16, 2013, 12:24 »
Who are we to judge Commercial Value - the Market does that
Yes indeed the market does that "IF" All of the images are available to purchase. If the site is not functioning for each and every port and some images are not available to purchase then the true merit of the image can not be achieved. The above concept become relevant if your port has been suffering consistent bugs over a long period of time and you have often found your images to be invisible or unavailable to buyers.
1003
« on: June 15, 2013, 13:11 »
Different perspectives Rob
1004
« on: June 15, 2013, 11:51 »
Thank you. I havent been posting on the SS forum lately because it was getting a bit ugly. For a long time I have heard that I was going to end up in a long sleeve jacket every time I posted my findings, asking questions using my portfolio as measure, and every time I got hammered over trying to find out what is going on with our portfolios. I had no clue, I was a newbie, everything had been said a thousand times, I should have been around in 2005, blah blah blah. Until they finally convinced me that its sales go down, sales go up. And now look at the SS forum, one thread after the other is opened, and all I see is stuff being mentioned I was talking about six, nine months ago. Its fine though, I have given up trying to figure it out, and quite frankly I am happy with that. I cant change it. Now its up to them to follow their own advice they have given me all this time.
Consider the source Ron, just a few limited egos and a couple of Chihuahua's showing fangs to scare away perceived threats to attention/ competition. Most serious submitters also quit posting there for some of the same reasons, nativity and weakness is easier to manipulate. In general, you will find the people on these boards more knowledgeable and reasonable.
1005
« on: June 15, 2013, 10:53 »
They should, but they dont, all they care about is their own $$$ and if that goes up, happy days, doesnt matter who's port is responsible for those $$$. I do not understand why my mediocre portfolio is out performing HCV portfolios with 5 times more images. But if that is a result of the search, then there is nothing I can do about it, other then pull my images. Which nobody is asking for, just saying the agencies only care about their bottom line, not ours.
You have the ability to be more objective than some Ron. If we could all do this, the sites would have more pressure to take care of our interests.
1006
« on: June 15, 2013, 10:13 »
He has a decent port but I have often wondered about the bipolar swings. So yes I assumed it was a given.
As for low sales I could post examples of ports that are down an should not be and ports that are up that are filled with so so content. We in micro have a long standing tendency to assign blame to the artist when they are having troubles with their ports. If we want the sites to treat us with respect that should change.
There are some very good vectors artist and photographers who have very very low sales, much lower in fact than ports with mediocre LCV content and few images. That should alarm us and that fact that it often does not, makes it that much easier for the sites to focus on profit without upholding their end of the contract. We pay them 70%+ to sell our files and for that amount of cut they should make sure their site is functioning on all pistons and that they offer a level playing field to all.
1007
« on: June 14, 2013, 13:54 »
As expected, (very nearly) all the people who were bleating about poor sales last week are doing cartwheels on their way to the bank this week, with one of 'em claiming a $900 day.
Codswallop I say.
Mate you do have selective reading. Go back an read more carefully, the people reporting poor sales are still in the same boat. I had to adjust my post. Mr Hip Hip Hooray is an exception.
1008
« on: June 13, 2013, 15:56 »
I just checked and a file SS has been touting as an all time best seller has dropped off the front page searches.
A 'test' of this nature is utterly meaningless unless you know the actual keywords (used by buyers) that made it a best-seller. It's not always the most obvious keywords. The image in question might well be on the front page of searches using different search terms. Even the order of the search terms used makes a difference ... 'meeting business' will bring up different results to 'business meeting' for example.
You assume we are all idiots. I happen to know the keyword because I had an image sitting right next to it for well over two years. They are both hidden from buyers now under a pile of images, some of them with an insignificant number of downloads. How do I know that? A few of my very low selling images are visible to buyers on the second and third pages using the same keyword.
1009
« on: June 13, 2013, 14:00 »
I am one of the people that isnt hit, my sales keep plodding on. But I do not necessarily feel happy about others losing sales.
Yes Ron that has not escaped notice, you have been trying to help resolve the problem.
1010
« on: June 13, 2013, 13:24 »
Its a shame though, I just read on the SS board someone saying people photoshop their sales to look better to create a fuss over on the Shutterstock forum, and then come back here to make fun of the crowd over there. I have never seen anything like that happen. What is up with the gang war between MSG and SS? LOL 
It is the same Ego's that cause problems on any forum they frequent. At least here you could set the braggers and brown noser's to ignore, thou I don't because I find them entertaining. Some of them are happy to see that ports with many images on first page searches are dropping in sales. I suppose they are happy to find some of those sales in their pocket. They will not be so happy when it happens to them. I just checked and a file SS has been touting as an all time best seller has dropped off the front page searches. In its place are more than a few copycat images. If this move is across the board with all best sellers, I am sure there are some people who count on that money hurting. They worked hard to get many of those in their ports and depend on that money to feed their families. Nice move SS As usual we are off topic. How long do you suppose it will be before the site goes down again or pops up with a nasty new bug. I guess those here who never experience missing ports don't care. After all it is not affecting their own sales and they won't care until it finally hits them. But rest assure it is spreading to more and more people these days. Not just a select few of us anymore.
1011
« on: June 11, 2013, 15:32 »
I have not uploaded to 123RF since the commission cut, yet they still beat my earnings last month at SS. I find that disturbing.
1012
« on: June 11, 2013, 11:50 »
Those of us who have been experiencing site problems over the long term are not talking about month to month or week to week changes, these problems have been going on for well over a year.
Sites do not suddenly go completely down repeatedly because of algorithm changes something is obviously wrong.
Some ports are repeatedly returning errors when customers search their ports... while the majority of you NEVER experience that unfortunate problem.
Ports do not repeatedly go completely missing and become unreachable to buyers because of algorithm changes.
Images do not go completely missing and invisible to buyers because of algorithm changes.
Images do not completely lose all keywords or sometimes only their most important keywords rendering them unsearchable and unavailable to buyers because of algorithm changes.
Images do not suddenly become unsearchable in your own port because of algorithm changes.
Sales do not suddenly drop 30% to 60% overnight and stay that way for months because of algorithm changes
If you have not experienced any of the above count yourself lucky because in all likelihood the site is functioning well enough for your port to have normal sales. Some of us are not as fortunate as you are and therefor we do not have your fortuitous results.
While I agree based on its track record SS is not likely to respond honestly as to why this has been occurring to some of our ports long term. If they respected their submitters they would address the problem and give us good reasons why they have not been able to fix the problems and at least provide us with a timeline under which they expect to resolve the numerous issues some of us experience day in and day out. I have too much invested to walk away without highlighting the problems with the expectations that SS will one day choose to honor its commitments and provide a functional site to ALL of its contributors.
Can you provide some examples of these 'missing portfolios' and/or 'unsearchable and unavailable images'? When does it happen? How long does it last for? If you can provide some specific data then there's a much better chance of SS fixing the issue.
SS is well aware of the ongoing problems, we have been sending reports with documentation to support for a very long time and the glitches continue. I am sure they have a good idea of why these problems continue to crop up. Either they can't fix them or they have decided that it is not worth their $$$$$ to do so. I guess the fact the buyer side is now having issues and the site is going down could be a good thing because maybe they will finally be forced to allocate the resources needed to resolve these ongoing issues. Just go to the bug thread if you actually want to see what some of us have been dealing with. One thread is over a year old and there were threads with the same problem before it. As you can see missing images continue to be a problem. Most of us gave up reporting them months ago because they never do anything about it. As you can see from the thread results vary in severity from hours missing to weeks. http://submit.shutterstock.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=15
1013
« on: June 11, 2013, 09:41 »
Those of us who have been experiencing site problems over the long term are not talking about month to month or week to week changes, these problems have been going on for well over a year.
Sites do not suddenly go completely down repeatedly because of algorithm changes something is obviously wrong.
Some ports are repeatedly returning errors when customers search their ports... while the majority of you NEVER experience that unfortunate problem.
Ports do not repeatedly go completely missing and become unreachable to buyers because of algorithm changes.
Images do not go completely missing and invisible to buyers because of algorithm changes.
Images do not completely lose all keywords or sometimes only their most important keywords rendering them unsearchable and unavailable to buyers because of algorithm changes.
Images do not suddenly become unsearchable in your own port because of algorithm changes.
Sales do not suddenly drop 30% to 60% overnight and stay that way for months because of algorithm changes
If you have not experienced any of the above count yourself lucky because in all likelihood the site is functioning well enough for your port to have normal sales. Some of us are not as fortunate as you are and therefor we do not have your fortuitous results.
While I agree based on its track record SS is not likely to respond honestly as to why this has been occurring to some of our ports long term. If they respected their submitters they would address the problem and give us good reasons why they have not been able to fix the problems and at least provide us with a timeline under which they expect to resolve the numerous issues some of us experience day in and day out. I have too much invested to walk away without highlighting the problems with the expectations that SS will one day choose to honor its commitments and provide a functional site to ALL of its contributors.
1014
« on: June 10, 2013, 18:28 »
Just got 2 more downloads, ODDs, making it my BDE in DLs. I have no clue why I am getting these sales when people with ports of 2000-4000 HCV images are reporting lower sales then me.
http://submit.shutterstock.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=2520968#2520968
Because there is something wrong and SS has not addressed it in the past or now in the present. Count yourself lucky if problems like this have not hit you, because some of us have been struggling with these issues for a long time and SS continues to ignore the site bugs which cost us sales. We are left to conclude that they simply do not care as long as THEY are not losing $$$$$$.
1015
« on: June 10, 2013, 11:14 »
Repeat bug appearing again.
Unable to reach main site to do a buyers search, when I am able to connect I got search errors.
When I sign on to my submitters account I find that once again my image port contains 0 images.
It would be nice to get an honest update from SS as to why this bug continues to crop up, what they intend to do about it and how long it will take before we can expect the site to function for each and every one of us.
The sales patterns for my port are not normal, I see constant bugs cropping up and I know the resulting poor sales are related to these constant site errors and not the contents of my portfolio.
1016
« on: June 07, 2013, 16:03 »
I think the power is still really with the contributor and when/if a good alternative ever comes along (good commissions, good sales) people will jump ship extremely quickly. It's only a matter of time before it happens.
I agree Yuri's site could have quickly morphed into a powerful collective if he had started accepting large groups of well known submitters. I think the sites are aware that this could happen and it could have contributed to the deal he & at least his father received.
1017
« on: June 03, 2013, 17:13 »
The consensus seems to be that very similar new content is selling when uploaded to some ports, while the same type and quality of content is not selling when uploaded to other ports.
1018
« on: June 01, 2013, 11:55 »
There have been problems on the buyer side in the past, but they are becoming numerous and happening more often.
On the provider side they have been numerous and affecting my sales for years, my port has thankfully never gone completely missing as we are seeing with some ports lately. I am sure it is affecting their sales. I know my own sales have been significantly down for the last few months and that is why I am watching for these bugs. It has been my experience that low sales and bugs seem to co-exist.
1019
« on: June 01, 2013, 10:53 »
Today, my earnings, on the contributors home page, sign $0
And my last approved images don't appear in my portfolio
Even worse : my whole portfolio disappeared for 2 hours ... After logging in I only had 17 footage clips and no images. Nice bug!
Just looked in the bug thread and you are not the only one who's images went missing, I wonder how many did not notice. Both of these bugs were happening before the site went down last Friday and they had to go down for a planned maintenance. They still have not solved the problem.
1020
« on: June 01, 2013, 10:52 »
The buyer's side is down for maintenance for the last 10 minutes at least...
I've never seen that at SS 
Before that I was getting a Oooops error when searching for images.
1021
« on: May 31, 2013, 11:06 »
I just want to know who people are in here so I can send them cookie-grams. I have a guy who doesn't change much for shipping so I can send all over the world for pretty cheap.
Whatever the outcome, I look forward to the adventure.
For many of the people on this forum, this is not an "adventure", this is the real world of making a living. Unlike most businesses, we not only have to deal with agencies changing the terms of our agreements to suit themselves, we also have to deal with petty and arbitrary enforcers who only want to see a hundred "woo-yay" posts when they do it.
Keep your cookies.
Oh, and my name is Jim Barber. You banned me a long time ago, and i haven't contributed to your agency for years.
Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't that exactly what this discussion is about? A change to the terms of the use of this site? Leaf has indicated why he is looking to test this change in his initial post. I would have to say that it's a valid concern and part of why the majority of the people I talk to about these boards are hesitant to participate.
You can be mad at me for you being banned. I can't say I've always been 100% valid in the bans. However, as mentioned in previous posts, I'm more than reasonable when it comes to reinstatements. If you are of the ilk who WILL NEVER COME BACK well then that's fine too. Why care about being banned from a place you no longer what to participate in.
Whew. Okay, I hope you all get things sorted in here.
Leaf hasn't entered into a contract with me to sell my images, only to unilaterally change that contract because it was "unsustainable". As for being banned, it's of no consequence and did not enter into the decision to leave IS. The point is that you come here and try to turn this into one of your " let's make a joke about pie and you'll do what I say " threads, and I don't buy it. If anything, your posts reinforce Leaf's point, since by knowing who you are we are well aware of your complete lack of credibility.
Maybe I should change my vote...
Actually I made a joke about cookies, not pies. And the name Pieman was used due to the fact that Lobo was already taken back in January 2008. I'm glad I could participate in the reinforcement of the point Leaf was trying to make. I suspect that was my intent.
Anyhoo, I will leave you all to it. I think this a pretty lively discussion though so I will continue to lurk
Yes Lobo we have noticed that this conversation has really sparked your attention and participation at an unusual level.
1022
« on: May 31, 2013, 10:50 »
I don't have time to read all 10 pages but I support what Leaf is proposing. Tayler, please go ahead and implement this - and if some people rather not post than stand behind their own words, good riddance.
Our words should be able to stand on their own with out the benefit of names behind them. In my opinion some people in this world put far to much weight in the musings of a few big names built utilizing smoke and mirrors. I did not give your post an -neg but I found it offensive and surprising from someone I did respect.
1023
« on: May 31, 2013, 10:34 »
No doubt all those things are true for SOME people. My point is that not ALL anonymous posters are anonymous for devious reasons, and it's really unpleasant that the issue has been generalised to the point that it has.
Of course it is not all people. Its probably only a few who have dubious interests.
I am seeing a fair amount of judgmental ego from a few non anonymous people here while they promote an exclusionary forum for people who make the same choices they have. There also seems to be an inability to look at life from any other perspective than their own. I wonder how the board would respond if it was instead asked to exclude non anonymous members with judgmental self centered egos. It is easy to demonize someone when you do not know them by name, but trust me you personally know some of us and some of us are your friends, well respected submitters and site reviewers.
1024
« on: May 30, 2013, 14:41 »
Sales have been down over last year for the last two months and I am not seeing the recovery I had hoped for after the site went down for a forced maintenance last Friday.
Thanks for the promised update Jonathan
1025
« on: May 30, 2013, 14:25 »
I'm surprised how stocksyesque it looks. I would say Stocksy looks a lot like OFFSET but Stocksy opened over a month ago ... so, OFFSET sure looks a lot like stocksy.
For the searches I have done on both sites Stocksy's images were of better quality and it's search returned more images. Just do a search for images similar to the one that OFFSET has on its front page, the results do not even fill one page.
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