Here's this week's mail out gallery.  See if you think the OP's people section would mesh with this: http://www.stocksy.com/stock-photos?g=2035&p=LBDAY&utm_source=Newsletter130903&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Newsletter

That Alpha Romeo 2000 is beautiful.

The negativity spawned from the fact that people didnt get any reply back on their submission, and that many people with good portfolios with Stocksy like images, were not accepted and people with typical stock portfolios were.

What is a Stocksy-like image ? I keep looking and I see a whole variety of different contemporary styles and approaches. It's undeniably strong work. And likeable.

You don't have to be a part of thing to admire it for what it is. There is a lot which they are doing right. And a lot of hard work and thought has gone into the portfolios.

Hmmm. The buyers seemed OK with certain of my photos at E/S prices but not at S+ prices. I didn't nominate them for S+. Whose fault is that?

It's not about "fault". Those images may well average you more money ultimately. It's much too early to say. Look at them again 2 or 3 years from now. I doubt they have all even been migrated to GI yet.

Something like this would definitely work as a pyramid chain letter.

Pass that on to 12 friends or it's the beady eye

Personally I dont have to work out anything between anybody using a Symbiostock set up. They are all individual sites. My site is my site, and I dont need to charge VAT, its the Irish tax laws I have to abide with. What anybody else does is none of my business. SYmbiostock is not an agency, its just the name of the software but there is a community behind it. All sites are individuals, even if there is a network option.

Some of the information you posted about Irish Tax seem to miss several issues.

For example AFAIK the sale of digital goods should be recorded as services. The turnover threshold for services is lower than for physical goods I believe. Granted you are still probably likely to be within the limits which might be �35k. ** This is not tax or legal advice **

There is also the business about you potentially needing to, for example, register for VAT in S Africa - if any sales happen there. Otherwise it may impact your potential customers. Again - this is not advice. You need to find out from an expert.

Other countries may equally require that local taxes are collected and recorded. Mature sales platforms have checkouts, sometimes even locally registered offices, which take these issues into account.

And yes it does matter that all sites within a network do things properly - because otherwise over time the network as a whole will have a poor reputation - whether or not individual sites do things properly.

I want to look into symbiostock over the christmas holidays. I would love to have a webshop that is connected with other people from msg. Maybe on the microstockexpo in Berlin I can learn more about from people who are active.

There is understandably a lot of enthusiasm for Symbiostock here at MSG and it is certainly an impressive project. But there is a lot of stuff which they are going to have to work out between them before it will be ready for the mainstream IMO. I have been following the project with great interest - partly just because I love all things Open Source.

I was surprised reading the thread about taxation to see the lack of group knowledge about taxation issues - particularly US and non EU contributors seemingly unaware that they need to be levying VAT on EU sales of digital goods. I have added some information to that thread at http://www.microstockgroup.com/symbiostock-general/symbiostock-script-vat-tax-question/msg341929 * which is hopefully helpful and relevant especially to people based outside of the EU. Obviously it affects the whole network that all parts of the network should be compliant.

If I was setting up a web shop which was anything other than experimental I think I would be looking at a more mature platform for the moment at least.

* I cannot get the direct link to the post to work. So you would have to scroll down to find the bit I posted.

US and other non EU businesses selling digital goods to EU customers are required under EU law to collect VAT. Everyone who knows about hosting etc will be aware of this and all of the arguments around it since it has been extensively discussed over the past decade. Your business accountants and legal people should be able to advise you best about how to implement the system such that the correct rate is charged depending on where the customer is based.

Of course - one could argue that there is nothing they can do about it ... The problem with this is that it potentially impacts the customers. And obviously the reputation of the network as a whole depends on all of the component sites being compliant therefore it is something you need to work on together. FWIW many businesses find it much easier for accounting reasons to buy goods and services from other businesses which are TVA registered in an EU country.

AFAIK the registration thresholds which apply to EU based entities do not always / typically apply to non EU entities. So potentially VAT compliance is more of an issue for non EU based businesses with a lower turnover. Also - even EU traders need to be aware that lower thresholds often apply to the sale of services - and the supply of digital goods is classed as a service.

EU FAQ

http://www.cooley.com/57529 - some background info.

Starting July 1, 2003, the European Union will require US and other non-European business to collect and remit value added tax on internet sales of software, music, films, games, other digital products and services to EU consumers. The new requirement, known as Council Directive 2002/38/EC, applies only to sales by businesses to individual consumers (�B2C� sales). Sales between businesses (�B2B� sales) are not covered by the directive, regardless of whether the purchaser is consuming or reselling the products. US companies that do not collect and remit VAT on such sales should begin to develop compliance programs and take the steps necessary to implement those programs by July 1.

etc etc

your "these days" comment is also weird,  I learnt ACR in 2010 on CS4 and there were presets then.

Not weird. Lightroom considerably predates the launch of CS3. Even more so since Adobe made the stable betas and RC versions freely available to encourage adoption.

I did not realise until I just Googled it that ACR in PS also has presets these days. I have been using Lightroom for so long that I had no idea. I haven't used ACR in PS since Lightroom was first launched. It was always so clunky.

An obvious difference is that not only RAW files can be opened in LR. Your starting point might be a tiff or a jpeg. The same as with RAW files no changes (neither destructive nor non destructive) are made to the original.

In general, the constant whining about iStock on this forum often destroys any possibility of a genuinely constructive or helpfully useful conversation. It creates an atmosphere in which any sensible conversation about iStock is almost immediately undermined by miserable negativity. It also makes it difficult to distinguish any legitimate concerns from the background noise.

If a few people constantly moan about everything and anything (often seemingly linked to real or imagined slights or rejections - or because they were banned from the forum for trolling) it discourages others from joining in or expressing any sort of contrary positive opinion. What you end up with is a forum which will only be populated by people who all reinforce and congratulate each others' often malformed and unrepresentative opinions. And stamp down on any attempt to express a positive perspective.

People often say that iStock was better at some point in the past. The truth and reality is that iStock was often broken and there was constant jealously about the best match which was a forbidden subject until recently. The site has been the subject of almost constant moaning here and at the old Yahoo group since forever. Certainly back to the days when the forum was much less politely moderated. Remember that ? On the old iStock forum I think it was Bitter himself who described the Yahoo group as "the old ladies sewing circle".

And it isn't just iStock. The launch of Stocksy was initially greeted with enthusiasm. That quickly turned much less positive when people found that it was going to be carefully curated. What that seems to demonstrate to me is that much of the moaning expressed here may likely be connected sometimes to a feeling of jealousy or exclusion.

Quote from: bhr on August 30, 2013, 04:35

Those lightbox links often look shonky -

My lightboxes might look 'shonky' to you, but I can 100% guarantee if I've got things in a 'similars' lightbox, they are in fact similars as described in the title, not any random picture that someone has lied /spammed about or misidentified.

I do not know anything about your individual lightbox links or your portfolio in general. The points I made were general ones. The way you have written that, I am not sure but I have the impression that it reads as if it were a response to some personal criticism.

"Tell us News, not history". I.e. tell us what's about to happen and why. Don't suddenly spring half-functioning features on the website without telling us first. More, timelier newsletters would be more welcome - people can opt out if they wish.
Don't always be caught up in amelioration.
In other words, be proactive, not reactive. Tell us the benefits of the changes, and make sure before you launch them that there will actually be benefits. I and many others (not everyone) have seen nothing but falling dls and $$s for many months now. If they are only targetting a certain kind of customer, tell us - so that those of us with different subjects in our portfolio know that iS is not the place to put these, even if it used to be.
Let us know they know what they're doing and that they have a solid plan and strategy (I have seen no evidence of either for several years).
Don't keep trying to tell us there's 'something great just round the corner'. There hasn't been much of that for several years either.

You seem to have a very negative outlook. And yet many exclusives have been reporting another strong month of Getty sales - whilst many on the non excluive subscription side have been reporting strong Thinkstock sales and income. It certainly is not all bad.

And from my point of view the site and search changes at iStock seem sensible. I think they are improving the site. I don't expect to be told everything in advance. It's not my site. Shutterstock, Alamy and GI don't tell everyone everything in advance. Why should iStock ? Things seem to be going in the right direction.

Given all the often infectious negativity about iStock I was surprised when I looked at the numbers to find that my income from iStock-Getty combined has been remarkable steady for the past 3 years despite the dreadful world economy; despite massively increased competition relative to the size of my own portfolio; despite microstock per se likely being in decline etc. Moving some of the income to Getty has definitely worked for me and I think for many others too. Moving stuff to different price points represents something like a diversification.

Meanwhile: Shutterstockers continue to be enthusiastic about Shutterstock; Stocksy has an awesome body of work and seems to have made a very impressive launch; Alamy is still a great outlet for the sort of RM editorial content which sells well at Alamy. There is a good range of options and things seem surprisingly ok really.