Like someone on the FT said : "If we all pulled are portfolios at agency X, we actually wouldn't lost any $$ at all" ... because buyers would just change agency and we have all the same images there.

I was the one who wrote that. I am not sure if someone else used it as well:)


And because of the above logic RT, I can not agree with you. It is a WIN WIN situation for us. Regardless which agency sells our images, we will sell them. We don't really care which agency exists or disappears. So the answer to your question must be (a) If the contributors have not got any health problems that affects their thinking  

I don't see why would the  so called BIG players not follow the aforesaid announcement of the union? Do you really think Yuri or Andres or someone else like you or me would lose any money if we pulled our images off of X agency?

I can not agree with your opinion that it will hurt us. The last people will be hurt is us If we do it in a well organised way. IF we pull our images from X agency, we will not lose a single penny! Ah ok, maybe for a couple of days we can lose some pennies but when the customers of X agency realize that the agency is dead with no images then they will go elsewhere to still buy our images.

Contributors only need a simplistic brain to know that pulling our images from one agency will not hurt us.

If we put our minds to it and form this union we are talking about, I am sorry but if we want we can make even BigStock the biggest agency in the world. IF we want we can start talks with X agency and agree on a let's say %60 commission and no subs model and everybody pulls the images off of other agencies and we have a single power that pays us %60. The agency will win too, because %40 of no competition is quite big as well. That would still be more money than any of them are making right now.

If there was a microstock union and that union made the announcement that all it's members should stop uploading to a particular site because of it's latest change in terms what do you think would happen:

a - the members would follow the unions call
b - the members would do whatever they thought best for their own business

Mat, well, I hope you read this part, at least...

Interesting that you use that photo as your icon.  I feel that's what FT did with it's contributors, crushed them under their heel.

Wish you could comment back, would love to hear the story on why you chose that particular image...

And bash?  Not bashing, telling the truth.  Of course, if you can't swallow the truth, then it feels like bashing. 
There is another thread where someone started slamming on Dreamstime, but the only responses were positive on DT's side, the site is well run and respected.  Interesting that a thread that started the same way about FT didn't bring the same response, in fact most agreed with the original poster.

It looks like it's time for a tea party...

Gebbie

Thank you Gebbie! 

Sheesh,

I had no intent to post in this thread.  Do what you do, but I will say that the one and only, single post quoted here did not result in a forum lock out.  As it has been mentioned before, many people on a regular basis question, complain, argue, debate, discuss many different subjects at any given time.  For the most part it is respectful and well-articulated and those that actually know me and not my reputation know that I enjoy a good debate so no, you were not locked out for making one post.

In this instance, for several days there was a long string of negative, angry posts that crossed way over the line of debate into the realm of attack with the intent of riling up the troops and starting some sort of who knows what?  The Fotolia forum is not the place for that.  It's a private forum and frankly, if you hate the site so much that you feel compelled to angrily bash it day after day, hour after hour in countless threads regardless of the topic then why bother being there in the first place?  Hell, I feel like I did you a favor because now you aren't subjected to my mindless censorship and can really vent your frustration here. 

I don't plan on posting anything else in this thread so bash away and have fun.

All the best,

Mat

I know my fault. I shouldn't have attempted to post anything on fotolia forum. Big mistake. We learn from our mistakes.

On the other hand, I don't hate fotolia. Why would I hate fotolia. I love microstock. I am really hoping it could become more considerate towards contributors.

I am not here to bash. I am here to share. I never insulted anyone and never will do. There is no way you can show me a single post with hatred.

Concerns? Yes!
Hatred? No!

As Ben Linus says in "Lost" : We are the good guys Mat  

I understand your concerns and if you don't want to post here, no problem.

Thanks for the input. That is right I don't know you well. In fact, I don't know you at all. If you are in the UK. I can buy you a coffee and you can see If I am a guy of hatred or not.  

Good day to you!

Quote from: cidepix on March 05, 2009, 12:09

I think it is totally reasonable what they did in your case as you were moderating fotolia forum.. That is kind of understandable.. I am not a moderator on any site, yet still banned from fotolia forum for telling my opinion..

I beg to differ. Being banned from a forum is much less serious than a portfolio being banned from sales. A forum is just trivial, since nobody gets paid to post.

A site forum is private and it is part of the site's interface to the market. A ranting post can damage the site easily, as it is picked up by Google. In French they say "Dans la maison du pendu on ne parle pas de la corde" (Never mention rope in the house of a man who has been hanged). That's why I never bother to post at site forums. For rants, we have the Microstockgroup. 

Sorry, you are right. I am a little angry at what they did but kind of understand. That is not Mat's fault either. It is their policy which is wrong.

@ WarrenPrice, Slave and master! That is exactly what they think. And that is what needs to be changed and what will change eventually.

@ CCK, I kind of knew they would ban me for my opinion. But If I am gonna get banned it should be for a reason like this. I have never been banned from a forum btw. somehow I turn out to be the bad apple when it comes to my lord fotolia.

@ FlemishDreams, Hilarious Post!

@ RGebbiePhoto & litifeta, We should somehow find a way to get all top 3000 or 4000 contributors move together and pull about hundreds of thousands images off of fotolia overnight if we want to make a statement. I am very disappointed at how some of the big guys digest these changes. Not everybody can really be BIG. Being BIG is not about money. I don't see them as BIGS anymore.

If we digest these today, we will digest anything. I have a stomach ache and I will never digest this.

@ Phil, Congratulations! 

@ peep, no, there is no other agencies who did this. Our lord fotolia is unique. Whatever they do is unquestionably right and all for our goodness. They think about our goodness 24/7, that much, I am already impatient for their next amazing move.

@ whitechild, It is probably they don't think they should satisfy us in any way

@ perrush, I read and liked your comments. I wish there were more of us.

@ ichiro17, fiasco after fiasco. This is not the way to run a business.

@ Mat, Thank you for banning me. I am not sure If I would come here to talk to all these cool people IF I kept wasting my time on undemocratic fotolia forum.

@ leaf, I have been reading this forum for a long time. Thank you for this opportunity. It is a great job you are doing here. I saw your posts about SAA. Let's not waste time with SAA. Let's start our own microstock artists union. It won't be very difficult to get to all top 2000-3000 contributors If we put our minds to it. I am volunteering that I will make hundreds of contributors a member of it. I will reach them and tell them what needs to be done to stop this selfish behaviour of some websites.

I learned my lesson. I was to naive when I thought fotolia would be wise and considerate enough to listen to my opinion. I wish they were good. But god knows who is the real bad apple.

Let's start our own union! Let's not digest this crap!

Thank you all!

They did the exact same thing to me when they learned I am a moderator on the forum at Fotolia.  No warning, no email, no phone call, nothing.  It took me about 5 months to get my $12 payment from them.  The owner refused to take my calls, would not respond to my emails, nothing.  Their response was about worthless. 

They were nothing if not diligent in their communication when asking me to fax my tax information to them though.  Must've received 15 emails, a couple of phone calls, all sorts of communication when they needed something from me.  I informed them that their threat to close my account if I didn't hurry and get their paperwork to them was a disincentive for me to hurry it along.  I did of course send them their stuff but was very unimpressed with their communication.

Mat

Mat 

So, it is ok to speak bad of shutterstock.. You seem very contributor friendly when it comes to other sites..

I think it is totally reasonable what they did in your case as you were moderating fotolia forum.. That is kind of understandable.. I am not a moderator on any site, yet still banned from fotolia forum for telling my opinion..
Edit: That may be too far. Sorry, I couldn't resist a little joke 

That is not good for any business model.. I am a supplier and should be taken as seriously as customers.. Not more, only as much..

I didn't want anything special from fotolia.. I just wanted things to stay the way they were.. Apparently that is a sin, I am a bad apple, and fotolia is my lord.. 

When I joined this site I didn't expect it to become a place it has become.. After one year here, I have never seen any positive improvement for contributors..

I had accepted it the way it is at the time I signed up.. But since I signed up too many things changed..

Change 1 - Subscriptions introduced..
It would only make sense for us if the sub sales at least counted towards our ranking.. Not as 1/4 of a credit sale!

2 possible resolutions to make it look reasonable for contributors:
a- Introduce an opt-out
b- count it towards ranking as 1 dl

Change 2 - Ranking system modified..
So it helps fotolia make more money, and contributors make less money..

Change 3 - Contributors commissions cut-down
with an excuse of advertising costs.. Price increse is supposedly going to compensate the loss..

But what I see on the big picture is fotolia gets %89 of the extra credit and contributors get %11
Again, this helps fotolia make more money, and contributors make less money..

So all the changes are for one big dream: To help fotolia make more money, while helping contributors make less money..

I can't help thinking that fotolia board is right now sitting down and trying fo find more ways to get the images even cheaper from us..

Let us know If you want to get them for free so there is no hassle.. I just want to remind you that I am not a 3rd world country workforce, working for 1 dollar a day..


I have a question to my fellow contributors: Say yes or no!

Do you think fotolia will ever implement a change that benefits contributors as much as it benefits fotolia?


Some improvements have to be done in favor of contributors in my opinion..

Let us know If fotolia is ever gonna make us feel at home?