I guess I need to reread that other thread. By my count there were at least three. remind me, what is your opinion again?

I see. How many blogs get 10000 page views? If they have that big of an audience why aren't they selling their own advertising? 10000 views and I get 20 whole cents. 1 million views and I make slightly more than 1 sale off of my own site. This is crazy. Am I wrong?

I can't see how it will work. I get the data mining but not the rest. How will advertisers choose which images to attach ads to? Would a fast food restaurant want to advertise on a blog about healthy living? Would the blog want that ad showing up? Why would someone interested in cooking click on an image of strawberries? Why would they even be interested in buying an image? If contributors get paid a % per click how many clicks would it take? Maybe someone can illuminate me on why advertisers would even be interested in this form if advertising. What do you think? If it just about data mining then what benefit is there to the contributor at all?

Quote from: chromaco on March 07, 2014, 13:34

Quote from: tickstock on March 07, 2014, 13:30

Quote from: Shelma1 on March 07, 2014, 13:28

I see a Vetta illustration embedded under point #4 in the article.

This one: http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/illustration/social-media-gathering-royalty-free-illustration/467771121?suri=1

The vector isn't available though, it's an image of a vector. 

It's pretty big though and wouldn't be that hard to autotrace. If I were motivated I could reproduce that image about 10 minutes. Kind of negates the whole need for the vector file at all. And on top of it people think it is OK because the image is free.

Getty did give unwatermarked comp images away before and is it difficult to use autotrace on watermarked images?

Perhaps... but I wouldn't even need to autotrace that image to recreate it. And now I am under the misinterpretation that it is OK because the image was free. Why should they care if I vectorize it? I mean its free right?

I'm a big fan of Toonvectors.com - 70% commission on $20 vectors can add up pretty quick.

This is one of the scariest announcements I can ever remember reading. And that includes the Google deal. As much as I dislike the whole IS environment I dislike the subscription model even more. Istock has just become DP with better content. Why would anyone contribute to IS when they can make more at SS? The only thing keeping SS somewhat in check was IS. Very soon SS will be 70,80,90% of peoples earnings? This could be a very, very big problem for anyone who would like to make anything at all off of their images. A SS monopoly would be a very scary thing and if people aren't particularly careful about what they choose to do in the next 24 months we could be in for a massive problem.

@chromaco i think you are much too much focused on personality clashes. Far too little focused on why some projects fail and others succeed. Exactly the same as the stupid personality driven arguments and protests about the stock agencies. But worse in some ways because nobody has moderated the thing or taken charge.

A project like this needs a development budget. And it needs developers. The people developing the project need direction - agreed strategies, common design policies etc. A plan.

Ask yourself whether as a business you would today commit to paying for services from the team behind Symbiostock so far. Where is the rest of the team? Who looks after versioning? Who speaks for the project ? What is the roadmap? How are decisions agreed? Who is in charge of communications, security etc?

This is all way more important surely than some forum argument. You've all had ages to start putting a team together and working on strategies.

ETA: sooner or later there will be a big issue and nobody on hand to fix it.

Perhaps, but the misconception that this was a business is the problem. That was never the plan. The plan was to build a large network of sites, say 1000. At that point individual coders (including Leo) could write add ons and plugins. The idea was to create the market and then ultimately serve that market. Yes I think a smart businessman would see the logic in this plan. Ultimately this plan is still working. As far as no-one being around to fix-it that is not an issue. The question is whether people will be willing to pay for something that used to be free.

Quote from: StockPhotosArt on February 26, 2014, 07:27

The vast majority of the criticism I saw was purely destructive, and in no way meant to help. It was based in slandering, lies and misinformation.

It makes no difference. There are always going to be disagreements. You cannot blame people with different opinions for you not doing a thing. You should treat all criticism as positive.

Look at other open source projects. If people are going to learn from this then they need to start defining their goals and sketching out a roadmap. Then you need to look at what issues need to be solved, how you can get people with the right skills involved, how much funding the thing needs and how you can raise that funding. Instead of blaming one or two people for falling out on a forum.

if the thing is serious then take it seriously. Pick up what Leo has started and make it into something. And don't hang on to anything you have so far including existing code - treat that as maybe the beta.

I agree with almost all of what you are saying here with a couple of exceptions. I am pleased that you realize that Symbiostock is a collection of individual sites. That seems to elude a lot of people. I grew up and was educated in a constructive criticism culture. It made me better and I fully understand its value. The problem here is you are mudding up the subject. What I am talking about is not constructive and the criticism was directed at an individual person, not the project. It is the equivalent of walking into a gallery, looking at a painting and then turning to the artist and saying "I don't like it, and you're fat!" The first part is OK the second part is not.

Leo is not Symbiostock. He was it's rocket fuel. About once a month he offered up some extremely useful piece of information or upgrade or the like. I am certain that a month from now a plug-in or some other useful thing would have appeared from him. My site works very well and will continue to do so for a long time. Nevertheless I am poorer and will make less sales because of his absence. Also indirectly you will be poorer too. Any method of contributors standing up together in a small way slows the abuse of the agencies. I know you know this, and perhaps your royalty rates will remain unchanged for a bit longer because of Symbiostock. Unfortunately probably not as long as they would have if Leo was still involved.

Congratulations Cathy, you managed to strike a massive blow for the micros. Not sure what your actual gripe was but you spoke loud and clear that you are OK with the mistreatment of the large micros and are avidly opposed to any sort of organization of the contributors. You have earned every thing IS,DP, and FT throw your way. You could have chosen to stay quietly upset or voiced your displeasure in private but you didn't. You can't kill this project but you did help kill its leader. Leo has moved on and everyone including yourself is poorer for it. You win, everyone else loses and if you can't see it I feel sorry for you.

I'll try to get my act together for next month and stop being such a slacker. 

Looks like Leo has started to address this over at symbiostock.org. Not much detail. I doubt it will be part of the theme though. Probably some sort of paid plugin.

Looks like you need to change your homepage style or adjust your widgets.
There are a lot of hints and much more helpful people than me at symbiostock.org.
That is a pretty good start there. Nice site so far. Not bad at all for one afternoon.
Good luck.