I have to echo cidepix's comments.  I've been with godaddy for years and been nothing but happy.  I've never had any significant downtime and my  sites have always been plenty fast as far as I'm concerned.  My customer service experiences have been really good as well.

I would also be happy to use a referral link to godaddy if the existing couple of issues were sorted out and a link was made available.

Site: http://www.crackerclips.com
Host: godaddy
Results: Ongoing email problems with godaddy and symbiostock but biggest issue for me is that I can't get imagick to work.  The few images I've uploaded so far look dull, lifeless and unsaturated.  Been with godaddy for years and have always been happy but I'm considering moving the whole thing to Bluehost to make this work.  Reading through this thread tho it sounds like some people aren't very happy with Bluehost either.  So I'm kind of at a standstill for now.  Not sure what to do.

Hi Leo. I ran all the tests you requested.

With Symbiostock fully active
1. No return email
2. Contact form got a Fatal error: Call to undefined function symbiostock_change_image_sizes() in /home/content/93/5238093/html/wp-content/themes/symbiostock/inc/rf-custom-post-functions.php on line 410

3. With Symbiostock email plugin deactivated I was able to register and received an email with the customer password but trying to use the contact form gave me the same error as above.

4.  Changed to a different non-symbio theme and my contact form (Plugin "Contact Form 7") was back to working just fine.

Hope that helps.

Quote from: Leo on June 14, 2013, 07:39
Godaddy bug update -

Need more help read this article -

Please try the tips here and get back to me.

http://www.fastsecurecontactform.com/godaddy-email

Here is an update on the email issue for godaddy users.

Please carry out these tests - (I tried them and all negative)

1. Try to set up a user and see if it emails you.
2. Use your contact form to email yourself.
3. Deactivate the email plugin Symbiostock uses - then try the above (1 and 2).
4. Deactivate Symbiostock and activate a default theme and attempt to use *any* contact form (plugin) to email yourself.

For me every one failed on a godaddy test site. Please try and see if its the same for you.

My top request at this point would be for an extended license plugin.

Whenever I upload a group of images (as little as 10-15) I get a handful of error messages when I process them. The error is always exactly the same.

Warning: unpack() [function.unpack]: Type A: not enough input, need 1, have 0 in /home/content/93/5238093/html/wp-content/themes/symbiostock/inc/classes/PHP_JPEG_Metadata_Toolkit/IPTC.php on line 263

Whatever the message means, it doesn't seem to cause a problem with the uploads that I'm aware of as all of the images get processed.  According to the process page I'm using GD to process the images.  I've seen a little bit of discussion about "imagemagick" but I have no idea how to activate it.

Thanks Leo 

Hmm...this must be what I'm experiencing and just reported in a different thread.  I tried to buy an image for the first time and payment is made but the image stays in the cart with no way to download.  I can't recall deleting an image from the cart at any time.  I did, however, go as far in the process as to go to paypal but then I backed out of paypal before purchasing.  I then went back to the cart and went through the entire purchase process again this time completing the purchase but as I said before I am unable to download image.

I put a couple images up and tried a test purchase.  Everything went smoothly through paypal and I was sent back to the Customer License and File Management Area.  This page showed the image I purchased was still in the cart along with a message that read "Items still in your cart, and not in your download area? Wait a few seconds and refresh the page. Sometimes paypal takes a few minutes to notify us. If you still have problems, please contact us."

I tried refreshing for about twenty minuets but nothing ever changed.  I finally logged out and back in again and the only thing that has changed is the message is gone.  The image I purchased is still shown as being in my cart.  Can't figure anyway to download.

I also didn't receive a customer thank you email.  I received two emails from Paypal one was a customer receipt and one was a notification of sale.  Anyone have any ideas?

Ah so it does work sometimes.  I've only tried uploading one image in both jpeg and png formats and only the png shows up on the image detail page.

As a side note Tinny, I'm having second thoughts about offering a png in addition to a jpeg with clipping path as the png images don't hold IPTC data.  If someone buys the jpeg version, clips out the background and saves as a png the IPTC data is still gone but at least I'm not sending it out the door that way.

Bryan

Quote from: Leo on June 10, 2013, 05:32
I sort of like the idea of getting away from terminologies/ideas involving the word "free"

You've got a point there Leo.  I'd also kind of like to get away from the use forever idea.  Give users a good long time frame, maybe 5 years but not forever.  I also think this would be a good way for each of us to limit our liability a bit if we ever ran afoul of any IP rights.  By limiting image use to 5, 7 or even 10 years versus "forever" we would be able to ultimately remove an image from the market thereby limiting potential damages.

Congrats on the license!

Pond5 doesn't report sales in real time.  There usually seems to be a day or two delay on reporting which I think tends to eliminate refunds for things like someone downloading the wrong clip, etc.  In many years I've never had a refund from Pond5.  Pond5's one of the good guys.  Enjoy your sale!

Love the Fair Trade idea!  First thought tho is how would one go about communicating the license length?  A fair trade image could be either RF or RM.  Maybe refer to it as Fair Trade RF or Fair Trade RM?  This would keep the benefit of the the well known terms RF and RM (as well as any seo benefits related to those terms).  After all, fair trade coffee is still "coffee" but by adding the "Fair Trade" designation it further distinguishes and defines it.

Bryan

In my author options area I've set the default for both model and property releases to "N/A" but when I upload an image the info for that image says "Yes" for both model and property release.

Quote from: Ron on June 07, 2013, 19:33
What about new work? That work is submitted at the same time to all agencies as my own work? So the indexing happens at the same time. Would it be better to submit work to my own site first and then to the agencies?

Hi Ron - That's exactly what I plan to do.  New work will get submitted to our site first.  I'll experiment a bit to see how long to let it age (and hopefully get indexed) before uploading to other agencies.  My understanding is that the earliest date the image was indexed holds some weight as well as the size of the image itself (bigger is better).  Our symbiostock sites have larger previews than most agencies which is good for ranking (of course using a strong watermark for some protection is advisable).

Bryan

Cool Cascoly.... I like the way you laid out the collection!  That'll be something to think about once I've got everything else sorted out.

I was hoping to offer both the jpegs and pngs at all sizes and let the customer decide but it's looking like the png becomes the dominant file. If that's the case I guess I'll just upload the jpeg with clipping paths.  I certainly don't want to upload both file types as separate products.

Bryan

Hey Tinny,

I haven't gotten as far as figuring out the ftp quite yet.  I uploaded a single image through the wordpress admin area and as you say all sizes show as only png @72dpi.  Not sure what to do at this point?  Not even sure what's supposed to happen?

Bryan

So my understanding from the message below is that I can upload a .jpg and a .png with the same filename and they get combined into one product.  Which is awesome!

But I've just uploaded my first image that way.

myfile.jpg
myfile.png

I search for the image and when I get to the image detail page all files are listed as png only.  No mention of jpeg file.  I must be doing something wrong?  Can anybody help me along?

Thanks!

Quote from: Leo on March 20, 2013, 19:56
Well, I can't tell you how happy I am to see continued interest and threads popping up now and then.

Depending on what your host gives you for folder management (or what you can do through FTP) you can upload to a folder that you create. Then, when Symbiostock is installed you can transfer all those files over.

FYI - Important - Symbiostock follows typical naming rules (my-file.eps, my-file.jpg) but with a few extras:

myfile.eps
myfile.zip
myfile.jpg
myfile.png

= one file set which will be considered one royalty free product. All of them are renamed to the product id like...

8564.eps
8564.zip
8564.jpg
8564.png

PNG generates a transparency preview btw.

Zip can contain any sort of files you want, opening the door for other product types to be sold under your RF product. So for instance you may wish to sell a 3d model as a supporting option, the same as you sell an eps. Since you can set unique prices on each product it works out great.

I think I have to agree with the other posters here that required registration will be a hindrance for image sales for multiple reasons.

Here's one:

I'm working on setting up our site and I just registered myself for the first time.  I got an admin email almost instantly letting me know that someone registered but it's been over half an hour and I still don't have the customer email letting me know I registered.  As a buyer if I was ready to open my wallet but had to wait for an email that didn't come pretty darn near instantly chances are I would have lost interest by now.

Great, thank you Tinny!

Hey all,

I've been busy working all day on the set up of our symbiostock site and I've run into a question that is probably pretty basic but I haven't been able to figure out yet.  Right now I'm working on the Auto Return feature for Paypal and don't know what Return URL I should use?  What page should I be pointing back to? I see a "Thank you for registering" page but not seeing any kind of a "Thank you for purchasing" page.

Thanks for your help!

Bryan

Quote from: cascoly on May 26, 2013, 04:41
an existing WP site wont change the fact that you'll still need to re-create everything using sym, since it needs to know about all your images, etc -- that's why it isn't feasible to use it with smugmug, pshelter, et all.  I have a smugmug site and added a separate (but mutually linked) sym site

Hi Cascoly,

I understand I can't bring over an existing collection of images already on the web. I don't currently really have any photos on my site (primarily video) so I'll need to get crackin uploading images once I've got everything set up.  My main reasoning for converting my current site is that I don't want to lose the google love, backlinks, traffic, etc that's taken years to get built up

By the way, down the line it would be great if symbiostock could accommodate video too!

Best,
Bryan

Thanks Leo for the additional info.  As for the network....heck yeah, that's the most brilliant part!  I haven't concentrated too much on selling from my own site in the past because as a bit of a generalist I can't be all things to all people but once it builds out a bit the network will solve that for me.  If I don't have it, someone in my network will!

Hey Laurent thanks for the welcome!  I've actually been a macro stills shooter for many years.  While most of my micro experience has been in video, I do have a couple hundred still images in micro.  As license fees fall, I'm finding my RPI in macro has become pretty close to the RPI I'm getting from my small collection in micro.  I find myself wondering what would happen if I put some of my best newer work in micro but with more agencies putting the squeeze on contributors I've been reluctant to try.  Symbiostock has the right idea. Photographers working together cooperatively for the overall good while still maintaining their unique competitive advantages and individuality. 

One more thing about license fees.  It's a fact that license fees have fallen dramatically over the last several years. I don't like it but I can live with it if I'm retaining the bulk of the fee   Symbiostock meets that need.

I'm sure I will have a few more questions as I get started.  Thanks in advance for the help!

Best,
Bryan

Hi everyone,

I've been quietly watching symbiostock progress for the last several weeks and I think its time for me to seriously consider getting on board. Before I go any further I'd like to offer a huge thanks to Leo for really taking the ball and running with it.  I'm amazed at what you've been able to accomplish in such a short time!  Thank you Leo!  Karma should be very good to you

I currently have a wordpress site (http://www.crackerclips.com) hosted with Godaddy that I'd like to convert to a symbiostock site. I've seen bluehost mentioned several times as a preferred host but want to know if anyone is using godaddy successfully?  I would prefer not to have to move the whole thing for various reasons.  I've been happy with GD but if there is a big reason to change I will have to consider it.

Has anyone else converted an existing wordpress.org site to a symbiostock site as opposed to setting one up from scratch?  Any issues I should be aware of?

Thanks,
Bryan