Hehe... 

Greg/Professor, a bumpy year for the photographers, do you think even IS exclusives ?

I do remember that the reduction was to temporarily relieve the approvers' loads of work...  that what was written anyway, but I didn't buy it when this upload penalty restriction only applied to non-exclusives.

And yes, it seems obvious that the big fish Getty is in the process of swallowing IS, encouraging their microstock exclusives to be full-time 'real pros', trying to flatter their egos in order to keep them.

Of course Phil Date is a pro, and it is obvious that IS don't treat photographers like him with the respect they deserve.

Now I wonder, we already know that there is no consideration for the non-exclusives.  But who will gain or lose from these swift Getty/IS policy changes:

- the company ? (they hope anyway)
- the exclusive photographers ?
- the designers ?

...or, was the decision so inconsiderate or out of touch that the exclusive and the designers will shop for more freshness, diversity, quality, and respect somewhere else, and that in the long run Getty/IS is creating its own doom ?

Yes, but no surprise at all.  Some of my pictures from Nov.4 are still waiting...   It is a one-student university test-project at this point who does the reviews when he has time, and the goal number (which was set at 10,000)  has been reached.  We'll see how it goes...

Follow-up: I tried to login today, and the yearly secure data transmission expired December 2nd, they didn't renew their subscription... yet.  So I didn't approve the login, just in case.  What do you think?

I am in the process of 'cleaning' my portfolios, and withdraw some of my earlier pictures before they get downloaded - yes, I prefer that  .  In the SS Q&A I found this:

"Can I remove a photo I submitted?
Yes. Any photo you submit can be removed by you at any time. Removal is immediate and not reversible."

But no explanation for how to do it.

I went to the 'Edit Photo ID' on the 'Status of submitted photos' page.  I only found options to change the title/description, keywords, categories, and the watermark, but couldn't find an option for deleting the picture itself.

Can you help me find the page I missed ?  Thanks!

About using only the istock releases:  For my part, I decide to ask my models to sign four releases because the SS release require the ID card on the release so the model understand better why I ask for it; Istock because they require their own; Dreamstime because they have it in French !!!!!  and  the last one is a general one. -  I send it in advance to my models so they have all the time they need to read and/or find someone to translate / explain them what that mean exactly. And they have time to go visit all those sites and decide if they agree to have their face there!  :-)

Again, if you create your own model release, you can use it for every site, by integrating what is needed, and take out or change what bothers you.  DT will accept the English version, they have 9 MR available in their online resources.  IS don't require their own, they accept my own without any problem.  Also, I wouldn't bother to ask the models to agree for the sites you are uploading.  What if you want to add a new site?  You should do what you please in the limits of the contract once you have the MR.  Make it more simple for your models, and for you.

Bonjour Lana!
You can feel free to prepare your own model release, and if the terms are standard, you can use it for all the stock sites.  If your MR is not limited to one model session, a few sites have the option to store it in the event more pictures of this model are uploaded, very handy.  Don't forget that some sites, like SS, changed their policy a few months ago and now require 3 different signatures:  model, photographer and witness.

This thread makes me laugh, some people would do anything to find some weird excuses in order to hide the facts.  Oh wait!  since it's supposed to be a team of 6, expect to get 4 more newcomers with creative new names to add to this novel 

Kosmik..., from my own experience, CS is far from being a top site.  Here are in order of revenues, the ones worth uploading for me:  SS, IS, FL, DT, BS, SX, 123RF.  CS comes after that...  Ant to keep the numbers in perspective, SS sells 10 times more than DT !

Congratulations Wael !
Now we are both waiting for our 3rd, I hope that it will come very soon 

You are an old-timer, Tyler, SS probably changed their policy recently 

F@ntastic!
And not even a toddler!  Soon Leaf you'll crawl everywhere....
I really enjoy this site, very friendly and a good reference source.

No specific review time average, some batches can be grouped together.  I almost waited for a month for some September batches, because they were attracting quite a lot of new photographers, me included (I waited a few months to see if the site was not only stabilizing but getting some strength and some positive review feedbacks, which it did).  So they were quick to train some new approvers, and now the review time is quite good.  The reviews are signed, and the personal feedbacks are very helpful.
Here are the waiting dates for my last reviews:
23, 26, 27, 28 Oct ---> reviewed 31 Oct
4 Nov ---> reviewed 4 Nov
10 Nov ---> reviewed 14 Nov
16 Nov ---> pending, but I don't expect it to be for more than a few days.
Hope this helps.

Ruben, thanks for posting here.  Since your intentions are to re-actualize the site, I wouldn't mind having my portfolio up again.  Would it be easy from your side to retrieve the pictures I deleted on Sept.5, or are they completely erased ?