Quote from: rene on June 29, 2010, 19:13

Yuri has uploaded 3 images this month. The war is over?

Were they similar?   

Now it's official, Yuri is uploading to DT. And yes, they are similar. Yuri seems to be a winner of this conflict. Upload's rules were changed and series are accepted again.
Yuri 2:0 Achilles 

If there is no 100% royalty day this year I'll opt-out promotional use.

Yuri has uploaded 3 images this month. The war is over?

Yep, same problem. And it seems not be the only one.
Dont't know if there is a relation but my sales are down.

.

Agree

I only anticipate deletion from Fotolia because I head about problems with their affiliates - so I delete my portfolio form FT almost one month before others. Then once I deleted my last images from DT and removed all my portfolio from SS with one click ( THANK YOU SHUTTERStOCK ) I have immediately applied for exclusivity. No problems even if many thumbnails were still present.

I think that rather new DT is born. DT is an old site which has never been very successful for professional photographers - just compare numbers of 20 best exclusives (and non-exclusives) at DT vs IS. Very difficult to live only with DT earnings.
Achilles probably understood that he cannot compete on purely professional basis. So new DT is hobbyists-community-cheerleader site where positive attitude makes everybody feel good. Everybody can feel like an artist and it's well known that usually artist are poor. 

@Digital66
What made you think there is currently such a benefit for exclusives ?
"Exclusivity brings more attention to your portfolio and makes the most out of all that traffic."-iStock exclusivity page
@cclapper
Have you increased your uploads substantially during that time?
I've almost stopped uploading for few months
@PaulieWalnuts
So did you actually check file placement to see if there was any before/after difference? Or are you just assuming there was no best match change because your downloads didn't increase?
Both.
I've checked few files (without noting the exact position). Few of my photos were on the first page and they are still there. The files which were in the middle of best match are still in the middle of 200 pages. Maybe some change from page 120 to 118 but for me it's not a real progress.
@gostwyck
The 20% increase in overall earnings sounds very worthwhile anyway. Does that also include the effect of the Exc+ prices?
Yes. Everything included (EL is in average 60$ now). BTW I didn't see negative impact when I put my few best sellers (yellow flame) in E+ bin
@cclapper
That is what I have always thought and I think it's bad business that exclusives get rewarded just because they are exclusive, not because their files are any better. Which to me seems so totally ridiculous because Getty makes more profit on independent best-selling photos than they do mediocre-selling exclusive photos.
Agree, but exclusive best-selling photos should be before independents. And mediocre independents photos should be after mediocre exclusive ;-)
@Whitechild
Rene, at least you don't have to deal with many agencies.
If Im exclusive at IS its not because I'm fan. It's because I couldn't stand others ;-). I'm only regretting SS which is a fair and honest site.
You just have to work with IS, and you can focus on your portfolio to make it perfect looking with lightboxes and other nice things.
This is one of best thing. I��m no more wasting my time reading "Fifi�'s" threads. Seriously, I think that I was spending half an hour per day checking numbers, participating to forums on others sites. It meens 3.5 hours/week + 1h for uploading =4.5h/week x 46 weeks (52 - vacations)= 207hours/year. Almost one work month!
BTW, IS standard uploading system sucks but Deepmeta is great. Uploading is even easier than on other sites.
@jsnover
I don't know how long you've been building a portfolio on IS, but I've seen lots of oldies but goodies resurfacing in the last best match jiggle.
Over 3 years
[/i]People with newer portfolios seemed to be overly represented in the group who were hit negatively by the best match changes.[/i]
You are right, I checked my downloads and oldies seem do better than my new files (even if they are better quality IMO).

In conclusion even if, for instance, Im glad from this decision Im a little disappointing. More money is ok but I thought that without my portfolio FT and DT will go out of business. But they are still there�� And when I see my constant number of downloads not many of  my fans followed me. My ego suffers ;-)

Is DT dying?

No, in fact they seem to be growing (according to Alexa.com):


Are you receiving a smaller share?

Probably!

Free images hunters traffic. That's the reason why DT says that giving free images is "good" for contributors. BS.

Quote from: rene on April 15, 2010, 03:33

Andresr is still uploading but I think he is not very concentrated on this task. Take a look on titles and keywords of his last images (especially the reading man)

Hey Rene, thanks for pointing out. I just fixed some will fix the others later because there were too many mistakes. It was in the actual uploads the mistake rather than the embedded keywords ..... one uploader less at the company and  thanks to your remark as I found tons of mistakes everywhere made by him.

You are lucky, I was tempted by 0.02$ prime but I was in a good mood. 
Funny that after all this "flagging campaign" DT's reviewers still don't do their work correctly.

Andresr is still uploading but I think he is not very concentrated on this task. Take a look on titles and keywords of his last images (especially the reading man)

Wow, 3 ways to go. Thank you guys!