Really? Well, it's tanked for me. It's the worst month since January 2009, less than half the usual earnings. Perhaps you are the winner in a search shake-up lottery.

Same for me, it's depressing.

I just have to wonder how long this mess will go on before iStock implodes or falls apart completely. I can't understand how they've managed to stay in business this long! Getty is taking a serious gamble here. And I hate them.

Do they still have mass rejections and inconsistent  reviews (by that I mean one batch is mostly acceptance, another batch of similar images is mostly rejections). That was why I pulled my portfolio in the beginning, and there's no point in re-applying if if the review process hasn't been improved.

Im erasing over 1300 images over the weekend, so is another 5 to 8 Golds in Scandinavia, England and Germany. We will join up with IS.  Why??  well for starters, why set the bar at Emeralds? cheaper then Gold on the stock-market, also, you cant trust the game any more. FT, made that an infamnia, which means an impossibillity to remain.

We had time over for IS, given the fact they were the first ones, this however? no! no way, its upstart mentality.

As a fellow gold I feel the opposite is true - for me, at least. All this commission cutting has shown me just how risky it is to go exclusive with any agency. You can't trust any of them, least of all IS.

had enough of istock and its dictatorial approach.  i spotted the potential for this a long long time ago, but if you post anything even remotely negative on the forums someone kicks you in the teeth. the corporate graveyard is full of companies that stuck their fingers in the air and went 'blah, blah, blah'. you've got to listen to the stuff you don't like guys. perhaps even more so than the arse-licking.....  they are now banning complaints on the forum and want them to be sent as support tickets instead - so they can 'filter out the real issues'. but there's still a guy reading the complaints and deleting them?  has someone pushed the self-destruct button there?

+1

Thinkstock is an abomination that I hope and pray fails, and fails big time. If Thinkstock succeeds it will be yet another nail in the coffin of microstock. Do yourself and the microstock industry a big favor and delete all of your images from the site. If you continue to tolerate this type of treatment, you send Getty the message that it's OK, and things will just continue to get worse as time goes by.

Quote from: Perry on January 14, 2011, 11:39

Quote from: stockastic on January 11, 2011, 21:35

"And I must say, thank you to everyone for helping iStock with an exceptional year. With your hard work, we continue to meet and exceed our goals."

Has iStock asked you what your goals are? They didn't ask me, but still they say they know my goals (and that I have met and exceeded my goals even if I disagree).

My dream is that iStock would just suddenly vanish from the surface of earth. *POOF*

You know that's my dream too, exactly, even though IS is where I make the most money.    All IS is doing now is grinding this business into dust.  Please die, IS, so we can start over.

+1 (sigh)

Nothing changes for me, still a 15% drop. Woo Yay

I started uploading to them late in Sept. Considering the fact that it's a middle tier site, and I'm new, I'm very happy with my sales there. The fast review times and acceptance rate are great!

Maybe I've been listening to too many conspiracy theories lately, but I'm beginning to wonder if Getty actually wants iStock to fail.  I find it hard to believe that they're as incompetent and uncaring as they appear to be. Maybe part of their overall business strategy is to sink iStock, perhaps there are tax advantages in it for them. Who knows?

@ Lisa - At that time, he lived in New York State, and they had really bad winters - so he had snow tyres and chains and snow-spades and all sorts in the garage.  In the summer they used to bring out mesh panels they inserted outside the windows to keep the insects at bay while still allowing the windows to open... inwards.  I was stunned by the brilliance of that.  AFAIK, all windows in the UK (apart from sash windows) open outwards, so that's not even an option.  Of course he had air conditioning for the summer too.  I've yet to meet anyone in the UK who has air conditioning at home.

He took me to one of the US's huge outdoor wear shops, and everything seemed so incredibly practical and strong.  Not at all fashionable or stylish, just entirely practical - which is what you need in severe weather.  I wonder if we're a bit too style and fashion-conscious in this part of the world... and maybe practicality suffers as a result.  Having said that, there's more functional clothing available here now than then (in the early 90's), but I still think the US is better equipped.

I'm surprised to hear what you've said - but that's just because I forget how vastly different the climate is across the various States.  The UK is so small in comparison, it's easy to forget how large the North American land mass actually is.  LOL @ heaters when it's 60(F)  

@ Shady Sue - so glad to hear your sales have picked up too!  

I've lived in upstate New York my whole  life. Winters can be brutal here, especially with the volume of snow that accumulates. It's especially bad for us because we live near Lake Ontario, so we get tons of lake effect snow. I've had to shovel off the garage roof a few times, to keep it from collapsing under the weight of the snow. You keep shoveling and shoveling, then it reaches the point where there's just no place to put the %$#! snow! Winter lasts 5 months up here, and it gets very cold, too - lows can go down in the single digits (Fahrenheit). I've even seen it below 0, but that's rare.
Summer can be pretty extreme, too. Humidity gets very high sometimes, and we can get temperatures in the high 80's and 90's (Fahrenheit) during heat waves. Combine that with the high humidity and you feel like you're in the tropics. We have central air conditioning, a good furnace, a winter emergency kit in the car, storm windows, snow blower, ect, ect... Oh yeah and the highest property taxes in the US, too. Lucky us ;-)

I think the whole inspector/gatekeeper system is deeply flawed. As it is, we've got the 'pixel police' scrutinizing every pixel and rejecting otherwise strong images for the sake of insignificant flaws that most downloaders wouldn't even see, let alone care about. It doesn't matter how long you've been in microstock or how successful you are, or how much you've learned over the years - everyone, from the greenest newbie to the seasoned professional, all must pass through the same moribund inspection system. Often our best work rejected by tired, overworked inspectors who look at hundreds upon hundreds of images in the course of a week, forcing them to make snap judgments, while marginal content that probably shouldn't have uploaded in the first place gets accepted. This sort of thing happens constantly.

Why not use uploaded limits to filter incoming content instead? As it is, most of the micros, with the exception of iStock, allow everyone to upload huge amounts of imagery, which has necessitated the mass inspection system to begin with. If you are forced to adhere to strict upload limits you will naturally edit your uploads very carefully. Over the course of time, through the process of trail and error, you will learn what does and does not sell within your particular niche. Inspectors would still be needed for quality control, but their role would diminish gradually over time. In this way each individual contributor's learning and experience can be put to work, diversifying the collection and strengthening individual portfolios. Strict upload limits would force us each to be our own inspectors, instead of just uploading everything in the hope of growing a big fat portfolio as quickly as possible. I think this would be more likely to encourage the development of individual style, and help us move away from the endless copying and repetition that has plagued microstock from day one.

Quote from: cclapper on November 22, 2010, 17:24

Quote from: gostwyck on November 22, 2010, 16:55

Quote from: Chico on November 22, 2010, 16:02

It's just me or view and vote process via Stockys site is a pain experience?

I wouldn't have a clue. It is of no interest whatsoever. If it weren't for this place I would not be aware of it at all.

+1

+2

+3