Quote from: Shelma1 on June 04, 2014, 09:30

...If you want to encourage folks to upload to and support other sites, why not start a thread about it?

I have, and those threads generally don't go anywhere because as a community, we are pretty terrible at getting behind anything in a positive way. We're really good at pointing out everything that's wrong with an agency, which is exactly what happens when anyone tries to get people to rally behind 1 or 2 good companies. Everyone has some problem with any company suggested. Or people get all pissy because they got rejected by that company. Or in the case of the company I'd recommend (see previous post) people can't let go of the past and will shun a good company out of spite.

I'd love to start another thread about this. But I'm not sure that we're at a place yet where enough people can put their egos aside and have a real discussion about what's good for us collectively. Those threads always devolve into more complaining and bickering.

Quote from: Desintegrator on June 04, 2014, 09:09

...Also to do the thing you described we need to contact buyers, which for many of us seems to be way more hopeless than finding other contributors. Basicly that's way we are using agencies. I have really now idea who are the people who actually buy stock images, where to find them, where to contact them. That kind of an invisible world for me. Of course it can e different for some of you.
But i' seeing much better chance to find contributors to inform than to find buyers.

That's understandable. We're contributors so the contributor world is more accessible to us. Buyers, maybe not so much.

If contributors are who someone has access to, then by all means, contact contributors. But maybe instead of just asking them to opt out of DPC, also mention a good company you recommend. I'd have to assume that if so many contributors aren't aware of DPC (probably contributors who don't participate in this forum, read contributor blogs, etc) then they might also not know about some of the good lesser-known companies available to them. I think we could see just as much positive change for a good company as we've seen in negative change for DPC, adding more images to a good agency and giving them more to work with, more to sell, more to offer their customers.

Thanks for the great answer. But then who are the people who typically purchase an RM? What are they looking for, it has to be more than just being forced to buy an RM because the image subject was not available on RF

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Quote from: ethan on June 01, 2014, 08:52

Quote from: gbalex on May 31, 2014, 11:42

It is nice to see that the sedate boiled frogs are starting to wake up enough to jump out of the pot.

We can now engage in conversations that will benefit our collective good. The me mentality will be the death of us, if we fail to address it.

Instead of fighting it is time to come together to discuss our long term welfare in this greed driven business model.

Could not agree more.

The inevitable split between the collective of Stock/Commission photographers (Full time making a living) versus hobbyists that do it for pocket money is becoming more apparent. The latter group essentially have nothing to loose, they just go back to their day jobs when all RF images are free on the internet.

I'm not sure where you're coming from. I think it's the opposite. I'm on track to make more than $20,000 this year from stock. While that's not a full-time salary, it's not pocket change either. It's enough for me to care about what happens to it, which is why I've made the decisions I have. "Boycotting" Fotolia would have cost me a decent chunk of that money, while hobbyists who do make pocket change can afford to delete whatever they want.

Quote from: Shelma1 on May 30, 2014, 10:53

We have joined together and made a difference. Fotolia offered an opt out only after we did that. I see the glass as half full here. For maybe the first time, a very large group of people from all corners of the world joined together to take action against a microstock agency. If there's a next time, we know joining together will work. And since we have this success under our belts, we can probably reach even more people next time. We've shown that we have some power. We're not alone, and we're not too small to make a difference.

I agree. Let me add:

What is holding us back to prevent these huge screw-ups from happening in the future by informing the agencies now where our limits are?

Is it delusional to look for a constructive dialogue with the agencies, ideally on an ongoing basis to keep such dramatic events to a minimum?

What would even be the interest or benefit for any agency to stay stubborn and quiet, risking a huge outrage if they can prevent it from happening in the first place?

As I am an employee of Dreamstime, I can confirm that stockmarketer is not.

You keep talking about the deal, let me clarify that: there is no deal. Yet.

There will be some tests for a possible, future deal. The success of this deal pretty much depends on your enrollment in the tests, cause, like Rinderart said, you guys own everything. If you want the deal to be successful and earn more in the near future, you should opt in for the tests. I think it's a fair agreement: you provide the content (which costed money to produce), Dreamstime provides human and technical resources (which costs money), know how and the ability to do business with big companies, for free, during the tests. All for a possibility to earn more, both from your perspective and ours.

We all want to earn more, but that doesn't come that easy. You must be able to give something in order to get something back. It's pretty much what we're all doing (I'm also a contributor) from the first step into a stock agency: we upload our images without knowing if we'll ever going to sell anything. The agency has the same risk: it provides the human and technical resources without knowing if there will be a positive return in the end.

Businesswise, if Dreamstime wanted to make a shady deal, you wouldn't have been asked in the first place, just like the other recent happenings in other places. We don't have such a record and we're not interested in getting any. Fair and square, a small group out of 184,000 contributors have been invited to participate. You can either participate or opt out. It's your choice, but bear in mind that participating means higher chances for getting the deal done and earning more in the future. Dreamstime has always been about the community. If you want to earn more as much as we do, join the tests and let's make it happen for both sides of this business.