Looks like they removed some of the negative posts from their forum - in particular, a recent thread where several people said they'd stopped uploading because their new images were getting no views.   

I'd like to get into vectors, and I think I could do some that would sell, but I know zero about the techniques in use today.  I don't even know what applications people are using to create the vectors I see.  Of course many are obviously 3D renderings requiring a major software investment.  But where are the 2D things coming from? Photoshop?  Excuse my ignorance - I'm strictly a photographic guy. 

Like many people, I got accepted at IS and then found they rejected the same photos that got me approved in the first place      A bit mind-boggling at first.  I did their tedious keywording on a batch of my images, and all but a few were rejected.  Review took 2 weeks, an appeal took a month.  I was trying to get going in microstock and IS was just too slow and tedious.  I let the handfull of survivors sit there for a few months, they each got 20-40 views but no sales. 

Meanwhile SS took 90% of what I submitted and gave me lots of sub sales, which at least is teaching me what catches buyers eyes. 

So by 'attitude' I don't mean anything personal, just all the hoops they want you to jump through, plus the extremely long review times.  And the *-up on the forums, and the hokey blogs.  But at some point I'll give IS another try. 

I've been doing this for a few months, small portfolio,  but have made 10 times more on SS than on DT.    Almost all the sales on SS have been subs, but at least it maintains my interest. 

I've been hearing that over time SS goes down and DT takes off, but after 4 months I haven't seen any hint of that. If anything it's going the other way.  I recently had several "well covered subject" rejections at DT and haven't had a sale since - my ranking may have gone down as a result.   Those guys are mean.

As others have made clear, success at these sites varies with the type of photos you do.  For me, only SS and Fotolia have been worthwhile.  StockXpert is currently dead for new images and DT just hasn't done anything for me.  I don't do IS at this point - I don't like the attitude they project.

The more I learn about these microstocks, the more I think the smart thing to do would be to immediately remove all my photos from all of them, and wait for something better to come along. 

The tiny amount of money I'm making from these subscription sales has no importance except as a diversion.  And I'm getting increasingly uncomfortable with these people having my full size image files.  None of them seem likely to be bound by any agreement they've supposedly made, none of them actually give a rat's @ss about contributors, they think we're just pathetic nerds with DSLRs. All are likely to fold or be sold at some point, and what happens to the images then would be anyone's guess.

New images aren't getting any views and this has to mean the search and ranking algorithms have been fiddled with.  I guess if you just wanted to discourage new submissions to StockXpert and start herding everyone to IS, this would be a rather smooth way to do it.  It leaves submitters feeling that IS is "better"  instead of being angry about the way Getty simply bought out the competition. 

When a big corporation has cash, there can be enormous pressure to spend it on acquisitions, even if they don't quite make sense.   The people making the big deals often aren't the same ones who are supposed to follow up and make things work out.  At the start there's endless talk of "synergy", "a perfect fit", "we intend to invest" etc., and then most of the time it fizzles out. The important people in the acquired company leave, others are cut for lack of direction, the big deal-makers move on to other interests - and eventually it's folded.   Seen it all from the inside. Happy to see this one turn out differently, of course.

Featurepics looks interesting.  Thanks to this forum I am still learning what's already out there. 

What's "LCV"?

Like FlemishDreams says, I really don't need some middleman telling me what images they think they like.   I just need a way for buyers to find my images, and be assured that the full-size image doesn't have problems not visible in a small online view.

CutCaster is already close to what I want - they accepted 100% of what I gave them.   I hope CC takes off.

This is an important issue and I hope it continues to be a hot topic on this forum. At some point better ways to sell our images are going to come along and we'll be wanting to pull our portfolios from these microstocks and escape . of 25 cent subscription sales.  I want to be sure I can do that when the time comes.  Everyone who's found it difficult to delete or disable their photos on a stock site, please post. I'm taking names.

Actually I think I do need review, myself.  But that's not really my point.  Let's say the web itself improves to the point where sites can advertise their content in a consistent, searchable way (if you're techinically minded, this is what the
"Semantic Web" concept - now being developed by the W3C - is all about). In that not-too-distant future a buyer could use a web search engine (like Google) directly to search for something like "image, stock, photograpic, color, vintage telephone" and get meaningful results instead of the cr@p that would turn up today.  They'd get hundreds of thumbnails from you, me, and many other photographers, available for direct purchase at our own sites or 3rd-party image hosts.   But looking at all these thumbnails, a buyer needs to know which are actually quality images.  Without that knowledge they're reliant on a microstock middleman; they can't spend time figuring it out by trial and error.

I want to run my own restaurant, but no one will come in unless they know it's approved by the health inspector.

batman, good point - the real  problem is that I live in the US where 25 cents means nothing...

Milinz, thanks for the tip. And there is also CutCaster, where I'm already uploading. These sites are in fact already very close to what I'm talking about.  But will they survive, without charging some small amount for review?