Ok, well teach me how to walk oh wise one

rofl, that's funny GP !

It 's all about MISINFORMATION, really.
I read even in consumer product magazines where some established writer actually mentions , "royalty free" means download for free. This was an article on films, etc.. which of course, if you were the average reader, you would also take it from this "expert" that IS,SS,etc.. "royalty free" images are free to use.
Secondly, there are many people who are seeing the world as one safe place to open the windows to let anyone in. Unfortunately, this leads some to realise the world is not that safe.
Example being, one of my oldest contact on flickr, had some of the most impressive photos . She uploaded them in full size . That was until she found one of those images of her adopted sister being used by a porn site. When I found that out, I instantly emailed her to tell her she should stop uploading full size to her flickr.She did better, she blocked everyone except her family . Still, it was a lesson too late.
Thirdly, we all know that facebook ,flickr,etc... can use your images "if they choose to". So I warn my friends about this. Yet, they still upload all their images
on their facebook for all the world to see. Everything , including the most revealing and some even embarassing shots.

So, really. Why do they do it, even after being warned ?
It 's much like the same for smokers. We all think it'll only be the other fella
who will get cancer, not us. Same mentality goes for putting all those large images of high res on the web.  That being said, not many of these people know how to use Photoshop,etc. So they upload the full size image that came from their camera. Lots of people with more money to buy those expensive cameras, you know? That's why none of them are microstockers. They don't need the money

It all comes down to the marketplace (no pun intended). Like the real stock market, when the chips are down and the choices are less, there is really no other way to go  but forward and a lot more optimism.
Veer , as everyone has already kept mentioning until it's so known , except to the most dullest minds, is not the same as Yay. Veer already has a following in the other side of the stock business. So, really, it's not quite Yay, or those other newbies that no one care to mention.
My port was "invited" to be transferred from SV. I was not one of those in the grand queque of the grand opening traffic jam. In fact, I am still waiting till the crowd dies down and the glitches are fixed before using my password to give Veer the permission to port my portfolio from SV.
Am I happy about being selected? You bet your booties I am !
Am I incredulous about all this after all that happened with Yay,SV,etc..?
No, that's the name of the game. You really cannot fortell who is going to be the new winner. In fact, you really cannot even foretell which of the Big 6 will be the new loser either.
So, instead of wasting my time worrying, I just upload to a handful of performing sites .In my case, Dreamstime, Fotolia, being my surething, and Veer being my hopeful darkhorse.  And one of these will be where I will be going exclusive in 2010, hopefully... as by then, it will be my 2nd year in microstock.

I think I'm just going to be patient and let them work out all the bugs before I bother trying to upload or do anything.

Same here, got my password and invite email , but I'll wait . It's only growing pains, and once the glitches have been smoothened, I'm sure all will be fine... soon.

Quote from: MagtheHag on June 10, 2009, 08:15

FYI I shoot with a Nikon D-300 and top quality Nikon lenses. Problem is, I don't shoot one dimensional brick walls at F/32 like you.

If you think f/32 gives you the sharpest images, then you are definitely on wrong track...
Maybe you have problems because you have a crop sensor camera, or you're exposing wrong or you don't shoot raw?

I'd very much like to see your rejected images at full size (or at least crops)

In agreement with Perry, the sweet spot is not the smallest aperture.

If you are here to make Alamy look bad, already you see that you are all alone .
OTOH, if you came here to get some info and helpful suggestion from Alamy contributors, you would do well to show us the images so we can give you a hand to get your images accepted.
My first guess is that your images are not sharp enough, as that is about the only thing Alamy rejects . Or you're not spotting images , or having some fringe problem,etc..

Once again, as Perry asked, are you shooting RAW?
 

If you researched this you'll probably find 99% of the contributors don't have any problem with them.

Sometimes things don't go together, maybe your photos and Alamy is an example of this.

I see all of MagtheHag's 4 posts here are ranting about alamy.  Perhaps there should be an obsessed ranting newbies section for this sort of thing?

The only thing about Alamy is that sales are not often coming by. But being a trouble site? That's the last thing I would call Alamy. If I had a penny for every angry contributor for Alamy, I would still be very very poor indeed.

As an aside - wow!  We haven't sent out official communication on today's news yet, let alone account details or log-in information for those transferred from SnapVillage. You all are motivated - I'm impressed! 

- Brian

phew, thank goodness. After reading some of the comments here, I thought you forgot to send me my invitation email with the password. But as Perry pointed out, "it's still June 8".
Impatience . So I'll open another can of Guinness and wait patiently, lol...

The only sure thing is to do what you have not done before. I think the barrage of rejections and increase of more dissatisfaction among contributors tell us that the sites are looking for new ideas. Not surprising, as the leaner they get, the meaner they are. Either that or more reviewers are reaching menopause , both male and female ones to be political correct, lol.
In the end, I think the best advice is , "just submit and hell with it. don't even look to see what gets approved, just shoot and submit". No point in trying to worry if it's chemical imbalance or just reviewers having a bad time at home the night before, lol.

Quote from: Perseus on June 05, 2009, 12:22

FT is my most recent site, and I am very happy with it as I am selling better than all the others I have been for much much longer time. But the ranking confuses me.
For example:
this is what I had a couple of weeks ago after getting my first EL:
27200 8320
and then a couple of days ago after getting a tiny sale :
26200 5789
and this is where I am a day later:
26300 8120

do you really jump 3K up in one week and then fall 3K down the next?

I am not complaining as I have been rising in either ranking since I started.
But I wonder how the ranking works. Is it based on dls + approvals? or just dls?

I think the ranking works according to the credits you earned. So an EL in this ranking areas can make quite a difference.

Yes, that makes sense, as no doubt the 3k jump is due to the Ext Lic. Cheers Freezingpictures.

I don't think it is any coincidence at all.  They don't want this to be discussed.  There were memorial protests in Hong Kong and that is enough.

Hey maybe it's the Chinese government jamming up MSG for publishing this . That's why MSG's been having problem these past few days.

All day I've been getting problem coming here.

Weeeee..... made it in first try. 2 of the shots I thought would be knocked out for being soft. Guess not. I am in the club now....lol.

Alamy QC you only on the first shot of the batch. This being the bona fide assumption that you submit only your best shots to Alamy, so they don't need to check on you for each and every image you submit.
That being said, if you knowingly upload a soft image or not up to par, you only cheat yourself as no one will buy it.
Congrats and welcome to the Alamy team

Amazing, is this what it's coming down to? Now we see that stacey newman has deleted her account. She cannot speak out without being gang-busted .
Is this mob mentality or what?