Quote from: Pauws99 on March 19, 2020, 11:39

Quote from: Justanotherphotographer on March 19, 2020, 10:30

You can ignore the confirmed cases numbers because the UK has also pretty much not been testing compared to lot of other countries. Another thing the WHO was pleading with them to do more of.

Testing regimes vary widely so I think its probably an unreliable statistic for comparison. Its probably something that can't keep pace while the cases are accelerating. Its accepted in the UK that only those that have potentialy serious effects are being tested. If we have mild indications we are just told to self isolate.

Good points both. China just said "no new cases reported" Which the last word is most important. Plus what both of you pointed out, if someone isn't tested, they aren't confirmed. Self Quarantine in home if you suspect you have the virus, is a good plan, but none of those are counted.

Please folks, stop blaming, accusing, and debating politics, and stick to the virus COVID-19 problem?

Or maybe blame the cause, which seems to be ignored and some are defending, poor sanitary conditions, open markets with animal slaughtering. We can't call this the Wuhan virus, because we're all being politically correct? Yet, there's a never ending attack on just about any leaders or people in power, now "capitalism". LOL

COVID-19 came from China (a Communist country by the way), wet market, where they slaughter live animals in public. And now people are calling for Trump, Putin, Boris and others to fall because of that? Some are blaming humans for being on the planet, global warming, and the vegetarians even more the uppity self-righteous Vegans who blame anyone who eats meat. I read how God is punishing us, how this is a plot, blaming the East, The West or someone else, depending on where the person lives or their political leanings.

What I'm asking it this. Can we stop the endless, useless, politics and blame? COVID-19 is here. Attacking others, other countries, or leaders isn't doing anything but create division and anger, when we need to be more together. Blame or hate is not a cure for anything.

All good points, Pete.

However, there is a problem when the world is calling it the "Corona" virus and well-known politicians, insist on changing its name to the "Chinese" virus, going even against their own speechwriters, just to score political points. That's not right. It does nothing but pouring gas on the fire.

Quote from: Zero Talent on March 08, 2020, 15:13

I just came back from my accountant.
For those interested, please be informed that she filed that nearly $500 refund under Schedule C, Part I,  line 2: Returns and allowances.

That is possibly the correct thing to do, I just wish that we were notified that we would have to do it this way beforehand by Adobe. Now, a lot of people who filed may have to do amendments.

I'm with you.
Some sort of acknowledgment from Adobe/Mat would be nice.

Yes, mine is about $30 out (on $5777). I don't recall what the refunds actually were last year, so I can't check that. Where do they appear in the Adobe reports?

Steve

Select "Activity", then February 15, 2019 and "Daily"

On the right, at the bottom of your sales list, you will see the refunds in red. Manually add them and you will see that their total is matching extacly the difference between your 1099 and your yearly 2019 stats obtained by selecting "Earnings", any date between 2018 - 2020, and "Yearly".

Quote from: Zero Talent on February 28, 2020, 13:01

Quote from: Bad Robot on February 28, 2020, 12:51

Quote from: Zero Talent on February 28, 2020, 12:20

Quote from: Bad Robot on February 28, 2020, 12:01

Quote from: Zero Talent on February 28, 2020, 11:45

Quote from: Bad Robot on February 28, 2020, 11:13

These companies enable undemocratic governments by their collusion and silence.

They will care about the status of democracy elsewhere if their customers care. So far, I doubt that too many SS customers care about how SS is doing business with China.
First and foremost, customers want lower prices and probably good quality for that price.
Very few are ready to pay more for the sake of a principle.  As long as customers are not ready to change their attitude, why is someone expecting a private company to act differently?

IG Farben's customers didn't want to change their attitude either and IG Farben were happy to use the "cheap" labour.

Neither did Union Carbide at Bopal, Monsanto and Agent Orange,

Or for that matter Exxon Shipping Company and the Exxon Valdez, BP and the Deepwater Horizon, Ford and the Edsel, Tobacco companies? and so on....

So I guess in your world thats just fine:

Not sure I see the connection. What do you propose? Do you want SS to stop doing business with China?

Before you ask a private entity to follow a principle, just stop and think: are you applying the same principle to your personal life?
How many products made in China do you own? You might be wearing one at this very moment.

But I know: talk is cheap and putting one's money where one's mouth is, is a principle very seldom applied in practice.

Yes I do actually and Nestle to boot and in a previous job I also refused to push work to China contrary to the group think in Wisconsin HQ which fell over themselves to take work from local companies to the Chinese for a few lousy bucks.

I dislike any dealings with the Chinese system and would not support them or their current bullying of South East Asia in the China Sea as well as their appalling conduct over Tibet.

So go suck eggs 

I understand that. You dislike only when others do business with China.
When it comes to you, the human Bad Robot, you don't dislike those dealings anymore.
Because you forgot to answer: did you count how many Chinese made products you have on you or around your house in this very moment?

As I said: talk is cheap. 

I can't argue with such poor logic I think I made it quite clear in my statement above. 

But if it pleases you I don't have to check as I look for where something is made before I make the purchase.

Obviously!
The origin is not important as long as the price is right and the quality is OK. But don't feel bad about it. What's valid for you, is also valid for me, as well for a very large majority of consumers.
Only rich people can afford the luxury to boycott a brand and pay for more expensive and often inferior alternatives, in the name of a principle.

The conclusion is simple and logical: as long as you don't ask Walmart & Co to stop doing deals with China that are advantageous to you personally, you can't ask SS to stop doing deals with China that are advantageous to them and their customers (including US customers).

Quote from: Zero Talent on February 28, 2020, 11:45

Quote from: Bad Robot on February 28, 2020, 11:13

These companies enable undemocratic governments by their collusion and silence.

They will care about the status of democracy elsewhere if their customers care. So far, I doubt that too many SS customers care about how SS is doing business with China.
First and foremost, customers want lower prices and probably good quality for that price.
Very few are ready to pay more for the sake of a principle.  As long as customers are not ready to change their attitude, why is someone expecting a private company to act differently?

IG Farben's customers didn't want to change their attitude either and IG Farben were happy to use the "cheap" labour.

Neither did Union Carbide at Bopal, Monsanto and Agent Orange,

Or for that matter Exxon Shipping Company and the Exxon Valdez, BP and the Deepwater Horizon, Ford and the Edsel, Tobacco companies? and so on....

So I guess in your world thats just fine:

Not sure I see the connection. What do you propose? Do you want SS to stop doing business with China?

Before you ask a private entity to follow a principle, just stop and think: are you applying the same principle to your personal life?
How many products made in China do you own? You might be wearing one at this very moment.

But I know: talk is cheap and putting one's money where one's mouth is, is a principle very seldom applied in practice.

The Yen is mightier than the pen.

"Shutterstock�s road to China began around 2014, when the company struck a deal with the Chinese social network ZCool Network Technology to exclusively distribute Shutterstock images. It was a foothold in a potentially huge market, and Shutterstock invested $15 million in ZCool in 2018."

Exclusive?

Additional: Getty Images... also distributes material in China through a local partner company, VCG. A search of VCG for �Taiwan flag� produces zero results. Adobe Stock... is available in China, and a search on its site in China by NBC News also found zero results for �Taiwan flag.�

"Shutterstock regularly receives take down notices from more than 20 countries, not including requests related to intellectual property, spokeswoman Hughes said. The countries are primarily in Europe, Australia, North America and some in South America and the company addresses hundreds or sometimes thousands of requests a year."

Pavlovsky �... employees have a lot of opportunities to work here, to work elsewhere, and we are very supportive when employees do not feel that this is the right place for them, to pursue other opportunities.� I think he's as transparent and honest as any of them asked for.

Pavlovski is right. A private company is not a democracy.
Besides, the first amendment is preventing Congress from restricting the freedom of speech, not private companies.

It looks like I'm among the "lucky" ones. I'm already close to the Feb 2019 total, in other words, on track for the best February ever.

Microstock is already being dominated by contributors from low standard countries. Look up any word in search and you'll mostly find Russia, Ukraine, India, Thailand, etc...  up top.
If these people are satisfied with the peanuts they get and their work still has high quality and commercial value then both the agency and the contributor will be satisfied.

BUT there is one big downside to this. If they continue to thrive on these contributors they will get stuck with the same type of work. If they lose too many contributors from northern/western Europe and most importantly the US they will lack a lot of good and unique content, maybe even the best because sad to say but the copycats, spammers and thieves also seem to come from these low standard countries.

I've also noticed lately that a lot of contributors, again mostly from low standard countries sell their clips for 25 bucks on P5. They can sell low because 300 or 500 bucks a month gets them a long way and they also eliminate the competition, or so they think anyway.
What they don't understand is that by doing this they also contribute the most to the downfall of this market eliminating themselves. With these low prices FREE is closer then ever so eventually they won't be able to survive in this market either.

I think that you should find a better word than "low standard countries" especially when you are also saying that their quality and commercial value standards are high.

One plausible theory is that some reviewers might have less powerful PCs or video cards unable to fluently render 4K.

  I just purchased some higher ND filters to shoot long exposures with the MAP2.  That will be a real test of the drone's stability using the gimbal.

Long exposure? The longest exposure I could achieve without motion blur was 1/4s.
That's fantastic, but it doesn't qualify as long exposure, in my opinion.

I am always amazed how little some people know about the agencies they submit to...

500px does NOT have their own market anymore! They ONLY sell via VCG (in China) and Getty (outside China).

Actually this is not true. Yesterday, among that stream of pennies, there were a few of these 500px Entreprise sales.


Anyway, a far cry from what 500px use to be a couple of years ago.

Here is an active forum specialized in macro photography:

https://www.photomacrography.net/forum/