Yup.  Getting 503's here, too.  Nothing on their Twitter feed.  Hopefully the cleaners didn't unplug something. 

Quote from: ShadySue on July 10, 2013, 01:46
Given that they are resolutely refusing to give new images any 'time in the sun', it could be that they're trying to get many images which won't sell and they're going to demote them to Main, or even force them into the PP, even for exclusives, if they get their connector working again, so that they can then advertise the large size of these lower cost offereings.
I'm sure there is some malice aforethought in the 'raising upload numbers almost infinitely', 'reducing acceptance standards'  and 'new files being suppressed' combination. Though as I've said before, what they actually come up with has always been worse than what I thought they might be about to do.

That may very well be.  We can sit here and speculate to our heart's content on whether they're planning on dumping lower quality images into a new value collection, trying to surpass Flickr in the number of images, or trying to swell the portfolio to appear a better value to a different asset management entity.

Sometimes the decisions their corporate masters make really make me wonder which side of Hanlon's Razor they are on.

Just stirring the pot a bit...

I seem to recall a few years ago StockXpert went though a time where they'd really relaxed the inspections.  Not as much as what IS has done recently, but enough that they were taking some of my dogs that other agencies were (rightly) rejecting.  Then it was announced that they were being ingested into the istock/Getty world and all sorts of fun and frivolity ensued.  The conspiracy theorist in me (ha!) wonders if something is afoot.     

Not sure how many model railroaders are here, but if you do wind up buying those, just remember that the HO scale ones are larger than the N scale ones.  And sometimes the quality of the paint job on pre-painted ones is a little bit off.  Some come unpainted, which means more work.  I've been known to do a little bit of N-scale train modeling, and those little tiny figures can be tricky to get painted correctly.

Not just a nice idea, but a really useful feature.  I can't tell you how many times I've misspelled a keyword or part of an image description.

Put me down as supporting a metadata spell checker for LR! 

My what?  What is this "DL" thing of which you speak?    

I can sum it up in one word:  "Lousy."

Quote from: madelaide on September 11, 2010, 03:06

Quote from: Freedom on September 11, 2010, 02:43
Unfortunately for FT, most of us still make more money at IS than FT, even when we were independent.

Actually IS and FT go well together for me.  Last year FT was 5% ahead of IS, this year IS is 4% ahead of FT.

Back when I was independent, I could take my total FT earnings and multiply by 3 and it would still be less than IS.  Pity they didn't count subscription DLs as a full DL, but as a 1/4 DL.  Do they still do that?  Does it still take 4 sub DLs to equal 1 normal FT download?

That all sounds well and good, but seriously, what chances would a close-to-silver IS exclusive (just over 2100 DL) have of getting similar placement on FT without having to go back through the ranks of the unwashed masses?

Exactly.  I'll give you a minute to wipe off your screen...sorry for the mess.

it made me feel like holding hands and singing kumbaya, while making me realize that I don't need money to pay for bills and other things...  Hey, why does this kool-aid have a funky aftertaste??  

You left out one...Exclusive maintaining 25% into the foreseeable future (and beyond!)

I suspect that they might redact some of the really bad parts, but still keep it essentially intact.  My suspicion goes along the lines of how my youngest son requests dessert: "cookies, ice cream with toppings and a brownie"  "No!"  "well, how about the ice cream with toppings?"

Sometimes drives just die.  I've had a WD Raptor die after a few years, yet other ones that are still running fine after 5+ years.  I've also seen drives fail within a few days, and others (I'm thinking specifically about a drive in my kids' computer) that are quite old (and I've been surprised that a drive with a 1 year warranty would still be kicking after 8+ years).  There's an old DG server in our data center at work that's from 1993, and it's 4G SCSI boot drive is still just ticking along.  Keep them cool, give them good power, don't kick them around, and don't flick the power switch on-off-on-off-on-off and they'll stick around for a while. 

Quote from: jsnover on July 21, 2010, 17:41
There's a thread here if you'd like to join in the congratulations. Great job Lisa - couldn't happen to a nicer person

+100     

I used to see that when I was with 123... I think their web team is just moving things around, and the toolbar is having a hard time trying to find what your balance is.  I did have some swings of over $100, so $21 isn't too bad

Quote from: Talanis on May 27, 2010, 01:04
Quick question Freedom. Where did you find alll the Fotolia affiliates? I closed FT last week after erasing all my images. I'm just waiting on a couple of sales for payout at 123RF and my photos are locked until June 24th at DT but I deleted almost all of them. I'm keeping SS open until the end. So hopefully, on June 24th, I'll delete all I have left at DT, click the little box to opt out of SS and I should have deleted my 123RF files at the beginning of june. All the other sites are now closed or the photos are deleted since a week or two.

Do you think I missed anything?

It can take a couple of days for the "opt-out" thing to fully kick in on SS.  For FT affiliates, Google and Google Images.  Search on your name and the account ID that you use on FT...some places can have them under both.  Pixmac had me in there twice...once under my name and once under the ID was using for either FT or DT.  ImageTrail managed to keep picking stuff up from somewhere, and I had to send a couple of emails to them to get my images removed.

Quote from: Digital66 on May 29, 2010, 04:32
Thanks again cuppacoffee.  Then I'll have to contact Dreamstime.  I disabled my images a couple of days ago, but the thumbnails are still there.  

Just make sure you don't re-enable them by mistake...Their six month hold on the image will kick back in.  I seem to recall that it took a couple of days for the thumbnails of my images to no longer show up in searches.  The key is that they aren't available for sales.

Be sure to also check out imagetrail.  And also make sure to check Google Images as well.  I found a couple of sites that had my images that I needed to get taken care of before taking the plunge.

Quote from: ap on May 18, 2010, 21:27
so, in effect, is has replaced all 13 agencies with 100% growth (in may), increasing from $5 to $10/day? well done!

A little over $10 a day, but yes.  E+ XXXL sales sure do help. 

I've been exclusive on iStock since March 12 of this year--just over two months.  In that time, March turned out to be my BME on IS.  April trounced March, but then again April is usually a good month.  This month is shaping up okay dollar wise, but a little low download wise.

I'm not one of the major players with a huge spectacular portfolio.  Before I went exclusive, my daily average sales was a little over $5 per day across all 13 agencies I contributed to.  Since going exclusive, my daily average sales has increased just about 50%, and so far in May, it's been almost 100%.  I realized that this is only two months of info, and with an April.  It will be interesting to see how this fluctuates over the summer and fall.

My daily downloads have also increased.  I'm not getting daily double digit sales..in fact it's the rare day where I make 10 or more sales.  But I am seeing a greater number of downloads, with April being the largest number of downloads I've had since joining IS in January 2008.

I've also gotta add this...you still have to deal with the changes that the agency makes with regards to searching, and new features (Vetta, E+).  The nice thing is there's only one agency to deal with, rather than being anxious about the latest change at FT, or the decrease in sales at SS, or the increase of sub sales at DT, or when sales will start to happen at the smaller agencies.  So far it's been a much less stormy ride than I thought.  I hope to still hold this opinion after Summer/Autumn and next Christmas.

Quote from: Freedom on April 15, 2010, 21:23Basically, PantherMedia will hijack my images for 7 months after the notice was given. It should be the worst and longest holding period in the industry as far as I am aware of.

Hearing this makes me soooo glad I never even opened an account with them...

More congratulations, here!  I was very surprised and quite happy for you when I saw that they announced your name. 

What Sean said   I wanted to be able to open the .cr2 files my 5d2 produces.

I wasn't a burger flipper--I was a taco maker in 1984 for $3.35 an hour.

Maybe I'm just being dense, but I can't find the link there to convert earnings to credits anymore   

Oh my!  I don't believe it!  I just got an email from PayPal saying that Crestock sent me money!  Woo Hoo!

Hopefully take care of many on their list.

I borrowed an old INUTOS 3 from our graphics guy at my day job when I had some large shoots to edit.  It took a little bit to get used to, but wow, did it help with getting things done quickly.  I've been telling myself for a long time that I'm going to get a tablet one of these days.