Thank you,

We have a local office in Hong Kong, but no offices in Japan. Also please note that we've made this campaign REALLY official, we wrote in a proposal to the Hong Kong Red Cross and sought their opinions and secured their approval (we have a letter too) before kick starting anything. What with a lot of people creating scams that say they are going to donate etc. to a certain cause but that proceeds never get to the proper aid channels. We just want to do things credibly and properly.

Hope that answers your query?

Thank you!

Alex.

Perhaps get the Devs who developed the software to do a check? Sometimes variables haven't been passed gracefully to our scripts?

Alex

@dirkr Yes, we will work towards providing more transparency. Hence, the survey

Best regards,

Alex.

Hey folks!

A Happy New Year to everyone and speaking of the new year, we would like to start off the year with new and exciting ideas plus ways to improve the overall performance of 123RF.com

So, we would like you, yes....you, our dear contributors to share with us on your thoughts and opinions on how we can improve 123RF.com's affiliate programs.

Here's the link to the survey and this would just take a couple of minutes or so for you to complete it. A couple of minutes of your time would certainly make a big difference in things to come.

Survey link : http://bit.ly/i27PlS

Go ahead and have your say...because we really love to hear from all our contributors!

Additionally, we have altered our Contributor's Agreement to cover Distribution activities and Account Termination effects more comprehensively. We urge you to visit the updated agreement here http://www.123rf.com/submit/agreement.php.

Thank you for your participation and stay tuned for more exciting ideas and announcements coming your way soon!

Best Regards,
123RF.com

There have been cases that completely fall into very gray areas as well.

For example, many photographers seem to think that fair use means "as long as I take this image in a public place, it's OK.", or when a building is built, maintained and paid for by taxpayers' money, so it doesn't require an Property Release.

We'll, we have had several authorities coming to us, claiming that a certain site, building, etc. is within their trust and hence, want to sue etc. etc. During that time, who will bear the responsibility and brunt of any legal action?

So do have a thought before you write to us and telling us that such and such a place doesn't require an MR. Have you checked? It's YOUR responsibility.....

Alex.

Hi All,

Free images ==> You get 0, nothing, not a single CENT from any download.
Free credits given to Prospective clients ==> You get $0.20 / credit downloaded.

Give away according to http://www.thefreedictionary.com/giveaway

give�a�way  (gv-w)
n. Informal
...
2. Something given away at no charge, especially a premium.
...

Fact: 123RF.com gaveaway credits for clients to test drive the site as part of our marketing campaigns. Similar to test driving a car before you decide to buy - if you like it, buy it! Similar logic applies. Mind you that these downloads are being paid for at $0.20 per credit downloaded it comes out from our A&P - why would we want to give this money to another less effective 3rd party when we can keep the money in the community? It's good for the community, you get some money for downloads that you wouldn't normally get when people are not test driving the site.

We do not force contributors to giveaway any downloads for FREE. We also do not insult you by asking, "Your image has not landed a sale since 1 year ago, would you consider giving it away for free?"

No - We do not have any feature to opt out from this "giveaway" because it really isn't a giveaway.

P/S - I don't spin anything, everything that I have told you, has been truthful, honest and transparent.  I was hoping that the community would be more appreciative?

Oh yes, and thank you!

Alex.

Hi All,

I shall explain pricing.

The scenario :
Our cheapest package = $15 for 15 credits.
Price per credit = $1 / credit
50% share to you = $0.50 / credit

If customer purchases an S size image from you, you'll get $0.50. Clear?
If the customer purchases an XXL image from you (5 credits), you'll get 5 x $0.50 = $2.50 for that image downloaded.

Of course, we have discounts, loyal customers, customer who want a big discount as they've been with us for a very long time, so we then discount them for bulk purchases. Nevertheless, we will go through the same calculations and contributors will get 50% of the effective credit price.

So where does the $0.20/credit come from? These credits come from our PROMOTIONAL ACTIVITIES such as the case of giving away CREDITS to prospective clients whom we think require a bit of a test drive on the 123RF system before they make their first purchase. A demo if you like, we give these out at our discretion. The client DID NOT PAY for these credits, it's given to them courtesy of 123RF.com.

Therefore, seeing as 123RF is giving away these credits, it comes out from our Advertising and Promotions Budget and there is a cost attached to it - 20 cents per credit given away.  I do hope you'll see this a bonus from your business partner 123RF as the prospective client did not pay for them in the first place.

As I have maintained many times before, 123RF Limited is running a business, we are not here to give away to charity nor as some have eloquently put it - "screw" our contributors.

Thank you for maintaining your objectivity on this matter. If there are any questions, you can always email us : [email protected]

P/S - Forums were closed because we decided to shift to Facebook. They have excellent searchable threads there.

Alex

There will be some 'allowances' of course for the 8MP limit!

As for the reviewers, do email: [email protected].

Thank you!

Alex
for 123RF.com

Hi All,

The new FTP server has some rules:

1. Maximum uploaded quota is 4GB - we found that people have been using our old ftp server as another backup site, *smack* very naughty. To upload more, process your pending images to free up more quota!
2.  We intend to have scheduled cleanups - after 1 month, items that have been uploaded will be DELETED WITHOUT NOTICE if they are left unprocessed.
3. You can upload Editorial content into the Editorial folder. You can then access the Editorial FTP processing tool to get all your uploaded images into the Editorial pending queue for review (super fast times here). You may process the editorial images directly here: http://submit.123rf.com/ftpresults_ed.php
4. It supports bandwidth throttling, but we're not throttling for now.

Thank you very much.

P/S - We're concerned about overall performance for now. Do let me know if there are instabilities, like sudden disconnections, unable to resume uploads, stuff like that! And oh, you may not be the ONLY PERSON uploading at any one time last I checked we have about 30,000 contributors?

Thanks!

Alex.

Dear 123RF.com Contributors,

Kindly note that we're migrating to a new FTP server this entire weekend. As a result, we will not be enabling any FTP processing or uploads. The system is scheduled to be installed and running on Monday, June 14, 2010.

We regret if this has caused you any inconvenience. We should have a more responsive, spacious and stable FTP server to suit your uploading requirements soon.

Thanks for your kind understanding!

Alex
for 123RF.com

Hi Contributors,

I'm trying to reach out to our Russian contributors, can those of you who are well versed in Russian help me review some translations, kindly email me at [email protected]. I'll send you an Excel file for reviewing.

I'll be very grateful for your help!

Alex.
for 123RF.com

Hi Borg,

We will pay you in the middle (13,14,15,16,17) of the following month when you reach your minimum payout for the month before.

Alex
for 123RF.com

Hello All,

I read some of the responses yesterday right before I went to bed and was tempted to draft out a reply but after re-reading my draft, I found it to highly personal in nature and would prove to be highly embarrassing if I were to post it.  After sleeping on it I believe I'm in the right frame of mind to write my response in a more logical light.

Let's consider the scenarios:

Scenario 1:
Customer purchases 5 credit version from us. They employ their own 3rd party agency for the enlargement, for which they'll be charged at around the same price.

Your earnings: Max $2.50
Our earnings: Max $2.50
How much did you earn from the enlargement process: $0.00

Scenario 2:
Customer A purchases 5 credit version from us. They employ their own 3rd party agency for the enlargement, for which they'll be charged at around the same price. Customer B purchases the SAME image, also goes and employs the same 3rd party agency for the enlargement...

Your earnings: 2 x Max $2.50
Our earnings: 2 x Max $2.50
How much did you earn from the enlargement process: $0.00

Question: Do you think Customer B will get the enlargement for FREE when the same agency has done the enlargement before?

Scenario 3
Agency purchases your image on behalf of a client, creates an entire ad campaign for the client, edits the image a little and puts in some copy.

Your earnings: Max $2.50
Our earnings: Max $2.50

Question: Can you ask for all 3 parties (Agency, Contributor - You and 123RF) to share the earnings to be split in 1/3 shares?

Scenario 4
I purchase some anti-virus, say AVG. I go over to my client's place, and clean up their PC and perform an installation of AVG. I later billed the client, with the cost of AVG purchase built into my invoice.

Question: Can Grisoft request for 1/2 of what I earn with their Anti-virus?

Scenario 5
A plumber purchases a stop-cog and goes to a client's place to replace a faulty stop-cog. He charges whatever he wishes to charge at a level that the customer can accept.

Question: Is the plumber then, obligated to share his earnings with the stop-cog manufacturer apart from the price of the stop-cog itself?

Coming back, I hope this puts things into a clearer picture for everyone. Please stop looking at 13.3% as being unfair because under a free economy, ANYONE can add on value to your product and charge 100% for that service and leave you out of the loop entirely. I believe with 13.3% we have been equitable as we have built in asset management, infrastructure, bandwidth and a market place for which these transactions can take place.

As for the questions that Thomas has posed:

1. How much is 123RF making, the answer is simple:
We make 25% - 13.3% = 11.7% from the transaction. Why we come up with 13.3% for you and be happy with a smaller cut? Because it's easier for us to calculate earnings and we do treat you as equal business partners.

2. Why should an image get charged again and again for the same blow up.
Because it's easier that way to view it as a request on the client's behalf. At the moment, these downloads are very sporadic, we receive at most 3 per day, and 1 per day on average. The likelihood of another enlargement occurring on the exact same image, at the same size is remote. Therefore, for the sake of simplicity we simplified things further in this manner.

3. We have (wrongly apparently) thought that we have done everyone a great favor by introducing this as no matter how we cut things, everyone seems to benefit, hence, opting out, was not built in. I would like to ask you this question now: If you'd like to opt out, kindly let me know and we will try to build an opt out mechanism for those who wish to opt out. I am sure that some of you here are programmers and don't like to have lots and lots of if...then....elses.

Now for the question "Why does 123RF seem to think this is a piece of GOOD NEWS?"
Wise men say, "13.3% of something is always better than 100% (or 50% or 33.3%) of N-O-T-H-I-N-G!" We'd honestly thought that our share of 11.7% is good, because we got nothing previously, and your share of 13.3% is a little better than ours. So everyone should 'technically' be happier!

Thank you, if you have any further questions, do let me know.

Alex
for 123RF.com