Otherwise, a buyer comes and looks and say, "this is junk" and will never come back.

The problem is, how do you define "junk"

I have seen images in galleries that I thought "junk" that sold for more than my life's income.

We ( people on this site) have been trained to produce "stock style" images, because that is what the Micro-stores sell.

Is that what all buyers want? I don't know. Maybe Symbiostock buyers will be people looking for images and image styles that the Micro Stores reject.

I think the idea of setting up a niche site will have more traction in the Network.... but this is what I think, and until we have a year or two to work with this beast we won't know. A site just of cut veggies on white may be worth doing....

I have been specifically thinking of putting my site in a second circle... and maybe even a third circle.

With Symbiostock it is so easy to set up multiple sites that my long term goal is to have several, and since the search works so well across many sites I think this could be a great thing to do.

Just off the top of my head I can think of:

Travelstock.glennspecht.com
Ecuadorimages.glennspecht.com
Beachphotos.glennspecht.com
Rainforestimages.glennspecht.com

Will this help or hinder me...don't know...I plan to find out... maybe.

Since it is so easy to set-up sites I think the entire site should be rated, and exclusion be possible.


Something I have also been thinking about is a way to exclude unwanted sites from the network as well.... basically a voted off the network system.

Simple rules:
.... you have to be on the network for 6 months before you have a vote.
..... you have to achieve 25 negative votes before being removed.
..... negative votes can be removed by the person who gave it.

Banishment would be for spam, unrated, or not properly rated content, or anything that disrupts the flow of searches and commerce across the network.

I think the number need has to be high, you have to piss a large number of oldtimers off to get banished.

I assume the SY site generates the image size as part of the download process.

Could we put in a metadata field of Fairuse expiry date?

Whether you like it or not, social media has taken over the world, and I'm sure it's here to stay, and will become more and more important in our lives.  Many sites, including photography competition sites, are designed around using social media for publicity, advertising, and even voting.  It's the way it is.  Enjoy!

Yes, we have become Digital Share Croppers... we provide the content and the hard work, and they get the profit.... we are all digital serfs

Ron.... make sure you let us know about your blog post when it is up... the more linking we do between blogs the higher our "google juice" is...

http://cascoly.com/symbio/symbiostock-network.asp now does searches on both keywords and images

Is this tool for the public or just for Search engines?  When I type in Ecuador I expected to get a lot of my images, which I did, but most were repeated 2 or 3 times.  Is this to be expected?

Glenn

Are you talking to me with your "sarcasim" ?

No if I was talking to an individual with my post ( and bad spelling  ) I would have quoted the passage such as I did here.

But if you think it applies to you, do you have a response? 

I just wanted to get people to think about "rewarding" our friends ( people who are helping photographers making a living) and pointing out the errors in thinking to those who may be damaging our income.

and i see that you have made these comments in the reply section of the blog.... [/sarcasim]

posting here, you are preaching to the choir.... polite posts in replies to blogs may help educate more people.

Someone told me that unless I'm on top of this constantly, it will fizzle and die. Yet I see that time is going by and that is not happening...but its not self-developing either which is crucial. It would be very unhealthy for SY's life to be completely dependent on 1, 2, or 3 people.

I think this person is very smart.  Projects like this need a leader(s), someone with purpose, passion and understanding to be at the helm.

Your work on this project has been steller but I see it all coming apart because there is no-one to lead or control where we are going.  Symbiostock is now a captainless ship.

Like it or not, unless a Leo V2 is found, and brought up to speed this wil be an interesting experiment that will likely fade away.  I wish I knew a person(s) who could take on the position... but alas I don't.

Glenn

I am a little confused - are you using an iStock MR Release or Shutter MR? Make sure you use their model or property releases. I know that several MS Companies want you to use their releases including Shutter and iStock.

If you check deep in the bowels of the web sites of most sites they list which releases they accept.  All that I have looked at will accept IS and SS releases.

90% of my models are Dutch, I have submitted all releases in English, should they be in Dutch?

From what I understand, Legally a contract ( which what a model release is) is not valid if one of the people signing does not understand what they are signing.  If your dutch models can show that they do not read or understand english then they could sue you, and the people that use your images.

Disclaimer:  I am not a lawyer, have never played one on TV so this advice is worth what most internet advice is worth(less)

Yes SS accepts ( and has) releases in many languages. It also says they accept releases based on iStock releases.  The release would not be valid if it was in english since my models are spanish speakers.

I am starting to think the problem may be my handwriting....