This part varies, depending on when you uploaded a photo:

"Contributors are required to keep at least seventy (70%) percent of their portfolio online with Dreamstime.com for a period of at least six (6) months. You may disable all files older than six months from the date of review at any time. You will be allowed to disable a total of thirty (30%) percent of your total Media submitted within the past six (6) months. Media that was disabled and then enabled again will be counted as new submissions, no matter of their original upload date."

You must leave 70% of anything uploaded within the last six months. Then it repeats you can disable 30%.

You go and disable everything over six months, then 30% of anything new. I hope that makes sense?

When I closed my account, the disabled files were still there for quite some time, but NO they don't keep selling disabled files, they just have them in case someone downloaded and you haven't received credit, or if a buyer was planning on downloading. That way the files aren't there one day and vanished the next. I suspect it's about reliability and consistency.

If you noticed you can disable a file and then enable it again. Could be for change of mind or maybe you disabled a file while negotiating some other sale?

Anyway, once I had disabled everything and waited, they sent a final payment, I don't remember but I think that was 30 days after disabling all files.

This is amusing, people have changed keywords and titles to close my account. https://www.dreamstime.com/stock-photography-no-one-image15980522

But here's your answer to the second part: https://www.dreamstime.com/faq2030-how-can-i-delete-my-account

Accounts can be deleted only if you have no activity registered (uploads, downloads, comments,blogs etc). To delete your account, please go to your My Account / Edit profile and scroll down for the Delete account button. Note: the button is visible and can be used only for accounts that fulfill the conditions mentioned above.

Close Your Account here in your profile:

https://www.dreamstime.com/profile then edit profile and from what I saw, there's nothing to close the account? So it must only be visible when you have no files, or I just wrote all this for nothing... 

That's what I thought you meant and I still don't see the link. They usually put a link on the dashboard page when they are ready.

No notice no link.

CMS is able to sell an exclusive image, meaning - it can sell an image one time, then it is removed after a buyer purchased it. I also like the design better than Ktools'.

In Ktools demo, I could not find it, I sent a message asking them for confirmation.

Good point. I don't sell anything exclusive, but on my own, you mean someone could set a much higher price and have exclusive use? Does it have a time limit, or do you mean lifetime exclusive. That's pretty long. Even my RM sales have a date range. It's not like someone can buy an image and be the only ones with the right to use it, forever?

There is another, I'm not using it but I did for tool sales, the free demo worked very well, notifications, inventory and flexibility. I still don't understand if it can handle digital downloads, like photos?  https://www.webasyst.com/store/app/shop/ Too expensive unless it's a fantastic interface and works better than anything else in the world.

And while searching I found this, Open eShop that takes cards, paypal or bitcoin.  https://open-eshop.com/

Just adding some other ideas to the mix.

All of the above, that looks at the poll has been pretty accurate. I'm not going to pick each one or quibble.

Yes it is roughly 20% of the actual numbers that people have reported. No one made that up and no one is dreaming. 

True there are ranges, but up or down rounding should even out. It's unnecessary to have every exact dollar amount.

The reason Leaf gave for not using actual numbers was just the part that some people will complain about. It's not meant to be what you will earn, or dollars, it's representative of people who took the pole.

People take the poll on a voluntary basis, some months I might, others I might not. True people could lie, but they can on any poll, anywhere.

I have nearly 5,000 files on SS and many fewer on AdobeStock, a couple thousand on Alamy or iStock. Many less on DT. Without all the details, SS and Alamy take Editorial, Adobe takes some of my illustrations that SS doesn't. I'm an audio exclusive on iStock/Getty. My only video at this point is on SS. The same can be true for anyone else, including someone with a very big, strong, model released collection that isn't on iStock at all.

For the same reasoning it's also relative, which is what we should be looking at. Roughly, people might expect to make 10 times more on SS than DT. Assuming that same person has all the same files on DT as SS?

Here's something from way in the past and I remember it from back when we could see earnings on IS. The poll represent the upper 5% of all people in Microstock. When Leaf does the annual pole you will see similar results. When we could see how many photos artists had, the same was true. Some people who take the poll are capped because the poll doesn't allow them to put in their full amount. That's an effort to smooth the results I'm pretty sure. You can't enter higher than $2,500+ as the top. I know a couple of people who make more than that some months on SS.

The cap also holds down some IS exclusives, I'd guess.

Notice the number of people at some of the agencies is nearly identical. We don't know if that's the same people, but it's logical that it is. SS, IS Adobe, 123RF, and DT are in one group. Alamy, DP, BS, CS are the second similar size group of results. Not sure if I should have included Alamy, they are different. And Pond5 is more likely to be video contributors.

All the rest don't have the 50 votes needed to show in the poll, but are ranked in order of earnings. You can't get in ClipartOf, Stocksy is a high end closed shop, Canva dropped many people, self hosted is what it is. Mostphotos ranks higher than Deposit, but only has 25 votes. Worth a look or is there someone who has a huge collection there making big numbers, moving the average way up?

A more complicated poll, and this is not in any way a complaint, would yield more interesting results. For example, simple but something someone could use, just as this one, for evaluation. How many photos do you have on agency 1, how much did you make last moth from agency 1, what is your RPD on agency 1. Now we'd see something based on numbers. But say person A is like me, and I do a shoot and upload 3-5 best photos, person B uploads 80 from his project of sliced vegetables isolated on white, person c has models and sets and uploads 80 individual shots, with four changes of cloths and background changes.

We all do not have the same interests, shots, materials, numbers or styles. Some are video only some are photo only, some people make vector illustrations primarily and some do all of the above. Oh yes at there's audio. Between that, the number of files, the agencies we choose and all kinds of other variables, the simple poll tells us a simple answer without over complicated attempts to over analyze what we will make.

Back to what I think the poll represents, relative potential of each agency, compared to each other agency. Nothing more. Not how much you can expect to earn, because we have no way of knowing who's taking the poll or if they are the same at all of the agencies, or their materials are the same at all. And don't forget that years ago, the numbers showed that the iStock members were the top 5% of the earners on IS.

You might see that as some really good and dedicated artists are here, on the forum and they take the poll. We don't know who or what, but the numbers are just a guide, not something that says "you will make this".

I have to say, the background on WENN and Kodak Coin is interesting. The licensing of names isn't anything new. Anyone remember when Bell and Howell was a trusted name, cameras and audio. I think most of their products now are made by people who license the trademark. There are other brands that do that, old radio and electronic companies. Peavy guitar? Made by someone in Indonesia or China who licensed the name.

The Kodak mining devices are a lease, pay up front, 50/50 sharing. Not that interesting.

Trademark licensing isn't that unusual. But following the chain of the links that people provided, there's little of Kodak in any of this, except the name. I suspect all the blue hairs who buy this stock because it's "Kodak" might be getting a big surprise. Or maybe some of the products will catch hold, like the licensing? I don't know.

I don't see any changes either way with any of these versions of the popular sort over the year. At least nothing that I can positively attribute to sort change. Without the change my sales go up and down and when there's a change they still go up and down. 

When I start seeing sold for first time, it makes me wonder if it's the sort, but when the numbers of sales stay the same, I figure it's just different needs from different buyers. Best is last month I had the same image, first time sold, get a sub and then an OD the same day. I guessed the buyer wanted a cheap sample or tested various items and bought mine for the actual project.

I hate to drag this thread back to the OPs post but it's not my best month, or worst, (same for the year I'm pretty sure) but neither was anything good to brag about either. My numbers run about the same as the poll, even with different materials on the sites and nearly no videos yet. I think that for now still photos are just over supplied but there's still room for more video. Illustrations I don't know, but when I see individual accounts with over 1 Million illustrations, I think that's got to hurt.

OK made me look. I had to go back to 2012 for a worse December on SS. And before that I had much different material, in smaller numbers, so it wouldn't be fair to compare any of those years. IS has gone South since ESP and Getty came in full force. FT has continued to improve as I upload more and new. Alamy I had the most sales ever and made less money, there goes that place for the big DLs. DT I'm paying attention again after ignoring for years. Might as well make something instead of nothing, but I don't have high expectations.

Mostly what I'd like to try, seriously for just one time, is self hosted. I still haven't found the software that works. I'm not a fan of WordPress as the base of everything, sorry. But if someone says yes, here's the best and it works, I'm willing to be open minded. Self Hosted means on one of my already existing websites that I already pay for, not that I pay someone else for throwing my work into a big pool and ignoring it.

Where's K-Tools these days?

I will have to look on my computer on Monday to see if I saved anything. I know it has been awhile since I bothered reporting anything, except for this last f o u nd stock fiasco, which directly affected my portfolio. Also, see SpaceStocks previous post. Even if non copyright holders can report, will they actually do anything?

Yeah you win, keep posting that only the author can report infringement and when I try to say that's not true you twist my words into, they might not do anything even if anyone can report. That's not that same is it? That's not what I wrote.

I agree that we can report anything and they might not do anything about it, no matter who it is. But clearly you can't admit that anyone can report which is the opposite of the forum messages that people repeat, and I say isn't true because directly from SS admin, not only have I reported and had an account removed, but she wrote back, that yes we are allowed to notify when something illegal is going on.

If compliance says we can't, then apparently I was lucky and have a magic touch? 

It looks like it was changed on Thursday. Based on what I've seen, they seem to be testing different algorithms on the popular tab. One set of results show more new items and another set of results show a mix of new and old content. My downloads were impacted on Thursday, but it made a recovery yesterday. It looks like they're still testing and we probably won't know the full impact of it until next week.

I've seen some of my top images disappear from the search results and seen some move up. I think they're trying to mix it up and show more new content.

Yeah, looks like this is about a month since the last change. First week in Dec Popular was best selling and recent sales, fairly like what one would expect from true popular. Then it popped into the crazy mix with new and unsold showing on the first page.

Just looked on three browsers, Edge and Chrome which had to load the page, show one sort, Firefox, even with a page reload, shows a different sort. FF I looked from my account, different. Then I tried a page reload, that still different sort is showing. I'm not going to clear the cache but it's highly likely that parts of that page and what shows are saved in the cookies?

Meanwhile, yes it has changed again. I think this isn't tinkering as much as a planned change to show buyers different materials every month and make the site look fresh. I haven't been tracking Popular for most of my images in a search, but when I did, sometimes nothing changed, other times, newer were moved up and then others it would be most sales/recent sales.

One of my best known test searches, the one I use to look for changes, on two different browsers, shows different results. Once I copied the link and refreshed, they are the same. What I mean is, we might not all see the same results for a page, but a new fresh load will show the same. Same would be happening for buyers. Our computers have some sort data stored.

I can't make any claims for what anyone else sees, we've been through this for years.

I've never seen any change in sales, up or down, sales that I can positively attribute to the change in the search because what I sell is generally still on top in the searches that I have good photos that sell more often than the duds.

Quote from: Uncle Pete on January 04, 2018, 10:03

So we can all stop repeating the factoid that you must be the author to complain at ShutterStock.

Well, being able to send a report to an email address is one thing... whether they'll do anything about it or not, is another. Nobody is saying it's physically impossible to complain to Shutterstock, just that they probably won't do anything if you're not the copyright holder.

I have the ability to insist that Shutterstock give me a refund for my purchases, but I've never made any. So the 'factoid' that I must have bought something to request a refund isn't true either... but it is sound, practical advice.

The last person to post here that his images were being stolen had written to SS and got no response. I wrote to someone else and asked the question, not  [email protected]  and they said, No You Don't Have to be the artist to file a complaint. That's what I wrote that's what they wrote and that's a fact. You are trying to twist this into they will do nothing when the truth, is just a simple statement... you don't have to be the owner to file a complaint. (nothing about whether they will do anything or if compliance will do anything)

People here keep repeating you must be the owner to file a complaint. That's not true. I said nothing about the effectiveness of either or any other filing or complaints or whether they will respond or act.

Pretty simple right?

Filezilla= Nightmarish!

For free I get what I paid for. There's always a learning curve for any new software, especially in my case since I've used ws_ftp since the 90s. But for uploading to stock sites, FZ has worked just fine. It's managing my websites and for others, that it's a bit of a "nightmare".  I still have an old computer and laptop with XP, I was just trying to move into the 21st Century. So much for that smooth transition. ps ws_ftp doesn't work on my Windows10 computer unless I buy another copy.

I've been using ws_ftp since pretty much forever. All my sites have all lower case files and names. Now I switched to Filezilla and it's making a mess od things.

How do I force lower case names and extension on Filezilla? Searched and I see requests back to 2003, their forum has no answers, FAQ... does anyone know? Or do I have to get some extra utility and run it on all my directories for the website data?

I think I found the setting for local editor, same problem. With other ftp, double click on a file, it opens in word (I still edit web pages as text) FZ it tries to transfer. If I click Edit it opens in a browser, or downloads the file to the main FZ folder? How is that Edit?

https://www.google.com/search?tbm=bks&hl=en&q=photo+[yournamehere]

This is a book search and shows credits.

Here's mine for example: https://www.google.com/search?tbm=bks&hl=en&q=photo+hodagmedia