Gary,

Thanks for the post. As you might know, Zymmetrical is still in Beta as we are hard at working receiving feedback from users on how to improve our platform. Keith has been extremely busy in building a leaner and  faster admission tool that will allow us to accelerate the process and bring in some more  freelance reviewers.

As with anything in programming, we had to sometime stop the approval process in order to complete the progress. We also  received more than 10,000 new images from contributors worldwide, exceeded  3,000 registered members and are putting the final touches on advanced search features that will enhance the buyers experience. Stay tune.

I am sorry you personally  have not seen any sales yet but we have been tracking increase activity on our site and it is only the beginning.  As I posted on the Zymmetrcial blog (http://www.zymmetrical.com/blog/), I have just returned from the International Picture Archive Council of America conference (http://www.pacaoffice.org/) in Las Vegas where I was a guest speaker. The comments from  key image buyers from the advertising community was extremely positive as they really appreciate the value of a midstock platform like ours. It allows for value photography, fonts, graphics and videos without killing the artists. They told me that they avoid microstock sites because they do not want to contribute to asphyxiating the market by paying such a low price. Midstock, however, allows them to still purchase at a very interesting price without punishing the photographers.

They are also looking to see more of your images, Gary, and anyone that wishes to contribute. Hint: these guys were particularly looking for "gambling" images. Keith and I will continue making the approval process leaner, faster and smoother for everyone as well as making the purchasing experience a comfortable summer breeze.

Hope that helps.

Let us know if you have any other comments/ suggestions /questions

Sincerely,

Paul M

Dear Altimages,

Welcome to the forum. Love your images by the way. Great website. You might be experiencing broken thumbnails for various reasons, some probably due to the fact that we are updating our content extremely fast and that your browser might not have had the time to cache them properly. It is irrelevant of which browser you are using. It is part of the growing pains of a site with a lot of new content posted regularly. Our engineers has been have been hard at work to solve this issue and it will disappear quite quickly.
I do not quite know what to say about the "error" in your searches as you do not give any details.
Finally, you give your opinion about the value of the content and we appreciate that. As you quite correctly say, it is only your opinion and there is nothing more subjective than that. We will only let the judges that really matter make the final call : the image buyers.
On a more general manner, please keep in mind that zymmetrical is still in its Beta version and that you will experience some bugs here and there. We are not hiding them nor pretend they do not exist. We do appreciate all your comments and input as we continue our thrive into making it perfect. We will hit some bumps, like all the other sites have done, before and after us, but will not stop until all are fixed.
However, with your help and your input, associated with the fabulous support and feedback we are getting from image buyers, we continue are commitment to excellence and perfection. Not only in functionalities but in performance. We have introduce a lot of features that are now being copied by our competitors and will also continue to prove our commitment with actions rather than long speeches.
What you will always see on zymmetrical is progress, innovation, sparks of genius, not only in its functionalities but in its content thanks to an ever growing membership that has the same passion for success then we do. We hope you will join us and reap all the benefits you well deserve.

Sincerely,

Paul Melcher

Thank you for your kind note, yingyang0.

"One question for you: Since you're a "midstock" site, do you offer rights-managed licenses or do you plan to do so in the future?"

That is a great question. Currently, we  do not offer a rights-managed license.  We are certainly thinking about this option along with many other licensing opportunities. However, editorial and advertising image buyers, the main users of rights-managed licenses, can and are using Zymmetrical. In the mean time, If we do get a request from a buyer that would wish to use an image and apply some restrictions to it, we will certainly handle it by contacting the owner and negotiating a fee.

On another note, we have had great response to our latest press release and an impressive level of sign ups.  We are hard at work editing the new images . Don't be surprised if you see familiars names...

One does not achieve success by blocking the others. At Zymmetrical, we roll out new features, new options in order to make all our members successful, not to bring other businesses to the ground.

We are extremely proud of what we have achieved up to now, considering the size of our company. We had the autosuggest feature more than a year before other sites. The fact that they are now implementing the same is a sign that we are on the right track. Being copied is the best form of encouragement. We sold midstock before other bigger companies even thought about it. Another sign that we are on the right track.
Like a lot of new companies breaking ground, part of what we do will get some people upset and defensive. We understand that and are willing to take the risk. We are in this business for the long run and not to sell out as soon as possible. We care about the success of our members because it is linked to out success.

Join who wants to join. It's a personal choice that should not be the result of others decisions. We are aware that it will take some time for us to achieve the same payback as other sites are currently offering. But since our prices are higher and our offering broader, we have no doubt that it will eventually exceeds everyone expectations.

Some of you are happy with the sites they currently contribute to and that is fine. Others are early adopters and like to try new options. We encourage that. This is the reason we post here, like we do on other forums. We want to keep you inform of your options for growth.

Finally, we are doers and not talkers. Our actions speak for us. We concentrate our marketing powers towards the image buyers. Our results, up to know, have been beyond our wildest hopes. We will continue to show you that there is not barriers that we cannot overcome and that we will not stop until we have achieved our goal. We are stubbornly obsessed with success . We hope that if you are too, you will join our growing community.

Sincerely,

Paul Melcher

Zymmetrical, the first midstock visual art marketplace has just launched its FTP upload option.

While still out of the box, it is ready to be evaluate and used and abuse by anyone who would like to be an early adopter of its technology.

Here are a few tips:

1. We accept only JPG's, zipped up into a PC-compatible .ZIP file. Please do not upload individual photo files, it is much more efficient in one big .ZIP. Do not include other files such as model releases, thumbs.db, etc.
2. No maximum file size, and no upload limit, although we suggest you don't use more than 5 concurrent connections at once (subject to change upon smoke coming from our servers).
3. Uploaded files will remain visible (but not downloadable) in your private FTP folder until our Editors review them. Currently (soon to be fixed) the uploaded files will not show up in your Submissions list on Zymmetrical until we approve them. Once you have uploaded your Zip file into your own private upload folder, you can verify that it has arrived safely and securely. No one but yourself can see your images before they are approved on the site.


Now that this is finished, we will be announcing a bunch of very interesting marketing initiatives, not only for photographers and graphic designers, but for image buyers.

Stay tune. and as always, let us know your thoughts.

Best

Paul Melcher

There a few things we need to clear up here:

- I wrote that this forum was "like" entering in a bar. I was using an analogy. If I offended someone, I truly apologize, it was not my intent. There are a few members on this forum that are quick to respond with negative personal attacks, like bullies in a schoolyard. When you spend so many years building a product as sophisticated as Zymmetrical, it can be very frustrating to read such useless and groundless negativism.
- When I wrote that we are not interested in microstock shooters, I was referring to those who are not serious about their passions. The ones that seem satisfied with a quick buck and could be selling widgets. We are looking for the passionate photographers who would like to see more revenues for their images, as a factor of quality and not quantity. No one has a problem paying more for quality.
- Protecting companies like Istock is ludicrous when they sold for $50 million and not one contributor happened to see a cent. After all, besides the technology and the market share, they also sold the content. your images, your work.
- I will let those of you continue making fun of my title. It is irrelevant.
- My post on my blog, which is not related to Zymmetrical, is also irrelevant to the service we offer. However, if you have the time, please ask the 23 million Americans that live below the line of poverty if they shoot for microstock. Or those that have 2 jobs and commute for hours to get to work. Be thankful  of what you have.
- Finally, as I wrote before, Keith and I would love to have creative and constructive criticism of zymmetrical.com. You are all welcome to try it, test it and report your findings here, good or bad.

Sincerely,

Paul Melcher
CKO
Zymmetrical

Hi all,

Let me jump in. Before anyone accuses me of anything, let me introduce myself. I am the Chief Knowledge Officer of Zymmetrical.

A few thoughts and comment :

- I do not know George and I believe he is one of our members. He is not on the management team. And even if he was, what would be so wrong in informing everyone of a new website that could be interesting? Since we have a very interesting referral program that pays back 10 % of visual sold, including your own, he might be looking to increasing his revenue. Again, what is wrong with that?

- Zymmetrical is not a microstock. Never has been and never will be. It is a visual portal that offers a wide range of content. We have video, fonts, graphics along with stills. Furthermore, we do not price our content, our members do. We leave Microstock to big corporate giants like Getty or Corbis.

- We have not officially launched yet so it would be premature for us to publicize a site that still need some tweaking. And, although we are still in Beta, we already generate sales for some of our members. Not huge numbers, but for a site that hasn't been launched, it is pretty impressive.

- We are not interested in the microstock model and I am surprised that our site was even mentioned here. If some of you had taken the time to look at our site instead of harassing a new member whose only wrongdoing was maybe a little too much enthusiasm, you would have noticed that.

- If any here would like to make comments on our site and make some suggestions, either positive or negative, that would be great. We welcome any feedback at this stage. Since some of you have valuable experience with other similar sites. We do not ask for you to upload images since we have a different business model than yours, only comments and suggestions.

Should you have any questions or would like to check on me and my background, you can visit either www.zymmetrical.com or go to my personal site www.melchersystem.com.

sincerely

Paul Melcher