Quote from: Uncle Pete on June 25, 2020, 17:22
Yeah I know, it's just the spy stuff that got me sidetracked. 

Since I'm not on FB and I don't read all the tweets and I didn't join the group, just because I don't follow FB, nothing else. What was the name and why was it blanked out? Public service, public posts, I'd see nothing wrong with including their name. I only gathered it was a she from one of your posts? Makes me wonder who that was.

Not sure why he blacked out the name. Her first name was Svetlana, don't remember the last. She claimed to work for FB, but then her arguments were strange. Anyway, what she was saying made it seem like she was pro-SS/FB, hence the "spy" speculation. You had to be there. 😀

That's disappointing about africastudio. In the end, everybody can be bought for a price. I'm sure it was all negotiating tactics between them and SS. Oringer has lots of toys to pay for.

Quote from: cathyslife on June 25, 2020, 17:53

Quote from: Uncle Pete on June 25, 2020, 17:22
Yeah I know, it's just the spy stuff that got me sidetracked. 

Since I'm not on FB and I don't read all the tweets and I didn't join the group, just because I don't follow FB, nothing else. What was the name and why was it blanked out? Public service, public posts, I'd see nothing wrong with including their name. I only gathered it was a she from one of your posts? Makes me wonder who that was.

Not sure why he blacked out the name. Her first name was Svetlana, don't remember the last. She claimed to work for FB, but then her arguments were strange. Anyway, what she was saying made it seem like she was pro-SS/FB, hence the "spy" speculation. You had to be there. 😀

That's disappointing about africastudio. In the end, everybody can be bought for a price. I'm sure it was all negotiating tactics between them and SS. Oringer has lots of toys to pay for.

Thanks, half the population of Russia is named Svetlana. (the other half is male) 

About the censorship. I don't agree, but quoting from recent news:

Under current law, platforms are allowed to moderate anything they find "obscene, lewd, lascivious, filthy, excessively violent, harassing, or otherwise objectionable." The DOJ, however, suggests that this standard is too vague and says the "otherwise objectionable" language should be removed from the law.

So for example, FB can find anything they want to be "objectionable" and remove it. Whether they are protecting a business alliance, the API which FB uses SS images, or something else, complaints, who knows what, I don't know. Apparently the first amendment doesn't apply to social platforms, unless it's someone trying to sue another person for what they post. But the platforms are not required to allow us to post, what they don't want and aren't actually liable for what individual users post.

Quote from: zebra007 on June 24, 2020, 13:57
....

Not out of character... At all!

Exceedingly unwise to do business with this let them eat character. Jon's business plan is/was a major contributor to where we find ourselves today.

Let Jon eat cake and move on!

Quote from: Uncle Pete on June 24, 2020, 17:52

Quote from: cathyslife on June 24, 2020, 15:17

Quote from: CommuniCat on June 24, 2020, 14:55
If you believe in conspiracy theories - take a look at this thread.
Somehow I missed the response between the two last posts when I was screen grabbing.

Then "poof" the whole thread went missing. Gone from the group FB page.
Apparently, if you are the thread creator on FB, if you delete it all disappears.
Our "Facebook employee" took their own thread down when I called them out.

What do you guys make of this?

I saw some of her posts. I'm pretty sure she was a FB/SS spy. But posts are getting flagged in a lot of FB groups (not just related to microstock) as being spam or "goes against community standards", when they are not. I personally think it has to do with who FB does business with. I think they are monitoring groups closely that revolve around their ties to that industry. FB is aligned with SS, FB aligned themselves with pHARMa, like that.

I hope quoting this makes it stay, in case people change what they wrote. FB/SS spies? And trying to infiltrate the group? Really, like someone is so stupid that they couldn't just create a quiet account to watch. Let me help, a spy likes to work in secret not in your face and arguing, attracting attention to their devious plans and plots.

Yes, You can remove posts and comments that you have made on Facebook. You can remove comments others have made on something you've posted, but you cannot delete comments they've left on posts you didn't create. This is also quite ordinary and doesn't need any special access or authority.

I f I am correct FB is collecting also post or comment if you are not publishing or deleting before posting. If you just typing.

Quote from: Uncle Pete on June 25, 2020, 18:37

Quote from: cathyslife on June 25, 2020, 17:53

Quote from: Uncle Pete on June 25, 2020, 17:22
Yeah I know, it's just the spy stuff that got me sidetracked. 

Since I'm not on FB and I don't read all the tweets and I didn't join the group, just because I don't follow FB, nothing else. What was the name and why was it blanked out? Public service, public posts, I'd see nothing wrong with including their name. I only gathered it was a she from one of your posts? Makes me wonder who that was.

Not sure why he blacked out the name. Her first name was Svetlana, don't remember the last. She claimed to work for FB, but then her arguments were strange. Anyway, what she was saying made it seem like she was pro-SS/FB, hence the "spy" speculation. You had to be there. 😀

That's disappointing about africastudio. In the end, everybody can be bought for a price. I'm sure it was all negotiating tactics between them and SS. Oringer has lots of toys to pay for.

Thanks, half the population of Russia is named Svetlana. (the other half is male) 

About the censorship. I don't agree, but quoting from recent news:

Under current law, platforms are allowed to moderate anything they find "obscene, lewd, lascivious, filthy, excessively violent, harassing, or otherwise objectionable." The DOJ, however, suggests that this standard is too vague and says the "otherwise objectionable" language should be removed from the law.

So for example, FB can find anything they want to be "objectionable" and remove it. Whether they are protecting a business alliance, the API which FB uses SS images, or something else, complaints, who knows what, I don't know. Apparently the first amendment doesn't apply to social platforms, unless it's someone trying to sue another person for what they post. But the platforms are not required to allow us to post, what they don't want and aren't actually liable for what individual users post.

You aren't on FB anyway, you said. And yes, I know it's a popular name. It's irrelevant. 

A post on the Coalition FB page says Africastudio is reactivated again and images are coming back online. Looks like they may have used us little guys and #boycottShutterstock to negotiate themselves a sweet deal. 😡

I don't what but there is something fishy going on about the numbers.

I checked Iakov Filimonov's (he deactivated his port some time a go) page yesterday and there were 200K files online. Today it shows 6k online.

Is there any way shutterstock activates and deactivates portfolis time to time to manipulate the numbers?

Yesterday Africastudio had around 650 online images on Shutterstock.
Currently they have 96706 images there, so they are obviosly coming back online.

congrats this whole thread is useless

Some cushy custom deals (likely just keeping the old deal) done with the large contributors then.
Divide and rule works.  It really does.

Quote from: MysteryShot on June 26, 2020, 21:11
congrats this whole thread is useless

Not at all.

Looks like SS had some pressure to start making deals with some of the larger players

Which would mean that the direction to go would in general be joining portfolios and negotiating terms and accepting more and more people to join on the way. The bigger we get the better the deal at the end and more people would want to join if for nothing to get better terms.

And then in one moment in future maybe we would have a collection that would work as an agency on its own.

Quote from: gnirtS on June 27, 2020, 01:17
Some cushy custom deals (likely just keeping the old deal) done with the large contributors then.
Divide and rule works.  It really does.

This is not divide and rule, you cannot deal and negotiate same with a producer of 500.000 and one of 5000 pieces either talking microstock either talking apples.

At the end of the day, those are the professionals constantly supplying and they can retract 20.000 best sellers and leave 480.000 of no or low sellers but yet good useful stock files. We don't know what the producer think or intend to do.

Quote from: CommuniCat on June 24, 2020, 13:04

My conspiracy theory is that Facebook is about to buy Shutterstock and wants the prices pushed down so that they can give our stock assets away to their advertisers.

You could be on to something. Higher earnings at their PE so that Oringer can buy more cars n crap.

Africastudio may not have got a deal. Don't forget the campaign was originally deactivate for a week or as long as you can. They could have just been showing their disapproval and are going back online while they consider their options. If they aren't cut a deal they could well stop uploading new content or be on the look out for an exclusive deal elsewhere.

Quote from: Ludovic on June 26, 2020, 11:07
Yesterday Africastudio had around 650 online images on Shutterstock.
Currently they have 96706 images there, so they are obviosly coming back online.

Right = 1,309,222 stock photos
New Africa has 400,000+

No proof of any of the other claims or conjecture.

Quote from: cathyslife on June 25, 2020, 23:24

Quote from: Uncle Pete on June 25, 2020, 18:37

Quote from: cathyslife on June 25, 2020, 17:53

Quote from: Uncle Pete on June 25, 2020, 17:22
Yeah I know, it's just the spy stuff that got me sidetracked. 

Since I'm not on FB and I don't read all the tweets and I didn't join the group, just because I don't follow FB, nothing else. What was the name and why was it blanked out? Public service, public posts, I'd see nothing wrong with including their name. I only gathered it was a she from one of your posts? Makes me wonder who that was.

Not sure why he blacked out the name. Her first name was Svetlana, don't remember the last. She claimed to work for FB, but then her arguments were strange. Anyway, what she was saying made it seem like she was pro-SS/FB, hence the "spy" speculation. You had to be there. 😀

That's disappointing about africastudio. In the end, everybody can be bought for a price. I'm sure it was all negotiating tactics between them and SS. Oringer has lots of toys to pay for.

Thanks, half the population of Russia is named Svetlana. (the other half is male) 

About the censorship. I don't agree, but quoting from recent news:

Under current law, platforms are allowed to moderate anything they find "obscene, lewd, lascivious, filthy, excessively violent, harassing, or otherwise objectionable." The DOJ, however, suggests that this standard is too vague and says the "otherwise objectionable" language should be removed from the law.

So for example, FB can find anything they want to be "objectionable" and remove it. Whether they are protecting a business alliance, the API which FB uses SS images, or something else, complaints, who knows what, I don't know. Apparently the first amendment doesn't apply to social platforms, unless it's someone trying to sue another person for what they post. But the platforms are not required to allow us to post, what they don't want and aren't actually liable for what individual users post.

You aren't on FB anyway, you said. And yes, I know it's a popular name. It's irrelevant. 

A joke about the name Svetlana but apparently you don't understand humor. And yes it is my elephant.

Quote from: Uncle Pete on June 29, 2020, 21:20

Quote from: cathyslife on June 25, 2020, 23:24

Quote from: Uncle Pete on June 25, 2020, 18:37

Quote from: cathyslife on June 25, 2020, 17:53

Quote from: Uncle Pete on June 25, 2020, 17:22
Yeah I know, it's just the spy stuff that got me sidetracked. 

Since I'm not on FB and I don't read all the tweets and I didn't join the group, just because I don't follow FB, nothing else. What was the name and why was it blanked out? Public service, public posts, I'd see nothing wrong with including their name. I only gathered it was a she from one of your posts? Makes me wonder who that was.

Not sure why he blacked out the name. Her first name was Svetlana, don't remember the last. She claimed to work for FB, but then her arguments were strange. Anyway, what she was saying made it seem like she was pro-SS/FB, hence the "spy" speculation. You had to be there. 😀

That's disappointing about africastudio. In the end, everybody can be bought for a price. I'm sure it was all negotiating tactics between them and SS. Oringer has lots of toys to pay for.

Thanks, half the population of Russia is named Svetlana. (the other half is male) 

About the censorship. I don't agree, but quoting from recent news:

Under current law, platforms are allowed to moderate anything they find "obscene, lewd, lascivious, filthy, excessively violent, harassing, or otherwise objectionable." The DOJ, however, suggests that this standard is too vague and says the "otherwise objectionable" language should be removed from the law.

So for example, FB can find anything they want to be "objectionable" and remove it. Whether they are protecting a business alliance, the API which FB uses SS images, or something else, complaints, who knows what, I don't know. Apparently the first amendment doesn't apply to social platforms, unless it's someone trying to sue another person for what they post. But the platforms are not required to allow us to post, what they don't want and aren't actually liable for what individual users post.

You aren't on FB anyway, you said. And yes, I know it's a popular name. It's irrelevant. 

A joke about the name Svetlana but apparently you don't understand humor. And yes it is my elephant.

Duh, no I'm too stupid to understand humor. But then you know that. 😉😂

Quote from: cathyslife on June 25, 2020, 23:24

Quote from: Uncle Pete on June 25, 2020, 18:37

Quote from: cathyslife on June 25, 2020, 17:53

Quote from: Uncle Pete on June 25, 2020, 17:22
Yeah I know, it's just the spy stuff that got me sidetracked. 

Since I'm not on FB and I don't read all the tweets and I didn't join the group, just because I don't follow FB, nothing else. What was the name and why was it blanked out? Public service, public posts, I'd see nothing wrong with including their name. I only gathered it was a she from one of your posts? Makes me wonder who that was.

Not sure why he blacked out the name. Her first name was Svetlana, don't remember the last. She claimed to work for FB, but then her arguments were strange. Anyway, what she was saying made it seem like she was pro-SS/FB, hence the "spy" speculation. You had to be there. 😀

That's disappointing about africastudio. In the end, everybody can be bought for a price. I'm sure it was all negotiating tactics between them and SS. Oringer has lots of toys to pay for.

Thanks, half the population of Russia is named Svetlana. (the other half is male) 

About the censorship. I don't agree, but quoting from recent news:

Under current law, platforms are allowed to moderate anything they find "obscene, lewd, lascivious, filthy, excessively violent, harassing, or otherwise objectionable." The DOJ, however, suggests that this standard is too vague and says the "otherwise objectionable" language should be removed from the law.

So for example, FB can find anything they want to be "objectionable" and remove it. Whether they are protecting a business alliance, the API which FB uses SS images, or something else, complaints, who knows what, I don't know. Apparently the first amendment doesn't apply to social platforms, unless it's someone trying to sue another person for what they post. But the platforms are not required to allow us to post, what they don't want and aren't actually liable for what individual users post.

You aren't on FB anyway, you said. And yes, I know it's a popular name. It's irrelevant. 

He has 2 Facebook accounts, I found them in less then a minute.

Quote from: flywing on June 24, 2020, 20:45
"Africa studio

Welcome to the world of modern commercial images and footages.

Bright, creative and trendy images and footages will help you visualize any subject and field of activity."

For such a big company earning so much money in the microstock industry, I'm surprised they couldn't afford to pay someone to do a grammar check on their text. 'Footage' is an uncountable noun by the way. What they wrote doesn't sound very professional.

Regardless, I was really hoping their split from SS would be permanent. Though that is clearly not the case.

[OT]

Quote from: dragonblade on July 02, 2020, 10:20
For such a big company earning so much money in the microstock industry, I'm surprised they couldn't afford to pay someone to do a grammar check on their text. 'Footage' is an uncountable noun by the way. What they wrote doesn't sound very professional.

It's countable and uncountable. Meaning different pieces of movie footage can be (but 'apparently' doesn't have to be) footages.
(I just googled) It's apparently uncountable when it's a physical length of e.g. timber.
Every day's a schoolday!

Quote from: YadaYadaYada on June 30, 2020, 16:05

Quote from: cathyslife on June 25, 2020, 23:24

Quote from: Uncle Pete on June 25, 2020, 18:37

Quote from: cathyslife on June 25, 2020, 17:53

Quote from: Uncle Pete on June 25, 2020, 17:22
Yeah I know, it's just the spy stuff that got me sidetracked. 

Since I'm not on FB and I don't read all the tweets and I didn't join the group, just because I don't follow FB, nothing else. What was the name and why was it blanked out? Public service, public posts, I'd see nothing wrong with including their name. I only gathered it was a she from one of your posts? Makes me wonder who that was.

Not sure why he blacked out the name. Her first name was Svetlana, don't remember the last. She claimed to work for FB, but then her arguments were strange. Anyway, what she was saying made it seem like she was pro-SS/FB, hence the "spy" speculation. You had to be there. 😀

That's disappointing about africastudio. In the end, everybody can be bought for a price. I'm sure it was all negotiating tactics between them and SS. Oringer has lots of toys to pay for.

Thanks, half the population of Russia is named Svetlana. (the other half is male) 

About the censorship. I don't agree, but quoting from recent news:

Under current law, platforms are allowed to moderate anything they find "obscene, lewd, lascivious, filthy, excessively violent, harassing, or otherwise objectionable." The DOJ, however, suggests that this standard is too vague and says the "otherwise objectionable" language should be removed from the law.

So for example, FB can find anything they want to be "objectionable" and remove it. Whether they are protecting a business alliance, the API which FB uses SS images, or something else, complaints, who knows what, I don't know. Apparently the first amendment doesn't apply to social platforms, unless it's someone trying to sue another person for what they post. But the platforms are not required to allow us to post, what they don't want and aren't actually liable for what individual users post.

You aren't on FB anyway, you said. And yes, I know it's a popular name. It's irrelevant. 

He has 2 Facebook accounts, I found them in less then a minute.

I meant I'm not on the FB Shutterstock Group, don't follow Jon, or the boycott protest group, or not a member of the stock coalition. Yes I have two accounts, that's no secret.  https://www.facebook.com/Hodag-Media-114201125398572/

None of me are very active or interesting.    Sorry if it sounded like I had no account, I do, I just don't go there and don't read or write much. But I think everyone should follow me... LOL