Quote from: jonbull on February 24, 2016, 10:26

Quote from: ShadySue on February 24, 2016, 09:58

When micro started, it was mostly 'amateurs' who were submitting, it's not a 'now' thing. In fact, iS started as a sharing site, with no money changing hands.

yes but after you see complex shooting, interesting images...now  i see only boring images...look for example food...then go to alma or offset and look the food images. you see what i mean. amateur.

The sites pushed up the quality for a while, but most didn't try to raise prices, so it became unsustainable, and many of the pros have moved on.
Really, what can people reasonably expect for the price?

Quote from: sharpshot on February 25, 2016, 05:52

We don't know who the lurkers are here.  I think there are lots of full timers that probably glance at this forum occasionally but don't waste their time posting.

This is true. I get site mails all the time here from contributors who do not post publicly. Some of my best information comes from those communications.

I am sure there are. But if people were optimistic and the number of full timers was growing, you would see a steady rise in people signing up the way it was in the good old days.

ETA: number of viewers on active threads don�t seem to be going up either. Maybe leaf could enlighten us, but wether registering or just reading here, it doesn�t feel like lots of new people coming in.

Quote from: YadaYadaYada on February 16, 2016, 11:26

You need to read what I actually wrote. I said pay us, the rest are just stealing from us. All of them are screwing us. But if somebody sends their photos to anyplace and then complains after about the deal and percentages, what does that say? You walked into a brick wall and now you blame the wall for being there?

You people here signed up and send your work to these places. Then spend all day after day, complaining about them.

Didn't you know what the pay was and the contract when you signed up? Don't you know what the pay is now and the contract? Why do people keep working for the low earners and crooks when there are 4 good agencies that pay back for our work?

You're kidding, right?  The pay and the contracts were way different when a lot of us signed with these agencies.  I don't complain about the (few) agencies that stick to the contracts that I signed up for.  The complaints come when the agencies change the TOS to screw the contributors and there is no negotiations, and your only choice is to pull your portfolio and lose all your efforts and income at once, or leave it and see your income drop from the greedy new policies that we DIDN'T  sign up for. 

And BTW,  the 4 "good agencies" you mentioned are also among the biggest crooks.  Since they account for the most volume, most people put up with their carp, but don't kid yourself they're good guys or your friend.