MicrostockGroup
Agency Based Discussion => Sites that no longer exist => SnapVillage.com => Topic started by: bryan_luckyoliver on June 25, 2007, 00:36
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Apparently I'm the first to find Corbis's newest website.
https://www.snapvillage.com/Default.aspx
I picked it up in the times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/25/technology/25corbis.html
Well, I guess I'll have to laugh since we were there too, but 'red car' pulls up some interesting results!
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I like the about page the best:
https://www.snapvillage.com/AboutSnapVillage.aspx
At this point maybe they launched before they were ready? It's blank- maybe they didn't have anything to say :)
I'm actually surprised they didn't do a content drive first.
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Well, it's fantastically fast and easy to use...
As for the structure, terms, conditions etc..... I'm still digesting those......
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I can't see anyone taking this seriously.
From my brief 30 second tour it appears that they'll accept just about anything (as long as you upload no more than five at a time).
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And their requirement to have a PayPal account before you can join will exclude a large number of "photographers from all over the world" that live in countries that cannot receive payments through PayPal.
I was expecting much more from the Corbis giant. Their site looks just like another one of the “back yard” stock sites that appear (and disappear) every month. Very disappointing.
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It is fantastically fast as there is nothing there. 0 for London and 17 for american.
I think they released it far to early. Sure release it early to get photos but if you do that, you at least need ftp. I uploaded a test image and it didn't pick up IPTC.
Royalty only 30%. You set price at $1, 5, 10, 20, 50 and all sizes are sold at that price. Subscription you get 30c.
Looks like they do keywording for you if you dont?
Also, what is with the name. "Snap" to me means holiday snaps. They should have tried to make it sould professional.
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I have uploaded some test images too....mainly because it is such a big company. It is obviously work in progress. The site has a bit of a cheap feel about it and I am not sure what market they are aiming at. ftp isnt working yet and you can only upload 5 images at at time (and it dosent pick up any IPTC data)
I guess they will pull their finger out and sort out the issues. I am surprised they have release the site (even in beta form) so early in it development to the public. Will it challenge SS and IS...? I guess we sit back and watch them fight it out. The more competition that is out there surely the better it is for photographers/artist because there will be a point when the market will be saturated and they will have to add features to attract artist (pay for each photo you upload, offer higher commisions ....free cuddle for everyone)
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I can't see anyone taking this seriously.
From my brief 30 second tour it appears that they'll accept just about anything (as long as you upload no more than five at a time).
if you want to upload more than 5 at a time you can send a cd. A bit of an old fashioned technique but actually i don't mind that as a start up sollution. Uploading 1000's of images via ftp is pretty slow. HOWEVER to do future uploads ftp should really have been there.
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and thanks for finding the site bryan and sorry, but i had to move it to it's own forum area. :)
I also reacted to the name as well. Snap village sounds like everyone from the 'village' got together and shared their 'snaps'
Also, they are only open to customers from the United States, which is perhaps why they are not so concerned about getting as many international submitters as possible....... but still if that is the reason it is a bit weak...
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I've sent them my first five just to test it out. It wouldn't read IPTC so my pictures don't have titles or keywords; I decided to leave those fields blank to see what happens......
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a little more research.
minimum payment is $10 and is automatic and comes no later than 45 :o days after the month end that it was due.
At the end of the year, all accounts are paid out even if they are under $10.. again with the 45 day wait period. Not sure if this is just a safety for them and they will probably pay it out in a week, or if they will wait the 45 days before they send out payment.
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I've sent them my first five just to test it out. It wouldn't read IPTC so my pictures don't have titles or keywords; I decided to leave those fields blank to see what happens......
what price did you set your images at?
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I uploaded some pics too, half of them didn't came through for whatever reason...
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I chose $5 for the initial images, simply bhecause the commission at $1.50 is roughly equal (or better) than I would get elsewhere.
Some of my images I will price much higher.
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I agree with sharply - the 'snap' factor is an unwelcome surprise.
On the other hand they have clearly already put decent money into developing the site, and given their resources I imagine they will likewise have a big budget for promotional activity.
I don't like 'snap' and everything that that suggests. But on the other hand they are industry leaders and are not stupid.
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My mistake haven't seen the note. Images didn't came through, because at least one side has to have 2100 Pixels. I had 2000 X 2000
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a little more research.
minimum payment is $10 and is automatic and comes no later than 45 :o days after the month end that it was due.
At the end of the year, all accounts are paid out even if they are under $10.. again with the 45 day wait period. Not sure if this is just a safety for them and they will probably pay it out in a week, or if they will wait the 45 days before they send out payment.
They payout on the last day of the following month, so if you have over $10 for June, they pay you on the last day of July. I guess they have an extra 15 days (upto the 45) incase something goes wrong. This is similar to 123rf(?) and I think it is ok. One monthly billing run. it would be better if it was before the 15 and more likely before the 5th like on SS but I have no issues. At least it is published and certain.
I set my one photo at $5 - same price as most other sites for a full size.
With their $50 price, are they stealling LO mid stock idea??
Only alow US buyers? is that true. very limiting if that is the case, especally since all my photos are from Europe!
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I understood that for now it is only for the US, but I think they will change it in future
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I don't like this part, it looks like buyers get a very good extended license without us getting extra money
Olga
quote:
You hereby grant to SnapVillage B.V., during the term of this Agreement, a nonexclusive, royalty-free,
worldwide, transferable license to use, reproduce, publish, exhibit, perform, publicly display, distribute,
broadcast, transmit, create derivative works of, and license (with rights of further sublicense) the Content
in any manner and medium now existing or hereinafter created, for the following purposes: to (a) use,
reproduce, publish, exhibit, perform, publicly display, distribute, broadcast, transmit, create derivative
works of, and sublicense use of the Content uploaded to the Site in promotional print, digital, and online
materials and promotional products that promote the Content and/or the services of SnapVillage and its
affiliates in any and all formats or media (including without limitation online) that exist and are hereafter
devised; (b) rate, comment upon, and evaluate Content, (c) add or amend keywords, titles, descriptions
and metadata to Content to enhance the User’s search experience, and (d) digitally watermark the
Content in both a visible and invisible manner. You further acknowledge and agree that SnapVillage and
Users may add tags and keywords to your Content, and add comments to the Content in accordance with
the SnapVillage User Agreement.
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"If you like, you can add titles, descriptions and searchable tags."
If I want? Ummmm.... From what I've heard, Corbis has never made a profit. Maybe this is why. And PayPal only? Maybe these guys should have done a tiny bit of research before they put this online. Even for a beta version, this is very, very primitive.
I did a search for "car", and all photos that have "car" as a part of one of the search words (like "carved" and "card") came up as well.
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Hmm,
I start to like this site, and one reason is the prices and second, in fact, you do not need to keyword your files, they do it for you! But you are allowed to.
And I found this in the FAQ:
"Can I create my own titles & keywords?
Sure! You’re welcome to upload titles and keywords, but you don’t have to. We know that most of our photographers would rather be out taking pictures than sitting in front of a computer filing out forms – so we are willing to do the work for you."
If every agency would do that.. we really would have more time for photography...
Massuploading will be available soon too aparently.
I also found a blog of them:
http://blog.snapvillage.com/
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Hmm,
I start to like this site, and one reason is the prices and second, in fact, you do not need to keyword your files, they do it for you! But you are allowed to.
In that case, it's very positive. I guess I should give it a try then :)
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Highest downloads on an image i could find was 3....there was a number of image with downloads. Interesting to see where this one goes.
I suppose it is only in BETA and u get a lot of weird results in the search engine. But i suppose it has only been live for a day or so.
-Rossco
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I just don't get this... how will pricing your images higher drive customers to a new site, selling to the same audience with the same contributors ???
I chose $5 for the initial images, simply bhecause the commission at $1.50 is roughly equal (or better) than I would get elsewhere.
Some of my images I will price much higher.
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Seems that Corbis will sell also by subscriptions like SS, and at the same conditions (199$/month, max 25DL/Day). And for these subscription sales, seller will receive 0.30$.
But what I appreciate is that you may "opt out" the subscription sales for each single photo you upload.
That means that if you set a price of say 5$ for a photo, you may also opt out for the subscription for that photo.
Claude
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The more I look at this, the more I see Flickr - they even have a little "beta" above their name.
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i'm surprised nobody's commented on that photo on the front page... is it me or is the white balance way off? The girl is cute, but i'd not have picked that image for my front page (and it doesn't seem to rotate).
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Hmm,
I start to like this site, and one reason is the prices and second, in fact, you do not need to keyword your files, they do it for you! But you are allowed to.
And I found this in the FAQ:
"Can I create my own titles & keywords?
Sure! You’re welcome to upload titles and keywords, but you don’t have to. We know that most of our photographers would rather be out taking pictures than sitting in front of a computer filing out forms – so we are willing to do the work for you."
If every agency would do that.. we really would have more time for photography...
Massuploading will be available soon too aparently.
I also found a blog of them:
[url]http://blog.snapvillage.com/[/url]
No categories, no titles, no keywords. Great idea, I love Bill :D
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i'm surprised nobody's commented on that photo on the front page... is it me or is the white balance way off? The girl is cute, but i'd not have picked that image for my front page (and it doesn't seem to rotate).
It's not just you, Mitch. I noticed the same thing last night. Plus her face is overexposed.
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I had a chat with a marketing guy at Corbis / SnapVillage this morning. Here's some of the responses he gave to my questions and some of your questions that I put to him:
Empty database. Yes, they didn't put any Corbis images in because the 'spirit' of SnapVillage is user generated.
The word "snap" is very deliberate. Yes, it's associated with "snap-happy", "snapshots", etc, but it has multiple interpretations. They are creating a "fun" and "quick" brand, and the name conveys the "openness" of their model.
Yes, they will keyword and describe for you. Yes, they realise this a lot of extra work for them. They see it as a test of how good their processes are!
Here's the message they pushed across to me:
They're very interested in feedback from the market. They're open to changing many things if they get the right feedback.
This is "content collection mode" for them. They have a lot of extra funtionality almost ready, and they promise to continually post updates about upcoming functionality on their blog.
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Thanks for the info Lee,
why don't you invite that corbis guy to come to this forum, he will get a lot of valueable suggestions :-)
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Freezing, don't think he's not here. Don't think that of any of them! ;)
I should have added my opinion too.
I don't think they've got the mix right to attract contributors. Sure, it's great to set the price of your own images, but:
1. that's undermined by the subscription (thankfully subscription is optional)
2. it's not that different from LO sideshow or FT price setting options
3. there's no incentives to get them over the critical mass hump. Fotolia paid contributors and LuckyOliver gave out "tokens" and higher commissions.
4. there's no buyers, won't be for a long time, and they can only come from the US portion of the market.
I expect we'll see a lot of changes in the strategy over at SnapVillage before long. They've done a great job (compared to some of the other latecomers) and have the brand and marketing budget to see it through. Regardless of how many combinations they need to try.
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I don't like this part, it looks like buyers get a very good extended license without us getting extra money
Olga
quote:
You hereby grant to SnapVillage B.V., during the term of this Agreement, a nonexclusive, royalty-free,
worldwide, transferable license to use, reproduce, ...
No. You're quoting the photographer's contract. That has nothing to do with extended licenses. If you checkout the contracts you agreed to at other site you'll find that they are very similar. All that quoted text says is that you agree to allow them to be your agent and sell your photos as RF and that SnapVillage can use them. Very standard agreement.
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I'm sure they'll have plenty content when the UPS parcels of dvds arrive there from iofoto, yuri, andresr etc!
]\[*--
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I like the about page the best:
https://www.snapvillage.com/AboutSnapVillage.aspx
At this point maybe they launched before they were ready? It's blank- maybe they didn't have anything to say :)
I'm actually surprised they didn't do a content drive first.
LOL... there was nothing there this morning... they must have read your post Bryan cuz it's full now!
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I'm sure they'll have plenty content when the UPS parcels of dvds arrive there from iofoto, yuri, andresr etc!
]\[*--
hehe..you got that right.
On another note...I like the image of the little girl on the front page. I'm really tired of all the perfect perfectness. Looking through my latest European image magazine 'Chasseur d' Images' there are award winning images that wouldn't make it onto the top micro-stock sites except maybe 1 but they would * sure sell as stock and probably will for large amounts of money.
The little girls image is not of the quality I'm speaking of but there's nothing wrong with it accept everyone is getting conditioned to no noise, no artifacts, perfect white balance etc. etc. It's boring. Since most of these images are bought in small version and any PS user can manipulate the contrast etc. it's a worthy stock shot. I wish it were mine.
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I must say I go along with many others about the choice of name.
"A village of snappers where you can't go outside your door without being shot."
Will you become a resident?
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Well I sent them another five and woke this morning to find acceptance emails for all ten initial images. Checked the site; disappointed by several things; firstly because it wouldn't take IPTC I left them to do keywords etc and descriptions, just to see what would happen.
My pictures have keywords but no descriptions. Also, their choice of category is disturbing.
For instance a high quality set up of an executive person writing with a ballpoint pen has no description at all. For keywords they've used only six, the main ones being 'man, holding, pen' (doh). Lastly, this is a deliberate business image; I dressed the man in a blue and white typical striped executive shirt, and he is writing with an expensive pen - this is clearly a business image, but they have chosen to place it only in the 'isolated on white' category.
The ten images I sent were all studio set ups and probably represent more than thirty hours' work on my part and I am certainly not going to have them left with no descriptions, few keywords and wrong categories. So I'll delete them and wait until SV get their act together.
Lastly, these are not 'snaps' but carefully crafted stock images - I'm uncomfortable with the whole 'snap' idea; that isn't how I want to portray myself.
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The Name is great! I love it! :)
For me it looks that they don't want to be another typical microstock-site.(we have enough of them haven't we?)
To set your own price (and the possibility to option out for subscription) will also attract photographer which are willing to sell pictures cheap but not extremly(silly) cheap as for for 20-30 Cent.
On the other site they want photographer with heart and soul and pictures in favour of emotion than technical standards.
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I only have two comments....about the name?
And you all think Lucky Oliver is a name that applies to photography....outside the little microstock circle?
I think snapvillage is a cool and catchy name.
Second, as mentioned above about white balance, noise and all that other stuff.....it is only micro stock that is so hung up on it....and not all the sites are. Istock and Dreamstime, I find care more about the image than the technical aspects....I find it amusing how if an image isn't a perfectly lit sunny day some of the sites will say it is has bad lighting, yet you look in any magazine and the majority of the great photography you find there would never make it past the reviewers.....
ok off i go to play with my camera some more.....
ps does it matter if corbis makes a profit as long as the photographers get paid?
I dont think so.....
again these are just my opinions.....
toodles!
S
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I'm a little confused.
I submitted two images this morning. Both were accepted this afternoon. They are both taken with a Canon 30D (and thus 8 MP or 3504x2336), yet they are only available at two sizes: medium (1500x2100 or 3.1 MP) and small (600x800 or 0.5 MP). What gives? Are those the only sizes available for download? Or will they be offering other sizes in the future?
Also, the extended license for these images shows as $80. I thought that they were $50!
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seems to me they need to beef up their watermarking - anyone can come along and get fairly large images for nothing and very little editing (other than cropping out the top of the image).
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If you start uploading and come back later you are logged out and you have to start uploading again, because only if you finish the submission at that time will then system remember/retain your pics. Very frustrating. Uggghhhh.
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I worry about the keywording here. They need a lot of photos, and there's no way they can add quality keywords for all of them. On the other hand, as long as they don't read IPTC data (why on earth don't they do that?), there's no way that I will manually keyword all my photos either. Something needs to change.
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I entered a discription manually and it didn't turn up so it is no suprise they didn't put one in for you. ANyone else with this issue.
Void, re comparing the name to luckyoliver, at least luckyoliver is random rather than portraying the images as cheap snaps.
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Apple doesn't apply to computers
Orange doesn't apply to mobile phones
Virgin ..........
I only have two comments....about the name?
And you all think Lucky Oliver is a name that applies to photography....outside the little microstock circle?
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.... is wishful thinking......
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If you start uploading and come back later you are logged out and you have to start uploading again, because only if you finish the submission at that time will then system remember/retain your pics. Very frustrating. Uggghhhh.
Well... I've tried uploading pics twice now without sucess. The second time I only tried 3 pics and after 30 mins of "uploading..." I logged out. There doesn't even seem to be a place to see what pics were uploaded.... and without IPTC data and their bad keywording... I'm gonna wait. Beta... right....
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Next gripe: Since only 5 pics can be uploaded at the same time, PLEASE let me at least select those 5 in the same explorer window. BUT NO I can only select ONE picture at a time severely taxing my short term memory ::)
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I think everyone should boycott the site until they get FTP and IPTC reading on line.
By all means reserve you username but dont upload. This is the approach I am taking.
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I think everyone should boycott the site until they get FTP and IPTC reading on line.
By all means reserve you username but dont upload. This is the approach I am taking.
I think this is a wise approach CJPhoto. I did sign up last night, but thought I'd hold off on the uploading. It would also suck if they gave a bonus for submitting later on to attract new artists.
(It didn't seem right signing up to another site though when no one gets a referral bonus though!)
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sounds like a load of trouble to me....hmm......those who have joined the band wagon, do keep me posted....doesn't look like a good idea to join at this point in time... :o
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Is it possible to change description and keywords after a photo is accepted?
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No, you can only change the pricing.
Inger
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you can add keywords one at a time after they are uploaded.
I think i am putting off uploading for a bit - till they get things worked out. I had registered to reserve my name, but the your name has to be at least 5 characters long........ so 'leaf' didn't work :(
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.............. your name has to be at least 5 characters long........ so 'leaf' didn't work :(
whoa, guess I have to come with a new handle too... I'll probably go with the company name now.... 8)-tom
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I think i am putting off uploading for a bit - till they get things worked out. I had registered to reserve my name, but the your name has to be at least 5 characters long........ so 'leaf' didn't work
Not to worry leaf. That is just your login name that needs to be 5 characters long, which is not the same as your screen name. I was also confused by that until I discovered that elsewhere (I think under 'profile') you can enter your name/alias as you want it displayed on the site and it can be any number of characters.
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has anyone had a sale from this site yet?
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It appears that they have taken down there login link...I went to login last night and had whole heap of server errors. So even if you had a sale you cant login to check it. ;D
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okay its now back.... strange hehehe
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I submitted one image just to test the waters-still not reviewed. No ftp, no meta data, slow review time, but hey! isn't corbis the site that never made any profit??? SY
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Hi there
I'm new here and new to Stock, I've mainly done editorial type work in the past on 35mm, magazines, postcards etc. I used digital for a few years but only seriously for the last month.
I've joined some of the Big 6 and last night signed up for SnapVillage. As other people have mentioned in earlier posts the watermarks are small and the quality of the preview images are very good. A person could easily steal a photo for use on a website.
I have a couple of niggles with regard to uploading - I uploaded 5 photos last night all over 3Mp but because they were all 2048 X 1536 they were rejected as the system will only accept a resolution above 2100 X 1500!
This evening I uploaded 5 more, I cut and pasted the IPTC data into the keywords field on the uploads page and started the upload. After about 10 mins the screen refreshed but the photos didn't appear. The I noticed the word error highlighted in red next to the keyword box. I'd used the ";" instead of "," to separate the keywords and had to edit and upload the photos again - what a pain!
I dare say they will sort all this out in time, I'm sure they have had lots of feedback already.
Regards
Peat
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Is anyone still getting photos approved here? I uploaded my first five this past Monday to try it out and they are still Pending.
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Mine are also pending since earlier this week...
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Mine, too. But I did get an email from them today to confirm that they had received my submissions (first one was made on June 26th), and suggesting checking back periodically for their status.
I did get a notice when I accessed their site the other day that said something to the effect of their "village" is becoming a "city", and to bear with them while they were trying to keep up. I guess the response was a little more than they expected.
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I uploaded 80 images, and 14 have been approved so far.
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I don't know if these things rotate on snapvillage or not, but freezingpics has one of the top 3 "snappiest" photos as well as an editor's choice on the browse page. Freezing, they love you. (I do love that iceberg too.) Any sales yet?
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No upgrades in over a week. Seems as if they rushed to get the site out and are now working on the features that should have been their in the first place (well I hope they are working on them).
They are also moderting comments in the blog as a few of mine aren't showing up. Not supprising really.
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I think everyone should boycott the site until they get FTP and IPTC reading on line.
By all means reserve you username but dont upload. This is the approach I am taking.
Yep, i'm also taking a similar approach. Have signed up and uploaded 5 pics to evaluate the aproval/rejection policy, time, keywording (cool feature this one, but if they keep this up in a short period of time they won't have capacity to meet the demands when everybody starts uploading). I'll also wait for IPTC and FTP uploading
But it looks cool, and i like their approach. Does anyone know where can we see the "snapiness" of a photo ? Or we can only order them by snapiness but never see that value ?
Regards
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I don't know if these things rotate on snapvillage or not, but freezingpics has one of the top 3 "snappiest" photos as well as an editor's choice on the browse page. Freezing, they love you. (I do love that iceberg too.) Any sales yet?
Thanxs pixart :-) I haven't seen that until I got on there after reading your post. I do not have any sales yet. But 700 something views on the iceberg image. At least people are looking at that site. Probably all photographers :).
About the snappyness from the FAQs: "Every image in the SnapVillage catalog has a living, breathing ‘snappyness’ score based on a sophisticated and proprietary algorithm. ‘Snappyness’ is a dynamic rating that is driven by multiple measures of a picture’s popularity, including the number of times it has been viewed, downloaded, favorited, commented upon, shared and purchased. The Snappyness rating ensures that SnapVillage searches yield the freshest, best images."
I uploaded 80+ images, but stopped uploading except for one or two, when I hope they will be an editors choice to get publicity as early as possible.
I will upload as well more, if they improve their features.
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I've just made my second attempt to upload to SnapVillage, and I'm rather surprised. Here we have one of the largest photo agencies in the world, owned by one of the richest men in the world, who also owns the biggest software company in the world, and they launch something that for all practical purposes is more or less useless.
My attempted upload ended with the message "DB Error: - Transaction (Process ID 67) was deadlocked on lock resources with another process and has been chosen as the deadlock victim. Rerun the transaction." No IPTC data of course.
If starting a microstock agency was something new, like sending people to Mars, it would have been understandable, but there are newcomers in this market more or less every week, all of them with far less resources. Still, they all have more professional launches that SnapVillage.
In a way, I feel insulted, and I think we all should. Obviously, we don't have to upload to ScrapVillage if we don't want to, but using our time and resources for beta-testing that should have been finished months before they even considered uploading their site to the internet is at least ill-mannered.
On the other hand, this is the way I feel any time I use a computer that runs Windows, so maybe it's only me ;D
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It hasn't been launched yet, this is a beta site. I will only judge them when the proper site is launched. I think it is a good idea to launch a beta site and let those without the patience to wait for the proper site be the guinea pigs. Microsoft do that with their software.
I hope they have a proper watermark and a decent upload system by then.
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It hasn't been launched yet, this is a beta site. I will only judge them when the proper site is launched. I think it is a good idea to launch a beta site and let those without the patience to wait for the proper site be the guinea pigs. Microsoft do that with their software.
I hope they have a proper watermark and a decent upload system by then.
The "normal" procedure with beta-testing (with a possible exception for Microsoft, who are usually not functional with a new product until Service Pack 2 or thereabout, but they have a monopoly, more or less), is to develop the product as far as it goes without the access to "real-life" situations, and then start the beta-testing phase.
That is clearly not the case here. CrapVillage lacks some very obvious, basic functions that anyone with experience from the microstock market would consider must-haves. Reading IPTC data is so basic and so important to the users, that not including it, even in a beta-version makes me wonder how much they understand about the supply side of microstock.
On the other hand, IS has dumped quite a few untested procedures upon us the last year as well, so maybe this is the new microstock culture? Do half the job and let the users figure out if it works or not.
Since the news are obviously spreading that they are online, people will try them to see what they are good for. Many of those users will conclude that they are online, but not functional, beta or not. In this very competitive world, you seldom get more than one chance to impress your customers. Since TrapVillage has already had media-coverage (NYT, no less), they have already played one of their strongest cards. Not smart.
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I think I'll give the site a try for a while and see what develops.
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I've just made my second attempt to upload to SnapVillage, and I'm rather surprised. Here we have one of the largest photo agencies in the world, owned by one of the richest men in the world, who also owns the biggest software company in the world, and they launch something that for all practical purposes is more or less useless.
Isn't that Microsoft software history anyway? ;)
Regards,
Adelaide
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I have been using microsoft software for about 20 years now with only a few minor problems. I know lots of people who blame everything that goes wrong on microsoft when it is often down to operator error :)
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I have been using microsoft software for about 20 years now with only a few minor problems. I know lots of people who blame everything that goes wrong on microsoft when it is often down to operator error :)
Do you remember the launch of Windows98? See here (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hrbx9_AY720)what happened. But I agree all is down to the operator, or was it the guy on his left? What was his name again ? SY
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I have been using microsoft software for about 20 years now with only a few minor problems. I know lots of people who blame everything that goes wrong on microsoft when it is often down to operator error :)
I have been using MS products for almost as long myself. Win 3.x "blue screen of death" was not an uncommon problem, though. An IE has always been a source of security issues.
Advanced users of MS Word also suffered a lot in the upgrade (this hasn't been an issue in the latest versions). Macros for one didn't read well in the newer versions. My M.Sc. dissertation, typed in WinWord 2.0 (my favourite version ever) was unreadable in the next version - text ok, but formulae became a bunch of awkward symbols. Ok, Equation Editor was not a MS product, but was part of the installed software.
I wouldn't stop using MS software because, after all, it is a de facto standard, but it normally shows more flaws than one would expect from a high-priced piece of software from a big company.
Regards,
Adelaide
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I just read the whole thread,as contributers to stock sites we all seem to be interesed in if the site is going to be successful or not but I'd like raise another questionhere :
I am not sure if new sites always mean new buyers aswell or would it just mean more work to do for us as contributers,-unless you are exclusive with some sites-it might mean spending more time on uploading to many different sites hoping to reach your target buyers.
in other words I'd like to know if more sites wold result in growt of market and in what way we-contributers- would benefit from it?
from my experience with microstock agencies so far I did benefit from uploading multiple sites but I am not sure for if there are still more room in the market for new big players.
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yeah, you make a good point.
if more sites does not mean more buyers (and there is no reason why it SHOULD mean more buyers), then uploading to more than X number of sites is just giving the customers too much choice. Customers will go to different sites, just because of preferance, and they will use as many usefull sites as there are... BUT if we the photographers are not going to get swamped in the uploading process - for our sake, it would be best to have max 5 or 6 sites.... any more (or whatever the magic number is) and we are just creating more work for ourselves.
the more sites we upload to - the more choice we are giving the buyers where to shop and makes it so that we HAVE to upload to all the sites in order to get decent sales. If EVERYONE uploaded to ONLY 3 to 5 sites then that is the only place the customers would go to and it would be less work for us.
But what is the magic number for how many sites to upload to??? i dunno...
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Interesting point Leaf,what is the magic number. I guess it all comes down to how much time you have to spend uploading and cherry picking the best sites.
For me the work is done when I edit and submit my images to the major stock agencies. Sometimes I get rejected, tweek the image again in PS and then re-submit. Then I upload to the lesser sites, mainly because generally their uploading processes are easier and low hassle. But, also because I have the time to, I think 'why not' and then upload. If I didn't have the time I would bother.
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Hmm, you guys are right. Just imagine people will stick to the big 5, much less work. That got me an idea, just a thought. Why does not microstock photographers build a kind of interest group. Imagine the power of a group of 500 photographers.
They could decide as a group to not upload to a new site. If the offer will be good, e.g. as a member of a group you get more percentage per download and if the leaders of the group thinks this new site is worth the effort, the group can decide to upload to the site. This will be declared official to all members and members will be encouraged to upload. Members can also be discouraged to upload to a specific site, if that site is not doing a good job representing the photographers work. However this would be on a voluntarily basis. And each photographers can still make his own descisions.
Just a thought. What do you think is that a possibility?
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You mean like a union?
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the idea of a union has bounced around in my head a number of times and i think it could be good for a number of reasons.
the union could possibly sway sites to give a decent percent of the image sale to the photographer
new sites would have to have to offer a decent amount, and too many sites could be stopped from coming into the business.
and probably other good ideas... the problem however is - why would a photographer WANT to be part of the union. if prices go up at a stock site they would go up for everyone even the ones not part of the union. i can't see a reason why a stock site would want to favor the union in any way.
the union could sway stock sites to raise the prices or something of the like, but that would only work if every photographer threatened and followed through with withdrawing their images. That is a lot of work for each individual, and if only half of the people did it, it would be fruitless.
so hmm yeah.. a union is a good idea, but how to give advantages to the photographer???? why would soneone want to join. and what would be the point really... other than guidance or suggestions.
if people could submit to a site or not (even if the union was 'against' it) then it sort of defeats the purpose of the union. that is like having a strike and telling people that if they WANT to go to work they can... if they want to picket, they can..... ...
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It's an interesting idea in principle but I think it would be unworkable, there are just too many new entrants into the submitters market.
I think that for now, the agencies can and need to pay as little as possible to a submitter so that they can pass these savings into attracting new business. Especially since the microstock agency market is becomming saturated with new entrants.
Creating a balance between paying as little as possible to photogs to keep them interested in submitting, so as to keep the purchase price competitive is essential to their survival. What will be interesting is who will be dominating the microstock market in the next few years.
I can see just a few agencies dominating the market, at that point I think some sort of submitter 'union' or 'pressure group'is more feasible, since I feel that submitter entrance into these agencies will become more stringent.
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Yes a union :)
Well, I think it allways depends how big the union is. I am convinced for start-up agencies you probably can make such a special deal just for union photographers. I want to say it must not be a big investment for the start-up agency. Just make the descicion to give the photographers 50% instead of 30%. As an agency I would prefer having twice as much images because of union photographers and giving them 50% instead of having half the amount of photographers and give them 30%. The first payouts will take a while anyway.
For the big agencies it cannot do much unless the union is really big.
Why should photographers join, if there wont be any special deals for union members? Maybe joint interest? But you probably would not get enough photographers in the beginning. After you have a certain number people you will gain momentum and probably more start to join the union I guess. You are right there must be something more to attract photographers.
Well to withdraw images is a boarderline action I would say. Probably you wont find much photographers who will do that if you have a good income ther. But you can build up pressure by hundrets of photographers stopping to upload images and instead keep uploading to other agencies.
Was just a thought.
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Maybe if we unionize we'll get healthcare and a pension - lol ;)
But seriously, I am not sure if an agency would favor the formation of such a body, it would be interesting for their take on this.
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Vague feeling is, amount of laws violated by cutting bigger percentage to unionized photographers will exceed amount of fingers on the hands on all union members... not a lawyer though, so maybe not.
But really, why would agency want to motivate contributors to unite and form a potentially threatening body? If anything, agency will want us to stay as we are. Which is not necessary a bad thing btw, the way unions impact business is quite controversial matter.
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Well, yeah after a little though maybe a union is not such a good idea.. Here in Germany and in France I think they are a little to strong... That is bad for the economy. Maybe s.th in between would be interesting, building somehow an interest group, not to threaten, but to suggest and guide. But as leaf pointed out, what then would be the point really..?
Any sales yet on Snap Village? I have not had any so far. Am at arround 1000 views with my iceberg, but no download..
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i think we do have a reasonably functioning interest group here allready... with a few people testing the waters is most every stock site, ... so we get to test every site collectivly without actually submitting images there ourselves. Then the best of the sites, however many the individual wants to submit too are brought forward in our monthly updates, or just general discussion and in the end it seems each of us submits to the best X amount of sites he/she sees fit.
I if want to only submit to three sites and want the best sites, it wouldn't take me long to find out which ones they were if i read a couple threads here or asked a couple questions.
which... i think is one of the most helpful things about this community... that we can find out about all the new sites and if things are 'starting to happen' there without spending all the time of uploading and testing ourselves - the probably hundreds of sites there are now.
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This discussions reminded me of the Microstock Coop idea months ago.
Regards,
Adelaide
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I can see the point of a union but the main point of it would be to stop new sites. We already have enough. I dont care what they offer, we dont really need any more. Therefore what we need is a group (and it would need to include all the big names) to just say no to new sites.
New joiners could join them but with out all the good photos, they would eventually gravitate to the say 6-10 "union approved" sites.
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Some of the new sites are better than the old sites.
I don't think a union would work. Wouldn't it be better for the photographers to get together and make their own site?
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Well that's what Adelaide was reffering to; we had a thread about building a coop site few months ago.
That was a great idea but building a new site is I think a full time job!!!
And we would end up with another new stocksite :-\
Claude
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This is the Microstock Coop forum section, for those who haven't followed this discussion:
http://www.microstockgroup.com/index.php?board=39.0
Regards,
Adelaide
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I personally do not think people take us serious enough to consider the coop idea worthwhile.
For a start, I don't see any of the current site owners jumping over themselves to deal with us, and added to that, neither the camera manufacturers or Adobe seem to be all that interested in taking us serious, despite how much we spend with them.
Otherwise we would have Canon and Adobe keen to present themselves to us - here - and keen to get our feedback on new models etc.
Which is really weird to me considering there is supposed to be 40,000 stockies worldwide, and this site is probably one of the leading forums on the topic.
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This is the Microstock Coop forum section, for those who haven't followed this discussion:
[url]http://www.microstockgroup.com/index.php?board=39.0[/url]
Regards,
Adelaide
Is that section restricted access?? While I'm interested in the discussion about a photographers union, there would be significant problems, particularly if you started trying to effectively blackban new or existing sites. Still I don't really understand why people contribute to some of the smaller sites. Maybe with more images online you start to see money coming in - but the rate is so slow that I wonder sometimes. For me, only IS, SS and DT really seem to be worthwhile, with Fotolia fluctuating between marginal and mediocre.
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This is the Microstock Coop forum section, for those who haven't followed this discussion:
[url]http://www.microstockgroup.com/index.php?board=39.0[/url]
Regards,
Adelaide
Is that section restricted access?? While I'm interested in the discussion about a photographers union, there would be significant problems, particularly if you started trying to effectively blackban new or existing sites. Still I don't really understand why people contribute to some of the smaller sites. Maybe with more images online you start to see money coming in - but the rate is so slow that I wonder sometimes. For me, only IS, SS and DT really seem to be worthwhile, with Fotolia fluctuating between marginal and mediocre.
Holgs, I agree with you about the futility of uploading to some of the smaller sites, however, I am suprised you don't submit to StockXpert, I find them at least on a par with DT, if not better.
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Here's some good news:
"SnapVillage does not enable IPTC metadata extraction at present. Well, we’re pleased to announce that this will be changing when we turn on support for IPTC metadata extraction."
Sounds logical, doesn't it?
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next press release will be we dont currently have FTP support but will do once we implement FTP support.
Interesting that they are doing blog press releases on functions that they haven't yet released. It may stop the moaning but will jsut start the questions, of when. I am off to ask that now.
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I think Snapvillage is just some big joke to mess with our minds and make us waste valuable time. ;)
I still can't upload there so until the y anounce that they just might soon perhaps get ftp upload I'm staying away . ::)
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Sim microstock...
Unknown Error occurred, Please try after some time.
Sorry, the village became a city overnight.
We're scrambling to keep up!.
DB Error: - Timeout expired. The timeout period elapsed prior to completion of the operation or the server is not responding.
Someday it is a game for me, I try to upload a picture and wait for the new Error message.
I have several hundreds photos in my portfolio. I just think at those who have thousands :-\
« Think fresh », but for now, it's just hot air... ;)
Ok, it is an announced Beta... btw, the site is opened, a so strange way for Corbis to enter the game...
I hope they will change those thumbnails of 195 pixels, wasteful for managing photos, and many other things...
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The site did not give me the best of impressions, but if it does my keywording, then that will save me time.
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Having seen the thread in the shutterstock forum about an image thief that made a bad job of cloning out the watermark, I am going to avoid SV until they improve theirs. At the moment, it is just too easy to remove and then it is hard to know if a photo has been paid for.
With some of my isolated objects, their watermark doesn't cover any of the subject. That is not good enough.
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Having seen the thread in the shutterstock forum about an image thief that made a bad job of cloning out the watermark, I am going to avoid SV until they improve theirs. At the moment, it is just too easy to remove and then it is hard to know if a photo has been paid for.
With some of my isolated objects, their watermark doesn't cover any of the subject. That is not good enough.
yes I agree, it is not good enough. I sent them a note about the inadequacy of their watermark, they replied that they are considering changing it. Until they do I'm staying away ...
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I wonder how many of us wont upload until they improve their watermark? I hope more people let them know this. I have posted a few times in their blog.
http://blog.snapvillage.com/
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I stopped uploading until they improve the watermark. What a joke, they're giving away my illustrations!
caraman
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Ok, so I've tried to upload there twice. Both times I pick a selection of five good stock images. Go through the upload only to find out that if it doesn't like any of the images, it throws out the whole batch. I've waited a couple of weeks and decide to try again. I take my top selling image and upload it by itself and get, "Unknown Error, Try again after a time."
Vague, useless, and illiterate. I think three strikes and you're out.
Beta, my ass
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They disabled the ability to do a right-click > save-as but I don't think that helps much.
Paul
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Correct. The print-screen button overcomes the disabled right-click. Pretty amateur stuff.
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The upload procedures here are awful! I don't mind the five at a time loader, but it has to work. Most times it does not work. I have about 100 pics there but could have 300 if it worked. I understand it is BETA but its time to fix this. A company as large as Corbis should be ashamed to have their name on this. I will continue to upload small amounts but they need to get better.
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Looks like Corbis has blown it with this venture - no news for three or four weeks, site full of bugs, reputation going down the drain, complete misunderstanding of the market etc etc.
I suppose when they called it Snapvillage that was a sign that they were barking up the wrong tree.
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I’ll spend my new effort on Albumo....They are putting their money where their mouth is ....plus...they pay 60% commissions (if your over 1000 images) and they have a clean good web site. I've been with them for only 1 month and already have enough for payout.....true not a lot of sales yet only 2....but they were willing to fork over money to get me to upload there......and they are willing to give us a good commission. WHAT is SNAPVILLAGE offering???? NOTHING...
Why support another site that is going to pay us a lousy 30%....
My attitude is quickly becoming to only support the sites that support us......(IS is the one exception...but since they are the biggest...they can get away with it.....for now...but let's see what the future brings...??)
Right now the (non-subscription )sites I would love to see succeed are StockXpert, DT and Albumo ...they all give at least 50% back to us. (LO also has multiple specials that allow 50% on many of the photos…but I would rather see 50% across the board)
(of course I like SS also....but thier marketing model is so different from the others...you can't really compare them.)
I think supporting any more sites that offer anything less than 50% is like slitting our own throats.
Tom
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Just had a look, what a shockingly rough site. 'Beta' is wishful thinking I'm afraid.
Also tried to sign up (in case it gets better later on) and couldn't even do that.
Character errors when filling in fields. Gawd.
'More effort needed' as my old teacher used to say.
Might try again in a few months, if it hasn't been pulled.
Maybe.....
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btw, did anyone of you guys had any sale on snapvillage? I sumbitted around 50 photos in june, setting low prices...but still nothing.
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No sales but I only uploaded a handful of pictures. I can only assume if the photographers are having a hard time uploading the buyers are probably having a hard time buying.
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I can only assume if the photographers are having a hard time uploading the buyers are probably having a hard time buying.
Whatever they might do, their brand name is pooped. I hereby declare them CrapHamlet. They will need a fresh start under another name. What about Corbillard? That's French for hearse. ;D
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I don't know, if they get lots of sales in the future, we will all forgive them. Look at fotolia. They seem to have done everything wrong but they have lots of sales, so they are great.
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I logged in there today, and things seem to work much smoother now. I can even upload, which is an improvement ;D
I'll upload a bunch and see what happens.