Foodio

I understand that part Firn, it's the other bit about agreeing to the deal in the first place knowing full well how it will/is/has affected the industry that I can't get my head around. I guess my first mistake was in thinking that this forum was a microstock forum - where more or less likeminded people had an interest in the business of microstock and its long term success. Not one where they argue and defend their circular reasoning for facilitating its destruction. Anyway, other than the fact that it is actually my business it's really none of my business so I promise not to get

Cool, sounds like you're very busy...me I just like to take pictures.

That's fair, and I deserve it. I completely understand why you are doing what you do, but just as I don't see the fundamental difference between what the agencies are doing I am equally perplexed as to why you cant see the long term harm to yourself with your complicity. Anyway, we have had this chat before.

Actually no, you very subtly elevated one agency over another by replying to Firn''s valid question about picking sides using terms like "theoretical hypocrisy" and "but they were open enough to tell everyone"...in an attempt to downplay ones role over the other by criticizing something as unrelated to the big picture as strategy. Given your admitted support for all of this then what exactly was the point of that? I've said it before, and rationalize it all you want but no matter what happens from here on in it's contributors like you who are to blame regardless of which direction or str

I find myself asking the same question. Correct me if I'm wrong but didn't you nominate a few of your images that weren't selling well elsewhere? And @balajisrinivasan , correct me if I'm wrong but haven't you openly contributed to and defended the kind of immensely successful free sites that were a primary stimulus for all of this in the first place? To me, discussing individual corporate strategies, legalities and optics is just further distraction from the bigger picture.

I love this comment and agree...but would also caution that the sort of passion and poetic spark you seem keen to mentor is in and of itself a fragile beast, easily stifled by the mere act of producing the kind of marketable microstock content we all have our individual notions of. Having read each of the comments and the OP's response to them I have to say I don't think he's a fragile newbie at all. On the contrary, I see someone who took all of the comments at face value and quickly understood the limitations of microstock - particularly where they were addressing his own specific questions

Just got finished lurking around the other forum and noticed a link to three contributors As is highlighting on the free collection. Pretty amazing stuff, and a glaring indication of the direction I think As really wants to take this. It's exactly the kind of content As needs to push in order for this to gain the traction they want it to, with everything else being subordinate filler. By the way if your own work measures up in comparison to these folks then no doubt you too will have a very bright future to look forward to giving your work away for free. The new microstock brought to you by yo

Like I said before, Ad does not have to worry about any of that.

Using AI and Machine Learning to Overcome Position Bias within Adobe Stock Search | by Fengbin Chen | Adobe Tech Blog | Medium @MrSorbias Popular or not, it's not a question of "might have" at all. The above has been implemented and refined. The thing is though that every MS agency has to weigh the pros and cons of how to navigate this problem without inadvertently killing the golden goose so to speak. High quality, relevant and popular content more often than not takes a lot of time and money to produce. Subsequently that kind of content absolutely needs to sell in a healthy mix of

Yep, and when AS responds to that my next contributor email from them should go something like this; Dear Foodio, We have some exciting news! The unexpected response to our recently introduced free collection has been so overwhelmingly positive that we have decided to broaden the scope of the collection to include all of your portfolio assets including video. In order to address our customers ever increasing demands for freely accessible high quality content and expand our own customer pool we are also announcing that our paid library will be phased out entirely between January 1, 20

Wilm, I agree that the sums referred to in the contributor emails are nothing more than a carrot meant to entice participation, but I'm curious why you think this is anything other than what it looks like at face value? Surely if Ad were only looking for internal use content specifically for their software products then why not just promote it as such? I think it's certainly part of the equation in being able to market their products with a built in library of free content, but keep in mind that Ad does some heavy promotion on one particularly popular free site, and they have been doing so for

I understand completely. Ultimately it's up to each of us to decide what is best for us. Judging by the amount of positive contributor reaction to this though I can't see how that unpleasant feeling can ever get any better.

Maybe, maybe not. One thing is pretty clear by now though, the more free images made available by others that are similar to the ones making you money now, the less likely you will be to sell your own at any price going forward. At the same time, the more of your images you give away that are similar enough to another contributors marketed images, the less likely they will be able to sell those going forward. Everyone contributing to the aggregate demise even though it might initially have the appearance of being positive on an individual level. The macro of micro. What baffles me most I think

Reading this thread I can't help but think that I am watching the last nail being driven into the coffin of microstock right before my eyes. This time though it's the contributors themselves doing all the pounding. I just can't say it as politely as Wilm, but for all of you who have been complaining about royalty cuts and lack of fairness and transparency in the industry, or harping on about the sheer contempt with which agencies treat contributors...well is it any wonder? If you are willing to literally give your work away by proxy through one of the largest and arguably wealthiest corporatio

I don't see a lot of square format uploads here on SS, but it wouldn't surprise me at all if the ones that are here actually do well. I've spent the last year during Covid shooting almost exclusively for social media feeds, and out of necessity I've found myself re-learning how to compose like I did back in my 6X6 days. So much so that now I catch myself automatically trying to compose for the square crop no matter what format I'm shooting. I've even taped off the screen on my digital studio camera to make it a little easier. The point is that the social media market is very competitive and th