geogphotos Posted June 20, 2022 Share Posted June 20, 2022 Almost dead.......100,000 contributors say 'can't be bothered'. Sad. But a reflection I feel of Alamy having lost its community. Maybe deliberate who knows. 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1 Betty LaRue Posted June 21, 2022 Share Posted June 21, 2022 (edited) Yes, the forum has gone down. There used to be a lively discussion about new gear..who can afford new gear with our income down? All around disinterest on all fronts, it seems. About all we talk about here is what sold for peanuts, or to announce the rare decent sale. There’s more action in the Good things and Bad things threads. For my part, I’ve been watching a bald eagle nest that has a lively fun chat room, where I’ve been hanging out for several months. I’ve learned so much about bald eagles and how the parents raise their young. Of course, I’m deeply interested in nature. We did lose some vital members who were valued. A few may still be contributing, but no longer in the forum. We’ve pretty much quit teaching newbies, something we used to do a lot. As in…why spent hours doing something Alamy should be doing, while we receive less pay? Besides the “teaching competitors” part. I jump in a bit, but nothing like I used to. The excitement has left the house, along with Elvis. I haven’t made an upload since my surgery. That's 5 months. I keep telling myself to do it, but I can’t afford gas to run around taking pictures. How many shots of flowers and plants around here can I take? Especially when I’ve not been able to plant any while I’m healing? Zero interest there. 💤 Edited June 21, 2022 by Betty LaRue 3 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1 Popular Post Martyn Posted June 21, 2022 Popular Post Share Posted June 21, 2022 SB is correct, the issues go far deeper, there seems to be a sense of despair at what the company that used to be Alamy has become. Long gone are the days when Alamy gave a warm embracing family type feeling that made individual contributors feel valued and the pillaging of our commission has only reinforced that feeling. I was musing a few days ago about what would happen if a big car dealership was to turn around to the car manufacturer and announce that they, as the car sellers, would be giving the manufacturer 40% of the price of every car they sold ... good luck with that. As was said in a post earlier, private messaging was the first to be taken away and now our posts are heavily censored with the banning of any mention of the competition and even the S word, part of Alamy themselves. Alamy seem to have firmly set themselves on a course of self destruction and logging on this morning only reinforced that view for me ... a screen full of epilepsy inducing flashing images with a banner over the top promoting image packs at a 70% discount ... brilliant. Assuming that I was a client and managed to get through that home page without losing my breakfast, I do a search, as I did a few weeks ago, for "bubble gum machine" under the, ahem, "relevant" tab ... and on the first page is an image of a hand holding an Indonesian banknote against a car dashboard ... no bubblegum machine but helpful tags like laundromat, clockwork, manufacturing and washing .... is it any wonder then that we are losing interest in not only the forum but Alamy itself ? 2 2 10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0 Steve F Posted June 20, 2022 Share Posted June 20, 2022 Still getting new members, so I assume not deliberate.... But yeah, we lost a lot of old hands / Forum members with the last commission change. Seems a lot of new people indeed: can't be bothered / have no interest are spread over lots of agencies and also have no interest 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0 meanderingemu Posted June 20, 2022 Share Posted June 20, 2022 (edited) 22 minutes ago, Steve F said: Still getting new members, so I assume not deliberate.... But yeah, we lost a lot of old hands / Forum members with the last commission change. Seems a lot of new people indeed: can't be bothered / have no interest are spread over lots of agencies and also have no interest for me it's beyond the commission that has dragged me down. The lack of Alamy participation- still no answers on many issues we should be cooperating , the heavy handed handling of the forum has really taken it's toll. Had a general blahness and yes my participation has gone done.... also, not really enthusiastic to upload another $1 sale today..... Edited June 20, 2022 by meanderingemu 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0 John Mitchell Posted June 20, 2022 Share Posted June 20, 2022 Perhaps it's more a case of forum members being on their last legs. 🙃 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0 Skyscraperfan Posted June 20, 2022 Share Posted June 20, 2022 The forum needs some improvement. We can't even send private messages. That is an essential part of every forum. Topics are often closed or censored. There are better places outside this forum to talk about stuff that concerns us. 3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0 Michael Ventura Posted June 20, 2022 Share Posted June 20, 2022 I just figured people were out on summertime travels. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0 sb photos Posted June 21, 2022 Share Posted June 21, 2022 (edited) 6 hours ago, Michael Ventura said: I just figured people were out on summertime travels. I believe the issues go far deeper than that. If all was well within stock summertime travels would generate more stock and comments here, but does it? Michael, hoping your shingles discomfort is improving. Edited June 21, 2022 by sb photos 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0 NYCat Posted June 21, 2022 Share Posted June 21, 2022 It has been a long time since I've gone to the homepage because of the moving images making me ill but I took a look after what Martyn said and it is truly appalling. Can anyone use it? And the pushing of image packs is sooooo discouraging. Alas. Woe is me. Words fail me. Paulette 1 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0 John Morrison Posted June 21, 2022 Share Posted June 21, 2022 With 294,256,053 images on the site - and counting! - Alamy have presumably decided that piling them high and selling them cheap is the way to go. And with such a huge inventory of images, this no doubt makes sense… to Alamy. Unfortunately, it leaves photographers out in the cold, facing steep price hikes for almost every commodity… except the photos themselves. Getting an ever smaller cut of ever smaller fees is leaching the pleasure from taking, editing and uploading pix here. While I have no intention of flouncing out of Alamy, my priorities have already changed (with enough writing projects to keep me busy for years, while providing the creative satisfaction that stock photography has lost). As for the forum: yes, there are only so many ways of expressing disappointment at the state of play in the stock business… 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0 meanderingemu Posted June 21, 2022 Share Posted June 21, 2022 5 hours ago, Martyn said: As was said in a post earlier, private messaging was the first to be taken away and now our posts are heavily censored with the banning of any mention of the competition and even the S word, part of Alamy themselves. Alamy seem to have firmly set themselves on a course of self destruction and logging on this morning only reinforced that view for me .. if this was the only thing censored i could understand, stick to Alamy, but the quick lock on subjects has been slightly overhanded in past year or two. The whole come in, give a padded answer, and lock further discussion does not feel cooperative, and that's when they add insight. It was also upsetting to have Alamy go address queries about a particular campaign (Diversity survey) on a public forum, before coming here . also it is sometimes hard to muster care in helping when Alamy doesn't seem to. In 10 days we will likely start a wave of "surprised" contributor hit by the impact of the current agreement. Curious what Alamy's strategy is, i presume have US point to "the agreement"? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0 Cecile Marion Posted June 21, 2022 Share Posted June 21, 2022 It’s really a shame. Perhaps there is low morale among the Alamy staff, too. Just wondering. Good customer/contributor service is very important, I believe. Alamy has certainly fallen short in relating to, and communicating with, contributors since the sale of the company. It’s definitely not the company I joined in 2017. 1 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0 wiskerke Posted June 21, 2022 Share Posted June 21, 2022 Haha it seems that Alamy HQ took pity and decided to throw a rock in the pond to start a bit of debate here. Anybody on Twitter or Facebook counting the likes/dislikes? wim 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0 geogphotos Posted June 21, 2022 Author Share Posted June 21, 2022 2 hours ago, wiskerke said: Haha it seems that Alamy HQ took pity and decided to throw a rock in the pond to start a bit of debate here. Anybody on Twitter or Facebook counting the likes/dislikes? wim I would think that most contributors just give a shrug and get on with something else. We have seen so many of these sudden changes that do not appear to have been thought through or properly implemented. Just another nail .... 1 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0 meanderingemu Posted June 21, 2022 Share Posted June 21, 2022 (edited) 11 minutes ago, Alexander Hog said: Not seen many dislikes but one or two laughing at some of the posts on FB Not on Twitter but don't know if it's worth joining Twitter or not from stock perspective, i mainly use twitter to find information about event. Edited June 21, 2022 by meanderingemu Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0 meanderingemu Posted June 21, 2022 Share Posted June 21, 2022 34 minutes ago, Alexander Hog said: Not seen many dislikes but one or two laughing at some of the posts on FB Not on Twitter but don't know if it's worth joining Twitter or not as for Alamy, they get 0 interaction on twitter on best of days. so no change today. They got 5 likes for the announcement, that is it. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0 Rebecca Ore Posted June 22, 2022 Share Posted June 22, 2022 13 hours ago, wiskerke said: Anybody on Twitter or Facebook counting the likes/dislikes? Six likes. 21 June 9:38 PM Central Time US Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0 sb photos Posted June 22, 2022 Share Posted June 22, 2022 19 hours ago, NYCat said: It has been a long time since I've gone to the homepage because of the moving images making me ill but I took a look after what Martyn said and it is truly appalling. Can anyone use it? And the pushing of image packs is sooooo discouraging. Alas. Woe is me. Words fail me. Paulette Whenever I come across flashing screens I'm often wary that they contain subliminal advertising. The latest Alamy home page is OTT. EMPICS.com has rotating images and is more impressive. 70% discount certainly isn't photographer friendly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0 geogphotos Posted June 22, 2022 Author Share Posted June 22, 2022 Six 'likes' on Twitter. An Alamy forum with 10,904 members Just about sums things up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0 Ed Rooney Posted June 22, 2022 Share Posted June 22, 2022 Gee, gang -- I still try to post 2 or 3 inane remarks a week. 4 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0 Brian Yarvin Posted June 22, 2022 Share Posted June 22, 2022 Ian, there will always be people like me that enjoy these groups. I find that I'm more interested in the group than I am in Alamy itself at times. I also feel that the people I know from online groups have become part of my life. I would love to read Rebecca's scifi writing, see you at the pub you mentioned a decade ago, and go face to face with countless others. Other people relate in other ways. I can't speak for them. I do meet Alamy contributors who aren't part of this group and think they won't fit in for their own reasons - perhaps they don't like sharing in writing, sometimes it's just because they didn't meet us in person first. Even though some people make dubious claims about the industry or statements that don't relate to my own experiences at all, I enjoy reading all of them. I suspect that some other people feel the same way. That's why these groups exist at all. Back in 1994, my first web search was "stock photography" (on Web Crawler of all things) and the first result I clicked on was a discussion group. Shortly afterwards, a NYC radio host suggested his listeners join a discussion group for adventure eaters. Since then, I've been hooked. 3 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0 Allan Bell Posted June 22, 2022 Share Posted June 22, 2022 Forum on its last legs? Don't know about that but I certainly am. Allan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0 Cal Posted June 22, 2022 Share Posted June 22, 2022 6 hours ago, geogphotos said: Six 'likes' on Twitter. An Alamy forum with 10,904 members Just about sums things up. I've always wondered why Alamy has such poor outreach on social media. Your average smartphone-wielding teenager has far more reach than they do. Given that SM is one of the best avenues of marketing nowadays, I can't understand why they don't just hire some young marketing buff who can no doubt massively blow up their numbers. It'd help us for sure. I feel like a lot of people in the business don't even know about Alamy, certainly this is the impression I get when I talk to other like minded people out in the real world. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0 meanderingemu Posted June 22, 2022 Share Posted June 22, 2022 53 minutes ago, Cal said: I've always wondered why Alamy has such poor outreach on social media. Your average smartphone-wielding teenager has far more reach than they do. Given that SM is one of the best avenues of marketing nowadays, I can't understand why they don't just hire some young marketing buff who can no doubt massively blow up their numbers. It'd help us for sure. I feel like a lot of people in the business don't even know about Alamy, certainly this is the impression I get when I talk to other like minded people out in the real world. had a look at a certain aSSet competitor and their interactions on Twitter are in similar numbers, so that doesn't seem to be a focus for most. when i have a look, Alamy does seem to get fairly good ranking on Google for image searches (i still think this is where all the sudden Affiliate $$ come from) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0 Allan Bell Posted June 22, 2022 Share Posted June 22, 2022 2 hours ago, meanderingemu said: (i still think this is where all the sudden Affiliate $$ come from) For sure, for sure. Allan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Question
geogphotos
Almost dead.......100,000 contributors say 'can't be bothered'.
Sad. But a reflection I feel of Alamy having lost its community. Maybe deliberate who knows.
Link to comment
Share on other sites
53 answers to this question
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now