Having a global pseudonym for your Alamy account - what do you think?

[Reimar]

One thing to keep in mind is that in any distribution deal for any agency I've worked with, photographers give up their moral rights.  I don't like it, but there it is.  My distributed images sell without any attribution to me.

 

The change that Alamy is suggesting will not affect me.  I already do this myself, manually.  Although I have three pseudonyms, and want to keep rank stats separate, all of my sold images land under the one pseudo: "Gaertner".

 

I agree that one simple name for sold images is a benefit.

[John Mitchell]

One thing to keep in mind is that in any distribution deal for any agency I've worked with, photographers give up their moral rights.  I don't like it, but there it is.  My distributed images sell without any attribution to me.

 

The change that Alamy is suggesting will not affect me.  I already do this myself, manually.  Although I have three pseudonyms, and want to keep rank stats separate, all of my sold images land under the one pseudo: "Gaertner".

 

I agree that one simple name for sold images is a benefit.

 

How do you accomplish this manually, Reimar? Do you mean that you transfer all your images that have sold into the same pseudonym?

 

It sounds as if there isn't a one-size-fits-all solution to the perceived problem of too many pseudos on Alamy. Perhaps having a global USERNAME would be best made an opt in/out deal. Then those of us who like the idea could opt in, and those who want/need anonymity (or whatever) could opt out and keep their pseudos.

[Reimar]

 

One thing to keep in mind is that in any distribution deal for any agency I've worked with, photographers give up their moral rights.  I don't like it, but there it is.  My distributed images sell without any attribution to me.

 

The change that Alamy is suggesting will not affect me.  I already do this myself, manually.  Although I have three pseudonyms, and want to keep rank stats separate, all of my sold images land under the one pseudo: "Gaertner".

 

I agree that one simple name for sold images is a benefit.

 

How do you accomplish this manually, Reimar? Do you mean that you transfer all your images that have sold into the same pseudonym?

 

It sounds as if there isn't a one-size-fits-all solution to the perceived problem of too many pseudos on Alamy. Perhaps having a global USERNAME would be best made an opt in/out deal. Then those of us who like the idea could opt in, and those who want/need anonymity (or whatever) could opt out and keep their pseudos.

 

 

That's right John.

[John Mitchell]

 

 

One thing to keep in mind is that in any distribution deal for any agency I've worked with, photographers give up their moral rights.  I don't like it, but there it is.  My distributed images sell without any attribution to me.

 

The change that Alamy is suggesting will not affect me.  I already do this myself, manually.  Although I have three pseudonyms, and want to keep rank stats separate, all of my sold images land under the one pseudo: "Gaertner".

 

I agree that one simple name for sold images is a benefit.

 

How do you accomplish this manually, Reimar? Do you mean that you transfer all your images that have sold into the same pseudonym?

 

It sounds as if there isn't a one-size-fits-all solution to the perceived problem of too many pseudos on Alamy. Perhaps having a global USERNAME would be best made an opt in/out deal. Then those of us who like the idea could opt in, and those who want/need anonymity (or whatever) could opt out and keep their pseudos.

 

 

That's right John.

 

 

I see. Not sure that I understand the benefit of doing this, though.

[giphotostock]

Keep the pseudos, direct development resources elsewhere.

 

GIPhotoStock (a pseudo)

[Armstrong]

 

 

One thing to keep in mind is that in any distribution deal for any agency I've worked with, photographers give up their moral rights.  I don't like it, but there it is.  My distributed images sell without any attribution to me.

 

The change that Alamy is suggesting will not affect me.  I already do this myself, manually.  Although I have three pseudonyms, and want to keep rank stats separate, all of my sold images land under the one pseudo: "Gaertner".

 

I agree that one simple name for sold images is a benefit.

 

How do you accomplish this manually, Reimar? Do you mean that you transfer all your images that have sold into the same pseudonym?

 

It sounds as if there isn't a one-size-fits-all solution to the perceived problem of too many pseudos on Alamy. Perhaps having a global USERNAME would be best made an opt in/out deal. Then those of us who like the idea could opt in, and those who want/need anonymity (or whatever) could opt out and keep their pseudos.

 

 

That's right John.

 

 

Please correct me if I'm wrong but I thought that transferring images meant that they lose their effect on Alamy Rank. In other words you lose any benefit in terms of rank for having made that sale?

[wiskerke]

One of the problems seems to be how to explain pseudonyms to contributors and maybe to clients.
Because of the pervasiveness of pseudonyms on the interwebs and on micros in particular this seems a problem only for granddaddies entering the digital age.
But here's the my very simple solution:
 
Have two radio buttons on the Collections Management screen of the Contributor Experience Project (It's going to be an app - right?):

 

 

Create New Collection: "new name"

O  keep this New Collection name invisible and keep my User Name  "my username"  as the Credit Line. (default)
O  make this New Collection name visible and make it the Credit Line for this Collection only.

 

 

Or slightly more complicated, reflecting the way it is now and probably preferred by some agencies:

 

Create New Collection: "new name"

O  keep this New Collection name invisible and keep my User Name  "my username"  as the Credit Line. (default)
 

O  make this New Collection name visible and make it the Credit Line for this Collection only.

                     O  keep my User Name visible and keep it included in the Credit Line.

 

 

Dislike long credit lines? Maybe limit the box to 64 characters.

 

wim

[Reimar]

In response to Michael Armstrong - Good question.  I didn't think so, but Alamy could answer that. 

I'm pretty fast on the draw (pseudo change on day of invoice) plus I add zooms to the pseudo which sometimes come before sales.

[Foreign Export]

Alamy - I support your idea.

 

Does have a minor impact on some, for example i often use a different pseudo for news as I'm worried about dragging down the main pseudo CTR as news uploads often contain more images and of a similar subject

 

I also use  a pseudo for images that i don't want people to know are mine 

 

But overall your idea is sound and i can think of no major drawbacks to it - please press ahead

[wiskerke]

Maybe we want to write some of these for the team:

 

As a contributor I want to set up different collections with pseudonyms so that I can differentiate my images on offer.
As a contributor I want to hide my user name so that I can remain anonymous if I choose so.
As a contributor I want to set my own credit line so that I maximize the visibility of my brand(s).

 

for a correct format google: agile user story

 

wim

 

 

edit: photographers like to come up and are used to come up with solutions instantly. Agile teams don't like that.

[John Mitchell]

Maybe we want to write some of these for the team:

 

As a contributor I want to set up different collections with pseudonyms so that I can differentiate my images on offer.

As a contributor I want to hide my user name so that I can remain anonymous if I choose so.

As a contributor I want to set my own credit line so that I maximize the visibility of my brand(s).

 

for a correct format google: agile user story

 

wim

 

 

edit: photographers like to come up and are used to come up with solutions instantly. Agile teams don't like that.

 

Interesting. Had never heard of "user stories." The three that you devised cover the bases for me until we learn more from Alamy about this idea.

[Allan Bell]

 

I would not have a problem with this in theory, my only concern would be that there is at least one other contributor with exactly the same "real" name as myself, what if we both wanted to be known by that?

 

 

I have just fired off an email to Alamy MS before lunch with this same problem occurring for me already. The other contributors images show mixed with mine when I search for my images only by contributor name.

 

This makes it problematic as I wish to place links to my images in other places but do not want to have another contributors (with the same name) images show as well.

 

Thinks: Perhaps my email instigated this thread?

 

Allan

 

 

 

Two weeks on, and despite many emails between myself and MS over the matter of two contributors having the same name "Allan Bell" and both using it as their pseudonym it looks as though I am going to have to generate a new pseudo myself and have all my images moved over.

 

MS were very helpful through this period contacting the other "Allan Bell" a couple of times to ask if he would change his pseudo. It seems he was reluctant to to this even though he only has 131 or thereabouts images against my nearly 3000 images with Alamy.

 

A new pseudo would have a median ranking of course but do not know if that would be a help or a hinderance so not sure wether to go ahead or leave things as they are. Unfortunately my pseudo "Allan Bell" is the better ranked out of the two pseudos I have.

 

Or would it be better to have all my images in a new pseudo with a median rank?

 

Allan Bell (still the original one)