I got Skippy the Hamster too, when I tried to spend my credits... It seems that "Darn it!" is all we can say.

I liked the idea of sending the non-payed values to a charity, but in truth, if they can't pay the members, I don't believe they're able to do charity at this point either.

Any feedback on if Bryan is willing to sell the company?

I've also been wondering (maybe I should open another topic)... LO was the first company to defend the concept of midstock... now that they're closing, what's to think about MidStock? A reality or a model that simply can't work in the long term?

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Before we pack away are dark mourning suits let's start a lottery on which site is next to fall. My bet is on snapvillage. I have almost no activity there despite their advertising (crappy IMHO) the last few months. Maybe that's just me tho.

Whomever is watching that site from upper management has got to realize that they need to do something else fairly soon. In my experience management in a larger company will pull the plug sooner than a place like LO where the principal guy has everything invested himself.

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No highly unlikely SV will go down. theres too much crap keeping it afloat , more likely Albummer will be nxt to go down the toilet.

Quite possibly. I can't definitively say "yes" or "no," but from what little I hear, I think it's a definite possibility.

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While I have no reason to disagree with your business logic, I suspect that SV is grinding away slowly towards their active entry into the market. Keep in mind that they call their site "beta" and only started promoting in March.

Sometimes a big corporation can take a slow approach and might have a budget and scheduling for a "plan", where profits aren't projected until the second or third year. July is one year for SV.

Small budget, small companies, need to strike and make a profit faster, because they are dependent on the speed of growth. Big corporations can sometimes take the slow but steady approach because they are pressured to produce or perish, for financial reasons.

So even though I'm looking at this from a different perspective, I don't see yours as being wrong. It's just another possibility. What it comes down to, is which way the BOD will look at the division, and how much time they have allocated for that investment to start earning, or they cut their losses and close it down.

I pick Albumo as next to close down, but there are others that are so dormant that no one will notice if they disappear. Nothing against the site, but they had to pay a bunch for all the photos with the program they used to build the portfolio fast, and they don't seem to be attracting much in sales to cover that investment.

Albumo has a greater risk of running out of money than some quiet little site that can go on attracting nearly no one, offers free photos that don't have any downloads, and no sales to speak of, for 2 1/2 years. Because the quiet site has a low overhead.

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Race,
SV may be, as you say, "grinding away..." But I don't recall any successful company gaining entry into a growing market so slowly with so many major missteps. And when was the last time a "beta" version has been exposed to users for so long? If they are taking a "slow approach" to a market entry like microstock they are going against all the business sense that I've learned. All that does is burn money and opportunity.

As to their advertising my initial evaluation remains the same. Absolute crap. Can anyone see any possible reason to click onto their site? Where other sites mostly offer some compelling reasons to check them out in their advertising, SV has none. No, I'll still pick SV as the next to bite the dust. One of these days the reality of the market will make it up the chain of command to whomever is in the plug-pulling chair. It's obvious that the top guns there have no ego involvement.

You pick Albumo to be the next to fold. You may be right--they may simply run out of money faster than SV or decide to go out and get a real job.

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Just got my first sale in 2 weeks at the big O. Not going to make payout so it doesn't do me any good. Anyone deleting their port? I've got too many there to do it one at a time. Not sure what to do.

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I have been trying to delete my photos. However it only shows the reduced number, all my photos are still showing online. I will email support to ask them to delete my account.

If LO files for bankruptcy protection or the creditors petition it for bankruptcy, the database might be frozen.

I suspect our portfolios are temporarily frozen in order to give buyers a chance to use their tokens. They already paid for them, so it only makes sense to let them spend their money on what they expected when they purchased them...a full database. I know that probably doesn't seem fair to us as photographers, but imagine how pissed off the buyers would be if suddenly half the database was gone. It would probably lead to a lawsuit or two.

Trust me...Bryan is a fair guy. Whatever the reasoning is behind the frozen portfolios, I'm sure it's a good one. And I'm also sure when May 15th rolls around, we can request to be paid. He's been extremely good with me about following through whenever I've asked to be paid early or doing whatever it is I've needed. He's never once not done something I requested. Never.

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I didn't see that in the blog, can you post the quote?

The closest I saw was that you could mail support to get your earnings converted to tokens - tokens to spend on other photog's pictures from a site that closing down, what a bargain!

Everyone keeps saying how fair and honest Bryan is but this is really my first experience of dealing with him and I'm not impressed.

• The LO contributor agreement says that if LO terminate the agreement they pay out outstanding earnings.
• In the notice about closing the site he says: 'Carnies who have reached the minimum payout must request payout by May 15th. Carnies who have not reached the minimum payout can convert their earnings to tokens by contacting support.'.

This doesn't smack as honesty and fairness to me...

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