Author Topic: Introduction and an update on Symbiostock (Read 28932 times)

cathyslife · « **Reply #25 on:** April 30, 2015, 09:36 »

Quote from: Shelma1 on April 30, 2015, 09:08

Absolutely true. And I think (among many other reasons) this is why many people are disappointed by it. If Symbiostock had been sold here simply as a WordPress theme that allows you to process, watermark and sell your own images, and sales and marketing are up to you, much angst could have been avoided. But the developers, and now there are several, keep pitching this as something much more.

I appreciate all the effort everyone's put into it, but it's time to be honest and say this is a theme. When it comes to sales you're on your own.

Ditto. The networking part of it was a great idea, but it just didn't work.

r2d2 · « **Reply #27 on:** April 30, 2015, 10:26 »

And why is Leo leaving Symbiostock and let us photographers alone with this anonymous censoring Robin?

Sorry i can not understood Robin and Leo (in another way) too. There is a bad information management on both sites.

[email protected] · « **Reply #28 on:** April 30, 2015, 10:49 »

Leo did not like the direction things were going. It became clear that symbiosis was no longer part of the plan. Trust me Leo was not terribly happy about handing over 3 years of hard work. He simply could not be part of what the new vision was becoming so he chose to leave. I have no idea how the final result came to be ironed out, or why things ultimately wound up being divided the way they were. Not really any of my business, nevertheless this is what we are left with and I am trying to make the best of it. I'll admit that I am indeed an illustrator but I have legacy sites too, and I'm fairly excited with how things are progressing from my perspective.

Semmick Photo · « **Reply #29 on:** April 30, 2015, 11:18 »

The community aspect died because the project was abandoned. Not the other way around.

NandoPhoto · « **Reply #30 on:** April 30, 2015, 11:27 »

Quote from: [email protected] on April 30, 2015, 10:12

FWIW the grfx.co community is open to all image producers regardless of your media.

Please can you clarify? From the other threads and the update notice in my Legacy site (in bold), I was quite convinced that it was for illustrators only, and only if the quality of work was up to grfx.co standards?

[email protected] · « **Reply #31 on:** April 30, 2015, 11:32 »

Hi Ron, to a certain degree you are right. But abandoned might be a bit of a strong word. Once the theme became stable it really didn't require a whole lot of care. I think how you are defining "abandoned" might be more correctly categorized as a lack of improvements. And there were a lot of improvement requests. At one point just before Leo finally "broke" I believe there were close to 20 in one day. Every one of those suggestions would have been nice to have for one or two site owners but really wouldn't have benefited 95% of the community. On top of that there was an expectation that these improvements should be free. It just didn't work and Leo in his unique way of communicating expressed his frustration. Once development was stable and the improvements stopped there was very little to talk about other than how the theme doesn't work and the most interesting threads were us site owners bickering among ourselves. I have been guilty of that myself, not my finest hour and I regret some of my comments as well.

But we are moving forward. We have learned some of what caused progress to stall and result in the community becoming less active. I am trying to address these issues and keep it from happening again.

cascoly · « **Reply #33 on:** April 30, 2015, 12:57 »

corw --

thanks for the extensive comments and the important confirmation that leo will support legacy symbiostock sites as necessary

while it's true the code is available to anyone, unfortunately it is not well documented, so it's difficult for others to try to debug; fortunately there's been no need for that as yet

I have no problem with robin moving forward with a new version, and initially my questions were all related to how we could move our sites to the new site; but robin refused to answer even the most basic of questions; he started by deleting posts he didn't like, and now he's censoring the forum and blocking users. his choice, his loss.

however, all symbiostock site owners should be concerned about robin's false claim to a trademark for the word 'symbiostock' - all robin needs to do is change the name - like leo has done with grfx. then existing symbiostock sites would not need to worry and we can all get on with trying to sell images

r2d2 · « **Reply #34 on:** April 30, 2015, 14:41 »

Crow thank you for your explainations!

Quote from: [email protected] on April 30, 2015, 11:41

This is a good question:
Due to contractual obligations the hosting platform at grfx is indeed for illustrators, and yes probably for those who understand their market.

Thats the point these mysterious obligations. Why signing such a contract?

Quote from: cascoly on April 30, 2015, 12:57

however, all symbiostock site owners should be concerned about robin's false claim to a trademark for the word 'symbiostock' - all robin needs to do is change the name - like leo has done with grfx. then existing symbiostock sites would not need to worry and we can all get on with trying to sell images

It's actually quite simple, either he has a trademark registered or not.
From his behavior (blocking, ignoring, censoring) I conclude that he has no rights for the trademark symbiostock. And as you said Cascoly is the name "symbiostock" in use since a few years and therefore not protectable (i hope!).

klsbear · « **Reply #35 on:** April 30, 2015, 18:47 »

Robin may or may not have filed an application for a trademark on the name but in the U.S. it takes about four to six months to go through the process before you are granted a registration number and there are opportunities to challenge it as well. I'm not familiar with international filing but presumably he would want to file in multiple countries since Symbiostock is in use internationally.

Shelma1 · « **Reply #36 on:** April 30, 2015, 19:06 »

Yes, trademark is a lengthy process. And even if he's applied for a trademark, it could very well be denied because an internet search will turn up many websites already using that name. To apply for a trademark in many countries would also be expensive, I'm assuming. It's one of the first things I suggested when I joined Symbiostock, and the idea was roundly rejected.

marthamarks · « **Reply #37 on:** April 30, 2015, 19:22 »

Quote from: [email protected] on April 30, 2015, 11:41

The converter plugin works for anyone with a legacy site but does not at this point handle model releases.

So you're saying… a photographer like me — with a SYS "legacy" site and no need for model releases, because I shoot wildlife and landscapes, not people — actually could switch to grfx?

I removed the name "Symbiostock" from my site last year, so nothing would have to change in that regard.

farbled · « **Reply #38 on:** April 30, 2015, 19:30 »

Quote from: marthamarks on April 30, 2015, 19:22

Quote from: [email protected] on April 30, 2015, 11:41
The converter plugin works for anyone with a legacy site but does not at this point handle model releases.

So you're saying… a photographer like me — with a SYS "legacy" site and no need for model releases, because I shoot wildlife and landscapes, not people — actually could switch to grfx?

I removed the name "Symbiostock" from my site last year, so nothing would have to change in that regard.

I did. And I'm finding the woocommerce stuff interesting (my site is photominingstock.com). There are still lots I'm learning to do so its not entirely a cakewalk though (for me at least). But everyone is helpful. What I did was a second install of WP and just played with it for a bit. Then when I felt comfortable I converted my "real" site.

marthamarks · « **Reply #39 on:** April 30, 2015, 20:04 »

Quote from: farbled on April 30, 2015, 19:30

Quote from: marthamarks on April 30, 2015, 19:22
Quote from: [email protected] on April 30, 2015, 11:41
The converter plugin works for anyone with a legacy site but does not at this point handle model releases.

So you're saying… a photographer like me — with a SYS "legacy" site and no need for model releases, because I shoot wildlife and landscapes, not people — actually could switch to grfx?

I removed the name "Symbiostock" from my site last year, so nothing would have to change in that regard.

I did. And I'm finding the woocommerce stuff interesting (my site is photominingstock.com). There are still lots I'm learning to do so its not entirely a cakewalk though (for me at least). But everyone is helpful. What I did was a second install of WP and just played with it for a bit. Then when I felt comfortable I converted my "real" site.

Thank you, Farbled!

I remember your website from SYS and was impressed with your work. And now I appreciate hearing about your experience with the transition.

This is the direction I'm leaning toward, too. So maybe a few (at least) of us 'togs will wind up there to keep one another company.

farbled · « **Reply #40 on:** April 30, 2015, 20:19 »

Quote from: marthamarks on April 30, 2015, 20:04

Quote from: farbled on April 30, 2015, 19:30
Quote from: marthamarks on April 30, 2015, 19:22
Quote from: [email protected] on April 30, 2015, 11:41
The converter plugin works for anyone with a legacy site but does not at this point handle model releases.

So you're saying… a photographer like me — with a SYS "legacy" site and no need for model releases, because I shoot wildlife and landscapes, not people — actually could switch to grfx?

I removed the name "Symbiostock" from my site last year, so nothing would have to change in that regard.

I did. And I'm finding the woocommerce stuff interesting (my site is photominingstock.com). There are still lots I'm learning to do so its not entirely a cakewalk though (for me at least). But everyone is helpful. What I did was a second install of WP and just played with it for a bit. Then when I felt comfortable I converted my "real" site.

Thank you, Farbled!

I remember your website from SYS and was impressed with your work. And now I appreciate hearing about your experience with the transition.

This is the direction I'm leaning toward, too. So maybe a few (at least) of us 'togs will wind up there to keep one another company.

Absolutely.

Shoot me a PM or catch me over there if you like. Happy to help!

Photobomb · « **Reply #41 on:** April 30, 2015, 20:41 »

I don't understand why the site needs some function for Model Releases. Legacy Symbio doesn't. If you have model released images add the Text "Model Released' to your copy.

cascoly · « **Reply #42 on:** April 30, 2015, 21:17 »

Quote from: klsbear on April 30, 2015, 18:47

Robin may or may not have filed an application for a trademark on the name but in the U.S. it takes about four to six months to go through the process before you are granted a registration number and there are opportunities to challenge it as well. I'm not familiar with international filing but presumably he would want to file in multiple countries since Symbiostock is in use internationally.

all true -- however here's what robin CLAIMS (from his trademark page when that section was still available online):

2. Intellectual Property Rights. The Programs and each of their components are owned by Symbiostock and are protected under copyright law and under other laws as applicable. Title to the Programs and any component, or to any copy, modification, or merged portion shall remain with Symbiostock, subject to the applicable license. The “Symbiostock” trademark and the “Hummingbird” logo are trademarks of Symbiostock.

when questioned whether he had actually registered the trademark, robin refused to answer, and no trademark has been registered in the US.

cascoly · « **Reply #43 on:** April 30, 2015, 21:20 »

Quote from: farbled on April 30, 2015, 19:30

....
I did. And I'm finding the woocommerce stuff interesting (my site is photominingstock.com). There are still lots I'm learning to do so its not entirely a cakewalk though .....

what parts of woocommerce did you find useful? I did a simple install of grfx to confirm that it works for photos, but haven't gotten much farther -- in particular, does woo make selling prints or other physical products any easier?

also, what theme did you use? I installed with storefront, but it has too many non-image distractions

farbled · « **Reply #44 on:** April 30, 2015, 21:29 »

Quote from: cascoly on April 30, 2015, 21:20

Quote from: farbled on April 30, 2015, 19:30
....
I did. And I'm finding the woocommerce stuff interesting (my site is photominingstock.com). There are still lots I'm learning to do so its not entirely a cakewalk though .....

what parts of woocommerce did you find useful? I did a simple install of grfx to confirm that it works for photos, but haven't gotten much farther -- in particular, does woo make selling prints or other physical products any easier?

also, what theme did you use? I installed with storefront, but it has too many non-image distractions

I like the product layouts and ease of customizing (currencies, etc). They already have a zillion paid and free plugins that seem to solve most tweaks I wanted to do. I'm still working through what I want vs. what I need, and it is pretty straightforward. I'm using a free theme called dazzling (I think there's a link on the bottom of my site) after trying about a half dozen free themes. Its not where I want it yet, but its getting there. I'm more concerned about my content and getting it optimized.

marthamarks · « **Reply #45 on:** April 30, 2015, 21:32 »

Quote from: cascoly on April 30, 2015, 21:20

Quote from: farbled on April 30, 2015, 19:30
....
I did. And I'm finding the woocommerce stuff interesting (my site is photominingstock.com). There are still lots I'm learning to do so its not entirely a cakewalk though .....

what parts of woocommerce did you find useful? I did a simple install of grfx to confirm that it works for photos, but haven't gotten much farther -- in particular, does woo make selling prints or other physical products any easier?

also, what theme did you use? I installed with storefront, but it has too many non-image distractions

Good questions, Steve. I've been wondering if any theme will do, or if some definitely will not work, or if some work better than others.

Also, I'm glad to know you tested it with photos. Assume it did work okay, since you didn't flag any problem with that.

Gonna go check out Woo Commerce right now.

shotupdave · « **Reply #46 on:** May 03, 2015, 05:33 »

Quote from: cascoly on April 30, 2015, 21:17

Quote from: klsbear on April 30, 2015, 18:47
Robin may or may not have filed an application for a trademark on the name but in the U.S. it takes about four to six months to go through the process before you are granted a registration number and there are opportunities to challenge it as well. I'm not familiar with international filing but presumably he would want to file in multiple countries since Symbiostock is in use internationally.

all true -- however here's what robin CLAIMS (from his trademark page when that section was still available online):

2. Intellectual Property Rights. The Programs and each of their components are owned by Symbiostock and are protected under copyright law and under other laws as applicable. Title to the Programs and any component, or to any copy, modification, or merged portion shall remain with Symbiostock, subject to the applicable license. The “Symbiostock” trademark and the “Hummingbird” logo are trademarks of Symbiostock.

when questioned whether he had actually registered the trademark, robin refused to answer, and no trademark has been registered in the US.

I was watching the conversation between you are Robin, and it was you that way over board on your comments. I was going to log on and tell you that you were way off base on your comments and your attitude. And your claim about him not registering it because you can not find it in the US copyright office. What if h registered in his home country. You are making claims and asking questions that really are none of your business. How about letting the man bring out the SW before the criticism starts. This is the same kind of attitude that drove away Leo.

cascoly · « **Reply #47 on:** May 03, 2015, 13:05 »

Quote from: shotupdave on May 03, 2015, 05:33

Quote from: cascoly on April 30, 2015, 21:17
Quote from: klsbear on April 30, 2015, 18:47
Robin may or may not have filed an application for a trademark on the name but in the U.S. it takes about four to six months to go through the process before you are granted a registration number and there are opportunities to challenge it as well. I'm not familiar with international filing but presumably he would want to file in multiple countries since Symbiostock is in use internationally.

all true -- however here's what robin CLAIMS (from his trademark page when that section was still available online):

2. Intellectual Property Rights. The Programs and each of their components are owned by Symbiostock and are protected under copyright law and under other laws as applicable. Title to the Programs and any component, or to any copy, modification, or merged portion shall remain with Symbiostock, subject to the applicable license. The “Symbiostock” trademark and the “Hummingbird” logo are trademarks of Symbiostock.

when questioned whether he had actually registered the trademark, robin refused to answer, and no trademark has been registered in the US.

I was watching the conversation between you are Robin, and it was you that way over board on your comments. I was going to log on and tell you that you were way off base on your comments and your attitude. And your claim about him not registering it because you can not find it in the US copyright office. What if h registered in his home country. You are making claims and asking questions that really are none of your business. How about letting the man bring out the SW before the criticism starts. This is the same kind of attitude that drove away Leo.

hilarious! you say it's none of our business when somebody no one knows jumps in, refuses to identify himself, and then stakes a claim to the work that dozens of people have done over 2 years??? it's none of our business what the new software he's peddling is going to cost?? it's none of our business that the terms for hosting our software can be changed at any time???

and, it's a TRADEMARK not a copyright issue -- you can't copyright a name; true, the name be registered in another country - I never said otherwise - I only said it was NOT registered in the US and asked for clarification, since robin IS CLAIMING he has a registered trademark. only response is silence

Tryingmybest · « **Reply #48 on:** May 03, 2015, 14:18 »

Sounds great. I hope for the best.

Quote from: Robin@Symbiostock on March 22, 2015, 19:43

Hey guys,

I'm going to be your Symbiostock liaison from now on so don't hesitate to throw me questions if you have any. We'll be updating you as releases are made but I wanted to let you all know that me and Leo are extremely excited about some of the things we are doing with Symbiostock.

We're hoping that with your continued support and involvement, we will be able to not only enhance Symbiostock's current offering, but really expand its reach so that you can even use the system to generate sales and find customers at a level that competes with large microstock companies.

I have been a contributor for a long time, but am still somewhat new to the Symbiostock community so I'll be relying on you guys for a little guidance at times. I will keep you updated on release dates as we near launch, and again, throw me any questions you have and I'll do my best to answer them.

All the best,
Robin.

shotupdave · « **Reply #49 on:** May 03, 2015, 14:58 »

Why does he have to introduce himself as long as the sw works? If Leo transferred the intellectual properities to Robin, any future SW is his property, any other sw that was written and put into use still is open public source. And yes you can trademark a name that is unique, you cannot trademark a common word.

Don't like him or his software, don't use it, plain and simple. No one is forcing you to change.

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Author Topic: Introduction and an update on Symbiostock (Read 28932 times)

cathyslife

[email protected]

r2d2

[email protected]

Semmick Photo

NandoPhoto

[email protected]

[email protected]

cascoly

r2d2

klsbear

Shelma1

marthamarks

farbled

marthamarks

farbled

Photobomb

cascoly

cascoly

farbled

marthamarks

shotupdave

cascoly

Tryingmybest

shotupdave

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