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Posts
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Hi all, just got a PM from Leo regarding my post about my friend complimenting his coding. I asked if I could share his thoughts with you and he kindly gave me permission. For starters, Leo has no intention of walking away from this project and really never has. If anything he wants to go deeper and make this thing amazing. It seems he has been frustrated with how he finds himself spending his time and for a highly productive person who feels like he is spinning his wheels that is very agrevating. Although he didn’t go into much detail he definitely has a vision for what Symbiostock can be and desperately wants to make it that way.
My impression is that his passion for this thing is his greatest strength and also his greatest weakness. It’s hard to have perspective when you are as close to this as he is.
He has decided to step away from the forums for a bit and let the moderation team handle what needs to be done. They are a great team and doing a fantastic job. He is going to focus on building Symbiostock which in my mind is what he should be doing anyway. Although you may not hear much from him he is here and is listening.What we can do as site owners.
First of all – focus on our own sites, looks, SEO, and images. Improve Symbiostock by taking care of our own backyards and trust that the big issues are being handled. Because they are and will continue to be!
Second- Keep sharing ideas through discussion and debate. Don’t hold back and feel free to speak your mind. But also don’t be surprised if most of the responses come from the community and the moderators rather than from Leo.
Third- Slow down, this is not an agency and it needs time to develop, let it happen but don’t stop working. Keep updating and adding to your sites with the expectation that 6 months down the road things will be better than they are right now.
Finally- Be patient. Trust that there is a plan and that it is a good one. No one puts as much effort into something as Leo has without having a vision. I believe that vision is what will make this project work and blossom into something revolutionary.Hopefully this will give some perspective to what has changed in just 12 months.(going from memory here so forgive me if it’s off a bit)
Approx 12 Months ago – Google drive is in full debate and some relatively unknown contributor makes a post on MSG about how self hosting is really not that hard.
Approx 10 Months ago – This same contributor actually does what he says and releases a theme – for free!
Approx 9 months ago- Some more adventurous artists build their own sites based on this theme and start helping with the debugging.
Approx 8 months ago – The theme is simplified and streamlined so that an artist with no programming experience can actually build his own site that works and looks nice.
Approximately 6 months ago- Dragonfly is available so that customization is even easier.
Approx 5 months ago- enthusiasm peaks on MSG and the need for a new community forum is necessary.
Approx 4 months ago – new forum is created along with a new community.
Approx 1 month ago- focus is given to multi-language and forum is updated.170 sites have been built in the last 11 or so months. That is staggering when you think about it. This is just one year (a newborn baby would just be learning to walk right now). If this much change has happened in the first 12 months think about what 2014 has to offer.
I really believe that Symbiostock will be a major force in microstock in a few years and I also believe that anyone who is already a part of it or joins soon will reap many rewards for adopting the theme at an early stage. You can sense it in our forums and in this community. It is alive and thriving and for the most part it is surprisingly positive. Leo is going to spend some time remembering what he loves to do. When he does… look out, because look what he has done already.
Thanks Leo – I know you are listening.
Glad to hear you’ve heard from Leo and that he’s going to take some time away to regroup.
At the end of this month I’ll have been part of this project for 6 months. I have all sorts of ideas for things to do with my site to make it really my site – not just a clone of an agency site. Something I can be proud of as a way to showcase and sell my work.
And that’s the amazing thing – we can have a network of sites but we can each make our own choices. So it’s like one of those interesting Main Street/High Street shopping areas with masses of unique and interesting places to shop, as opposed to the homogenous big box chain stores where you know what you’re going to get because they’re all very similar. Smiling office team, handshake, jumping goldfish, handshake, handshake…. 🙂
Thanks Leo (and thanks to Dennis too)
I am delighted and relieved to hear that Leo will be continuing, this is too special a project to stop. Thanks for sharing Dennis, and welcome back to the moderation team Jo Ann.
I think it was January 2013 when I was looking at through the msg forums for something to dispell my increasing disillusionment with agencies who kept moving goal posts, reducing commissions, and generally caring less and less about the very people without whom they could not have a business in the first place. Much to my surprise I found it in a post from some guy named Leo, who like many before him was giving hope. In this unique occasion though the hope turned into reality and when in the final days of March when he released the first pre-beta I was really excited. Over the next few weeks there were often two or three releases a day and I think I had my first sale in april soon after going live, being awkward I wanted sales to be in my own currency as I think till then everyone was okay with dollars, I found some code online, no idea what to do with it but made me feel as if I might be helping instead of just asking for something 🙂
Those original ten or so have grown to around 170 in ten months, most with functioning sites and images in the network, I wonder what the next year will bring as there is enough knowledge now to really help each other out within the forums and leave Leo in peace to continue to create and develop his masterpiece, although I hope we will still see him here on occasion 🙂
What we might lack in funds for advertising I am sure we can make up with our drive and determination to make our own businesses succeed which in turn will bring in more artists and more customers as their choice grows
Enough rambling -just to say, thank you Leo for giving us all the opportunity to be truly independent
http://kerioakimaging.com - trying to reopen
http://nail-art-at.kerioak.com - Art and Nail ArtThanks a lot for your positive posts, Dennis, Jo Ann and Christine … what a relief after the last days … your words bring back my confidence in this great project !
I am relieved to read this. Symbiostock will thrive.
Now back to work on my site!
Great to hear the positive cheers. Perhaps a project like this has its own life. It breathes in and it must be given time to breathe out.
I would like to thank all of you in person who helped with my first confused steps towards building the website, when it was all a creative mess in my head, and it seemed completely impossible.
God, I did it!
At least it is up and running and although it needs to be improved in more than one way, I feel proud and happy about it. It is working!
One thing that I can see happening after just spending a couple of days working on SEO that I suddenly get several visits per day from google searches. Something is happening. Spring is in the air:-)
Thanks to you all – sorry, but I am so new I don’t remember who helped me with what.
And to Michele – you are doing a great job with Facebook and Twitter. My intention is to get going more in that area as well and retweet back.
Have a happy weekend all.
/Christina
@chromaco wrote:
Hi all, just got a PM from Leo regarding my post about my friend complimenting his coding. I asked if I could share his thoughts with you and he kindly gave me permission. For starters, Leo has no intention of walking away from this project and really never has. If anything he wants to go deeper and make this thing amazing. It seems he has been frustrated with how he finds himself spending his time and for a highly productive person who feels like he is spinning his wheels that is very agrevating. Although he didn’t go into much detail he definitely has a vision for what Symbiostock can be and desperately wants to make it that way.
My impression is that his passion for this thing is his greatest strength and also his greatest weakness. It’s hard to have perspective when you are as close to this as he is.
He has decided to step away from the forums for a bit and let the moderation team handle what needs to be done. They are a great team and doing a fantastic job. He is going to focus on building Symbiostock which in my mind is what he should be doing anyway. Although you may not hear much from him he is here and is listening.What we can do as site owners.
First of all – focus on our own sites, looks, SEO, and images. Improve Symbiostock by taking care of our own backyards and trust that the big issues are being handled. Because they are and will continue to be!
Second- Keep sharing ideas through discussion and debate. Don’t hold back and feel free to speak your mind. But also don’t be surprised if most of the responses come from the community and the moderators rather than from Leo.
Third- Slow down, this is not an agency and it needs time to develop, let it happen but don’t stop working. Keep updating and adding to your sites with the expectation that 6 months down the road things will be better than they are right now.
Finally- Be patient. Trust that there is a plan and that it is a good one. No one puts as much effort into something as Leo has without having a vision. I believe that vision is what will make this project work and blossom into something revolutionary.Hopefully this will give some perspective to what has changed in just 12 months.(going from memory here so forgive me if it’s off a bit)
Approx 12 Months ago – Google drive is in full debate and some relatively unknown contributor makes a post on MSG about how self hosting is really not that hard.
Approx 10 Months ago – This same contributor actually does what he says and releases a theme – for free!
Approx 9 months ago- Some more adventurous artists build their own sites based on this theme and start helping with the debugging.
Approx 8 months ago – The theme is simplified and streamlined so that an artist with no programming experience can actually build his own site that works and looks nice.
Approximately 6 months ago- Dragonfly is available so that customization is even easier.
Approx 5 months ago- enthusiasm peaks on MSG and the need for a new community forum is necessary.
Approx 4 months ago – new forum is created along with a new community.
Approx 1 month ago- focus is given to multi-language and forum is updated.170 sites have been built in the last 11 or so months. That is staggering when you think about it. This is just one year (a newborn baby would just be learning to walk right now). If this much change has happened in the first 12 months think about what 2014 has to offer.
I really believe that Symbiostock will be a major force in microstock in a few years and I also believe that anyone who is already a part of it or joins soon will reap many rewards for adopting the theme at an early stage. You can sense it in our forums and in this community. It is alive and thriving and for the most part it is surprisingly positive. Leo is going to spend some time remembering what he loves to do. When he does… look out, because look what he has done already.
Thanks Leo – I know you are listening.
Thank you for your post! I wish there was a “Like” button LOL! I share your sentiments!
Great to read all of these positive words, after the uncertainty of the last couple of weeks.
I look forward to having the time to build my site and help take this project forward.
Thanks to Leo and everyone who has given time an knowledge to make this dream a reality.
Jane 😀
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