I have to admit to have been somewhat surprised and overwhelmed by the response to the Stock Images community. What I envisioned as a casual meeting place for image creators and those requiring stock images has become so much bigger than I expected and the support for it has been amazing. I've had several people approach me and say how much they appreciate what we're doing here and even a generous donation of Hive from @keuudeip just last week. After some deliberation I've decided to power it up for the community as a whole.

This community has a bit of a different dynamic to the ones I'm used to, where members come together on a shared interest, so I've been a bit unsure how to move forward in the best way for the community. With the help of @crosheille, I feel I've found a kind of rhythm with the posts coming in from image creators each day and being able to curate and reward them with the help of @OCD and @curangel. However, there is another side to this equation, that being the Hivers who might use the images and this is what I want to start moving forward with next.

They are just as valuable to this community and we want to encourage and be able to show appreciation for them too (after all, with no-one using the images, the creators sharing them end up being somewhat redundant). We plan to do this in two ways. Firstly we want to support and reward those who are already using Hiver images and crediting them. We will do this by leaving a tip on their post and leaving a comment letting them know what the tip is for. In the future, hopefully our vote will increase enough to be able to support them from a curation perspective as well.

We also want to alert people who are using stock images to this community, particularly if they are using similar images to ones we currently have indexed. We will do this by leaving a comment on their post, asking them if they've heard about the community yet and guiding them to the index and introduction/about posts.

Naturally, we also want to build the Hive Power of the account, so that it can start to give better reward with its vote. Currently @crosheille and myself, @minismallholding, are using our own votes and even then we wouldn't have gotten very far if we hadn't had the big curators’ support.

If you want to help in any way, we'd love to have more pairs of eyes out there. Let us know if you find Hivers who are using Hive Stock Images or who are using the type of stock images you know we have here. If you use a stock image from another Hiver, tag your post using #stockshares so we get an alert, or use it in a comment if you come across someone who is using one.

Do you want to start contributing to the Hive Stock Index? Please first read About Stock Images and Important Information.

Are you looking for specific stock images to use? Please view the Stock Images Main index where you can search by genre. This will be updated periodically as more images are added.

_{Many thanks to @lifeskills-tv for the image and adding the banner. Also thanks to @sitaru for the Hive bee image we use and @thepeakstudio for the divider. They will all be beneficiaries of this post.}