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This might just be the most 'controversial' subject I have decided to address here in the Rant, Complain & Talk community. But it is a subject that I feel nobody is really considering to talk about, resulting in what I would consider to be a problem appearing here on Hive. Sure, there are always ways we could improve and do better as a community, and some of these ideas are down to preference and just general opinion. However, one particular part of Hive that I am noticing just seems to *really* bother me when I am roaming through the feeds and searching for something to check out and curate: stock images.

Many years ago I worked as a journalist in fintech and entertainment media. Any person familiar with that world would know that there is forever a big problem in how a publication can profit from and use media it does not *own*. Not to forget that the idea of content ownership and licensing is a massive problem on big platforms like YouTube where an algorithm actively seeks out uploads that might be breaching the idea of 'fair use' and reaching into copyright breaches. To solve this issue in journalism, these big publications will seek copyright free media or license content directly through a payment from one of many stock images/media websites.

For publications profiting from content and, well, being for-profit organisations, this is not really a problem to them. They are willing to spend money on hiring people to create media that they can use or license it from another. It makes sense to go this route to avoid the many legal issues that may come. With Hive, we have a fair system of considering how to approach these issues through downvotes and muting content in communities that may be breaching some of these copyright laws that may result in unwanted attention hitting the front-ends and witnesses.

I think, for the most part, we approached the idea of informing newcomers of how to go about posting here on Hive in a way that does not breach any of the community's rules and ensures these members stick around. But we got reliant on this idea of using stock images. Here on Hive we have a pretty relaxed idea of what content is to be considered valuable, because value is ultimately derived from those who may have an interest in that particular subject and its niche; one of my typical film reviews may be worth nothing to you, but worth something to another. That said, for me, I am starting to see so many posts using stock images that I am starting to value them less and less.

Hear me out: I am definitely not saying that they are *bad* posts. But I feel that in part of Hive's idea of pursuing good post presentation to increase the idea of value to a post is lost. We are all too reliant on stock images for our posts and it results in feeds that have very little standing out. Especially when such posts are then using the same stock images as others. Understandably there are situations in which a person may not have any other choice, but in many of these cases there could be more effort in that aspect of presentation. That is to fully say that I believe Hive posters could do a better job in that regard; taking their own images or creating their own thumbnails for posts. 

There are many that do this already, and I love seeing how creative some people get in their posts with it. I have seen people go to the lengths of animating their thumbnails or adding a photograph of themselves to it and thus giving the post title and thumbnail a boost in personality that ultimately says: "Hey, come and check this out! I'm here!"

And the outcome of this is that those people earn my attention and thus my curation. Those who use a typical stock image end up being filtered out in a sea of content that remains visually unappealing. And when so much of Hive's idea of value stems from creativity and giving the platform life that makes it stand out, why are we still encouraging people to not step up and out of this early Hive user phase? There are many instances where such posts could easily have their own images taken. Just step outside, take a few with your phone. Slap on a little text on the image; maybe edit it slightly. Push yourself into being more creative. 

Again, there are many instances where we might want to use images from another publication or source and thus link to them, which is completely understandable. But there is certainly areas where stock images just are not necessary. And the more I see it, and getting rather generously rewarded, the more I feel a bit disappointed in the community, because some of these posts truly do have potential to be great, but are just missing that aspect of personality that makes us remember that there's a person behind the account and it's that which promotes Hive.

In terms of my own posts: I will take images related to the subject I'm writing about. If I don't have any, I will use my own photography that I have taken or create something to use in Photoshop with a few lazy minutes spent. Definitely not on par with the effort others put in, admittedly. With my film posts, I tend to just take my own screenshots and use those in the posts, finding ways to make these key moments relevant to the post somehow. I never use stock images (this post was just begging for it, though) and actively avoid it. I find it kind of strange how popular photography is here as well, yet we still see a mixture of people posting their own photography and using stock images. 

So, I actually want to ask those of you that read this: does the heavy use of stock images in posts bother you as well? Are you likely to value a post that has a specialised thumbnail made for it more than a post that uses stock images? And lastly: if you use stock images, what has stopped you from making your own images instead? I am sure there are some people that have valid reasons for doing so. Perhaps I am missing something here.