Model Mayhem, favorite among many creatives, has recently redefined its membership structure. Starting from this month, they have limited many perks they used to offer with the free account. This, in a way, forces you to pay for membership, at least if you want to reach more people and find more work. While this move is promoted as an “improvement,” it’s not how photographers and models see it. Negative feedback comes from all over the place, and many photographers are reevaluating their decision to use this website further.
Before the restructuring, Model Mayhem was mostly free and open social network for photographers, models, make-up artists, wardrobe stylists and other creatives to connect and cooperate. For example, one of the changes they’ve implemented to the free account is entirely canceling the messages you can send out of your network. Before this, you were able to send five messages to people out of your friends’ list. This new limitation means that you either need to subscribe for Premium or VIP membership, or send a friend request, wait for the response, and then send the message.
On the other hand, it affects paying members, too. They can send the messages, but they can’t receive messages from free members any longer before they befriend them on MM. Also, artists can’t exchange experiences and get references about models or photographers. All this raises another issue – security. I suppose you don’t want to add everyone as friends simply in order to exchange messages. As for the prices, Premium account costs $6 a month, and VIP comes with a price of $10 a month. Now, it’s not that this is too expensive and unaffordable. But if you used to have something for free and now you have to pay to get it – why would you do it?
Personally, I find things like this very annoying. I’ve seen it in tons of apps and websites I’m using, and it’s always getting on my nerves. Of course, sometimes you get all you need with free accounts, only in smaller amounts. But changes Model Mayhem made are limiting, and they basically force you to pay if you want to benefit from having the account. I’ve heard many photographers rant about the change and trying to find alternatives to Model Mayhem. Frankly, I can understand them. What about you guys? Do you still plan to use MM with the free account, will you be upgrading, or find a new way of connecting with models and other artists? Share your thoughts in the comments. [via FStoppers]
