Would you trust a stock photo?

NO, i do not trust on them

That depends what they use such photo for. If they need a generic photo i.e. to show off a certain product range, it's ok to use Stock photos, even though today there are much better ones availabe on Google (watch out for © Copyright'ed pictures!). But if someone uses a Stockphoto as a profile picture pretending it was them, then i definitely would not trust that person with anything, as it may be false and fake as the photo itself!

Joe na definitely not you.

I know this for a fact... at least I'm not the one you're referring to, Bruce...!

I won't name names but honestly there is someone who is HIGHLY active on apsense that CLAIMS to be well known - yet the trouble is I have never seen this person off apsense on any social network nor have I seen them actively promote anything and when invited into ANY business they have the reason of "you don't want the trouble that follows me me" for not joining... so I became suspicious of this person and started doing a background check..... their photo is a stock photo available on any number

A stock photo in what is a social site shouldn't be confused with a logo which makes it easy to identify your company elsewhere, but ha anyone ever seen a logo for a Donald Trump company?

no, never, before analyse the actual stock

If you are working to earn my trust and business don't use a stock photo. If a person wrote a great article I may want to see a picture, what do I know Ray kroc used a golden M to brand his business.

@Xavier, are you using a fake / stock photo to protect from spam??

Yes, To Protect from spam and make user friendly search.

I belong to another business social networking site and the OWNER used a stock photo, so go figure.

Now how about the spam in the previous post, coming straight at us, without even adding some value to the issue Bruce raised?!

However, as for a stock picture issue... Is it perhaps possible that people join APSense under some misguided idea that it's similar to a traffic exchange and not a social site? ...or perhaps they're not all that serious about their business, having just started out with internet marketing, either thinking it's going to be a piece of pie (easy) or just testing the wate

No I would not. However photos can be a grey area, there are people that use real pictures but of different people from themselves, I don't like that, nor animals, cartoons and the like. Yes we are all different, but is about branding yourself. Agree with Paula.

No, they annoy me and I ignore them The purpose of social networking is connecting with people that can develop later in a friendship or even partnership. In my opinion people that hide between a stock photo and have no contact info that can be checked are best to be ignored in my opinion.