I found some photos on fotolia that i like and have not found on the other sites. Searching here, there is no mention of fotolia and it surprises me. Another forum does not have much mention of them either.
http://www.fotolia.com/

Are they legit? Are people avoiding the place for a reason?

this seems to be a sign to stay away from them

It's probably just not all that well marketed. It looks like a pretty nice service actually. I might check it out more on my next project.