MicrostockGroup

Below is from FAQ.

Why are you restricting the number of uploads to my account?
In order to manage the number and quality of images that are submitted to the Approval Queue, we have to place some restrictions on uploading. These have been revised as of May 2009.

If you are uploading good quality images, that are marketable, you will have no limits generally. But if you upload a lot of images and delete them (this wastes bandwidth and server space) or you submit a lot of images that are low quality or not very marketable, you will have some restrictions, which will be removed if you take the time to learn what is going wrong with some of your images and how to improve your shots.

These are the current upload retrictions that you might run into, updated May 2009:

New users with less than 15 total approved images are limited to 15 images in the Admin Approval Queue at a time
Users with an approval percentage of 50% or less are limited to 10 images in the Approval Queue at a time
Users with an approval percentage of 70% or less are limited to 20 images in the Approval Queue at a time
Users with an approval percentage of 85% or less are limited to 40 images in the Approval Queue at a time
Users with an approval percentage of 92% or less are limited to 50 images in the Approval Queue at a time
Users with higher than 92% approval percentage have no limit.

Images that are uploaded and deleted will also lower your rating. Deleted images count the same as declined images.
An approval rating of 50% means that half of your images were approved, and the other half were deleted by you or denied. A rating of 95% means one out of twenty images is not approved. So it's a ratio of approved images compared to all images that were approved, deleted or denied.

Remember, uploading images and deleting them affects your rating too, so please take some care not to upload images you don't intend to submit. Thanks again.

It's about time they did something to lessen the queue.  Everytime I upload a batch  I have had dozens of sales on other sites before they are even looked at by BS.

I asked customer support do delete couple hundred files from my queue (at first a did not have IPTC data)  and then I learned that it will affect my acceptance ratio. So now I am *removed coarse language* up cause this will never expire and I have to get same amount images approved to even reach 50%.

And here I thought this was just to punish me. I deleted over 100 images a while back because they didn't sell vectors when I originally uploaded, then they did. I also recently tried to get them to replace some of my original thumbnails because their first thumbnail generation for vectors was garbage. After a few back and forth emails, they said that they couldn't replace the thumbnails and recommended I delete the files and reupload them. I guess it's good I just left them because that would have really dug a hole for me. 

**Your Approval Rating:  93.87%

So, I can upload as many as I wish ;-)

I do not have a problem with any site setting upload limits and making rules for us photographers to follow. Which we should and cooperate with the site. It is best for all concerned.

However I do have a problem when they set the rules for US to follow and they do not follow THEIR rules.

Example: From my port on BigStock.

Upload Summary
Approved:  2,148 ***
*Denied/Deleted:184
Waiting Approval:0
Pending Your Edit:0
Total:2,332
 
**Your Approval Rating: 92.11%

**Approval Rating (experimental): an overall status on your photos you've submitted in the last 90 days.

***NOTE: This is the accurate number of approved images in the Admin Queue database, but it may not be the same as the BigStock photo search database, since the latter is updated only twice daily.

This is the rule that BigStock does not follow:
**Approval Rating (experimental): an overall status on your photos you've submitted in the last 90 days.

If BigStock followed their rule of 90 days my approval rating would be 100% (Last 90 days - 21 uploads and no deletes. = 100% approved. Yet my approval rating is only 92.11%

If BigStock followed this rule they made many of the persons posting before me would no longer have a problem as the problem would have been fixed automatically in 90 days.

I'm not knocking BigStock as they are my favorite site (for many reasons) I just wish they would listen to their contributors more offten and make corrections to benefit all.

Just my .02 cents.
-Larry

I was struck by the fact that deletions count against us, too.  I had just decided yesterday I was going to go through my DT and BigStock portfolios and clean them up, and now I'm darn glad I didn't start deleting at BigStock.  So...unless they remove deleted files from the percentage calculations, I'll have to leave my old crummy stuff in their archives.  No way am I going to shoot myself in the foot when I'm just a few percentage points away from unlimited uploading! 

Plus, I would be over 92% had it not been for the blanket rejection of 50+ images for a minor issue on the model releases that could have been easily ignored.  I had maintained a 90%+ acceptance rate for almost 3 years up until that point.  Grrrrr.

Really?  In over 3 years, I've never noticed that before.  I just did at BigStock though...deleted two images from the queue that are being rejected elsewhere primarily for "too many on site", and my percentage dropped by .05%.  I can live with that, because it's so rare that I ever delete anything before approval. 

What I'm having an issue with are images that have been online for a year or two or three that I would like to remove, because they are not reflective of my current skills.  Improving the archives and our own portfolios by pruning dead wood should not count against us.

I'd also like to see the sites with upload limits shorten the duration counted in the percentage.  At DT, my acceptance rate is 77.3% over the course of 3 1/2 years.  However, over this past year it is 91%.  Big improvement! 

Having been a reviewer and seeing the ridiculous amount of garbage that comes through the queue, I definitely support the need for upload limits.  I just want them to be fair and reflective of the photographer's current work.  Like so many others in the beginning of microstock, I barely even knew how to use a camera and had a steep learning curve.  In three years I have grown into a fairly decent photographer, and I would like my upload limits to reflect the hard work I've put into photography instead of reflecting my start as a true amateur.

travis, ...into rejections, you mean ! yes, i agree.  especially for BigStock . they tend to work slowly with sales unlike other sites that sells straight off like SS.  the first time i requested deleted of a whole stack of my work, they actually told me to leave me. i told them that was crazy as there were no sales at all.
but i left it, and voila , the sales came. i couldn't believe why anyone was able to locate such old images, but that was just the way it is with BigStock.  i do sell quickly for some new images, but it seems i sell more of my oldest image. i cannot explain that, maybe they rotate or something.

also going back to Karimala. i like the idea of getting rid of dead images too. you could rework on them and resubmit with a fresh look. but all this takes up your time as well, which could be better spent in making new images and uploading them. what do you think?

The issue with deleting old work is that some people take this microstock stuff as a business and it's hard to brand yourself with 4 year old work on your "portfolio."  I have another photography business and you can BET there's no 4 year old work on my website.  We show new, current stuff to get jobs.  We want to show new, current stuff in micro too so buyers bookmark us, favorite us, etc. and come back time & again to our folio.

well said lcjtripod.  the fact that the old excess images didn't sell really says nothing that the new ones won't. to reject the new images based on this premise is counterproductive.  delete the old and accept the new. now you won't have too many.

Great news!

Even better if they can make it retroactive and help the people in the past that made errors or errors were made by the upload process. (non valid .jpg) I bet I have had a hundred of those deletes.

Thanks Tim (BigStock)

-Larry