MicrostockGroup

You've gotta keep your sense of humour - congrats.
This 'inconsistency' has been going on for far longer than microl.

Borderline images always can go either way.  People aren't robots.

One reviewer thinks it has poor lighting, the other doesn't. It's so often just luck of the draw and not just with ss.

Either that or decided why have 2 of the same thing and the one with the graphic is more marketable.  I think the wrong button is often pressed and usually the lighting button.  I had the same thing, involving an isolated version version of a rejected picture - the truth is the background on the non-isolated version was pure crap.

At Shutterstock images are uploaded in batches or groups, rather than piecemeal, and submitted all together.  Each batch is reviewed at the same time, by presumably the same person.  Doesn't work the same as it does on Istock. 

I have the same experience at iStock. I submitted two photos which were shot within a few seconds in the same setting, except the model was laughing in one and serious in another. One was rejected for lighting and the other accepted.

Here's an IS rejection. Borderline which way?  I always laugh at the either or rejections or some with multiple reasons that contradict themselves.

The execution of isolation contains stray areas that are either too feathered or rough.

Or maybe both?

Yesterday I had twelve acceptances and four rejections. The four rejections were all for "date must be in the correct format - month date year" (ONLY), yet all 16 had the format date month, year, as all my others have, and as Sirimo said in the opening Caption thread: "Date data might be 'month date year" or "date month year" or in rare circumstances where the specific date isn't known just "month year" - so that shouldn't even be a choosable rejection reason. I haven't had any unfair caption rejections for a while, so I don't know if that means I've somehow avoided the rogue inspector for ages or if there are new editorial inspectors coming on board (and not before time, but they need to read the stickies).
And for those who care: this is more than a whine, it's a SCREAM.