Vector Flood

[goober]

I've been inspecting the vector section of istock and have noticed several artists with 10,000, 20,000 and even 67,000 images most of which seem to have been uploaded within the last year.

In the past we got rejections for similar images, low detail, too simple, or the inspector just didn't like it but now it's like a flood of very simple images. Two of the artists I checked out have the surname of Wang which could be a real person or could represent a graphics factory. The artists are not doing anything wrong but it doesn't bode well for vector artists that take time to do high quality pieces because they will rarely be viewed.

I guess with the subs istock is keen for this type of art flood.

[goober]

The artist with over 67,000 uploaded their first image on the 9 of march 2015. So in roughly one year they have uploaded 67,000+ images.

[goober]

Another artist uploaded their first image September 16, 2014 and they have 113,000+ images. So they've been uploading to istock for 481 days, that's 236 images per day. That's 113,000+ images in less than 1.5 years. I bet they didn't take a Christmas break.

[Dumc]

I guess they're trying to catch up with SS.

[goober]

I guess they're trying to catch up with SS.

Yep.

[Justanotherphotographer]

But I still get rejects for things being too simple when other agencies accept them. Maybe there's a special deal for some people?

[Justanotherphotographer]

Just did a search too. Yes there must be something dodgy going on. A lot of those icons there's no way I would get through review. My rejects are much more complex than that, the sort of stylised illustration you could use as a logo.

[goober]

Just did a search too. Yes there must be something dodgy going on. A lot of those icons there's no way I would get through review. My rejects are much more complex than that, the sort of stylised illustration you could use as a logo.

I had a reject a few weeks back which surprised me. It could be an algorithm that picks out certain images and sends them to an inspector.

A guy who employs staff once told me that he gets half the pile of job applications and throws them in the trashcan because they are the unlucky half and he doesn't want unlucky people working at his company.

[PixelBytes]

Sounds like either factories, or collections bought in bulk by Getty.

[breamal73]

Many have complained about this in the Getty forums, but nothing is ever done.
It's very demoralising to search for one of your new uploads under best match only to find thousands of very simple and irrelevant (because of wrong keywords) images from a handful of serial spammers who are dominating and ruining the search results.
A few months back I complained about this to contributor relations only to be told that some of the names I put forward were already under investigation because other's had already reported them. And yet, several months on nothing has been done about it, the offending spam images are still up and running and the spammers are still uploading the same rubbish.
Remember some years back when some contributors were identified as inspectors by a special icon under their avatar? Well some of those inspectors, the same ones who used to give critique advice in the forums about rejected images being too simple, are now themselves spammers.
Something very dodgy going on.

[Justanotherphotographer]

Just did a search too. Yes there must be something dodgy going on. A lot of those icons there's no way I would get through review. My rejects are much more complex than that, the sort of stylised illustration you could use as a logo.

I had a reject a few weeks back which surprised me. It could be an algorithm that picks out certain images and sends them to an inspector.

A guy who employs staff once told me that he gets half the pile of job applications and throws them in the trashcan because they are the unlucky half and he doesn't want unlucky people working at his company.

That's so funny. +1'd