Author Topic: Istockphoto Down For Maintenance or Hacked? (Read 15721 times)

ShadySue · « **Reply #275 on:** December 01, 2011, 11:56 »

Jay's message:

"Howdy, Y'all,
Now that we've got iStock back up and running, I wanted to bring the community some information about yesterday's unplanned site outage.
On the weekend we took the planned outage in order to deploy a cutting-edge technology whose purpose is to provide some infrastructural goodness that I'm not allowed to describe any more clearly than that. The theory and intent were (and remain) strong, but sadly, the solution did not perform in the wild in the way it did during the 7 months we subjected it to laboratory tests. When we realized that we couldn't recover the site on that technology, we moved swiftly to restore operations on a stable, known platform.
Today we are working with the vendor and our internal team to figure out what went wrong. Like you, we are not happy. Site outages are never a good thing, not for the community and not for our business.
Sincerely,
Jay"
http://www.istockphoto.com/forum_messages.php?threadid=337735&page=1

Well, at least it's some information.

Maybe the 'vendor' of the 'cutting edge technology' (watch my lips: don't go there!) should absorb the 15%.
Definitely they should do 'real world' as well as 'laboratory' tests.

jsnover · « **Reply #276 on:** December 01, 2011, 12:39 »

Seven months of lab tests and they failed to realize that the whole system would fail? I think it's a massive red flag that they need to look at their "laboratory" as a testing environment before they try any more big site upgrades - the lab is clearly not able to predict actual usage (and of course there'll be a few bugs with anything new, but not complete collapse).

This also totally avoids the question about why anyone gave them permission to shift infrastructure on the site during the busy season? Was it blind optimism that it'd just work so that made it OK? Were the decision makers aware of the risks of site downtime and went ahead anyway? On the face of it it seems completely insane.

I have to assume that some Getty initiative is behind this - getting on a common platform - and they just don't care about some lost sales given their objective (which they won't share with contributors). All I can say is that they must think it's something really good for them (which likely means equally bad for contributors) to be willing to take this kind of risk.

stockastic · « **Reply #277 on:** December 01, 2011, 13:06 »

Quote from: ShadySue on December 01, 2011, 08:53

Careers at iStock:
Applications Developer
Tracking Code: P-CAL 999
Job Description
Development expertise needed! Multiple openings.

Who You Are

...

Is that job posting real? Where did you find it?

If they have 'multiple openings' for web developers right now, that means they're in trouble, and we probably don't need to construct any more theories to explain all their current site problems. They lost one or more key people, and with them went a critical amount of knowledge about the site, code and database. And now the remaining developers are looking at the latest list of changes demanded by management, and they have people running in the door every 5 minutes asking how much longer everything is going to take.

ShadySue · « **Reply #278 on:** December 01, 2011, 13:16 »

Quote from: stockastic on December 01, 2011, 13:06

Quote from: ShadySue on December 01, 2011, 08:53
Careers at iStock:
Applications Developer
Tracking Code: P-CAL 999
Job Description
Development expertise needed! Multiple openings.

Who You Are

...

Is that job posting real? Where did you find it?

It absolutely was real this morning when I cut and pasted it. And was there for several days at least.
(I looked at the weekend to see if they were still looking for someone who could 'break their system', a listing which was there for months and months on end, and they couldn't never find someone, apparently)
It now seems to be down, but I promise it was linked to from the iStock careers link, on silkroad.

If you scroll right down on any iStock page, you'll get the text links, one of which says Careers. That's where you find out about all the
"Flex your creativity with iStockphoto

We are the world's first affordable member-generated royalty-free stock image company with millions of photos, illustrations, video, audio and Flash® files starting at $1. The evidence of iStock is everywhere. Every time you open a magazine, check out a book cover or look at a billboard, chances are you’re seeing iStock. Everything began at our headquarters in Calgary, Canada in 2000.

We'll never make you wear a nametag, iron your khakis or pretend that only bad people have tattoos. You can wear what you want and look how you feel. We work hard and play even harder: there's Friday afternoon Rock Band sessions and more than 100 arcade games available in our snack-stocked cafeteria.

Perks of working at iStock
Benefits worth bragging about

Competitive base salary and bonus plan.
Health and dental benefits start on Day 1.
Group RRSP matching plan for permanent employees.
Free in-office massages at your desk from our very own masseuse.
Extra health and wellness spending for glasses, snowboards or a gym pass.
Education reimbursement program to support your career related courses.
Healthy drinks and snacks provided daily, as well as an X-Box 360 and a bubble hockey table.
We're flexible, so if you need time off, just talk to us and we'll work it out.

As of this moment, the listed jobs are:

Client Relations Representative (G-CAL 11381)
Calgary, AB, CA
Contributor Relations Representative (G-CAL 11336)
Calgary, AB, CA
Manager, Social Media (G-CAL 11330)
Calgary, AB, CA
Media Specialist (G-CAL 11331)
Calgary, AB, CA
VP, Online Marketing (G-CAL 11281)
Calgary, AB, CA

Karimala · « **Reply #279 on:** December 01, 2011, 13:26 »

Quote from: ShadySue on December 01, 2011, 09:31

Quote from: dbvirago on December 01, 2011, 09:27
I was hoping that wasn't the case. If it is, then November was my worst month at Istock since September, 2006
I've seen a few people on iStock's November forum saying the same.
While Nov '11 was worse for me than every Nov since '08 (Nov '08 my BME), it's nothing like my WME, as it took me a while to build up steam. It's in my top three months of 2011.
I wonder if some people's balances have not been going up in real time.
If they haven't been, what confidence is there that even the increasing balances I've noticed on my account are accurate?

I've been wondering the same. How is it possible for my earnings to crash so drastically to their lowest since my 3rd month with IS back in 2006? How is it possible for that to happen to numerous contributors?

FYI -- EL sales are updating in real time. I had one this morning.

RT · « **Reply #280 on:** December 01, 2011, 13:42 »

Quote from: ShadySue on December 01, 2011, 11:56

Jay's message:

On the weekend we took the planned outage in order to deploy a cutting-edge technology...............

Given the two deaf, dumb and blind chimps that run the site calculators?

donding · « **Reply #281 on:** December 01, 2011, 13:43 »

Quote from: ShadySue on December 01, 2011, 13:16

Perks of working at iStock
Benefits worth bragging about

   Competitive base salary and bonus plan.
   Health and dental benefits start on Day 1.
   Group RRSP matching plan for permanent employees.
   Free in-office massages at your desk from our very own masseuse.
   Extra health and wellness spending for glasses, snowboards or a gym pass.
   Education reimbursement program to support your career related courses.
   Healthy drinks and snacks provided daily, as well as an X-Box 360 and a bubble hockey table.
   We're flexible, so if you need time off, just talk to us and we'll work it out.

No wonder they need 85% of my royalties. It's no wonder all the people who work there stay there regardless of their moral convictions. "Free in-office massages at your desk from our very own masseuse." Good grief. Even X_Box 360!! They spend more time getting massages and playing X-Box 360 than they do fixing the bugs on the site!

gostwyck · « **Reply #282 on:** December 01, 2011, 13:48 »

Quote from: ShadySue on December 01, 2011, 13:16

I looked at the weekend to see if they were still looking for someone who could 'break their system', a listing which was there for months and months on end, and they couldn't never find someone, apparently ...

On the contrary __ it would appear that they found that person a couple of weeks ago. They've clearly done an outstanding job of 'breaking the system' since they started.

rubyroo · « **Reply #283 on:** December 01, 2011, 13:50 »

Quote from: donding on December 01, 2011, 13:43

No wonder they need 85% of my royalties. It's no wonder all the people who work there stay there regardless of their moral convictions. "Free in-office massages at your desk from our very own masseuse." Good grief. Even X_Box 360!! They spend more time getting massages and playing X-Box 360 than they do fixing the bugs on the site!

My only question is - why don't they work weekends? If I worked in a company with all those benefits, I wouldn't want to go home...

helix7 · « **Reply #284 on:** December 01, 2011, 14:15 »

Sorry if this is mentioned already, but is anyone else not seeing DL stats for pretty much all of november? According to the chart, my last DL was 11/1.

tee · « **Reply #285 on:** December 01, 2011, 14:17 »

Quote from: helix7 on December 01, 2011, 14:15

Sorry if this is mentioned already, but is anyone else not seeing DL stats for pretty much all of november? According to the chart, my last DL was 11/1.

Yes.

Freedom · « **Reply #286 on:** December 01, 2011, 14:37 »

I cannot update DM. Some pages have 500 error again.

Karimala · « **Reply #287 on:** December 01, 2011, 15:13 »

Quote from: helix7 on December 01, 2011, 14:15

Sorry if this is mentioned already, but is anyone else not seeing DL stats for pretty much all of november? According to the chart, my last DL was 11/1.

I'm only missing Nov. 28 - 30. ELs for December are working fine, but of course are not showing on the photos DLed page. However, I do wonder if somehow IS missed some days considering my earnings Nov. earnings are more than 75% less than normal and the lowest since 2006.

stockastic · « **Reply #288 on:** December 01, 2011, 15:32 »

Quote from: helix7 on December 01, 2011, 14:15

Sorry if this is mentioned already, but is anyone else not seeing DL stats for pretty much all of november? According to the chart, my last DL was 11/1.

Same for me. But I looked at a couple of my frequent sellers individually and found that I actually did have some sales in November. Who knows what's real anymore?

ShadySue · « **Reply #289 on:** December 01, 2011, 16:27 »

Quote from: helix7 on December 01, 2011, 14:15

Sorry if this is mentioned already, but is anyone else not seeing DL stats for pretty much all of november? According to the chart, my last DL was 11/1.

Strange. By 'My uploads', my last download is showing as 1st Nov, but in my Stats, Royalties and Downloads are apparently showing up to the 26th Nov. My balance seemed to be uploading in real time, barring some wavers, but if it's accurate, my today has been disastrous. My downloads total on the Stats page hasn't changed for days, maybe a week, likewise 'total earnings' in my financials tab, but my Account Balance is showing as the same as my Balance on the bar at the bottom of the page.
The Regular downloads by file type (updated daily) [lowest chart on the Stats page] is showing 18 more dls than 'downloads', but it's been static for 3 or 4 days.
So it's all seriously scary as to whether we can expect to get a true account of what we earned during that time.

lisafx · « **Reply #290 on:** December 01, 2011, 16:31 »

Quote from: gostwyck on December 01, 2011, 13:48

Quote from: ShadySue on December 01, 2011, 13:16
I looked at the weekend to see if they were still looking for someone who could 'break their system', a listing which was there for months and months on end, and they couldn't never find someone, apparently ...

On the contrary __ it would appear that they found that person a couple of weeks ago. They've clearly done an outstanding job of 'breaking the system' since they started.

ROFLMAO!! Yes, that position has certainly been filled

SNP · « **Reply #291 on:** December 01, 2011, 17:18 »

iStock still seems really slow. pages are taking forever to load. I'm home now on my regular computer

StockCube · « **Reply #292 on:** December 01, 2011, 18:15 »

Quote from: ShadySue on December 01, 2011, 13:16

Quote from: stockastic on December 01, 2011, 13:06
Quote from: ShadySue on December 01, 2011, 08:53

As of this moment, the listed jobs are:

Contributor Relations Representative (G-CAL 11336)
Calgary, AB, CA

Lobo is leaving?! Or is that Rob's old job still unfilled?

ShadySue · « **Reply #293 on:** December 01, 2011, 18:19 »

Quote from: StockCube on December 01, 2011, 18:15

Quote from: ShadySue on December 01, 2011, 13:16
Quote from: stockastic on December 01, 2011, 13:06
Quote from: ShadySue on December 01, 2011, 08:53

As of this moment, the listed jobs are:

Contributor Relations Representative (G-CAL 11336)
Calgary, AB, CA

Lobo is leaving?! Or is that Rob's old job still unfilled?

Dream on, Lobo is a forum moderator, not a contributor relations representative.
Uncle Rob's job has been filled by KelvinJay and PinkCottonCandy.

gostwyck · « **Reply #294 on:** December 01, 2011, 18:32 »

Quote from: SNP on December 01, 2011, 17:18

iStock still seems really slow. pages are taking forever to load. I'm home now on my regular computer

No! Really? But you were only just telling us yesterday that "I also believe they have very good tech people working for them."

I have absolutely no idea why you would 'believe' that. They're not 'pushing envelopes' or at 'the cutting edge' of anything at all. They can't even provide basic site functionality. When you give your crown you'll realise that every other agency has instantaneous sales stat's for example. You don't have to wait until the next day, or in Istock's case at the moment, the next month. Istock's tech wizards actually gave up even attempting to provide that data several years ago. Too difficult for them. Istock's dev team certainly should be 'pushing envelopes' __ working for the Canadian mail service.

SNP · « **Reply #295 on:** December 01, 2011, 21:46 »

^ to reiterate what I said yesterday, I'm not defending iStock. but yes, I believe that they ~~were~~ are the industry leader. if I didn't, I wouldn't be exclusive there. I'm not trying to convince you. and I wouldn't say that I believe they will continue leading. lots of red flags the past two years. I think they're screwing around with a good thing and making it a mediocre thing because of short-term gains, fattening the calf, at the expense of endurance and contributors being dealt with fairly. but I think their search is better than any other, by a lot. course it would help if the site worked.

hoi ha · « **Reply #296 on:** December 02, 2011, 01:17 »

After a whole series of occurences, including some direct communications between myself and support not public on the forums, I have now sadly reached the conclusion that IS and its reps simply lie (especially when caught out) - I have been with them from the very very beginning when photos were essentially free and have watched them transform from a great place to a greedy, dishonest entity. I was once exclusive as well so I did have great faith in them at one point. But I no longer believe a single pronouncement they make and I would warn others to take everything they "proclaim" with a high degree of scepticism.