I realized this morning what the "We highly value exclusive artists and their content ..." reminded me of: “Your call is very important to us . . .”

Quote from: KB on January 24, 2012, 19:40

But then, how to explain the loss of a video inspector when they desperately need more inspectors, not fewer, and all video inspections are being done in Calgary only?

Error when compiling the hit list? An excuse to get rid of an incompetent inspector? Perhaps a secret plan to move video inspections to Seattle? There seem to be some possible explanations.

I'm sure you don't really believe the first is a likely possibility. As for being an incompetent inspector, one of the video admins had this to say about him:
Our team is small and Gil will be sorely missed. His years here at iStock reflected a thoughtful, dedicated and hard working co-worker.

So I don't see that a possibility either. A secret plan to move video inspections to Seattle might happen, but this would be such a small start compared to what would be needed, I don't see the point.

I think the most likely possibility is that Getty / H&F demanded cuts be made across the board, even in areas that were desperate for more personnel. It's hard for me to see that as anything but a negative.

I think the most likely possibility is that Getty / H&F demanded cuts be made across the board, even in areas that were desperate for more personnel.

Possibly. Who knows? Seems a bit bizarre however one slices it.

Quote from: KB on January 25, 2012, 10:54

I think the most likely possibility is that Getty / H&F demanded cuts be made across the board, even in areas that were desperate for more personnel.

Possibly. Who knows? Seems a bit bizarre however one slices it.

It wouldn't be the first time that costs are slashed to boost profits a few months prior to a sale.

True 'nuff. I wouldn't be at all surprised to see a sale this year.

I agree. Something has to give. This all has to be leading somewhere, and a sale seems very plausible.

It's a little strange the way they're pulling some of the inner working of istock into Getty, but that could be just a way of cutting costs while at the same time making the operation seem a bit more compact and streamlined. All things that would help make the company look good for market.

Is the site working? I'm getting slow, dead slow, white pages and error messages. That's more on the My Uploads and Forums section though, haven't tried searching.

Barely.

I got to the home page once, but everything else is giving me 500 (server error) messages from the browser - i.e. I'm not getting an error page from IS

right now the site okay until you go to log in.  The cover panel for the log in is white.  something is screwy.  Can't pick up stats from iStockcharts app. on my phone either, so it's not my browser.

The F5 site is living up to it's name, because you have to keep hitting F5 so it will work.

Seems like an F5 tornado hit IS, too.

...Why do they do things like that? Do they think we are sheep???

I prefer to be referred to by istock as "sheeple", or at the very least, "sheep-person". Geez, give me some dignity here and at least let me be known as partially human.



But seriously, to answer your question, yes they think we'll just accept whatever they say. It's not unlike the royalty cut where they expected us to believe that keeping 80% of each sale wasn't "sustainable." Even us sheep can figure out that most every other microstock agency manages to be profitable and sustainable on much smaller percentages, and that keeping 80% of each sale of a product that you don't have to manufacture is not only highly sustainable but it should be highly lucrative.

But we're just sheep... what do we know.

[conspiracy theory]
this is a great way to build up fake stats. slow down the site so users keep hitting f5 to reload the page and then each reload is a hit... though not a new visitor, most people don't really understand the difference between a 'page hit' and a 'unique visitor' hit anyway. 
[/conspiracy theory]

Not bad. But I always start with "Never attribute to malice that which can adequately be explained by stupidity." Hard I know when you're dealing with someone who's both malicious and stupid, but in this case I thinks stupidity reigns.

This poor pitiful political speech from iSmacksHQ I havent heard a long time. In tier like North Korean idiot-cracy.