spam-o-rama again

stockastic

« on: October 13, 2009, 20:50 »

#link

Today I had planned to do some shots of gourds. I have a group of nice colorful ones.

I started by checking the competition - I searched for "gourds" ranked by popularity.

The first 4 shots were of pumpkins and zucchini. Oh well. Number five was in fact a couple of gourds on white.

This top ranked image was of course well endowed with the maximum number of keywords, including: backgrounds, decoration, eating,farm,leaf,market,multi,nature,
objects,outdoors,,raw,seed,shot,single,studio,traditional,variation,vibrant...

Isn't this spamming?


« Last Edit: October 13, 2009, 21:04 by stockastic »	Ignore \| Logged

« Reply #1 on: October 13, 2009, 21:14 »

#link

on which stock site were you checking? is and ss probably won't allow for some of these now. however, i do see tenuous connections between the keywords and the gourds (but i have a strong imagination).


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stockastic

« Reply #2 on: October 13, 2009, 21:26 »

#link

I'm talking about SS. This the SS forum section.

My real point is, how do new images have a chance, since old images still play by the old rules?


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« Reply #3 on: October 13, 2009, 21:28 »

#link

i guess it's a rhetorical question no one has the answer to.


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Whiz

« Reply #4 on: October 14, 2009, 01:15 »

#link

Quote from: stockastic on October 13, 2009, 20:50

The word "gourd" has several meanings. One of which is as follows: A gourd is a plant of the family Cucurbitaceae, or a name given to the hollow, dried shell of a fruit in the Cucurbitaceae family of plants of the genus Lagenaria. It is in the same family as the pumpkin.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gourd

I'm guessing you mean gourd as in a type of container. The individuals who have used the word pumpkin to describe gourd appear to be technically correct (more or less). Maybe try using the keyword "gourd container".


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shutterdrop

« Reply #5 on: October 14, 2009, 07:17 »

#link

The gourd family also includes many economically important fruits and vegetables, including pumpkins, squash, melons and cucumbers.

In addition, gourds are used by people throughout the world for musical instruments, including shakers, maracas, drums, horns, marimbas and various string gourds resembling a banjo. Other uses include pipes, masks, canteens, water jugs, dippers, birdhouses, bath sponges and decorative gourds with intricate etched designs.

A bit of research is in order, before jumping to conclusions.


« Last Edit: October 14, 2009, 07:22 by shutterdrop »	Ignore \| Logged

stockastic

« Reply #6 on: October 14, 2009, 09:06 »

#link

Give me a break. This is a photo of two gourds. "Backgrounds", "decoration", "eating", "farm", "leaf", "market","outdoors"?

The SS guidelines for submission say "Make sure all keywords relate directly to the image."

Hey, I have some more. They were shipped on a "truck", and bought in a "coop", and often displayed on a "table" because people think they're "beautiful". I'm on a roll now.


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traveler1116

« Reply #7 on: October 14, 2009, 09:19 »

#link

Quote from: stockastic on October 14, 2009, 09:06

Yep SS has some of the worst spam out there and they haven't tried to do anything to clean it up. You can email support and they will fix the image but that's a pain to do and takes forever. I did once email them that an entire search was filled with bad keywords because 90% of the images shouldnt have shown up and they fixed that too.


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lisafx

Premium Member

« Reply #8 on: October 14, 2009, 09:47 »

#link

Sounds like pretty blatant and obvious spam to me. Maybe there is a justification for labeling a pumpkin a gourd, but the rest are pretty indefensible.

Still, new images DO manage to get seen and bought on SS, so presumably they are floating to the top somehow.

FWIW, though, the sites are pretty cram packed with images of gourds and other easily purchased and photographed seasonal fruit/veg. Can't imagine even an outstanding, properly keyworded image of gourds would find much of a market.


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stockastic

« Reply #9 on: October 14, 2009, 11:23 »

#link

Quote from: lisafx on October 14, 2009, 09:47

Can't imagine even an outstanding, properly keyworded image of gourds would find much of a market.

Which is why I did the search - I wanted to see what was already there., and actually I wasn't too impressed, I think I have a good image that would sell now and then IF the search wasn't totally skewed by popularity numbers acquired by bogus keywords. I guess this might be an interesting experiment.


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Whiz

« Reply #10 on: October 14, 2009, 11:33 »

#link

Quote from: stockastic on October 14, 2009, 11:23

If you use the keywords two gourd containers, then you only have three pictures to deal with.


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arquiplay77

« Reply #11 on: October 14, 2009, 11:34 »

#link

I think the keyword "background" is used in every shoot, so it´s just useless now a day.


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stockastic

« Reply #12 on: October 14, 2009, 11:40 »

#link

Quote from: traveler1116 on October 14, 2009, 09:19

I think SS knows they have an ungodly mess but no real plan to deal with it. A serious cleanup of millions of images would be very expensive in terms of reviewer time.

My own (slightly self-serving) suggestion would be to give a boost to new images that meeet current keyword guidelines. Yes I'm dreaming.


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Whiz

« Reply #13 on: October 14, 2009, 11:44 »

#link

Quote from: stockastic on October 14, 2009, 11:40

Quote from: traveler1116 on October 14, 2009, 09:19

I think a good way to deal with the problem is to fine individuals for each image that uses blatant keyword spamming. Not for just one or two words of course (no one is perfect). And then the image keywords would simply be fixed by the staff. If the majority of the images of a particular contributer were bad, then they would lose the right to edit their keywords for a time. And if they continue to abuse the system, then they would be banned. But then these individuals would probably just come back as someone else, so it's unlikely that a ban would do much good.


« Last Edit: October 14, 2009, 11:49 by Whiz »	Ignore \| Logged

stockastic

« Reply #14 on: October 14, 2009, 12:05 »

#link

I can't think of any way to really deal with this without spending big money. This is one reason why I think today's big microstocks must eventually lose out to new agencies that start fresh and do a much better job with search and keywording.

IS is trying, in a way, but at this point their controlled vocabulary is much too limiting and tedious to work with.


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