MicrostockGroup

Hi,

This is a rant, a big rant.

Almost 70 % of about 200 of my latest batches rejected for :
Background not white
noise

checking in photoshop at 100 % magnification i can't see any noise.. and i mean NO noise.
We all know how picky SS is on noise issues... they haven't rejected a single one from those batches.
checking background color it shows perfect 255/255/255 white.

If they want me to take my business elsewere, than just say so... don't let me spend hours uploading for nothing.

Patrick.

I posted this on the Microstock forum also.

I too have experienced rejections for noise when I know there is none.
Not only at StockXpert but at all the microstock sites.

I understand your frustration. Did you upload a whole bunch at one
time? In my experience, I have had better luck uploading smaller
batches at a time. 5 or 10 photos, maybe. I know it takes much longer,
but there have been nightmare tales from many contributors where
reviewers will find fault with one or two photos, get lazy and hit the
reject button for all of the batch.

Just a suggestion.

Eleven of my 36 rejected, including my SS and IS bestsellers. IMHO some of the rejections without merit, some perhaps with merit. Rejections you don't agree with is unfortunately part of the microstock business, we have to live it, but a microstock site where the reviewers make a mess of things will certainly do a lot of harm to the site.

I have tried 4 times to be accepted and keep getting rejected. That is
4 months waiting!!  I mean come on I got into SS on my first try and they
are supposed to be the toughest!  I used my best sellers on SS and IS
DT and BigStock everything including the kitchen sink and they still say that
my images are not WORTHY of their great site.  If I ever try again and
get in they better guarantee 100 downloads a day for all this trouble.

I have had no real problems with StockXpert reviews. Hell they even accepted some of my sunset pictures. I thought for sure those were going to get the "thanks, but we're not looking for such images at this time" rejection. I suppose you could always just resubmit ones that you think have been rejected in error.

There is an extreme disparity, and that is the problem.  A few very good photographers on the Micropayment Yahoo group also were recently burned by mass rejections - like several hundred if I remember correctly.  These are advanced photographers with established track records, simply moving proven portfolios over to StockXpert - or trying to.

They denied 2/3 of my initial uploads after I was accepted, and all of those files were either on IS, SS, or both.  It ticked me off, but I stuck with them.  Since then, they have been accepting most of what I send to them.  So there you go - no consistency.

But the biggest problem I have with them is, despite so many people telling me they are a great site for contributors, I cannot make a sale with them.  They are something like 2% of my total income the last 60 days, and I have not made a single sale there in almost a month.  I'm quickly closing in on the $500 mark at SS, and I blew past the 500 dl mark at IS a month ago.  StockXpert - $10.  They are way behind FT, BigStock, and DT in my portfolio income.  Well, they are ahead of Lucky Oliver at least.   

Hi guys,

First the isolation issue.

If in your keywords or description you say the image is isolated against white and it isn't, then it will be rejected. You need to make sure the whole white isolated background is pure white (255, 255, 255). Make sure there are no off-white spots any where, no matter how small.

Second, noise.

Still trying to iron this one out. Seems noise is legitimate in some but perhaps not others.

Third, mass rejection.

There is no mass rejection button. They have to review one image at a time. The fact that they can reject an image where there is a minute area of non white or that they might be a little strict on noise means they are looking closely at each image. Maybe too closely ...


Fourth, everything else:

Ok. Here's the deal. When the site first started we had two reviewers. The great thing about this is that it yields extreme consistency. The bad thing about it is that when one goes down and then two, images don't get reviewed.

Of course we had to hire new reviewers. We did so. We trained them, but experience is always the best teacher.

Unfortunately, there is no microstock image reviewer university that we can just recruit reviewers from and drop into place at full speed. When ever a new reviewer comes onto the team, there is a learning process that involves training and gaining experience. It's about trying to balance their innate subjective tendencies with objective guidelines.

Yes. We've tightened up our property release policy. This is new to our old reviewers and new reviewers. They are learning the new policy. Training cannot account for every possible scenario, so again, the must learn through experience. Unfortuantely, there will probably be some inconsistencies in the review process because of this.

And people make mistakes. Don't take the rejections personally. Just let us know about it.

The site is growing so fast, unfortunately, learning and gaining experience can't happen as fast.

And I must say, as for the number of images we review in a day versus the number of complaints we get, I'd say we are doing pretty good, but we always strive to be better. 

Thanks!
-Steve

This image was rejected by StockXpert and it is sold more than 500 times on other stock agencies.

Look that on this way - Reviewers are humans and they can make mistakes.  Unfortunately they made mistake in my case and I believe in yours.

Best regards

^^^ Good idea. maybe they should announce some kind of trial period. For example if image hasn't been downloaded in last 12 months they can decrease price to 1$ for all sizes and it should also be limited for example 2 months. After that time it should go to history - DELETE.

..by the way, love this shot. Doing a piece for NOAA and may use your "not stock" image for the site...will let you know if I do.

Well, this was an enlightening thread... I just got accepted to StockXpert (first try) and currently have 150 images in the queue and at least that many in my briefcase waiting to be transferred at 50 per day.  It will be interesting to see what happens when they get reviewed.  I think I will continue to upload what I currently have until I see what happens and take it from there.  I see that StockXpert is in the "big 6", which is strange!  I figured BigStock or Fotolia wout be above it, but I only have about 500 images in my portfolios.

Strange hearing all these complaints about StockXpert...  I've been with them since early 2006, and I'm at 98% approval rate - each month I have a BME with them - things just get better and better.

Chode

If you don't upload your images you will have only 1 image  in your StockXpert gallery.

If you you upload 2000 and have a 50% rejection rate, you will have 1000 images in your StockXpert gallery.

What have you got to loose? Nothing except $$$.