Author Topic: Fotolia categories are time-consuming and unproductive. (Read 15823 times)

dbvirago · « **Reply #25 on:** June 23, 2015, 19:37 »

Or how about just mammals? It doesn't matter. If I, or anyone with more than a week's experience with computers who needs a picture of an armadillo, is going to search on armadillo. They aren't going to drill down through numerous, arbitrary and confusing nested groups of categories.

marthamarks · « **Reply #26 on:** June 23, 2015, 22:06 »

Quote from: dbvirago on June 23, 2015, 19:37

Or how about just mammals? It doesn't matter. If I, or anyone with more than a week's experience with computers who needs a picture of an armadillo, is going to search on armadillo. They aren't going to drill down through numerous, arbitrary and confusing nested groups of categories.

I completely agree with that! "Mammals" would be a fine stopping point.

But when you've got a great North American critter image and the only options for sub-sub categories are critters like camels and giraffes versus "Other", you're stuck in "Other Limbo."

Mat, this is such an obvious and easy-to-fix problem. What are our chances???

Sandeel · « **Reply #27 on:** June 24, 2015, 02:11 »

I agree too. The way I see it the main point of categories ist to be able to search with a keyword within a category. That way you can better clarify what you mean. Let's say you're looking for a wooden background and you type in wood, background and get lots of forests. Now some people would change the keywords, e.g. add "texture" or "-forest", but others would keep the keywords unchanged and search inside a backgrounds category.

If that's true, the categories don't need to be too specific at all. Even one subcategory isn't really necessary, but if they like it precise then one subcategory would be more than enough. For landscapes they have done it and that's great, so much better than before, but most categories are terrible.

PZF · « **Reply #28 on:** June 24, 2015, 06:47 »

Quote from: Sean Locke Photography on June 18, 2015, 10:40

Quote from: cobalt on June 18, 2015, 10:39
The fotolia categories are driving me crazy. There is no category for objects or just still life and the drop down menu is often unlogical.

It is a really, really painful way to upload like this.

Seriously, if they want more content, why not make it easy and elegant?

Try to find "Halloween".

I give up. Any clues???

dbvirago · « **Reply #29 on:** June 24, 2015, 08:02 »

I've reached the tipping point. After weeks of struggling, along with declining sales, I'm not wasting more time on this. If I don't know where to find the buried category going in, I delete the image. Not wasting more time, energy or frustration on this. The old system was horrible and this is not an improvement.

If only there was some way to test usability of a system before releasing it to the general public.

Tryingmybest · « **Reply #30 on:** June 24, 2015, 17:59 »

Quote from: Sion on May 29, 2015, 05:29

Filling Fotolia categories are getting to be time-consuming.

To start with the categories offered are not comprehensive and there are limited choices to select from.

Agreed. Adobe has pared some down and merged the two types, but they still lack generality. My solution: Save everything in the queue as Other or Background

dbvirago · « **Reply #31 on:** June 24, 2015, 18:09 »

There isn't an Other at the highest levels, and only random categories have them at the 2nd level. Part of the problem. No consistency.

Rinderart · « **Reply #32 on:** June 24, 2015, 19:51 »

If Only......And I Mean..IF ONLY people who design these things were the people who used them we would have great websites to work with. but, I assume thats never gonna happen.

Tryingmybest · « **Reply #33 on:** June 24, 2015, 19:52 »

Quote from: dbvirago on June 24, 2015, 18:09

There isn't an Other at the highest levels, and only random categories have them at the 2nd level. Part of the problem. No consistency.

See, totally confusing. They need to just get rid of them.

dbvirago · « **Reply #34 on:** September 14, 2015, 06:55 »

Fotolia has now made 2nd and 3rd tier categories optional. Thank you for a big improvement. There are still too many confusing top level categories and no clear place to put 'objects' but this helps a lot.

marthamarks · « **Reply #35 on:** September 14, 2015, 11:16 »

Quote from: dbvirago on September 14, 2015, 06:55

Fotolia has now made 2nd and 3rd tier categories optional. Thank you for a big improvement. There are still too many confusing top level categories and no clear place to put 'objects' but this helps a lot.

Yea, Mat! Adobe/Fotolia is improving!!!

wordplanet · « **Reply #36 on:** September 14, 2015, 11:44 »

It took me a few uploads to find "Christmas" and so I put some in another category - I had tried the "Religious and Other" but when I drilled down and got to the "International ...." it didn't seem to make sense, so I went back up to "Food" since I had cookie-cutters - close enough even though they are cooking tools.
With no object category, however, I had to keep trying when I uploaded Christmas Decorations and finally found it. Hoping Halloween is there since I'm planning to get my pumpkins up this week

Everything also seems to start with a country which is not good for still life.

marthamarks · « **Reply #37 on:** September 14, 2015, 12:21 »

Quote from: wordplanet on September 14, 2015, 11:44

It took me a few uploads to find "Christmas" and so I put some in another category...

This is an especially big problem when you're just learning FT's system. You have no idea what all the possible categories are so you wing it. But later, when you finally see the big picture, it's too late to make changes without first deleting already-accepted images and having to submit them for approval again.

Having the option to fix previous errors would be another huge step forward!

wordplanet · « **Reply #38 on:** September 14, 2015, 12:26 »

Quote from: marthamarks on September 14, 2015, 12:21

Quote from: wordplanet on September 14, 2015, 11:44
It took me a few uploads to find "Christmas" and so I put some in another category...

This is an especially big problem when you're just learning FT's system. You have no idea what all the possible categories are so you wing it. But later, when you finally see the big picture, it's too late to make changes without first deleting already-accepted images and having to submit them for approval again.

Having the option to fix previous errors would be another huge step forward!

Absolutely! I just can't be bothered deleting and re-uploading, but it would be great if you could go in after an image is accepted - or even before it is reviewed - and tweak the categories and keywords. I think the ones I mentioned are still waiting for review so I should probably just delete and start over. I uploaded over 100 images there yesterday and the indexing takes so long - I hate to have to start again. At least "Graphic Resources" - "Backgrounds" jumped out at me. I think that's an excellent name for the category though it sounds like when you drill down it gets a bit funny.

Dumc · « **Reply #39 on:** September 14, 2015, 13:55 »

Quote from: marthamarks on September 14, 2015, 12:21

Quote from: wordplanet on September 14, 2015, 11:44
It took me a few uploads to find "Christmas" and so I put some in another category...

This is an especially big problem when you're just learning FT's system. You have no idea what all the possible categories are so you wing it. But later, when you finally see the big picture, it's too late to make changes without first deleting already-accepted images and having to submit them for approval again.

Having the option to fix previous errors would be another huge step forward!

As far as I know, you can change categories on already accepted photos.

marthamarks · « **Reply #40 on:** September 14, 2015, 13:56 »

Quote from: Dumc on September 14, 2015, 13:55

Quote from: marthamarks on September 14, 2015, 12:21
Quote from: wordplanet on September 14, 2015, 11:44
It took me a few uploads to find "Christmas" and so I put some in another category...

This is an especially big problem when you're just learning FT's system. You have no idea what all the possible categories are so you wing it. But later, when you finally see the big picture, it's too late to make changes without first deleting already-accepted images and having to submit them for approval again.

Having the option to fix previous errors would be another huge step forward!

As far as I know, you can change categories on already accepted photos.

Great news! Please tell me how.

Dumc · « **Reply #41 on:** September 14, 2015, 14:01 »

Click on your image and then click on "index it" ?

marthamarks · « **Reply #42 on:** September 14, 2015, 14:09 »

Quote from: Dumc on September 14, 2015, 14:01

Click on your image and then click on "index it" ?

You're right! That works. I didn't realize it, so many thanks for the tip.

Now… can you tell me how to change the Title/Description for an image that's already been accepted?

Dumc · « **Reply #43 on:** September 14, 2015, 14:31 »

I can't tell you because you can't change it. Re-ordering keywords, price setting and category changing are the only things you can change on already accepted images, as far as I know. The rest is locked.

wordplanet · « **Reply #44 on:** September 14, 2015, 14:32 »

That's good news. Thanks! I already deleted and re-uploaded but it will be good for the future.

marthamarks · « **Reply #45 on:** September 14, 2015, 16:27 »

Quote from: Dumc on September 14, 2015, 14:31

I can't tell you because you can't change it. Re-ordering keywords, price setting and category changing are the only things you can change on already accepted images, as far as I know. The rest is locked.

Thanks for the additional tips. You can tell I'm a newbie to FT. This helps.

marthamarks · « **Reply #46 on:** September 28, 2015, 11:12 »

I'm starting to upload to Fotolia my many images of North American cacti.

Category: Plants and Flowers (Good start!)

Choices:
Flowers
Mushrooms
Plants
Seeds
Trees

I select "plants" and on the next level down I find:

Bamboo
Clover
Fern
Other
Raspberry Bush

Really? Those are the only kind of plants that Fotolia buyers might ever wish to find?

Fortunately, this level is now optional. But it could be a whole lot more useful.

Dumc · « **Reply #47 on:** September 28, 2015, 11:43 »

You don't expect there to be list of all plants that exists on planet earth now, do you? Bigstock is even worse. They don't have "mammals" in their list.

marthamarks · « **Reply #48 on:** September 28, 2015, 12:00 »

Quote from: Dumc on September 28, 2015, 11:43

You don't expect there to be list of all plants that exists on planet earth now, do you?

Well, no. Of course not.

However, a big, generic category like "cactus/cacti" would definitely be more useful than, say, something as specific as "raspberry bush" or "clover." No?

Dumc · « **Reply #49 on:** September 28, 2015, 12:07 »

I agree. It sure is kind of weird. I guess they've run out of ideas.

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Author Topic: Fotolia categories are time-consuming and unproductive. (Read 15823 times)

dbvirago

marthamarks

Sandeel

PZF

dbvirago

Tryingmybest

dbvirago

Rinderart

Tryingmybest

dbvirago

marthamarks

wordplanet

marthamarks

wordplanet

Dumc

marthamarks

Dumc

marthamarks

Dumc

wordplanet

marthamarks

marthamarks

Dumc

marthamarks

Dumc

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