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Agency Based Discussion => Adobe Stock => Topic started by: leaf on May 29, 2007, 06:59

Title: Fotolia V.2
Post by: leaf on May 29, 2007, 06:59: Amongst other things there are pricing changes. Thoughts - opinions?

here is the new pricing structure.

(http://blog.fotolia.com/us/images/chart_price_us-thumb.gif) (http://blog.fotolia.com/us/news/fotolia/v2-price-license.html)
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: dbvirago on May 29, 2007, 07:18: Well, I think I'm bronze so no change for me. I haven't been able to find my status and don't have time to wait for pages to load to find out. I just hope they speed up the servers and get rid of the crappy categories.
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: GeoPappas on May 29, 2007, 07:18: Here is a link to the old pricing structure for comparison:

http://www.fotolia.com/info/tarif.php
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: GeoPappas on May 29, 2007, 07:20: Quote from: dbvirago on May 29, 2007, 07:18
Well, I think I'm bronze so no change for me.

Credits now cost $1.36, so you will receive an increase in royalties.
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: kosmikkreeper on May 29, 2007, 07:23: It seems that people who are Emerald or higher will be getting a pay cut.
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: Freezingpictures on May 29, 2007, 07:38: I think thats great news! Thats more earning for us photographers. Where I am looking forward to is the cleaning! Images which are 18month on fotolia without a download will be removed from the website. That is great! It will clean up there search engine and gives me a little hope that there might be a good future for Fotolia. Finaly an agency who seems to get serious about that.
DT wanted to do it, but somehow never did. Istock is starting do do it too on a smaller scale I would say.
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: sim on May 29, 2007, 07:45: Correct me if I am wrong but thats a 36% pay rise!! Awesome.
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: dbvirago on May 29, 2007, 07:48: Thanks for the link to the old pricing. That confirms that I am bronze. In the 25 minutes since I last posted, I have been trying to figure that out. Mostly waiting for pages to load and the forum erroring out. If v2 doesn't fix those problems, they wasted their time
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: Pixart on May 29, 2007, 08:08: A couple things from their news:

At the end of this week, Fotolia will be closed for approximately 12 hours to move our servers and release the new version of the website. No major visual changes have been made from a design point of view, however the entire website has been recoded to improve performances and prepare Fotolia for the future.

Searching, editing, and uploading have all been optimized to increase speed, accuracy, and performance.

Please, let it be faster.
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: dbvirago on May 29, 2007, 08:18: I give up. Can anyone tell me how to determine my ranking? Just want to confirm. Based on current payout, I am bronze, but can't find that specified. I have tried going to forums, but about every 2nd or 3rd page, I get 'Table 'fotolia.forum_boards' doesn't exist'

Maybe in v2 they will put this on the home page instead of those useless and meaningless Rank numbers.

Never Mind. Figured it out. All you need to do is find http://www.fotolia.com/ranking/ (http://www.fotolia.com/ranking/) (I won't tell you how to get there - it was too painful. Then go back to your home page, get your downloads and do the math. Simple. Not as simple as them just telling you, but it took less than an hour.
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: sim on May 29, 2007, 08:40: Darryl

Follow the following link to one of your images and you will see a bronze fotolia symbol by your name.

http://br.fotolia.com/id/715485

Hope that helps :)
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: Vekha on May 29, 2007, 08:41: Hi dbvirago
Here's the ranking link in french. I mean it's the same in english.
http://www.fotolia.fr/ranking (http://www.fotolia.fr/ranking)
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: Vekha on May 29, 2007, 08:56: More simply with a picture…
(http://agence_vekha.web.ool.fr/Images%20SITE%20OK/Image 1.jpg)
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: dbvirago on May 29, 2007, 08:58: Thanks, I found it. Looks like it's the bronze age for me for quite a while
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: dbvirago on May 29, 2007, 09:29: Quote from: GeoPappas on May 29, 2007, 07:20
Quote from: dbvirago on May 29, 2007, 07:18
Well, I think I'm bronze so no change for me.

Credits now cost $1.36, so you will receive an increase in royalties.

Ok. The charts are confusing. Comparing the two, it looks like percentages are the same, and max payout is the same or less.

So I get 35% of 1.36?
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: pixelbrat on May 29, 2007, 12:50: Quote from: dbvirago on May 29, 2007, 08:18
Never Mind. Figured it out. All you need to do is find [url]http://www.fotolia.com/ranking/[/url] ([url]http://www.fotolia.com/ranking/[/url]) (I won't tell you how to get there - it was too painful. Then go back to your home page, get your downloads and do the math. Simple. Not as simple as them just telling you, but it took less than an hour.

Holy cow, it took me 54 seconds to open that link! >:( (I have a Firefox plugin with a page load timer) If this is what customers have to go through to search for images no wonder my sales are poor there.
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: hatman12 on May 29, 2007, 15:18: FT must have upwards of a million images with zero downloads. Let's hope that they take the opportunity to change that misleading 3.3 million headline figure.
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: dbvirago on May 30, 2007, 12:27: Here is a thread on their forum I think we should be interested in. Of course, you'll have to wait for the page to load. If you can get to the forums and don't get
Table 'fotolia.forum_boards' doesn't exist

http://www.fotolia.com/forum/?thems=55662 (http://www.fotolia.com/forum/?thems=55662)
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: wysiwyg_foto on June 02, 2007, 18:10: Well, it appears the launch has been delayed a couple of days. Hopefully it will be over a weekend when things are slow rather than in the middle of the week.
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: dbvirago on June 02, 2007, 19:02: The fact that it is delayed on the day it's supposed to happen makes me nervous. Means they didn't have all the pieces in place. At least they figured it out before pulling the plug. Will be interesting to see what a couple of days mean.
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: Freezingpictures on June 12, 2007, 09:18: V2 is still not online, but they got the new idea to change their plans for the new pricing system. Sounds good to me: http://blog.fotolia.com/us/news/fotolia/fotolia-pricing_update-v2-stoc.html
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: CJPhoto on June 12, 2007, 09:29: New pricing sounds sensible.

Interesting that they didn't take the opportunity to update us on the proposed rollout. Maybe we could start a tote on when it is expected to launch.
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: GeoPappas on June 13, 2007, 16:19: It looks like Fotolia has just started their V. 2 upgrade.
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: hatman12 on June 13, 2007, 16:56: Let's hope that by being faster V.2 will bring a positive boost to views and sales.
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: wysiwyg_foto on June 13, 2007, 18:12: Quote from: GeoPappas on June 13, 2007, 16:19
It looks like Fotolia has just started their V. 2 upgrade.

I hope so - seems that since they announced it, I haven't had a single download...nothing at all since May 15th. It's very strange. Granted I only have about 170 images there, I was getting them regularly until the announcement.

Am starting to worry.
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: Karimala on June 13, 2007, 20:16: I think I'm the only person around who has seen an increase in sales since the announcement. But that's really not saying much, because last month was my 2nd worst month in an entire year.
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: ozbandit on June 14, 2007, 05:44: I'm with you Karimala, sales have definitely picked up since the announcement
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: CJPhoto on June 14, 2007, 06:54: K - Had an EL so this month is going to be a good one for me. ;D

Site still down though and since most of my sales come from Europe, my guess is I sont get my daily sale today. Hopefully it doesn't scare of buyers long term.

Why didn't they upgrade during the weekend! >:(
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: Pixart on June 14, 2007, 11:35: I have better sales at BigStock than Fotolia and I think it is likely because I was too *lazy* to order my keywords. I tried, but it was just too agonizing... now that the system should be faster I will clean up my act.

By the way... I went through my files at Dreamstime and 1/2 done at Lucky Oliver by putting the major keywords in my titles rather than artsy titles. Most sound like horrible broken English, but it seems to have boosted sales a little, even got 2 sales at LO this week.
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: dbvirago on June 14, 2007, 15:28: Interesting idea on the titles. I may try that, but the 'artsy' titles is how I remember which photo is which.

Sales at Fotolia way down this month - even more than the other sites which are all down just a bit.

I like how Fotolia tells you to go to their blog for more info, yet there is no new info on the blog.
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: hatman12 on June 14, 2007, 17:04: FT still down and out. Like others here have said - it does seem to be poor business planning that this should happen in the middle of the week rather than at the weekend.

Still, let's hope that once the new servers are up and running more customers are attracted to the site and buy more pictures at the new higher commission rates.
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: Peiling on June 14, 2007, 22:43: Fotolia is still down after one day
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: rossco on June 15, 2007, 03:28: reading the UK version of the blog earlier it gave a rough estimate of the times that the site would be back up and announced the winner of the v2 logo competition. The US site did not have the same blog post.

Quote:
"...The V2 will be online today in the afternoon for Fotolia Europe and tomorrow morning for our American Fotolians..."

-Rossco
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: Fortunefame on June 15, 2007, 03:47: Seriously, this downtime during a week s*cks monkeyballs. Poor poor business planning...
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: Freezingpictures on June 15, 2007, 03:55: Maybe it takes 5 days and they want to be ready on Monday..
From my view it is better sooner then later. They allready took so long...
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: budgaugh on June 15, 2007, 04:28: It's probably in everyone's best intrest to get this V2 going ASAP. Do you think the buyers like the three minute page loads and errors when searching for photos. I don't think waiting longer was an option.
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: ozbandit on June 15, 2007, 04:48: At least we have a latest update!

"This is the final round ... We have been working hard for the last 36 hours and a lot of work has been achieved :
7000Go of images have been imported and the same for the backup, 20 Go of data and 200 millions records have been processed to populate the 20 brand new servers, 20 people are checking and tracking bugs for the 8 websites in 6 languages.
We are working on the last steps and fixing the last bugs to make the site perfect for you. We appreciate your patience and continued support. We plan to launch the website in the middle of the afternoon or later this evening."
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: HughStoneIan on June 15, 2007, 08:25: Just call it a hunch, but something tells me we still have a long long wait in front of us :(
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: sharply_done on June 15, 2007, 12:08: A very amateurish move on the part of FT. They've probably lost customers because of this, and it's an easy bet that at least a few people will be gone after this is all over. Unless V2 is (at least) as good as they say it is this could be the beginning of the end for FT.

... I'm ready, FTv2, I hope it's worth the wait!
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: wysiwyg_foto on June 15, 2007, 13:04: Has anyone noticed that throughout the whole process the little green light to the right has remained on indicating that Fotolia is online?

I think Leaf has a secret portal in and isn't telling anyone about it. ;D
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: Pixart on June 15, 2007, 13:24: No matter how bad it is shutting down in the middle of the week, I'm sure they lost more customers with the sluggish site than they ever would being down a couple days. Thank goodness they have a splash page explaining what is going on. It would just suck for someone with a small budget though who only has credits there and needs access today. I might be wrong, but I think that in the past Fotolia had quite a good reputation and client base. Hopefully the changes will be a positive turnaround for them.
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: hatman12 on June 15, 2007, 15:20: The problem with Fotolia is lack of credibility, which is something of their own doing; they have persisted in deliberately misleading customers and contributors with their '3.5 million' stuff (and probably also with their 'we sell 10,000 pictures a day').

Once a business or an individual gets used to misleading (lying) they'll dig a big hole for themselves because professional people simply aren't that gullible.

Like others here I suspect that this transfer to V2 will take days and they probably won't ne up and running until next week. But that won't stop them 'misleading' by putting out reassuring announcements that they are 'almost there'.

Once someone gets used to being dishonest it is very difficult to change them.

Having said all of that, I do believe that FT has potential, and they do appear to be able to sell my pictures, so that's encouraging.

We'll see if I'm right though - an announcement that 'we are almost there' even though they probably know it will take all weekend.

And let's see what happens after they've deleted all those pictures from the past; will they change the 3.5 million number? I hope so; I hope they'll see sense. But somehow I doubt it.

I suspect that FT is short of cash; probably underfunded; probably one of those internet bubble situations where the CEO is paying himself $500,000 a year while the business and customers starve.

Perhaps I am being unfair. I hope so, but we'll see.
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: madelaide on June 15, 2007, 17:24: I only hope they are not having problems (it's taking too long...) and that V2 will be something really really good. FT is a good seller for me, and the only place were I sold EL so far (apart from one at FP), so I do hope things work right there.

Regards,
Adelaide
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: takestock on June 15, 2007, 18:03: I agree Madelaide,

I hope it goes well, FT is a good all round site in terms of acceptance and sales. There's no harm in waiting!
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: fotografer on June 16, 2007, 04:09: Quote from: Freezingpictures on June 15, 2007, 03:55
Maybe it takes 5 days and they want to be ready on Monday..
From my view it is better sooner then later. They allready took so long...

It's starting to look like you could be right.
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: ozbandit on June 16, 2007, 05:34: Fotolia V2 has already come up a few times, I even managed to login successfully. Unfortunately it was very slow which means they are still working out all the bugs. The good news is that it only said 1.6million pictures, meaning they definitely pruned their database. I bet there are a few stressed out techies working on it as we speak.
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: hatman12 on June 16, 2007, 06:59: Well if it really did say 1.6 million pictures Oz, that would be a HUGE step in the right direction. HUGE.

And if they have cut the database, that should clean up the searches no end and give the rest of us a better chance for sales.

Let's keep our fingers crossed........
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: dbvirago on June 16, 2007, 08:01: FTP isn't working yet. Not sure if that's temp or permanent. There is a new flash uploader I'm trying now. Slow, but I'm sure the site isn't 100% yet. It is a bandwidth hog, though. Hope ftp comes back
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: Peiling on June 16, 2007, 08:31: I have problems logging in and the system is super SSSSSLLLLLLOOOOWWWWW..... :( connection failure.....ooopssss....looks really bad to me...
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: CvanDijk on June 16, 2007, 09:06: I can get in but the Fotolia is even slower than before. I hope this is getting better soon, because this will cost customers.
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: snem on June 16, 2007, 09:40: Quote from: hatman12 on June 16, 2007, 06:59
Well if it really did say 1.6 million pictures Oz, that would be a HUGE step in the right direction. HUGE.

And if they have cut the database, that should clean up the searches no end and give the rest of us a better chance for sales.

Let's keep our fingers crossed........
Now it says 1.9 million...
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: Karimala on June 16, 2007, 09:43: I was able to get as far as my stats page and could view my stats for June before the site went down again...but it took longer than ever. Hopefully they'll get this all sorted out soon.
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: fintastique on June 16, 2007, 09:45: Been away for three weeks basking in the glorious sunshine of the outer hebrides (an archipeligo of sparsely populated islands with white sand beaches off the coast of NW Scotland)

I was looking forward to some juicy payouts upon my return but FT with their version 2.

Regarding the 1.9 million images nice to see they "pruned their database" seeing that the alpha site has been online since November 2005 (20 months ago) which had 300,000 claimed images. I don't think there would be that many files that had not been downloaded in 18 months.

Tried logging in but I seem to be stuck in some endless holding pattern from the title page to another login page. I think i preferred the blog page.

Has anyone tried FTPing?
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: admart01 on June 16, 2007, 09:51: My accepted count is the same as before and I have some older files with 0 uploads.

Uploaded 5 files (not FTP) this am. Got as far as pulling one up, creating categories but went to a blank white screen when I pressed the save and upload button. Didn't pull over my title or desciption but did get my keywords. Even though the red button is on, I'm able to log in and see the 5 unfinished files.
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: tdoes on June 16, 2007, 10:02: The account information tag is floating in front of whatever page you try to view. I also get a blank screen when I try to view the forum.
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: Karimala on June 16, 2007, 10:14: Made it as far as one of my unprocessed photos this time, only to discover that all the metadata disappeared (title, keywords, and description), so now I have the pleasure of reuploading about 50 photos. >:(

And of course, the categories STILL aren't in alphabetical order...I mean really, how hard is it to arrange the categories in alphabetical order so we can find them more easily?
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: fintastique on June 16, 2007, 10:18: Well after an age i finally arrived at the credits page starting the procedure to convert but then the standard page "working hard so much achieved" page appeared seems like I had a few sales on the 13th and an affiliate managed to sell something yesterday.
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: madelaide on June 16, 2007, 13:45: The site comes and go. I had logged in and now I get the multilanguage "work-in-progess" one.

Regards,
Adelaide
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: hatman12 on June 16, 2007, 16:43: Well down here in Australia we've had the splash screen on constantly with no sign of any access.

Of course the longer this goes on, the greater the risk that frustrated customers will look elsewhere for urgent image requirements and discover 'better' agencies.

I'm no techie, but it seems to me that if I had been managing this changeover I would've got the site up and running on the new servers, copied over all the required information, checked and triple checked, put the site out to a few hundred trusted customers for beta testing, then, when everything is confirmed as okay I'd press a 'switchover' button.

But then I'm no techie wiz, just a simple person.

Gut feel is negative; I reckon we might have several more days of this and then find that we are massively disappointed.

Another gut feel is that FT is short of cash; lacks the cashflow and resources needed to make this work; probably one IT employee working flat out 24/7 while the CEO goes out wining and dining in his Mercedes.......... but only a gut feel........
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: HughStoneIan on June 16, 2007, 17:13: Quote from: hatman12 on June 16, 2007, 16:43
I'm no techie, but it seems to me that if I had been managing this changeover I would've got the site up and running on the new servers, copied over all the required information, checked and triple checked, put the site out to a few hundred trusted customers for beta testing, then, when everything is confirmed as okay I'd press a 'switchover' button.

Hmm. Now why didn't FT think of that? As for the rest of your post, I believe you are far closer to the truth than they would want to even think about admitting. :D
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: takestock on June 16, 2007, 18:15: Hi Lads,

Have just been in there and most of it seems to be up and running ok.

The wait seem s to be over!
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: sharply_done on June 16, 2007, 18:21: Quote from: hatman12 on June 16, 2007, 16:43
Well down here in Australia we've had the splash screen on constantly with no sign of any access.
It's up here in Vancouver. Looks to be more-or-less the same paradigm as before.

Quote
Of course the longer this goes on, the greater the risk that frustrated customers will look elsewhere for urgent image requirements and discover 'better' agencies.
Not much of a risk to us, but certainly to FT. If I was relying on them for imagery I'd have moved on by now. I doubt that anyone who needs 'mission critical' stuff would be using them anyhow.

Quote
... it seems to me that if I had been managing this changeover I would've got the site up and running on the new servers ... when everything is confirmed as okay I'd press a 'switchover' button.
As an ex-techie, I've experienced gremlins, but never on this scale. I can imagine that they tried to reduce costs by using bargain-rate engineers who tested the changeover and functionality using some sort of intranet setup; you get what you pay for, and FT is may currently be experiencing the results of that unwise plan. It appears that they haven't made a backup/failsafe plan, choosing to fully commit to the (unproven/untested) new system. Pity.

Quote from: hatman12 on June 16, 2007, 16:43
Gut feel is negative; I reckon we might have several more days of this and then find that we are massively disappointed.
Yep, that's my gut, too. I'll be very surprised if things turn out well for them after this fiasco. I've already begun uploading to BigStock.
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: hatman12 on June 16, 2007, 19:35: Well it's just come on-line down here in OZ (Sunday morning; probably Saturday afternoon sometime for the rest of you lot); seems to be much faster but I haven't tried uploading etc yet.

Shows 1.9 million files. That still overstates the position, but IS A HUGE STEP FORWARD IN HONESTY and that is a very positive development.
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: ozbandit on June 16, 2007, 20:35: The stats option is pretty cool, so far so good
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: manwolste on June 16, 2007, 23:43: Many of my images have no keywords at all. With others, important keywords (like name of the town) are missing.

Anybody else is experiencing this?
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: Fortunefame on June 17, 2007, 01:34: Quote from: ozbandit on June 16, 2007, 20:35
The stats option is pretty cool, so far so good
what stats? looks the same to me as before? no?
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: fotografer on June 17, 2007, 01:50: Quote from: manwolste on June 16, 2007, 23:43
Many of my images have no keywords at all. With others, important keywords (like name of the town) are missing.

Anybody else is experiencing this?

My 13 most recent uploads have no keywords. My older images seem to be ok.
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: snem on June 17, 2007, 04:05: Reporting from Naples, Italy... Fotolia still down...
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: takestock on June 17, 2007, 04:19: First page of images have no keywords, rest OK.

Hope it can be sorted!
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: Eco on June 17, 2007, 04:52: Quote from: snem on June 17, 2007, 04:05
Reporting from Naples, Italy... Fotolia still down...

Same here in South Africa. I was able to get the log in page a few times, but was not able to log in.
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: chellyar on June 17, 2007, 05:37: It all sorta works for me, but it's unbearably slow to do somethings (Show details of an image is currently hung)...

There seems to be a lot of work done on the interface though, there were some odd html issues with the V1 interface, and they are all gone...

Seems to me to be a strange way to upgrade it, all in one hit, an 'incremental' process like IS have used would have been better, but then it's not my site....
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: tdoes on June 17, 2007, 06:23: Their site is running much slower for me than the previous version and my system is connected via fiber optics! Are they using a new connect address for uploading via ftp? My connection to them no longer works and the flash upload via their site is unbearably slow.

Seems like they overcommitted themselves! Hopefully all the kinks will be erased this week cause this is one of my top selling sites!
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: admart01 on June 17, 2007, 06:24: Sunday morning in the US - was able to edit one newly uploaded file (keywords were there with misspellings highlighted in red) the description filed seems to be gone as I could only find a comments fieild. Titles didn't copy over. Default el price resets each time back to 1 unit. Tried file number two with no luck. This could take a while
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: dbvirago on June 17, 2007, 06:37: Sold something. Email no longer tells you what you sold or for how much. Site is down again
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: digidave on June 17, 2007, 07:06: Site was up briefly .. now just getting blank pages :-\

Cannot do search on name to find whether my pics are indexed....am I doing that correctly?
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: Federico87 on June 17, 2007, 09:48: Last time I checked the site there was a page stating that they were upgrading the site, and that it was 36hours they were working on it.

They told that Fotolia would have been down for a weekend in order to upgrade to V2, so I think there's non problem, they asked for 48 hours to do the work, and they're doing it
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: odvdveer on June 17, 2007, 09:59: Quote from: Federico87 on June 17, 2007, 09:48
Last time I checked the site there was a page stating that they were upgrading the site, and that it was 36hours they were working on it.

They told that Fotolia would have been down for a weekend in order to upgrade to V2, so I think there's non problem, they asked for 48 hours to do the work, and they're doing it
Look at the dates. They started on the 13th and the message stating they would be up that afternoon was 2 days ago

Olga
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: hatman12 on June 17, 2007, 15:11: Down again here in OZ. 6.00am Monday morning and still Sunday for the rest of you. To be fair, it makes sense for them to take it offline on a Sunday to try to iron out the bugs.
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: Whiz on June 17, 2007, 16:16: I was able to upload ten images with their new Flash uploader last night(Saturday), which I actually prefer to the FTP. Unfortunately, the images that I uploaded were blank; I can only assume they will eventually show up.
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: dbvirago on June 17, 2007, 16:42: I wouldn't count on it. Uploaded the same set 3 times and got blanks. Last time, I got the images. Be careful of the $1 RF extended license
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: madelaide on June 17, 2007, 17:41: I have tried now and I get that multilanguage page. I wonder if it means problems...

Regards,
Adelaide
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: hatman12 on June 17, 2007, 20:38: Up and running again down here in OZ.

I'm not expecting to see much happen this week, least of all any sales; I think after all this disruption it might take a month or two for confidence to return.
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: ozbandit on June 17, 2007, 20:40: Keywords are still missing on the most recent images, site a bit faster now, but not great. At least sales are starting to come through again...
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: madelaide on June 17, 2007, 20:48: I have managed to log on, but like yesterday I can't convert my credits. I have sent them an email.

Regards,
Adelaide
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: pixelbrat on June 17, 2007, 21:17: Yep, keywords are missing on my recent uploads as well. Think we should contact support or wait a while to see if they'll fix it eventually?

Quote from: ozbandit on June 17, 2007, 20:40

Keywords are still missing on the most recent images, site a bit faster now, but not great. At least sales are starting to come through again...
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: hatman12 on June 17, 2007, 22:11: I wouldn't bother with support for a week or two - they are bound to be swamped......
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: Peiling on June 17, 2007, 22:23: finally managed to get in 3 days later. Dont think i will bother with anything at the moment and will wait until things stablise. its always like that when transfering data in IT
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: tdoes on June 17, 2007, 22:59: I'm not not able to convert my credits because of a required form field (EIN) that is missing on the form and is preventing me to continue on to convert the credits to cash.

Anyone else experiencing this? I left message with support! There forum isn't working at the moment.
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: takestock on June 18, 2007, 09:09: Despite the problems, just managed a sale on V2 !
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: HughStoneIan on June 18, 2007, 09:56: After this fiasco I can't see many serious buyers taking Fotolia seriously again. FT obviously don't think very highly of either their contributers OR their buyers! Well, maybe I'll visit them again after a year to see how things have shaped up. Maybe some giant will bail them out and buy them for a bargain price :( .
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: hatman12 on June 18, 2007, 13:03: Well something must be wrong: not only will the site REMEMBER my log-in details; not only did it fire up first thing today, but I also got two sales at the higher prices.......

Hmmm.... this doesn't feel right; I mean this is Fotolia; it's not actually meant to work....

Looking at it seriously, FT have shown themselves to be a bit of a joke business; clearly underfunded, lack of cash, lack of resources and inability to service customers properly. On the other hand they do seem to be able to sell my pictures, and every sale is to a customer in Europe, which does make them a bit different.

Fingers crossed I suppose......
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: Vally on June 18, 2007, 13:31: Is FTP working for anyone at the moment. Mine isn't and I can't see where else to upload?
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: snem on June 18, 2007, 13:33: Sorry but.... where is the upload button???
I was an FTP user...
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: fintastique on June 18, 2007, 13:42: I would hope when they stabilize their cash flow they will reactivate or debug convert credits.

From their blog they had a faulty server.

Four days of no sales but at least today was the second best day in June with a decent number of sales and all at the new prices.

I think uploads have been temporarily disabled flash/single file and FTP
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: ichiro17 on June 18, 2007, 17:32: Something you might want to read. Was posted by Chad Bridwell in another forum:

Hello Everyone,

As many of you know Fotolia V2 is finally online. It has been a rough and a very risky release for us. Oleg (our president) and many of our engineers did not sleep for 4 days. Things did not turn as we had planned and we have faced some serious issues to that still must be resolved. During the migration we had among other issues, a huge database server defect making it difficult to localize. A migration is not as easy as some might think it is not just a copy of data from one server to another, the entire Fotolia system has been changed. The errors have been extremely complicated to fix. There are still bugs, missing images, missing IPTC data, and search problems, but we will try to get everything fixed in the next few days. We decided also to stop uploads for a couple of days to solve all issues with speed and to have the site working for buyers. We plan to allow uploads soon and release new features specifically for photographers in the next few days.

In many ways what you currently see is the bare minimum of V2. We needed to get back online today for customers after 4 days of being offline. But we are far from done with V2 full functionality. Things will be deployed everyday.

It is interesting to note that even with the delays and many bugs Fotolia has had over 10,000 downloads today. We have also had an article in Techcrunch and many other news outlets about the release.

Please be patient and allow us to win back your trust. We hope this is just the beginning!

Chad Bridwell

Director of US Operations

Fotolia.com
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: JC-SL on June 18, 2007, 21:00: Geeezzzzz.... you guys are tough! Just had a play on V2 and it rocked! Maybe some of the load bearing servers are mirrors pointed south of the border!

If you're making money from them...it can't be all that bad, can it? Who cares how many images they say they have or how many they sell each day as long as some of them are yours!

All seems like steps in the right direction... one small step for man... ;)

cheers, JC
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: ozbandit on June 18, 2007, 21:38: Agree with you 100% JC
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: travelstock on June 19, 2007, 00:54: Still missing metadata on some uploads that I haven't finished, but downloads look ok, and to me that's the main thing - keep the cash rolling. I'm hoping V2 ends up with a better search engine and that they eventually axe the ranking system for keywords - its a lot more work, and probably doesn't really improve search outcomes.
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: Fortunefame on June 19, 2007, 02:35: I can't complain from FT either, they're my biggest seller. ALtough only +-30 pics of my 400+ pfolio sell on a daily basis.

I did request a payout the day before the server change...so I hope that didn't get lost in the mountain of work...:s
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: nicemonkey on June 19, 2007, 09:45: Is it just me or have the sales really taken off since V2? maybe the change in the search criteria has meant the cream of the crop has risen to the top....at last I knew my day would come! LOL or maybe not!
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: ichiro17 on June 19, 2007, 10:43: I wouldn't say "taken off" but at least i'm getting some sales
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: fotografer on June 19, 2007, 11:45: Today I have had my best day ever at fotolia and there's time for a few more yet :D
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: Fortunefame on June 19, 2007, 13:30: Quote from: fotografer on June 19, 2007, 11:45
Today I have had my best day ever at fotolia and there's time for a few more yet :D

I confirm...triple the sales of a normal day...WOAHHHHH...sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: sharply_done on June 19, 2007, 16:00: I've noticed an increase in sales as well, but that may have more to do with one of my pics being featured on the front page than increased traffic.

(http://www.strathdee.net/temp/fotolia.jpg)
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: madelaide on June 19, 2007, 16:06: Congrats for the front page, Sharply_done! Well, I haven't experienced such increase, my sales are slow but hopefully steady. I wouldn't mind an EL this month. :)

Regards,
Adelaide
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: pixelbrat on June 19, 2007, 16:12: I have noticed an increase in sales as well. Of course, those might be higher if my newer images still had their keywords intact. ;) I know, I'm trying to be patient. It sounds like they're doing the best they can given all the issues they've had. I certainly welcome the changes. ;D
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: Whiz on June 19, 2007, 16:36: Quote from: sharply_done on June 19, 2007, 16:00
I've noticed an increase in sales as well, but that may have more to do with one of my pics being featured on the front page than increased traffic.

([url]http://www.strathdee.net/temp/fotolia.jpg[/url])

The small picture at the bottom of the page with the orange leaves is mine. I actually had two of my photos selected for the home page.
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: hatman12 on June 20, 2007, 04:09: Down here in OZ the site appears to be slightly faster than V1 but not significantly so.

Still many problems to be ironed out; no upload facility yet and lots of other little niggles and bits that don't work.

I reckon this thing could drag on for another month.

Of course there are many peeps waiting to upload, so when the floodgates open we can expect a pretty long bottleneck.
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: digiology on June 20, 2007, 10:23: Congrats Sharply_done!

Unfortunately, I still find Fotolia to be slow. Although after its finished loading is is a bit snappier.
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: photovan on June 24, 2007, 06:09: No uploads is not a little niggly. It is a major function that should work. Has anyone tried to get paid yet? I read that doesn't work either.

I used to be in IT. This was very, very badly managed.
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: Clivia on June 24, 2007, 13:44: I have been trying to get paid with no success. I am off on holiday (vacation for our US friends) next week, and I want my money!
I have payments from just before the upgrade that have not been cleared also.
I emailed support, but just got a standard reply that told me nothing.
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: HughStoneIan on June 24, 2007, 15:40: It's disturbing to note how many IT or former-IT people have been commenting on how bad the management of this upgrade was and is. Now FT is holding back payments from their contributors, who are 1/2 of their lifeblood, the other 1/2 being the buyers whose money I'm sure they're accepting quite happily and very quickly ;). The skies over FT seem to be darkening with each day that passes rather than clearing up. Does anyone know if their top managers have had anything to say lately???
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: dbvirago on June 24, 2007, 21:14: Chad dropped in thursday with an update with little we did't already know. also promised daily updates. Nothing since then.
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: takestock on June 25, 2007, 09:56: Managing the odd sale ok but the site is really slow today.
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: CJPhoto on June 25, 2007, 11:23: Quote from: takestock on June 25, 2007, 09:56
Managing the odd sale ok but the site is really slow today.
Same but they are all blog size :(. not what I was hopig for with the change in prices.
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: hatman12 on June 25, 2007, 13:15: Down here in OZ the new site is slow, probably as slow as the old version.

Doesn't seem to be much action in sorting all the bugs, and although I reported the stupid 'my indox' error a week ago even that hasn't been corrected.

Gut feel is very negative. I don't think they've got the cash or the resources needed to sort out this mess and I think it will drag on for weeks. What the buyers will think of that I don't know.

As for the various promises made by 'chad'; as CEO he is presumably a person who sanctions deliberately misleading statements like '3.2 million online files', 'we sell 10,000 pictures a day' etc; personally I wouldn't believe most of what he says or promises.

Something inside me says this is the beginning of the end for FT, although I have been wrong before and I might be wrong this time.
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: Pixart on June 25, 2007, 13:23: I'm lucky my sales there suck anyway.
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: Whiz on June 25, 2007, 14:16: I'm glad I use four other agencies.
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: Lee Torrens on June 25, 2007, 16:50: Right on Hatman!

It's now been 12 days since the "upgrade" started and we still don't have an upload facility.

In the statement from Chad posted here they said they hadn't slept since the upgrade started, which at the time was four days. I wonder how much sleep they're getting now with their site still crippled after almost two weeks.

I agree with your suspicion about them being under-resourced. I can't think of any other explanation. In situations like this when you have a mission-critical issue you do whatever it takes to get it fixed. There is nothing that can't be fixed in 12 days.

Boy, would I like to be a fly on the wall in the CEO's office over the last 12 days.

Oh, did I mention it's now been 12 days?
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: madelaide on June 25, 2007, 20:41: One good news: pay-outs are working now. Let's see how long it takes to actually received the money, though.

Regards,
Adelaide
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: fintastique on June 26, 2007, 04:05: Yep managed to request a payment an extra prompt appears
"are you an American citizen?"

if so I guess you should have your social security number handy.

I don't understand credits earned on the 11th and 13th of June still not validated.

In V1 credits earned from affiliates were validated on the day of sale whereas there was a three day wait for your sale credits to be validated

Now my credit sales are validated on the day whereas affilated credits seem to be stuck on orange I think I prefer the new system as I am obviously earning more than 10% of my affilates.

Sales are definately down in V2 just did a quick search to see if where my photos are appearing in searches. I live in Scotland so my portfolio is strongly baised towards cities and scenics of this country and I had quite a niche market for a while. So I was shocked to see not only had various islands ceased to exist in Fotolio database but so had Edinburgh and Glasgow, even a search for Scotland showed only just over 1,000 results and not familar ones.

I sincerely hope the search engine is fixed very soon otherwise when people have used up their old credits they will go to sites where they can easily find photos they want.

I had a quick look at my microstock earnings across the board and unless there is a few miracles this will be the worse month of 2007
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: fintastique on June 26, 2007, 04:26: There is a thread about Fotolia's return back to normality at

http://us.fotolia.com/forum/?thems=60077&step=2 (http://us.fotolia.com/forum/?thems=60077&step=2)

where there are snippets of news from Chad amongst the list of complaints.

Uploads coming soon apparently
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: leaf on June 26, 2007, 04:36: well it is good to know i am not the only one with a serious downward trend in fotolia earnings the last few days after the update.
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: souper on June 26, 2007, 05:30: our views went from about 60-100 a day with about 3 or 4 sales to 1 view and possibly one sale.

we havve been waiting to get paid since the 12th.

:( :(

very unhappy... btw, it's still very slow.
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: hatman12 on June 26, 2007, 06:41: You must be mistaken Fin - as FT have pointed out, they sold '10,000 pictures' on the day V2 went live.....

... so the serach engine must work.....

.... unless..... (shock, horror)..... unless of course this is yet another lie.....

Hmmm... constant stream of lies, promises made and never kept, long list of suppliers waiting to get paid, thousands of bugs that never get fixed......

... all this smacks of a business about to go bust.

Instead of managing the upgrade, the CEO is probably in emergency talks with the company's bankers; he will of course have driven to the meetings in his $100,000 Mercedes wearing his Gant suit and Versace tie........

Gut feel is that cashflow has been destroyed and there will be an 'announcement' soon.....

... or it will just die....

I will be VERY surprised if anyone actually gets paid.

I hope I am wrong.
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: kosmikkreeper on June 26, 2007, 07:47: Can anyone upload? FTP doesn't work and I don't see where I can upload on the site itself....
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: andresr on June 26, 2007, 08:08: Uhm good to know payouts are working now. That's the only thing that got me worried since at the end of the month I need that money to pay for my new flat.

On the contrary to everyone else here, last week was my best ever week at fotolia and this week is no different so far, hope it keeps that way or better.

An important note for those that seem confused by the sizes, the small size at fotolia IS NOT BLOG SIZE, is WEB SIZE! 800 x 600 can almost cover your screen.
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: fotografer on June 26, 2007, 09:06: Last week was also my best week ever and this week is going well also. ;D
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: Pixart on June 26, 2007, 09:45: Quote from: hatman12 on June 26, 2007, 06:41
as FT have pointed out, they sold '10,000 pictures' on the day V2 went live.....
Companies rushing to use their credits while they still can, perhaps? They didn't say "purchased new credits", did they? Would be more interesting to know how many new credits packages were sold.
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: nightowlza on June 26, 2007, 10:19: I still can't find any upload button anywhere on the site.
I'm sure they've lost a LOT of business with this whole mess.
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: thesentinel on June 26, 2007, 11:05: Quote from: andresr on June 26, 2007, 08:08

On the contrary to everyone else here, last week was my best ever week at fotolia and this week is no different so far, hope it keeps that way or better.

A glitch that favors a top contributor, who'd have thought ::)
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: fotografer on June 26, 2007, 12:02: Not just the top contributors. I've sold 20 so far today with a portfolio of less than 500.
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: sharply_done on June 26, 2007, 14:24: My sales are up on FT as well, but only to the $200+/month level.
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: Karimala on June 26, 2007, 14:36: Is anyone else having problems getting the site to load today? Or is just me?
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: Whiz on June 26, 2007, 14:37: Quote from: fotografer on June 26, 2007, 12:02
Not just the top contributors. I've sold 20 so far today with a portfolio of less than 500.

I've sold 0 so far today with a portfolio of less than 500. In fact, I've only had one sale for the week. But I'm still new, so maybe a lot of people don't know I exist. And yeah, the site isn't loading for me either.
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: fotografer on June 26, 2007, 14:41: I've been selling for about a year now. I nearly gave up uploading as the sales were so slow at the beginning but the last few months have really taken off. Even now new images seem to take a while to get going.
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: Whiz on June 26, 2007, 14:46: Fotolia's site is working again. Maybe they fixed something?

Oh, and can I see a link to your Fotolia portfolio fotografer? I'm curious to see what your clients are buying. Thanks.
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: hatman12 on June 26, 2007, 17:07: Down here in Australia FT was slower yesterday than V1.

Today (Tuesday morning) we have no access at all.
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: takestock on June 26, 2007, 17:12: Still running very slow.

Just wish it would be sorted, it's getting a bit tiring.
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: Lee Torrens on June 26, 2007, 18:48: The blog link at the top of the page on the US site links to blog.fotolia.loc/us

loc? How can such a mistake be possible?
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: madelaide on June 26, 2007, 19:03: Things are improving, I guess.

Payment requested yesterday was already credited to MB.

Uploads have been resumed and categories are easier to pick. However there is no description anymore, and the title field in being filled with the description. Wrong IPTC fields?

Regards,
Adelaide
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: ianhlnd on June 26, 2007, 20:14: The site crashed three times today while trying to upload, first tried 10, then 5, then one at a time. Probably clogged with all new uploads.
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: fotografer on June 27, 2007, 01:31: I'd rather remain anonymous here as I then feel I can say what I like about any site but my portfolio is almost 100% people shots(not business).

quote author=Whiz link=topic=1836.msg16774#msg16774 date=1182887180]

Oh, and can I see a link to your Fotolia portfolio fotografer? I'm curious to see what your clients are buying. Thanks.
[/quote]
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: Clivia on June 27, 2007, 02:02: I finally got a payment yesterday, and they made a mess off it. The payment has been deducted off my earnings twice. I am waiting to see if it hits Paypal twice before I complain to support. In the meantime, my earning stand at MINUS $58.70!
The credits I earned between the 11th and the 13th June still have not been approved.
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: fintastique on June 27, 2007, 04:36: How many have noticed that previously accepted files now have keywords missing, I remember reading about keywords somewhere but I thought it was a problem of newly submitted images. I have 3,500 files at FT, am I expected to fill in the blanks? I have only checked less than 10 but half had blanks

It makes D/A at iStock seem like a walk in the park.

The only bright side with thoses with small portfolios it would be chance to correct keywording mistakes
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: takestock on June 27, 2007, 05:51: Not only missing keywords but a lot of pics already keyworded are not showing up in search.
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: hatman12 on June 27, 2007, 06:26: Yes, the whole keywords/search thing is yet another disaster.

I am amazed that anyone would actually consider uploading anything to FT given that nothing seems to actaully work, and even the upload process apparently has the IPTC fields mixed up or missing. I certainly won't be sending them anything until such time as I am sure the thing works properly and that FT have survived this awful mess.
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: dbvirago on June 27, 2007, 08:16: Quote from: Clivia on June 27, 2007, 02:02
I finally got a payment yesterday, and they made a mess off it. The payment has been deducted off my earnings twice. I am waiting to see if it hits Paypal twice before I complain to support. In the meantime, my earning stand at MINUS $58.70!
The credits I earned between the 11th and the 13th June still have not been approved.

Yup, they screwed mine up too. I use a different email address for paypal than normal email, but when you put in the request, it asks for your paypal email. I put that in, and they sent it to the wrong place.

Rather than give them any opportunity to make it worse, I just opened a paypal account under the new address. It will take a few days to make it work, but better than giving them a second crack at it.

I agree with not uploading, I am over a 100 images behind now, and not sure they will ever get them. It's going to take some time for them to gain any credibility.
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: leaf on June 27, 2007, 10:45: Quote from: dbvirago on June 27, 2007, 08:16

Rather than give them any opportunity to make it worse, I just opened a paypal account under the new address. It will take a few days to make it work, but better than giving them a second crack at it.

just as a note: in case you didn't know. You can have multiple email addresses with each paypal account.. so you wouldn't have to open a new account if you didn't want to.
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: CJPhoto on June 27, 2007, 11:40: Your a star Leaf,

No sooner had I added the new email address to my paypal that I looked at my email to see that Fotolia had sent payment to my contact email address, not my paypal address.

payment all sorted now and received. Very quick - only about 2 days.
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: dbvirago on June 27, 2007, 12:10: Thanks, leaf - I didn't know that. Too late :-). I had been thinking about a seperate account anyway, a business and a personal. The snag is it has to be validated against a bank account and you can only validate once paypal account against one bank account.

Maybe I'll just buy something. Amazon has a 'Website Upgrades for Dummies' book. Apparently, they haven't sold any copies.
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: leaf on June 27, 2007, 12:56: yeah, i have 2 accounts as well, a personal and a business.. they come in handy.

But if you have a savings account or something similar, then you can validate your paypal account that way.
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: fintastique on June 27, 2007, 13:28: On a brighter note I received my FT payment this afternoon from paypal but personally i would have preferred if sorting out the search engine had been top priority.

Good for those who portfolios that are being found by the new search engine.

I can't help getting that feeling of deja vu, does nobody in the microstock industry believe in beta testing?

My backlog is up to 200 already.

I saw an FTP link appeared yesterday but was gone this morning but i think it would be prudent to wait until everything is sorted before wasting time and bandwidth.

Well at least they did this during the summer slump
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: bbettina on June 27, 2007, 19:01: not a single sale in days! Frustrating!!
Is there anything one can do? Who's portfolios get "found" - those with many pics, high approval ratings (mine ain't bad), uploaded during a blue moon?
I am thankful for suggestions.

Tina
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: madelaide on June 27, 2007, 19:27: Quote from: GeoPappas on May 29, 2007, 07:20
Credits now cost $1.36
Not yet, until it changed in the past minutes. I'm looking forward to it!

Regards,
Adelaide
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: CJPhoto on June 28, 2007, 05:15: Quote from: madelaide on June 27, 2007, 19:27
Quote from: GeoPappas on May 29, 2007, 07:20
Credits now cost $1.36
Not yet, until it changed in the past minutes. I'm looking forward to it!
They ar not doing this at all now. I think what they did instead was bring in a new smaller size and all the other sizes got bumped up a credit. However, all my sales have been for the smal web size unfortunately.
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: odvdveer on June 28, 2007, 05:45: I have had one xl sale for 4 credits and an M for 2 credits, this part WAS implemented with the release of V2

Olga
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: Pixart on June 28, 2007, 10:06: Is it just me or have they picked up the speed? Gosh, it's almost as fast as the competitors this morning... and I had 4 sales yesterday. Miracle.
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: fintastique on June 28, 2007, 13:58: A record day at FT 89 DLs but

only 4 of those earned me money the other 85 as far as i can tell were of the same free image. I thought I had deleted all my free images but obviously not.
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: Karimala on June 28, 2007, 14:22: Quote from: CJPhoto on June 28, 2007, 05:15
Quote from: madelaide on June 27, 2007, 19:27
Quote from: GeoPappas on May 29, 2007, 07:20
Credits now cost $1.36
Not yet, until it changed in the past minutes. I'm looking forward to it!
They ar not doing this at all now. I think what they did instead was bring in a new smaller size and all the other sizes got bumped up a credit. However, all my sales have been for the smal web size unfortunately.

That's correct.
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: Tomboy2290 on June 28, 2007, 17:30: My sales have increased too, which is very nice, but I have found that at least one of my older images has lost its keywords >:( I guess I'm gonna have to get busy and check my whole portfolio now ...

But how do you fix the keywords?????
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: madelaide on June 28, 2007, 19:05: Quote from: Tomboy2290 on June 28, 2007, 17:30
My sales have increased too, which is very nice, but I have found that at least one of my older images has lost its keywords
If you read their forum, there are posts there showing that keywords are still there, but somehow not seen at first - there is a trick to make them show.

Sales were great today, although unfortunately on the smaller size only. But I've had 2 and 3 credit sales in the past days. In IS a good portion of my sales are the XS size also.

Regards,
Adelaide
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: Tomboy2290 on June 28, 2007, 20:17: Quote from: madelaide on June 28, 2007, 19:05
Quote from: Tomboy2290 on June 28, 2007, 17:30
My sales have increased too, which is very nice, but I have found that at least one of my older images has lost its keywords
If you read their forum, there are posts there showing that keywords are still there, but somehow not seen at first - there is a trick to make them show.

Sales were great today, although unfortunately on the smaller size only. But I've had 2 and 3 credit sales in the past days. In IS a good portion of my sales are the XS size also.

Regards,
Adelaide

Thanks Adelaide, what a good idea to check the forum at FT ;D

I guess we are just gonna have to cool our heels and wait for it all to be sorted.

Cheers
Sandra
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: takestock on June 29, 2007, 02:39: My pics, all with keywords are now coming back into the seach.

So now we now our images are on full power.
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: admart01 on June 29, 2007, 07:00: glad to hear some are back making money here - not me, sad to say. I've not sold an image since the upgrade and that's odd since I was averaging a few a day.
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: bbettina on June 29, 2007, 19:28: Quote
I've not sold an image since the upgrade
that's exactly how I was doing until yesterday when I sold a couple. Today, however, I sold TWO extended licenses - hurrah! Best day ever, anywhere on microstock.
Immediately ordered $1000 worth of new photo equipment - now I am $980 in the hole ;D
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: manwolste on June 30, 2007, 12:55: Contacted support 2 weeks ago about partly and completely missing keywords, but nothing happened, they are still gone.

Just deleted the images (images with no keyword will not be found and hence get no dl). If one day they manage to get their stuff going, maybe I upload again. So far, they are dead for me.

Working myself in the IT business, I just cannot believe how they handled this update.
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: hatman12 on June 30, 2007, 15:34: FT have announced in their forums that the missing keywords etc should be imported this weekend.

Promises, promises........
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: Karimala on July 01, 2007, 12:14: The latest glitch...

10 sales away from reaching silver, and I got my raise. Other folks who have reached bronze in the past few days haven't received their raise.
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: madelaide on July 01, 2007, 13:31: Quote from: hatman12 on June 30, 2007, 15:34
FT have announced in their forums that the missing keywords etc should be imported this weekend.
Where do you see your keywords are missing. Ever since this subject came up here and at FT forum, I have checked some of my images at random and could not find a problem. Even the sorting order appeared ok.

Anyway, someone at FT forum said there was a trick to make keywords reappear, apparently they were there but in some type of view would not appear, then a few click would make them back again.

Regards,
Adelaide
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: odvdveer on July 02, 2007, 02:44: I have images with keywords missing

Olga
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: admart01 on July 02, 2007, 07:36: my latest ft news - seems I've sold 1 photo since the upgrade but I didn't get the auto-email notice. did get a notice of a photo accepted (well actually two emails but they referenced the same file). This is a very old photo - not sure if it was rejected before?? It has no keywords and I cannot add any or change the price of an el from 1 credit. Sent a message to support.
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: dbvirago on July 02, 2007, 08:17: I was getting emails on the few sales I had. Then over the weekend, I got about 50 emails one night on a free image. Finally had to delete the image to stop the emails. Since then I have sold one, but didn't get the email.

They still have a lot of work to do.
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: leaf on July 02, 2007, 10:45: wow, this thread just made it into the record books having received the most replys of any thread on the site ...... ouch. :(
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: Pixart on July 02, 2007, 11:51: I would like to clean up my mess of a portfolio on FT, but I can't seem to sort my photos in any kind of order any more.... How do you sort by status/sales/views etc.?

I'm trying to go through pages one at a time, but if I make a change on page 5 it tosses me back to page 1 so I lose my place. Ugh.

Perhaps I should put FT on my August to-do list and forget about it for now. I don't dare upload for a while.
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: odvdveer on July 02, 2007, 14:02: Sorting is on the teething problem list.

Olga
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: Pixart on July 02, 2007, 14:33: Oh, happy day. 2 EL's. Thank Goodness they were files that I had managed to change the EL price on when I was bumped up a level. Now I can say to my husband "remember that day at the beach when you were being so cranky, and cursing me and my camera...."

(I'm beginning to not mind so much this V.2.)
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: Read_My_Rights on July 02, 2007, 16:00: Fist new picture reviewed and accepted. Yeah.
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: Karimala on July 03, 2007, 02:07: My top 61 sellers don't appear in any searches. >:(

And then I noticed that searching by relevance places the most relevant photos at the end of the results now.

And if that isn't enough, I searched for "Braille," and before any photos of actual Braille text were photos of pills in blister packs, buildings and a fountain (among other things). When I looked at the fountain's keywords, "Braille" isn't even included in them! However, the word "Louis" is included, and I can only assume this new masterpiece of a search engine is thinking that "Louis" means Louis Braille, the inventor of Braille. So...some of my real Braille photos are missing, while this fountain with the keyword "Louis" is showing up.

Ridiculous.
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: HughStoneIan on July 03, 2007, 08:59: Quote from: leaf on July 02, 2007, 10:45
wow, this thread just made it into the record books having received the most replys of any thread on the site ...... ouch. :(
Very sad..........
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: chan on July 03, 2007, 09:20: ...been stalking this thread for 3 weeks...
FYI: after weeks of no views or sales, I sold 2 in the last 2 days, my views appear to be on the increase, keywords are back on aprox 60% of my images, but still have not had any of my "pending" images reviewed over the last 3-4 weeks.

Looking forward to things getting worked out completely.

C
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: Whiz on July 03, 2007, 15:34: I really wish that they would encrypt the page where you submit your social security number. It just seems like they don't care if your identity is stolen. Or is the page encrypted somehow? It's an http address and there's no lock in the bottom right corner of the screen, so I don't think it's encrypted. :(
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: Karimala on July 03, 2007, 15:38: Quote from: Whiz on July 03, 2007, 15:34
I really wish that they would encrypt the page where you submit your social security number. It just seems like they don't care if your identity is stolen. Or is the page encrypted somehow? It's an http address and there's no lock in the bottom right corner of the screen, so I don't think it's encrypted. :(

Not only is the page unencrypted, but our SSN's are STORED on that page in full view. I have been raising hell about this issue for six months now with zero results, and am now in the process of documenting it and writing a report for the Better Business Bureau. Storing personal information such as SSNs and credit card numbers on a website is against the law in the US.
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: madelaide on July 03, 2007, 16:24: Quote from: Read_My_Rights on July 02, 2007, 16:00
Fist new picture reviewed and accepted. Yeah.
Mine too, today - over one week wait I think.

Regards,
Adelaide
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: madelaide on July 03, 2007, 16:27: Quote from: chan on July 03, 2007, 09:20
keywords are back on aprox 60% of my images,
I still don't see the keywords missing! Where do you guys see this? All my images (picked randomly) show their keywords.

The only thing I notice is that search is not finding all of them.

Regards,
Adelaide
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: takestock on July 03, 2007, 17:10: Yes Adelaide, that's the way it is.

Keywords in place but not responding to search.

Don't you wish it was all sorted at this stage.
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: sharply_done on July 03, 2007, 20:09: Quote from: madelaide on July 03, 2007, 16:24
Quote from: Read_My_Rights on July 02, 2007, 16:00
Fist new picture reviewed and accepted. Yeah.
Mine too, today - over one week wait I think.
I'm waiting until all the problems get worked out until I resume uploading to FT - I just don't can't afford to do all that work only to have things get fouled up.
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: hatman12 on July 03, 2007, 20:31: The management at FT have now banned any mention of V2 bugs on the forums.

My interpretation: they want to hide the scale of the problem.
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: madelaide on July 03, 2007, 21:28: Not all threads are banned, but anyway no site likes anti-propaganda, especially when people are agressive.

No matter how poorly they may have made the transition, being rude to the staff doesn't help at all. One may complain and point out problems without being rude.

Regards,
Adelaide
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: travelstock on July 03, 2007, 23:44: Thought I'd add my grumbles about Fotolia in general and V2 in particular. The sorting of keywords has always been a pain in the backside to do, and entering data in general is cumbersome and slow. Seeing as they have spent so much time on their site "upgrade" they could have at least asked contributors how their lives could be made easier.

If I actually made anything near the income that I do on IS, SS or DT, maybe the effort would be worth it, but Sales are sporadic, despite having around 500 files online.

To add to the problem, I had a que of about 100 files uploaded before the upgrade, but for some reason, the keywords and file info has been removed, so either I delete and re-upload, to get the metadata back, or enter manually. Problem with deleting, is that you can only do it one at a time... grrrrr
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: phildate on July 04, 2007, 02:28: For a couple of months, FT was my highest earning site and I was 100% behind FT in all it did. Now my sales have dropped by 50% and it doesn't look like it's going to get any better any time soon. If this is happening to the other Emerald photogs then it means FT are losing some serious cash and they must be totally regretting the upgrade to V2. What with the troubles at IS and now FT, makes you pray that SS and DT don't do anything similar. As it is, I am having to re-think my business strategy as microstock is not the guaranteed income that I thought it was a year ago.
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: leaf on July 04, 2007, 02:52: hmmm.. yeah, it certainly can go down the tubes quickly. I would think however, that eventually if a site goes under, or just 'doesn't' work for some reason that the buyers would manage to find a new place to shop for their images - so the customers wouldn't be lost for us, just come from a different place.

I am very curious what is happening under the hood at fotolia. - and how much longer it will be. :(
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: Bateleur on July 04, 2007, 04:01: Quote from: phildate on July 04, 2007, 02:28

What with the troubles at IS and now FT, makes you pray that SS and DT don't do anything similar. As it is, I am having to re-think my business strategy as microstock is not the guaranteed income that I thought it was a year ago.

The only thing that doesn't change in this world are that things change :)

What are the troubles at IS?
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: CJPhoto on July 04, 2007, 04:49: Quote from: Bateleur on July 04, 2007, 04:01
What are the troubles at IS?
I think he is referring to disambiguation (major issue when you have as many photos as Phil) or maybe the constant changes of the search engine.
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: travelstock on July 04, 2007, 08:45: Am curious to know whether those with bigger portfolios than mine have experienced any noticeable increase in sales from other sites like Dreamstime?

As I upload more, I'm noticing that the 3 with somewhat consistent downloads are IS, DT and SS - I didn't have that big a problem with the IS disambiguation obviously, so that hasn't really affected me - it seems that this resulted more in a redistribution of where downloads go than an overall drop - FT on the other hand seems to be dropping overall because of bugs in the system.
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: admart01 on July 04, 2007, 08:59: Quote from: Whiz on July 03, 2007, 15:34
I really wish that they would encrypt the page where you submit your social security number. It just seems like they don't care if your identity is stolen. Or is the page encrypted somehow? It's an http address and there's no lock in the bottom right corner of the screen, so I don't think it's encrypted. :(

their lack of getting it together makes the social security numbers vulerable as it's the most valuable thing that can be stolen from the site (no slam against our collective great photos). totally agree with the concern
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: Pixart on July 04, 2007, 14:22: Is this a new message (below)? Maybe not, but I just spotted it today. It does say that you have a new FTP login and password. Is anyone submitting yet?

Dear Fotolia Contributors,

We are happy to inform you that after many days of delay, image upload is back online at Fotolia. Log on to your Fotolia account and click on the “My Files” section for more details.

You will see that we added a new upload option called Flash Upload which is very cool. In addition we now allow contributors to upload SVG files. Click here to learn more about SVG.

Please note that the login and password for FTP has changed. See details in your account.
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: dbvirago on July 04, 2007, 20:29: Yes, I'm submitting, but most things aren't getting fixed in a timely manner. Now they are trying to shut down the complaints in their forums. The following was posted yesterday.

Hello everyone,

I have had a number of discussions with our management team regarding the forum activity and it seems I need to make some changes.

Per the terms and conitions of the Fotolia forum it is no longer allowed to report any problems or bugs on the Fotolia website in the Fotolia forum. Please direct all comments about problems with the website to customer service. They will record the information and report it to our engineers.

In addition Fotolia will soon add a way for members to review current know issues before reporting a problem to customer service.

I appreciate all your help in reporting bugs on the website but the management feels there are better tools designed for this process.

All current and future bugs lists in the forum will be deleted.

Sincerely,

Chad Bridwell
Director of US Operations
Fotolia.com
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: leaf on July 05, 2007, 06:05: i agree it is good to not have a 'problems riddled' front which buyers see, but it is also important that submitters can voice themselves if there is a problem... otherwise they may just get frustrated and leave. Sometimes it is just something they are doing wrong.. or they feel they are the only ones. It is nice to know that everyone else is having the same problems.
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: dbvirago on July 05, 2007, 13:45: Fortunately, there are forums like yours where we can still voice these frustrations.

A case in point :-(

Just got about 100 validation emails. Over half were acceptance notices but had a file number instead of a name, which makes them useless. Another 25% were rejected, but had #var1 instead of name of number which makes them less than useless.

All the rest were rejected for no model release, when I know I attached a model release to every one. The new model release procedure is actually quite easy and hard to make a mistake on.

There is not one thing they have done in conjuction with this 'upgrade' that was done correctly. I can't remember when I have seen such massive incompetence in one place where the business survived. And censoring the complaints isn't going to make them go away
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: Whiz on July 05, 2007, 14:23: I wonder if the buyers are allowed to post their compaints on the Fotolia message boards? It would be interesting to see how many problems the buyers are having, if any. And I'm sure they're having at least a few problems.
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: dbvirago on July 05, 2007, 15:12: That was the misguided part of Chad's email. If you check the public forums, the buyers are aware there are problems. There have been a few posted on the Yahoo microstock groups board. Some going back to before V2, where the problems are bad enough that they are going someplace else. Hopefully someplace where I have the same images for sale.

That's the part that astounds me about some of these sites. It is very much a free, open, and global marketplace. There is less reason to buy from a broken site than there is to sell at a broken site.
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: hatman12 on July 05, 2007, 16:07: I haven't uploaded any images since V2 went live and it is very unlikely that I shall ever do so again. Certainly not for many weeks or until I can see that things have settled down.

There are better agencies out there; I spend a lot of time and effort on my images and I cannot bear the thought of giving them to a load of incompetent assholes.

My feeling is that FT has damaged itself to such an extent that it may take months or years to recover from this fiasco. In the meantime there are fledgling professional agencies out there (StockXpert and LO for instance) who would welcome the chance to service those buyers in a professional way.

I am astonished at those photographers who, having been through this experience, seem eager to upload new images even though the site is broken and the agency is a joke.

As I understand it, buyers buy a package of 'credits'; presumably those buyers with remaining credits will want to use them up. But what will happen after that? If YOU were a potential buyer of images, would you stick with FT or would you already be looking around for a more reliable agency?
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: hatman12 on July 05, 2007, 16:14: Just to add to the above: what I am saying is that the REAL damage to sales at FT may not be happening yet because buyers still have unused credits. The true picture will only emerge after they have run out of credits and need to take the decision of buying more (or not).

The RISK for contributors is that energy spent uploading pictures into this mess will be a waste of time and only result in even more disappointment.

I could be wrong of course. It will take time to find out.

I hope FT survive and get their act together because they did show an ability to sell my images to European customers.
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: fintastique on July 05, 2007, 18:33: I actually uploaded a couple of hundred images since last night and the majority were reviewed with positive results, but whether they will ever be found is another matter.

Just sent this to FT support (obviously without the sharply_done comment)

I was looking through my portfolio, I saw one of my illustrations for edinburgh castle. I checked, it has keywords including Edinburgh but if I click on the Edinburgh keyword

Search results 0 files No content found

If I type Edinburgh into the search box same result.

Another strange search result if I do a search for eiffel tower (http://en.fotolia.com/search?k=eiffel+tower&search_x=12&search_y=13&filters%5Bcontent_type%3Aillustration%5D=1) and click on illustration I see about 6 results. Only one is mine something i uploaded since V2, old illustrations (I must have at least five) don't appear.

If I search for "paris (http://en.fotolia.com/search?k=paris&search_x=10&search_y=8&filters%5Bcontent_type%3Aillustration%5D=1)" and click on illustration only three results and my previously found Eiffel tower illustration isn't there even though paris is one of its top seven keywords and it is a conceptual category. An all photos/illustration search for "Paris" gives just 276 files, I scanned through and saw none of my illustrations or photos and not many photos that were obviously Paris.

Last year I used to have at least one photo of the arc de triomphe and notre dame on the first page.

Now in V2 a search for arc de triomphe (http://en.fotolia.com/search?k=arc+de+triomphe&search.x=8&search.y=5) ordered by relevance gives 2556 results on the first page of 32 photos of only one is of the arch in paris. There are photos of space stations and the earth from outer space higher on the page (by Sharply done how do you do it?)

Incidently "arc de triomphe paris" gives only one result of a statue ?? If I sorted by downloads I did find my photo with 7 downloads on the second page

A search for notre dame (http://en.fotolia.com/search?k=notre+dame&order=relevance&search_x=8&search_y=8) (order by relevance) gives lots of illustrations and photos of women (dames) with only three of the Parisian church on the first page of 32 images. putting quotation marks around the notre dame gives no results. However Notre dame cathedral (http://en.fotolia.com/search?k=notre+dame+cathedral&order=nb_downloads&offset=0) does give more sensible results, but for me three of miy illustrations but none of my photos.

they seem to have an issue with Scotland the islands of arran, mull and skye (c'mon skye is probably the most famous scottish island) gives no results neither does scottish.

Hopefully the search engine can be fixed very soon so sales will return to normal.

After this little exercise I suspected most downloads I have had so far were from buyers who was looking for something else. Other place names give more sensible results.
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: pr2is on July 05, 2007, 19:35: Quote from: hatman12 on July 05, 2007, 16:07
I spend a lot of time and effort on my images and I cannot bear the thought of giving them to a load of incompetent assholes.

I realize that FT gave a lot of valid reasons for frustration, but calling them assholes is uncalled for, IMO. If they end up hurting someone, it will be themselves more than anyone else.

Oh, and if we are making bets on how it's going to end, my bet would be they'll survive this. It takes more than that to bring down company of this scale - unless of course they won't be able to resolve all the technical issues in reasonable time.
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: sharpshot on July 06, 2007, 01:05: I decided to wait for FT to upgrade to V2 as soon as they announced it. I don't mind waiting a few months while they sort out the problems. There are lots of other sites to keep me busy. I still get as many sales as before.
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: sharply_done on July 06, 2007, 02:07: Quote from: hatman12 on July 05, 2007, 16:07
... If YOU were a potential buyer of images, would you stick with FT or would you already be looking around for a more reliable agency?
Quite possibly a possible possibility, which is why I'm beginning to build a portfolio on BigStock.

Quote from: pr2is on July 05, 2007, 19:35
... unless of course they won't be able to resolve all the technical issues in reasonable time.
That's going to be the trick, isn't it?

Quote from: fintastique on July 05, 2007, 18:33
... There are photos of space stations and the earth from outer space higher on the page (by Sharply done how do you do it?)
They're composite images made using a shot taken from an airplane window. Fairly easy to do, really. They're showing up on your search because I used the keywords "arc,arced,arch,arched" to describe the horizon (I have versions where the horizon is flat and level).
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: fintastique on July 06, 2007, 04:09: Just sending this to FT support

I have a theory that the search engine needs to taught words for instance it has not been taught triomphe so a search for "arc de triomphe" just gives "arc" results (so sharply_done's out of this world shots appear)

So could please add the following place names

edinburgh mull arran skye hebrides

glen scottish

la Rochelle
Notre Dame
Arc de Triomphe
Marseille

If it just a simple case of teaching the search engine new words, let me know and I can spread the word so we can help you fix the search engine.

end of message

So if they get back to me and/or fix the problem I propose we all have a quick search for place names that are featured in our portfolios then pm me or post them another thread and I can send FT the list, probably best to send from one source to avoid duplication.

I think it would be a bit more productive than name calling and I have nearly 4,000 images there so i would prefer if FT stayed near the top of my earnings list
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: Whiz on July 06, 2007, 09:27: Quote from: pr2is on July 05, 2007, 19:35
Quote from: hatman12 on July 05, 2007, 16:07
I spend a lot of time and effort on my images and I cannot bear the thought of giving them to a load of incompetent assholes.

I realize that FT gave a lot of valid reasons for frustration, but calling them assholes is uncalled for, IMO. If they end up hurting someone, it will be themselves more than anyone else.

If a hacker manages to steal some social security numbers from the site, my bet is a lot of people will hurt.
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: pr2is on July 06, 2007, 09:53: Well, my answer was in a context of the post I replied to, which concerned whole submitting/search/sales gamut of issues.

On security issue, I am really not sure what the status is. I certainly cannot see anyone's personal information being in plain view. Absence of a lock or "s" at the end of http is disconcerting but to say honestly I never noticed how it used to be on FT site before all this grand change. However, I glanced at My profile pages at other sites and I see no "s" there either. Am I looking in wrong place or otherwise missing something?
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: Whiz on July 06, 2007, 10:35: True, a lot of the sites seem to lack encryption. But they're not asking for my social security number. If they ever do ask for it, I'm hopeful that they'll at least have an encrypted page for me to submit the number through.
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: Karimala on July 06, 2007, 13:00: Quote from: admart01 on July 04, 2007, 08:59
Quote from: Whiz on July 03, 2007, 15:34
I really wish that they would encrypt the page where you submit your social security number. It just seems like they don't care if your identity is stolen. Or is the page encrypted somehow? It's an http address and there's no lock in the bottom right corner of the screen, so I don't think it's encrypted. :(

their lack of getting it together makes the social security numbers vulerable as it's the most valuable thing that can be stolen from the site (no slam against our collective great photos). totally agree with the concern

I finally found a workaround to the SSN problem...just enter 000-00-0000 into the field. The database accepted it without a problem. If Fotolia wants my SSN bad enough, they're going to have to contact me personally.
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: pixelbrat on July 06, 2007, 13:03: Has anyone emailed support about the lack of SSN encryption? If so, what is there response? This is a pretty big security hole.
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: Karimala on July 06, 2007, 13:13: Quote from: pr2is on July 06, 2007, 09:53
Well, my answer was in a context of the post I replied to, which concerned whole submitting/search/sales gamut of issues.

On security issue, I am really not sure what the status is. I certainly cannot see anyone's personal information being in plain view. Absence of a lock or "s" at the end of http is disconcerting but to say honestly I never noticed how it used to be on FT site before all this grand change. However, I glanced at My profile pages at other sites and I see no "s" there either. Am I looking in wrong place or otherwise missing something?

It is located on our individual profile pages. If a hacker gained access to my username and password, all they would have to do is navigate to my profile page to find it.
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: pr2is on July 06, 2007, 13:19: Karimala,

yes, I see that. What I meant was, there is no signs of encription on other sites as well. Maybe not as crucial for other sites though since as Whiz pointed out those do not contain SSN.
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: Karimala on July 06, 2007, 13:21: Quote from: pixelbrat on July 06, 2007, 13:03
Has anyone emailed support about the lack of SSN encryption? If so, what is there response? This is a pretty big security hole.

Yes...I have been asking them about it for six months starting with the following thread when it was first brought to their attention.

http://us.fotolia.com/forum/?thems=30705

In that thread, Chad responded that it would be fixed in v2, but it wasn't. And the response is always the same lip service BS. They will get to it, that it's a top priority, yada yada yada.

As soon as I'm finished with this post, I'm calling the Better Business Bureau in New York to file a complaint. If anyone else is interested in doing the same, here's their contact info (complaint can only be submitted over the phone or by mail):

Better Business Bureau Serving Metropolitan New York
Website: http://www.newyork.bbb.org
Email: [email protected]
Phone: (212) 533-6200
Fax: (212) 477-4912
257 Park Avenue South
New York NY 10010-7384
Main BBB: http://www.bbb.org/

Global Headquarters
Fotolia LLC
41 East 11th Street,
11th Floor
New York, NY 10003
USA
Tel: 718-577-1321
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: Karimala on July 06, 2007, 13:29: Quote from: pr2is on July 06, 2007, 13:19
Karimala,

yes, I see that. What I meant was, there is no signs of encription on other sites as well. Maybe not as crucial for other sites though since as Whiz pointed out those do not contain SSN.

You're right. The only secure site I could find it IS.
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: admart01 on July 06, 2007, 15:48: My FT update -- almost all of my pending photos got approved with the exception of 5 that I uploaded early in the upgrade process which are still pending approval. Sold 1 photo so that brings my total to 2 since all this began. Many thanks to those two buyers. ;D
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: pr2is on July 06, 2007, 16:36: admart,

I had similar situation. What I noticed was that those earlier uploaded images had numbers very differently structured than lattter uploads. They seem to be just lost in cyberspace, I re-uploaded them and they seem to be normal now. You may want to look at their file numbers, if tyou see them being much longer than latter ones, forget it and upload them again, IMO
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: Karimala on July 06, 2007, 18:36: Well, I called the BBB too late in the day and had to leave a message. They are supposed to return my call within one business day, so hopefully I hear from them on Monday and can file my complaint.
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: admart01 on July 07, 2007, 07:14: Quote from: pr2is on July 06, 2007, 16:36
admart,

I had similar situation. What I noticed was that those earlier uploaded images had numbers very differently structured than lattter uploads. They seem to be just lost in cyberspace, I re-uploaded them and they seem to be normal now. You may want to look at their file numbers, if tyou see them being much longer than latter ones, forget it and upload them again, IMO

You got that right - odd numbers on these files. I will re-upload... thanks for the tip.
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: dbvirago on July 07, 2007, 08:37: Thanks for the info, Kari. I had been thinking along the same lines
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: ozbandit on July 07, 2007, 18:28: Their sales must be suffering also as they've started deleting threads discussing problems and bugs with V2, specifically the fact that we can't search most of the images on there atm. While their review times have been great, I've had 150 images approved in very short time, this doesn't help if nobody can find them, sigh...
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: madelaide on July 08, 2007, 14:25: Although my sales have been ok in June, even after the transition, they have indeed decreased in the past week. I can't say however how much is the "northern-summer-vacation effect".

Regards,
Adelaide
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: madelaide on July 08, 2007, 19:28: s it me or nothing is returning in Fotolia search tool? I tried something very simple - "sunset" - I'm sure there are tons of images, but nothing returned. I also tried "stock market", which I tried the other day nad worked (except that it didn't return all my images), and another simple word "anglers", which I have in one old image.

Geez, can things get worse there?

Regards,
Adelaide
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: pixelbrat on July 08, 2007, 19:41: Quote from: madelaide on July 08, 2007, 19:28
s it me or nothing is returning in Fotolia search tool? I tried something very simple - "sunset" - I'm sure there are tons of images, but nothing returned. I also tried "stock market", which I tried the other day nad worked (except that it didn't return all my images), and another simple word "anglers", which I have in one old image.

Geez, can things get worse there?

Regards,
Adelaide

Yep, you're right. Search is screwed up. Some work, some don't. I just performed a few with similar results as you. For example, sunset, beach, money all produced nothing but business produced 66,000+. They seriously need to get their poop in a group. This is ridiculous. I work in IT and something like this would never ever fly. If we had a fiasco this big we would resort to our disaster recovery procedures and put things back to normal from backups until issues were corrected. C'MON FOTOLIA!! Get with it!!!!!! >:(
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: madelaide on July 08, 2007, 21:07: pixelbrat,

I would understand that they haven't solved the problem yet (though it is still an absurd that they are so lost). What surprises me is that a search that worked the other day is not working anymore. It's getting worse!

Regards,
Adelaide
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: fintastique on July 09, 2007, 03:18: I tried sun set and there were 200 results I was going to start compiling a list of lost keywords then I realized that

Paris, London, Los Angeles, and New York gave no results so I am not going to waste my time as its gettimg worse. :'(

Plus still no word from either Chad or support >:(
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: takestock on July 09, 2007, 06:11: Just when will this be all sorted ??

Can it really take this long!
Better to shut down the site and get it fixed rather than it being the way it is and so frustrating for people.
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: HughStoneIan on July 09, 2007, 09:59: I really don't want FT to close their doors, since they've sold well for me and many others. But all this reminds me of the Titanic---the band plays on while the ship sinks; the "band" being Chad et al who have no choice but to keep reporting that IT are "working on it." Maybe they'll end up being unsinkable, but unless someone has given them tons of money to stay afloat how can they survive this disaster??????
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: Enjoylife on July 09, 2007, 13:30: Still no results when searching on fotolia, this is gotta heart everybody.

And no feedback on this matter as it is forbidden to report problems on their forums.

I hope tomorrow will be better.... ???
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: takestock on July 09, 2007, 13:36: I too don't want Fotolia to close.
I just wish it could be back to normal.

Like you Hugh, they have been for me a top seller.
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: pr2is on July 09, 2007, 15:03: OK, that's spooky. Submitted two images to FT about an hour ago and got them reviewed already. I really hope it's a sign of recovery and not a freak accident. If they are catching up in that department, I will be happy to learn it's company-wide healing. Here is to hope.
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: hatman12 on July 09, 2007, 15:47: It seems everything is broken: I joined FT in March and got my 100th sale last week; yesterday I got another two sales, but of course the broken systems haven't upgraded me to bronze status so they credited me with the wrong amounts.

I wonder exactly how long it will take to get me changed up to bronze..............

....and then how long it will take them to alter all the wrong commission credits......
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: sharply_done on July 09, 2007, 17:22: Quote from: hatman12 on July 09, 2007, 15:47
I wonder exactly how long it will take to get me changed up to bronze..............
....and then how long it will take them to alter all the wrong commission credits......
It's nothing much to worry about, really. You only get 2 cents more per credit, which maximizes out at 8 cents per regular DL. What you need to do now is contact customer support and have them change all the images in your portfolio to 50 credits for an EL sale - this'll increase your EL sales price from $6.60 to $17.50. Be sure to change your EL sales preference to 50 credits while you're at it.

I'll be hitting silver level soon - I hope they have everything worked out by then!
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: madelaide on July 09, 2007, 17:45: I wrote them yesterday:

Quote
I'm sure you have received a lot of complaints about the search tool. I know a huge migration may cause problems, but it is about time that most problems would have been sorted out.

However, I was shocked today to see that a search that worked days ago (although not showing all the images in my portfolio that would match the search) now simply returns nothing! I tried many simple one-word searches in the many FT sites and nothing returned! A few searches worked, but most DID NOT!!

I was one that could not complain of sales after the migration, but in the 4 past days simply no sales at all. Come one, guys, it's not only the photographers that are upset, but what about buyers who can't find an image? Isn't it better to shut the site down a couple of days than leave it running so full of bugs?

and received this reply today:

Quote
We apologize for the inconvenience. Our engineering department is currently working on resolving this problem. Search results will be reactivated very soon.

Reactivated? Were they deactivated then, but still available for an user??

On the good side, sales resumed for me today. And guess what? The cartoon sun illustration was one of them...

Regards,
Adelaide
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: fotografer on July 10, 2007, 04:05: The buyers are much cleverer than me. I have been selling well since v2. Today so far I have sold 6 images to 4 different buyers but when I try to find any of these images using any of the important keywords I get 0 results. I have no idea how they are finding the images. Anybody got any idea?
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: admart01 on July 10, 2007, 05:39: Quote from: fotografer on July 10, 2007, 04:05
.... I have no idea how they are finding the images. Anybody got any idea?

;D -- I have been wondering that, too. I have sold fewer than those posting here and wonder how they manage to find our images.
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: tdoes on July 10, 2007, 06:50: Quote from: admart01 on July 10, 2007, 05:39
Quote from: fotografer on July 10, 2007, 04:05
.... I have no idea how they are finding the images. Anybody got any idea?

;D -- I have been wondering that, too. I have sold fewer than those posting here and wonder how they manage to find our images.

The category search is how it's being done. Can't wait till the keyword search gets fixed!
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: Karimala on July 11, 2007, 11:23: Quote from: sharply_done

I'll be hitting silver level soon - I hope they have everything worked out by then!

I started receiving my silver level commission at 990 sales.

On another note, I was checking out my affiliates' portfolios to see if they are growing, only to discover that my top selling affiliate now has only one photo! I'd been wondering why his photos stopped selling all of a sudden...now I know. >:(
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: CJPhoto on July 11, 2007, 11:33: Quote from: Karimala on July 11, 2007, 11:23
I started receiving my silver level commission at 990 sales.
yay
Quote
On another note, I was checking out my affiliates' portfolios to see if they are growing, only to discover that my top selling affiliate now has only one photo! I'd been wondering why his photos stopped selling all of a sudden...now I know. >:(
boo. Do you think they have removed them or just that they have been lost in the search??
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: Pixart on July 11, 2007, 12:07: Crap, I tried to ftp last night and couldn't connect so I uploaded 5 through their site last night. It took forever and they are nowhere to be found. Why didn't I listen to myself when I said I'd hold off until August or until there was at least positive feedback from others????
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: pr2is on July 11, 2007, 12:32: Flash uploader works fine for me. No luck with other ways
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: odvdveer on July 11, 2007, 12:44: I use ftp and have no problems, images show up fast and reviewing speed is back to normal.

Olga
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: dbvirago on July 11, 2007, 13:10: FTP was flaky last night. First batch only 2 got through, but on resend they went ok. Haven't had problems since then.

I would have posted in their forum, but I didn't want to get an Article 2 violation :-)
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: madelaide on July 11, 2007, 16:31: Sales are happening again, and today the cartoon sun sold 3 times in today's 5 sales. I believe this one is being lucky in searches whereas other images are not found at all. My simple keywords search tests still show problems.

I uploaded 5 images yesterday and they were quickly approved.

Regards,
Adelaide
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: takestock on July 12, 2007, 02:24: That's a bright sun you have Madelaide!

We could do with some of it in our summer.
Yes, approvals are very fast but sales are just so so.
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: Pixart on July 12, 2007, 10:22: Update: I tried 5 by flash, 3 arrived. One was rejected literally within seconds, I completed one and left one to get back to. The completed one is still yellow, 20 hours later.
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: madelaide on July 12, 2007, 16:55: Searches seem to be working better. Some tests that returned nothing days ago now return correct images. Tried in US, IT, ES and DE sites.

Regards,
Adelaide
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: Karimala on July 13, 2007, 00:10: Quote from: CJPhoto on July 11, 2007, 11:33
Quote from: Karimala on July 11, 2007, 11:23
I started receiving my silver level commission at 990 sales.
yay
Quote
On another note, I was checking out my affiliates' portfolios to see if they are growing, only to discover that my top selling affiliate now has only one photo! I'd been wondering why his photos stopped selling all of a sudden...now I know. >:(
boo. Do you think they have removed them or just that they have been lost in the search??

Not really sure what happened. I contacted support, and they responded with a long-winded form letter about keywords and then suggested I search by gallery. LOL Um...dudes...that's what I was doing! ::)
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: manwolste on July 13, 2007, 09:05: Hi Karin,

I wasnt aware of that affiliate thing until your mail I received today through other channels (which was pretty surprising...).

Sorry about the negative effects for you.

But FT screwed up and lost the keywords of my best-sellers, so downloads nearly disappeared. With the general problems there, I was not very confident they will survive at all (and at the end being able to pay me at all).

So I pulled out all my images but one. If in the future they solve their problems and are able to gain back creditability, I might upload again. Until then, no waste of time for me and not one penny for them selling my pictures. I´m not supporting in any way that kind of a company.

There are enough other good microstock sites that do a good job selling my images and really deserve their commissions.

Regards, Manfred
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: pr2is on July 13, 2007, 11:01: Quote from: manwolste on July 13, 2007, 09:05

So I pulled out all my images but one. If in the future they solve their problems and are able to gain back creditability, I might upload again. Until then, no waste of time for me and not one penny for them selling my pictures.

Sorry, not sure I understand your gain here. Downside is necessity to upload/categorize them again should you decide to renew with them in the future. But what's the upside in pulling images out vs. let's say simply not uploading new ones until issues are resolved?

What do I miss?
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: Karimala on July 13, 2007, 11:41: Thanks for letting me know, Manfred! :-) I was more worried that Fotolia lost your portfolio than any negative impact it might have on me.

I'm probably going to pull my portfolio soon, too. Fotolia is just not a company I want to be doing business with for a number of reasons dating back to before the v2 massacre. What I would gain is peace of mind...priceless, in my book.
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: manwolste on July 13, 2007, 12:31: Quote from: Karimala on July 13, 2007, 11:41
Fotolia is just not a company I want to be doing business with for a number of reasons dating back to before the v2 massacre. What I would gain is peace of mind...priceless, in my book.
Thank you, this is what I also wanted to say but obviously was not able to express good enough (me german, bad english... :D)
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: Pixart on July 13, 2007, 13:12: Here's a new one. I have a few that have been sitting there for a while but needed keywords. Today I am updating those old files and they have a - (negative) in the credits. If they sold, I would have to pay??? I could change it easily, but I hope anyone else noticed.

I've had more sales already in July than I did in June. I don't usually cash out till the end of the month. Hopefully it will be no trouble.
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: ancientimages on July 13, 2007, 14:20: I've tried a number of searches and get some results from some but not all. However, photos from my portfolio which are tagged with those keywords are not showing up in the searches at all. For example, "graduation" produces some results (but excludes a number of my images with that keyword). "Graduate" and "commencement" produce 0 results. "Cactus" produces some results (again excluding my images with that keyword), but "saguaro" produces 0 results - even though there are a number of images within cactus which use saguaro as a keyword. I'm guessing/hoping they are still working on the search function.
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: takestock on July 13, 2007, 14:33: Whatever about the search, the reviews are lightning fast- and getting a good acceptance rate.
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: pr2is on July 13, 2007, 15:21: Lightning fast is right - literally minutes if not seconds for me, first of the batch is getting reviwed while I categorize second.

Now, if buyers hit with same vengeance when they return to my portfolio, I'll be one happy camper...
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: pr2is on July 13, 2007, 15:44: Watermark issue was mentioned earlier, not sure if it was discussed anywhere on FT forums and taken under consideration... looks troublesome really. Who would have spent more than 1 min erasing it from the image attached, raise your hands...

(http://static-p2.fotolia.com/photos_mini/2007-28/400_F_3674145_C1aXRp1zAM1NoYJNG31DcZmXxjtYeMsh.jpg)
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: leaf on July 13, 2007, 16:04: the reviews are probably fast because there is tons of reviewers ready to review and no body is submitting images .... = zero backlog

.... and that watermark.

I cringe every time i see it. I sure hope it is temporary.
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: kosmikkreeper on July 15, 2007, 07:32: Since V2 I can't upload via FTP so I'm using their Flash uploader.

Another crappy thing is that you can't modify keywords on accepted images. That sucks big time. >:(
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: ancientimages on July 15, 2007, 19:10: Quote from: kosmikkreeper on July 15, 2007, 07:32
Since V2 I can't upload via FTP so I'm using their Flash uploader.

Another crappy thing is that you can't modify keywords on accepted images. That sucks big time. >:(

I agree - especially since some images still do NOT have keywords since the switch. Guess we need to delete those and start over.
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: khwi on July 29, 2007, 12:12: no problem with the FTP uploads,
but they only accept photos, and all
my vectors got lost somewhere...

contacted support twice and both replies
are the same... we are aware of it and
we are working on it now, same crap!
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: pixelbrat on July 29, 2007, 12:19: I'm ready to request a payout but I think I remember reading in this thread that theirs got screwed up somehow after the so-called "upgrade." I think it was sent to the wrong email address or something. My Paypal address is different than my account email address so I fear they'll screw it up. Has anyone successfully requested and received their payout lately?
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: hatman12 on July 29, 2007, 12:50: Yes, I've had a payout and it was fine.

I also went through my portfolio and deleted all the images without keywords (about twenty files), uploaded them again and they got approved immediately.

Last week was my BWE at FT. I'm not jumping up and down with excitement because the $/total images is lower than elsewhere, but a BWE is at least some progress.
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: madelaide on July 29, 2007, 13:30: Quote from: pixelbrat on July 29, 2007, 12:19
Has anyone successfully requested and received their payout lately?
Mine took a week still during the problems, right after the payouts restarted. A friend however got his payout in 24h soon after me.

Regards,
Adelaide
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: sharply_done on July 29, 2007, 17:04: No probs here - I requested payment on Mon July 23 and received the money via Paypal on Wed July 25.
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: Eco on July 30, 2007, 00:57: Also no problem with payment. Last week I requested a payment through Moneybookers and received it the next day.
Title: Re: Fotolia V.2
Post by: jsnover on July 30, 2007, 09:32: Likewise, no problems with a payment requested last week and received within a couple of days.