Extremely long review time

[Velvia]

Things are pretty slow at Zymmetrical.
My last batch of photo are still sitting in queue. Its been close to a month!

Anyone else stuck in queue?

[peep]

I think so. It is more than a month. And they review about two pictures a week from the batch of about seventy I uploaded a month ago. And in addition I have just found out they use a very strange price system - some of my images have 49 USD for RF!!! I had to change it all. I wondered why nothing had been sold so far, checked my portfolio - and this was the reason! Why should anybody bother to buy for 49 USD when the same picture is possible to buy at SS or IS or anywhere else for a fragment of this price.

[madelaide]

I don't know how they queue goes, but you can have one image uploaded today reviewed in a day, while images uploaded last week may stay in queue.

A couple of weeks wait is not rare.

Regards,
Adelaide

[jorgeinthewater]

I think so. It is more than a month. And they review about two pictures a week from the batch of about seventy I uploaded a month ago. And in addition I have just found out they use a very strange price system - some of my images have 49 USD for RF!!! I had to change it all. I wondered why nothing had been sold so far, checked my portfolio - and this was the reason! Why should anybody bother to buy for 49 USD when the same picture is possible to buy at SS or IS or anywhere else for a fragment of this price.

But they would have to first buy the subscription at SS, which costs more than 49.00 am I right?

[jorgeinthewater]

I don't know how they queue goes, but you can have one image uploaded today reviewed in a day, while images uploaded last week may stay in queue.

A couple of weeks wait is not rare.

Regards,
Adelaide

Could it be that the images that grab the reviewers eye first are the one's that they review first? Our you finding your better images getting review faster? It felt like that the last time I uploaded to them.

[ZymmMan]

Peep and al,

We have many examples of similar images selling at higher prices. $50 for an image that will be used for commercial usage is nothing compare to traditional RF that goes for $300.00 and more. We are still offering a good bargain. You will soon see that the microstock companies will soon follow our pricing.  Fotolia is already pricing some images much higher than $1. For some reason, you have to be an agency to profit from this. Not on our site.

The approval speed, as we have already explained, is due to many factors. First and foremost is the lack of keywords. That will guarantee your images will take more time to get reviewed. We also review based on value and not order of entry. The reason is to not penalize anyone who uploads 3 images after someone who just uploaded 10,000. In a normal situation they would have to wait a very long time.

We also use a group of editors that work at different speed and different times. Some members will seem to have faster approval times than others. But it is only an impression.

don't forget we also review graphics, fonts and video. No, it is not too much and buyers like that they can shop for everything in one place. They really, really appreciate that, unlike other sites, we rely on pro editors and not the wisdom of the crowd.

Finally, we are not machines and we take pride in our full scale review process. We annotate rejections as well as approved images. we are working to help anyone who contributes to become even better photographers.

With this said, if you feel you have waited too much, send us a pm and we will try to accommodate your request as well as we can. Again, we appreciate your submissions ( that is why we offer a 70% commission!!!) and we will do whatever we can to make as easy and painless as possible for you.

Paul M

[UncleGene]

Looks like after your change of ftp folder structure something have changed - images are even not moving to a review queue

[madelaide]

I wondered why nothing had been sold so far, checked my portfolio - and this was the reason! Why should anybody bother to buy for 49 USD when the same picture is possible to buy at SS or IS or anywhere else for a fragment of this price.

Well, I sold an image there this week with Zymm's original price (not US$49), so although I use a lower price range, it seems there is a market for higher prices.  Or putting in another way, if someone finds the image he wants, it doesn't matter much (if he is a business) if he pays US$10 or US$20 for it.

Regards,
Adelaide

[peep]

Well, I try to keep the prices balanced from about 5 to about 20 USD. Almost 50 USD seems to be too high anyway.
Congratulation on your sold image.

[madelaide]

I set my prices between US$6 and 10, depending on size, subject and quality.

I'm starting to worry however about a future need of raising prices.  Having to edit each image is not a happy perspective...  I hope they add a tool to raise all prices at once, like FP does.

Regards,
Adelaide

[UncleGene]

Checked my queue - images are siting there since 04.06 (1.5 months), and everything submitted later even did not get to the queue from ftp. Did Zym go looking for hamster?

[ZymmMan]

UncleGene,

Thank you for the comment. We are extremely busy catching up on editing. As we previously posted, if you want your images to be considered on top of the queue, please use the submission tool that allows you to pick a price, spell check your keywords and select a catogory. This allows the editors to process your files faster.
We take great pride in our editing team who works around the clock on images to make sure they meet a certain quality requirement as well as legal concerns. You would be surprised on how many images we receive with a logo in the background, for example. If we let one skip, we might get our clients very angry if not, in big trouble.
We also do not set limits on numbers of uploads. We tend to believe your images are better off waiting in our Q than on your desktop. Maybe it is a mistake ?
Finally, we caught the hamster and we will soon set him free for someone else to chase.
Looking forward to making great sales with your work.

Best

Paul M

[zymmetricaldotcom]

UncleGene,

Sorry, this is not a good reciprocation of your informed and kind security analysis last week.

The FTP > Queue delays rest solely on my shoulders. We have been automating that process as much as possible, but in a distributed server environment where the codebase is changing daily, it's been a project that's slipped behind a bit, I apologize.

I do have a new admin interface for our very efficient and punctual Editors to be able to monitor the FTP uploads firsthand in the works, but till now it's been delayed due to pressing projects like getting our new Vector .EPS capability online.

I pushed your neglected files through last night, Editors  are on 'em now. 

[MicrostockExp]

Hello Keith,

I just logged on Zym and was not able to change prices on my pictures .I had the following message: "Page cannot be accessed this way"
Just wanted to let u the bug
Thanks
I found out as well that I got my second sale

L

[zymmetricaldotcom]

Strange I just noticed some price changes go through a few minutes ago. I will check it out. Soon that Art Manager will also be upgraded to use our newer system..  batch price changes of course are a necessity, and also some expanded keywording tools.     

The pricing stuff has gotten more efficient since we started letting people choose their price on the submissions page. We do try to pick the most practical pricepoint for each file (in our opinion), but clicking 'Edit' on waiting submission @ www.zymmetrical.com/account/submissions/ allows you to optionally indicate the price you'd like upfront.   Unless its $98 for a 'peeling paint background', the Ed's normally accept this price.

Congrats on the sale, 2 sales doesn't sound too earth-shattering but hopefully it's worth many X what you could earn in the standard micro game.

   

[nata_rass]

There are around 200 file in FTP folder. The oldest ones are from February. Is anybody working on Zymmetrical?

[zymmetricaldotcom]

There sure is.    Our notifications for files coming in through FTP were not working all the time earlier on, this is likely why your files have been waiting there. I will get those into the system, thanks for pointing this out.

** EDIT since you're username on this forum is not related to any member name on Zymmetrical, kindly PM or reply here with your  member name - this is why we recommend raising support issues through our own forums or help ticket system.

[zymmetricaldotcom]

Nata, got your support ticket on our site, thanks for making it easier for us!        Again, this FTP problem is not typical and normally files are moved daily.

[DiscreetDuck]

Hello,
same problem here, files never move from FTP folder since 03/08.
Am I someone not typical too ?

[zymmetricaldotcom]

I will review the FTP folders and get all backlogged submissions rolling, clearly some of our notifications didn't arrive. Thanks.

[nata_rass]

Thank you!

[oboy]

My user name at Zymmetrical is hlehnerer. I have some images that I uploaded 3/20/08 and they are still not evaluated. I opened a ticket 5/19/08 with the reply that this is too long and someone will look in to it. Well, there are still 8 images that are old and waiting to get accepted or rejected.

[zymmetricaldotcom]

Hi Henrik,

I believe those ones are graphics, we are upgrading the Editors graphic approval tool at the moment. By this week for sure. Thanks!

[oboy]

Thank you!