I hope that this is not the way to get rid of new photographers.

"Devil shits on a large bunch!"

Yes, that is what it is. They are trying to get rid of all vector artists, too, and all videographers. Instead of just not accepting new contributors during the application process, they thought it would be more fun to approve them and then just kill whatever work they produce. But only those that belong to non-exclusives. Oh, and they are also hoping that this will discourage everyone from uploading anything at all so there won't be any new work that they have to inspect. They just want to let the inspectors take a break from inspecting new files so that they can catch up on going through and removing all the relevant keywords from a bunch of files. But only those that belong to non-exclusives.

I don't think it can get any worse.

I bet they are working on this right now. 

Regards,
Adelaide

One nice consequence of this best match is that difficults very much the "work" of a handful of contributors specialized in copying successful images/concepts, often down to the keywords, with the hope of having a best search psition than the original, and "get" its downloads.

Yeah, I've enjoyed that little perk as well, having the first of a subject on the site that ended up being copied by dozens of others. My originals have been selling again.

As it goes on, Lisa you seem to be one of the few photographers who still acknowledges that the vector/video slam is a problem. (Thank you for that!) I've grown a bit weary of hearing the "it's your turn to lose" argument from those who are obviously benefiting hugely from this error (since I don't remember having a turn to WIN yet!!) and I wish that iStock would not have promised a "fast" resolution and then not only NOT delivered that fast resolution, but also have been completely silent to explain why it's not quite as fast as (I hope) they had planned.

I have no doubt that they are working on it, but it pisses me to no end to get promises and then the silent treatment.

As it goes on, Lisa you seem to be one of the few photographers who still acknowledges that the vector/video slam is a problem. (Thank you for that!) I've grown a bit weary of hearing the "it's your turn to lose" argument from those who are obviously benefiting hugely from this error (since I don't remember having a turn to WIN yet!!) and I wish that iStock would not have promised a "fast" resolution and then not only NOT delivered that fast resolution, but also have been completely silent to explain why it's not quite as fast as (I hope) they had planned.

I have no doubt that they are working on it, but it pisses me to no end to get promises and then the silent treatment.

Photographers may not be saying it much, but the buyers who have weighed in on that thread have said they WANT the best match to mix the various types of media. 

To borrow a phrase we Americans are hearing a lot in this election, Istock seems to be trying to "redistribute the wealth" with their best match.  It really makes me wonder why they are trying so hard to supress some groups and favor others. 

I can't help but wonder if overall sales are down and the only way to disguise that fact from their top exclusive contributors is to slant the search heavily in their favor...

My sales on other sites are not reflecting this downward trend at all.  In fact, they are showing the expected bump as the holiday season ramps up. 

 

Totally agree about vectors.  Their popularity combined with the complexity involved in producing them are good reasons to keep them visible.   

I honestly believe that has been an unintended consequence of this latest best match.  Can't imagine istock would intentionally bury its vectors, but I am baffled why this has gone on a couple of weeks and still not fixed....

...considering the price increase.

Price increase!

Did I miss something?

The new best match has caused me to start submitting to other sites.   I was very close to going exclusive there but it's not worth the risk so now I am going to expand to other sites.  BTW sales down 50% with the last half of the month closer to 70% down and all this when I am having BMEs on 5 other sites.

About overall sales... do the math, now the numbers are available. I don't see any sign of sales going down


Where can we see those figures? I have been presuming that their growth, while certainly not at a standstill, was likely slowing but that has only been a hunch based on anecdotal evidence to be honest and seeing much faster growth on the other sites  - would love to see actual figures showing that they were as strong as ever ... might change my strategy a bit ...?

These actual numbers have not been made public by iStock. Anything that you can compile on your own is not going to be an exact dollar amount because there is absolutely no way to know whether 1 download = 1 credit or 15 credits.