Author Topic: Istock Announcement (Read 44347 times)

ptlee · « **on:** September 18, 2006, 02:02 »

Could this be 'The Annoucement'?

http://www.creativepro.com/story/news/24699.html

leaf · « **Reply #1 on:** September 18, 2006, 02:11 »

thanks for the link, looks like it just might be. Looks like istock might be getting even better sales.

grp_photo · « **Reply #2 on:** September 18, 2006, 06:03 »

Quote from: leaf on September 18, 2006, 02:13

Looks like we can hope for at least a little increase in our istock sales in the future. Good to see they are working on sales.

- more language options and native sites should attract new buyers and contributors on the same level
- Photokina definately more contributors
- Multimedia Kongress more buyers but in comparision to Photokina its a really tiny event
So i have my doubts

berryspun · « **Reply #3 on:** September 18, 2006, 09:35 »

Very good news, yes, thanks for the link ptlee. I hope that the automated translation engine IS chose is a good and accurate one.

Greg Boiarsky · « **Reply #4 on:** September 18, 2006, 09:44 »

Big deal. They translated the site. It's about time someone recognized that the world doesn't necessarily run on English. But, they still aren't taking uploads and I just had another file rejected for a spurious reason.

Unless I see a significant increase in downloads and a return to reasonable upload limits, I will NOT be impressed.

amanda1863 · « **Reply #5 on:** September 18, 2006, 10:14 »

Actually it is a big deal, people have been asking for this forever and the programming and logistics involved are not simple.

I think (based on some comments from admin in various threads) that the inspectors were all involved in going through the library to help with the implimentation of this new multilingual system and search stuff so that's probably why the que got so big inthe first place. Someone mentioned that now inspections will get back to normal so I wouldn't be suprised if they raise the limits.

Also I have to say, inspecting 15,000 files in 4 days is a HUGE feat. Did you know that all of the inspectors and admins gave up their weekends to do this? I think that's pretty admirable. I am also excited as a buyer to see how this affects sales! there is nothing bad about a bigger slice of the market.

CJPhoto · « **Reply #6 on:** September 18, 2006, 10:20 »

It should increase sales from these markets but some of these desigenrs may have been using it anyway (English is quite well known). As much as an expansion, it is probably a defensive move too agains all the new players that are foreign language (ie fotolia). Now if they translated into all the asian languages as well, now that would be inpressive.

On another note, has anyone else noticed the site has been down for a while. Considering everyone is probably trying to go in to do their uploads and find out the new announcement, this isn't the best move on their part.

amanda1863 · « **Reply #7 on:** September 18, 2006, 10:51 »

Yeah it's been a little spotty this morning unfortunaltey it is usually shakey for a day or two after big programming changes while all the bugs get worked out.

SO glad I'm not a programmer! I also noticed they took the forums down (going through withdrawl!) Which is annoying since I want to see the discussion and have lots of questions! I hope they will be back up soon.

CJPhoto · « **Reply #8 on:** September 18, 2006, 10:57 »

Well they have announced the change and everyone who doens't like the current upload process as IS, well, it just got harder.

If you type in orange, you now have to specify whether you meant the colour or the fruit.

Oh well.

Greg Boiarsky · « **Reply #9 on:** September 18, 2006, 11:00 »

Hi, Amanda. Pardon my grumpiness this morning; I have a cold, and it tends to sour my disposition.

I agree that the programming and logistics weren't simple. I guess what I'm saying is that it shouldn't be a big deal that the largest company in microstock has recognized the importance of the non-English speaking customer. This should have happened a long time ago. I realize that Istock's growth has not followed any set plan, but once they saw how much of a market was out there, the product should have been marketed in the world's top languages. Istock is the perfect example of the globalization of business.

I also know that the inspectors have worked their butts off. And, inspecting is a thankless job, right up there with dentist and teacher and garbage collector and other high-stress, undervalued jobs. But, forcing those people to work 12-hour or longer days is no way to guarantee a quality product. In fact, it encourages errors which will have to be sorted out later.

Really, I think the whole upgrade should have gone differently. First, they could have planned to separate it from the 1,000,000 image hoopla so they could have had less of an impact on the day-to-day operations of the business. And, reducing the upload limits for non-exclusives to such low levels isn't very friendly, even if the goal is to reduce the queue to manageable levels (which apparently did not happen). Should Istock give preference to exclusive artists? You bet--there should be some major advantages to foregoing other revenue streams. But, giving advantages to exclusive artists is not the same thing as giving disadvantages to others.

In the end, I hope you're right about sales and the size of the market. I'm not convinced yet; we'll have to watch sales growth over the next month or so to see any changes.

Quote from: amanda1863 on September 18, 2006, 10:14

Actually it is a big deal, people have been asking for this forever and the programming and logistics involved are not simple.

I think (based on some comments from admin in various threads) that the inspectors were all involved in going through the library to help with the implimentation of this new multilingual system and search stuff so that's probably why the que got so big inthe first place. Someone mentioned that now inspections will get back to normal so I wouldn't be suprised if they raise the limits.

Also I have to say, inspecting 15,000 files in 4 days is a HUGE feat. Did you know that all of the inspectors and admins gave up their weekends to do this? I think that's pretty admirable. I am also excited as a buyer to see how this affects sales! there is nothing bad about a bigger slice of the market.

amanda1863 · « **Reply #10 on:** September 18, 2006, 11:12 »

I do think it would have been fair to cut exclusive levels as well as non exclusive to help get things down quicker. I do hope things will get back to relativley normal now though!

And you're right the other language support was needed way before this, I just hope Asian language support is not too far off, now there is a big market!!

Greg Boiarsky · « **Reply #11 on:** September 18, 2006, 11:13 »

That would be quite a chore. It's likely necessary, but whooboy not easy.

Quote from: amanda1863 on September 18, 2006, 11:12

I just hope Asian language support is not too far off, now there is a big market!!

CJPhoto · « **Reply #12 on:** September 18, 2006, 11:35 »

Have re read the annoucement and they do Japanese including japanese characters. it is based on Gettys system so I assume they will now develop new languages and implement on both.

fotografer · « **Reply #13 on:** September 18, 2006, 11:57 »

It's not going as planned, by changing the language of the keywords they have somehow cocked up the english keywords. One of my images of my children is now keyworded as group of wild animals(maybe they've met them.LOL). amusement park ride, spanish currency, and nerds. and a piggy back picture just has them called pigs.
I think that is probably why the forums are down so that they can sort it out before everyone starts complaining. I've had quite an amusing half hour reading them.

CJPhoto · « **Reply #14 on:** September 18, 2006, 12:00 »

I only checked one but ahd a nerd as well. Wonder what word, and in what language, translates to this.

This is going to annoy people with big portfolios if they have to go through every one to correct. I "only" have a hundred and that is gonig to be a chore!

Kiya · « **Reply #15 on:** September 18, 2006, 12:13 »

Quote from: fotografer on September 18, 2006, 11:57

It's not going as planned, by changing the language of the keywords they have somehow cocked up the english keywords. One of my images of my children is now keyworded as group of wild animals(maybe they've met them.LOL). amusement park ride, spanish currency, and nerds. and a piggy back picture just has them called pigs.

Oh, this is too funny!

berryspun · « **Reply #16 on:** September 18, 2006, 12:21 »

Oh boy! I just cheched a few... I have "Natural Disaster" for a homeless shelter, "Purebred Dog" for horses, "Naked" for a bridge, and "Getting Dressed" for oil and vinegar!!!! Wow, what a mess! I hope that they can fix it from their side...!

Greg Boiarsky · « **Reply #17 on:** September 18, 2006, 12:26 »

Yep. Completely screwed up all my keywording. My images of Mills Lake, for example, now suddenly are keworded "Indiana." Last I knew, Mills Lake was in Colorado. The Spanish kewords are incorrect, also, so this isn't just the English being screwed up. They've scrambled the keywords.

Every image I checked contained errors. I don't think this is funny--it's going to cost us sales. They had better have a decent backup. In the meantime, they had better take the site down before things get worse.

dbvirago · « **Reply #18 on:** September 18, 2006, 12:30 »

Agree. As I just stated on another forum, everyone seems willing to give them a lot of slack since they are big earners. For me, they have always been in a 3 way tie for 3rd. So there are at least 4 other agencies doing as well or better. StockXpert is closing in fast. It's not worth a lot of trouble for me to keep getting the .20 per stuff that dribbles in from there.

Also, not real happy that all the info I get about this is coming from third parties. Where is their responsibility to the providers.

amanda1863 · « **Reply #19 on:** September 18, 2006, 13:44 »

I've got some very funky keyword things going on all over too, but some of them make sense and aren't things I had thought of. I'm sure they are working on some fixes right now. As far as losing sales I'm having a slightly above average Monday sales day.

Bateleur · « **Reply #20 on:** September 18, 2006, 14:41 »

I've just looked at my portfolio on IS for the first time today. It's absolutely great that they've gone into other languages.

But the keywording has gone totally haywire.

I've only looked at a couple of my images but they've somehow acquired completely nonsensical keywords from somewhere. And the French translations (I speak reasonably good French) are a bit off the wall, too. Heaven knows what my other 500 or so images are like. Am I going to have to correct all that? Hardly worth the work, given their low royalites.

Zut alors!

dbvirago · « **Reply #21 on:** September 18, 2006, 14:55 »

FUBAR.

They now state in a post on the home page that they don't have the manpower to go back and fix 1,000,000 images, so the work will be left up to us. They also are very vague about precisely what we are expected to do. Based on posts there and elsewhere, most of us are as confused as I am.

I did a search to try and find my post popular picture there, and most combinations of keywords didn't bring it up. It is a cockpit. One of the words is flight and it comes back with 'as in airline ticket' and another is deck, and it comes back with 'as in patio deck'.

I can't imagine going back in and fixing my hundreds of shots instead of spending the same time uploading to more profitable sites. I can't believe they expect you folks with over 1000 images to do so.

To reply to an earlier post, I am a programmer, and you don't roll out a new version to the masses like this without serious testing. And that means beta testing with live users.

Greg Boiarsky · « **Reply #22 on:** September 18, 2006, 14:58 »

That's it. I will upload no more images to Istock. They can sell what they have, and that's it. This is bullsh@t. They screw up, and then tell us they don't have the resources to fix it--it's up to us. Here's their asinine answer to their keywording errors:

"All of your old keywords are still there. What we're displaying in the right hand side of the file is the definition which the system assumes. We are displaying that information, and not the original keyword, because each tag needs to have a meaning assigned in order to be translated. If the engine has the chosen the wrong meaning, you simply have to go to the edit file information page and choose the right one.

Phrases need to be entered as single tags. If someone searches for "nursing home" as a single tag, and you have "nursing" and "home" entered as two separate tags, it will not appear in the search. You need to add the phrase as a tag.

The more that people make choices, the more it will refine the way that the system automatically decides.

What we do not have the resources to do is double check the keywords on 1,000,000 files. What we are able to do is identify common or recurring problems, and reprocess the files affected by that issue.

For example, right now we're reprocessing the word "skate", to add a meaning specific to skateboarding. This is just one of many examples. We are building a tool to help you suggest better choices and definitions for tags. In the meantime, we've started a thread where you can report cases where the disambiguation option you want doesn't exist."

Try doing a search on "Indiana," a word that now mysteriously shows up in a great number of my images. It returns over 64,000 hits.

Bullsh@t.

marcviln · « **Reply #23 on:** September 18, 2006, 15:01 »

My favorite so far is an image I did with a Euro note and a passport which is now tagged "wallaroo." I pity all those people who are searching for a moderately large macropod (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wallaroo).

Here's the original image:
http://www.istockphoto.com/file_closeup/style_and_design/point_of_view/macro/686567_passport_to_euros.php?id=686567

...Or maybe there's some slang expression I'm missing here??

IRCrockett · « **Reply #24 on:** September 18, 2006, 15:03 »

Quote from: dbvirago on September 18, 2006, 14:55

FUBAR.

To reply to an earlier post, I am a programmer, and you don't roll out a new version to the masses like this without serious testing. And that means beta testing with live users.

You also don't roll it out on the live system before seeing the effects on the test system. It would seem that they didn't bother to set up a few test servers populated with real data to see the effects.

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Author Topic: Istock Announcement (Read 44347 times)

ptlee

leaf

grp_photo

berryspun

Greg Boiarsky

amanda1863

CJPhoto

amanda1863

CJPhoto

Greg Boiarsky

amanda1863

Greg Boiarsky

CJPhoto

fotografer

CJPhoto

Kiya

berryspun

Greg Boiarsky

dbvirago

amanda1863

Bateleur

dbvirago

Greg Boiarsky

marcviln

IRCrockett

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