More epic failures.

Failure to update the royalty pages with the new 2011 structure.

Failure to even inform people if their royalty percentage has changed, despite the fact that they said it would be rolled out on 1/1/11.

They must still be on vacation.

Absolutely.  There should have been some sort of announcement by now.  For most of us, Jan 3 was the day we got back to work (if we were off in the first place).  Admin is still almost totally mum on the IS forums. 

Personally, I don't think they are vacationing anymore or baking cookies, but trying to dig themselves out of the deep hole their extended vacation created in the first place. 

More epic failures.

Failure to update the royalty pages with the new 2011 structure.

Failure to even inform people if their royalty percentage has changed, despite the fact that they said it would be rolled out on 1/1/11.

They must still be on vacation.

seriously, this is crazy.  I work on several different websites and when I have a client send me content they don't want to show up for another week or they want removed after a certain date, I simple set that in the code on the backend.  Half my clients think I'm so on the ball with getting this done on time, it's great - but many know that it is all programmed.  I cannot for the life of me believe that this was not pre-coded to go into effect at midnight on 1/1/11.  It just is weird. 

I'm not going to complain if it means I get to keep the commissions earned, but it really points to another fact where iStock has not kept their word.  again. 

heavy sigh.

pls correct me if I'm wrong but I don't think that I have received a single email update from IS over the last few weeks with any kind of useful or reassuring email about the credit card fraud, the commission changes, price changes, or any other substantive business issue.  I'm basically aware of what's going on because of checking forums (especially this one) but it seems odd to me that a company wouldn't put a bit more effort into letting their contributors know what's going on.  Why bother to ever send out any newsletters or other communications by email if you don't bother to do it when really important stuff is happening?

There were some rumors and speculation of a sale of this company ... it did remind me of an experience I had a decade or so ago.  I was working for a company in another field.  It was rumored that the company was for sale, in fact it was eventually acknowledged that a buyer had to be found.  Management however gave everyone the impression that this would not happen for some time, that there was a great deal of shopping around for buyers to be done, and that don't worry we're going to take our time and do this right.  We found out much later that this was all a pile of B.S.  The takeover deal was already signed and sealed in secret - at around the same moment that they pretended that the search for a buyer was just beginning.  Their hints about looking at multiple possible buyers, there being a bidding war, etc. were all lies.  There was only ever one buyer, there was never any other bid, and it was locked up almost before anyone even knew there would even be a sale.  When we - the grunts and ordinary shareholders - learned all of these secrets a year or more later, after the most gut-wrenching chaos that we had ever experienced on the job, it suddenly explained a LOT of what we had seen.  Like bizarre decisions, actions and statements by management that made no sense given that they were supposedly conducting business as normal while they were calmly looking for a partner for a takeover or merger.  All I'm saying is, if the rumors of a sale of IS/Getty are true then it's possible it's already been signed and that management is basically just running out the clock trying to keep a lid on things and put out fires but not really taking action with a view to long-term plans (such as shaking up the IT department) because they're probably not going to be in a position to finish any such plans.

If you're still with me then I'll share any another brief nugget of advice that my elderly uncle gave me when I was just a young pup starting out in the corporate world and he was a grizzled veteran of 40 years of corporate shenanigans.  He said, "Look, at some point in your career your company is going to be sold.  They're going to reassure everyone that, don't worry, nothing is going to change, only the sign on the outside will be different and everything else will be left alone.  That is always a lie."  Based on my limited experience, he was correct.

<snip>
 All I'm saying is, if the rumors of a sale of IS/Getty are true then it's possible it's already been signed and that management is basically just running out the clock trying to keep a lid on things and put out fires but not really taking action with a view to long-term plans (such as shaking up the IT department) because they're probably not going to be in a position to finish any such plans.
<snip>

I think you are probably right.  And yes, there were no emails to tell us anything about the big fraud - and when asked "why not send an email message?"  the response from iStock was "our email database is too big for that"  or something to that effect.  I guess it's not too big for announcing a Vetta sale, but to inform contributors about potential issues is just too much work for them.

They are acting like there may be a sale in the future, but Getty never splits and sells anything do they?  They buy sites just to eliminate the competition.  Maybe the entire company is for sale or perhaps they are working on a cash injection from Goldman Sachs.  Maybe this programming fisaso is because they've laid off the senior staff who actually knew how to program because they had to get their payroll down.  Does anyone know if the staff has been reduced? 

There seems to be an increase in deleting comments that are critical of them today. Wonder if that is their New Year's resolution. Only Woo-Yaying allowed.

Quote from: caspixel on January 04, 2011, 17:09

There seems to be an increase in deleting comments that are critical to them today. Wonder if that is their New Year's resolution. Only Woo-Yaying allowed.

If Pet Chia's theory is right, then perhaps they want to make sure the new (or potential) owners don't get an idea of how messed up the site is...

Just from several of the various exclusives who seem to be "sent" over here to counteract the truth whenever there is a big blowup, I gleaned that bringing a lot of negative attention to the screwups must be having a ton of adverse effect, and therefore only wooyaying will be allowed.

There seems to be an increase in deleting comments that are critical of them today. Wonder if that is their New Year's resolution. Only Woo-Yaying allowed.

How can you tell when stuff is deleted? Or is it just that you read a post and then when you went back it was missing?

I was just over there now and there are a lot of negative posts in almost every thread with only an occasional wooyay. People are really pissed, never seen anything like it. My fav was the "mad as hell" post that got locked by Lobo without a snarky comment (surprising). I would link it but I am a tencho-boob on an iPad and don't know how to post a lonk.

Edit: or apparently know how to spell either, meant link not lonk.

^ i guess that was kinda a stoopid question. I miss all the good stuff since I can't read the forum pages at work (I don't think my boss would appreciate it). BTW Caspixel, are you still banned?

Quote from: BooKitty on January 04, 2011, 22:32

^ i guess that was kinda a stoopid question. I miss all the good stuff since I can't read the forum pages at work (I don't think my boss would appreciate it). BTW Caspixel, are you still banned?

Yup. Still banned. I'm certain it's for life.

I can have a friend start an account and we'd sell it to you so you can get the latest emails from iStock and read the forums? 

How can the mail database be too large? They write to me once a week with some announcement or another. They are already writing to all of us on a regular basis?

Quote from: caspixel on January 05, 2011, 02:00

Quote from: BooKitty on January 04, 2011, 22:32

^ i guess that was kinda a stoopid question. I miss all the good stuff since I can't read the forum pages at work (I don't think my boss would appreciate it). BTW Caspixel, are you still banned?

Yup. Still banned. I'm certain it's for life.

I can have a friend start an account and we'd sell it to you so you can get the latest emails from iStock and read the forums? 

LOL. Well, I can read the forums fine. I just can't post. And I certainly wouldn't want to pay for such a "privilege".

I still have an account there too. And can even post on my blog.

Quote

There seems to be an increase in deleting comments that are critical of them today.

If that were really the case there would be no posts left. I have seen no posts deleted.

I had one of mine deleted yesterday. No swearing, no personal attacks, just some comments about what the priorities should be (and that hoopla over the 8 millionth file should be nowhere on the list until search was working).