Author Topic: iStock site down (Read 16469 times)

jsmithzz · « **on:** January 20, 2011, 08:42 »

1

ETA: Whoa, not sure how my entire post got wiped and replaced with the number one. I had written originally that I was angry the site was down on top of all the additional problems and price increase that was just announced for some files.

I recognize that they have their work cut out for them, but raising costs and cutting contributor pay is not the way to win back customers. I think someone in the iStock forums said it well when they stated that iStock should focus on stabilizing the existing site and stop trying to fix what's not broken. Customers are leaving. Contributors are leaving. What is iStock going to do to EARN back the trust of the very people who made it what is today?

PaulieWalnuts · « **Reply #1 on:** January 20, 2011, 09:12 »

Hmmm. 2?

ShadySue · « **Reply #2 on:** January 20, 2011, 09:17 »

One full hour since the site was down, redirecting visitors to Twitter, yet there's nothing on twitter about today's problem?

dhanford · « **Reply #3 on:** January 20, 2011, 09:20 »

What? How many hours they'll have the scheduled maintenance page up even though the site crushed?

jjneff · « **Reply #4 on:** January 20, 2011, 09:22 »

This is crazy!

vlad_the_imp · « **Reply #5 on:** January 20, 2011, 09:23 »

They are indeed a complete bunch of incompetents

jjneff · « **Reply #6 on:** January 20, 2011, 09:34 »

Someone who knows more than me. Dose this happen because of carelessness or dose it just happen at times. I have never seen this
many problems on other sites so what makes iStock different?

aeonf · « **Reply #7 on:** January 20, 2011, 09:35 »

Quote from: vlad_the_imp on January 20, 2011, 09:23

They are indeed a complete bunch of incompetents

I agree.
If I was one of the big bosses at getty/H&F I would have fired a very high percentage of the emplyees there long ago (and a much higher percentage then the royalties they pay the contributors!).

aeonf · « **Reply #8 on:** January 20, 2011, 09:36 »

Quote from: jjneff on January 20, 2011, 09:34

Someone who knows more than me. Dose this happen because of carelessness or dose it just happen at times. I have never seen this
many problems on other sites so what makes iStock different?

it happends because of incompetents, low IQ, and having no fear of getting fired.

jsmithzz · « **Reply #9 on:** January 20, 2011, 09:42 »

I used to work in IT and most project failures were due to poor testing of the product prior to delivery. It seems that is the case with some of iStock's releases that don't work in certain browsers or at all. They need to do a more thorough job with testing and/or roll out a beta site to select users to kick the tires. That's pretty standard in the project management world. I'm sure there are lots of factors going on that we aren't privy to but that's just what I see as an observer.

Ploink · « **Reply #10 on:** January 20, 2011, 09:43 »

They are back online...

Graffoto · « **Reply #11 on:** January 20, 2011, 09:48 »

Quote from: Ploink on January 20, 2011, 09:43

They are back online...

Hope it stays up $:-\$

ShadySue · « **Reply #12 on:** January 20, 2011, 09:54 »

Good job I'm banned, or I'd be immediately banned again for 'immoderate language'.

jcpjr · « **Reply #13 on:** January 20, 2011, 09:56 »

Very poor QA

rene · « **Reply #14 on:** January 20, 2011, 09:58 »

It was just a maintenance. As Istock site is running on Windows 95 the best way to clear cache is restart the server.

rubyroo · « **Reply #15 on:** January 20, 2011, 10:06 »

I thought it was DOS 6.2.2

(Scratch that... that would have been far more reliable!)

ShadySue · « **Reply #16 on:** January 20, 2011, 10:10 »

Quote from: jcpjr on January 20, 2011, 09:56

Very poor QA

I'm not sure that they have QA: this job has apparently been vacant since early 2007, at least: http://www.istockphoto.com/istock_position.php?ID=4

hoi ha · « **Reply #17 on:** January 20, 2011, 10:14 »

Quote from: rene on January 20, 2011, 09:58

It was just a maintenance. As Istock site is running on Windows 95 the best way to clear cache is restart the server.

No this was not maintenance - the site crashed - before the site actually went down it was buggy for several hours and was creating error pages - this was a another IT dept snaffu.

traveler1116 · « **Reply #18 on:** January 20, 2011, 10:15 »

Quote from: ShadySue on January 20, 2011, 10:10

Quote from: jcpjr on January 20, 2011, 09:56
Very poor QA

I'm not sure that they have QA: this job has apparently been vacant since early 2007, at least: http://www.istockphoto.com/istock_position.php?ID=4

Did you see it says "Can you break our software?"
http://www.istockphoto.com/istock_careers.php
Maybe they should be looking for someone who can fix it?

jsmithzz · « **Reply #19 on:** January 20, 2011, 10:26 »

Quote from: traveler1116 on January 20, 2011, 10:15

Quote from: ShadySue on January 20, 2011, 10:10
Quote from: jcpjr on January 20, 2011, 09:56
Very poor QA

I'm not sure that they have QA: this job has apparently been vacant since early 2007, at least: http://www.istockphoto.com/istock_position.php?ID=4

Did you see it says "Can you break our software?"
http://www.istockphoto.com/istock_careers.php
Maybe they should be looking for someone who can fix it?

LOL. It seems the software breaks just fine without any QA help.

ShadySue · « **Reply #20 on:** January 20, 2011, 10:34 »

Quote from: jjneff on January 20, 2011, 09:34

Someone who knows more than me. Dose this happen because of carelessness or dose it just happen at times. I have never seen this
many problems on other sites so what makes iStock different?

Multiple choice:
a. They don't care
b. They haven't a clue how to make it better
c. They're testing our patience.
Actually, it's probably
d. All of the above.
I'm beginning to think that iStock, since September is just a giant experiment to see how much cr*p contributors and buyers will take before leaving. Nothing else. Just like the mice and the earth in H2G2.

Ploink · « **Reply #21 on:** January 20, 2011, 11:16 »

I'm also glad that I could help to ease our customers' pain by giving them 15% off for credit purchases (>50 credits) http://twitter.com/iStock - even when it was my agent's f*ckup and not my own...

*Caution: some sarcasm may apply*

ShadySue · « **Reply #22 on:** January 20, 2011, 11:24 »

Quote from: Ploink on January 20, 2011, 11:16

I'm also glad that I could help to ease our customers' pain by giving them 15% off for credit purchases (>50 credits) http://twitter.com/iStock - even when it was my agent's f*ckup and not my own...

*Caution: some sarcasm may apply*

So it's lose-lose for the drones. Again. Lose while the site is down, probably lose the few hours before when it was crawling and there were many faults (e.g. I got logged out) and we lose again with the vouchers - and that didn't even show when the site was down, so why now?
Do the people who muck it up ever lose a penny?

rubyroo · « **Reply #23 on:** January 20, 2011, 11:41 »

Quote from: ShadySue on January 20, 2011, 11:24

Do the people who muck it up ever lose a penny?

It seems not.

123XXX · « **Reply #24 on:** January 20, 2011, 12:11 »

Quote from: aeonf on January 20, 2011, 09:35

I agree.
If I was one of the big bosses at getty/H&F I would have fired a very high percentage of the emplyees there long ago (and a much higher percentage then the royalties they pay the contributors!).

I think the whole issue is they have difficulty finding good IT people that are willing to work in Calgary. If they were located in Silicone Valley, or New York like many of the other Microstock sites, then they would probably no problem finding a team of competent IT site admins and programmers. They could of course import some if they can't find them within the local work force, but my guess is that the pay at iStock is so poor they have trouble getting good people at all. However, the IT team they have working there are clearly at a very low level. Have you ever seen such a huge internet company have such a high level of incompetents within their IT team? It is mind boggling how inept they seem most of the time. Putting up a content management system like the platform the iStock site runs on is pretty basic stuff. Look at Alamy's site with over 20 million images. Never skips a beat. That tells you something.

ShadySue · « **Reply #25 on:** January 20, 2011, 12:15 »

Quote from: 123XXX on January 20, 2011, 12:11

Quote from: aeonf on January 20, 2011, 09:35
I agree.
If I was one of the big bosses at getty/H&F I would have fired a very high percentage of the emplyees there long ago (and a much higher percentage then the royalties they pay the contributors!).

I think the whole issue is they have difficulty finding good IT people that are willing to work in Calgary. If they were located in Silicone Valley, or New York like many of the other Microstock sites, then they would probably no problem finding a team of competent IT site admins and programmers. They could of course import some if they can't find them within the local work force, but my guess is that the pay at iStock is so poor they have trouble getting good people at all.

I've often wondered about that exact issue (in fact both issues, the pay and the location). I've never been to Calgary so don't know what it's like. Interestingly, many Scots, myself and my husband included, have 'distant relatives' in Calgary. Maybe they should recruit in Scotland!

123XXX · « **Reply #26 on:** January 20, 2011, 12:24 »

Quote from: ShadySue on January 20, 2011, 12:15

I've often wondered about that exact issue (in fact both issues, the pay and the location). I've never been to Calgary so don't know what it's like. Interestingly, many Scots, myself and my husband included, have 'distant relatives' in Calgary. Maybe they should recruit in Scotland!

Well Calgary is probably not the professional environment a cutting edge programmer would want to be based. He/she would most likely want to be where the pulse is so they are close to where the new developments and innovations in programming technology are sprouting from. The weather can be bitter cold and there probably isn't much social life there to speak of either. Aesthetically I am sure it is beautiful, but the only way to lure in some serious programmers would be with money. Bottom line is, if they can't put together a decent IT team it also tells you they are not willing to pay enough for a higher skill level. They may have also had good people in the past and lost them because they don't hire enough people and the ones that are hired have too much of a burden, burn out, and then just walk. So there has to be something about either the pay, location, or working conditions which prevents them from finding the right people. There can't be any other reason or plausible excuse for the repeated problems. It looks like a bad joke the way it happens so often, people get upset, and shocked even by the frequency of the problems, but it truly screams something about how the company might be run internally.

ShadySue · « **Reply #27 on:** January 20, 2011, 12:41 »

I had to look a bit, but at last I found the thread
Source: http://www.istockphoto.com/forum_messages.php?threadid=270252&page=13
The thread was "Contributers underpaid twice"

Posted By sjlocke:
I just don't understand why nothing seems to be happening anywhere, software-wise. No stuck agency fix, no EL listing, no payment/fix of bonus, no E+ tools, no Advanced Search fix, etc. Nothing, nada, zero. Why was Bruce able to push out semi-daily fixes for V8 back when, but with a bigger team (assuming) now, movement is at a snail's pace?

Posted by abzee:
Maybe a pioneering team with by a charismatic leader was different from the current culture, though lets not forget the snafus that did occur!

Posted by Roger Mexico:
Mike, you've made the key point there. Yes, we were faster several years ago, but that came at a cost: the fixes that we did never addressed core issues in the code, and most of the time we were bouncing from one near crisis to the next.
Over the last few years we've really restructured our technology team in order to base its priorities more around long term plans rather than the more reactive approach we used to take. The trade off is that while things take us longer to do, the site is more stable and performs better than it ever has. Yes there are still usability bugs and yes some of them are a pain. Yes we are still far from perfect. But on the whole the site works better. And this will continue to happen - gradual improvement.

Sean, we are working on all the things that you have listed in your quote there. I know that for some of those issues, we've been working on them for a long time. We're actually getting close with everything there - no I'm not giving a timeline.
We want everything fixed too. We know that things like the Exclusive Plus sortability have been outstanding for way too long. We know that the My Uploads page needs a redesign. Most importantly to the topic at hand here, we know this issue of outstanding money being owed to contributors needs fixing and we're working on fixing it.

Posted By risamay:
I wonder if these are new job openings, or roles they need to fill per people quitting.

Posted by rogermexico:
This is just silly. They are new openings because we continue to grow and need more people. People don't really quit iStock and our turnover is exceptionally low.
[snip]
Once people are hired people stay. We like working here.

Posted by JJRD:
Yeppers

Posted by dcdp:
"Unless otherwise specified, iStockphoto does not normally sponsor candidates for work-authorized visa classifications"

{Aside from me: maybe it's high time they did}

Posted by retroimages:
I take it you are not getting a pay cut next year then?
{No answer, was the loud reply}

Posted By dcdp:
Anybody who comes on board now is going to a take a month or more to be effective in any case. It takes at least that long to learn how the whole sha-bang holds together (or doesn't).

Posted by rogermexico:
It's true - particularly with the development team we take a really gradual integration approach. People spend their first while partnered with more senior developers learning the system, how it works, why it works that way, the various processes, etc.
For that reason we do staggered, constant hiring on the development team. We will hire a handful of people every few months in order to always have new hands to learn and graduate [them] up to bigger and bigger projects.

Pixart · « **Reply #28 on:** January 20, 2011, 13:02 »

Calgary may not be a programmer's dream, but don't kid yourself, it is a world class city and it has a LOT of money.

LSD72 · « **Reply #29 on:** January 20, 2011, 13:03 »

Maybe Istuck can hire Julian Assange

VB inc · « **Reply #30 on:** January 20, 2011, 13:55 »

Quote from: ShadySue on January 20, 2011, 10:34

Quote from: jjneff on January 20, 2011, 09:34
Someone who knows more than me. Dose this happen because of carelessness or dose it just happen at times. I have never seen this
many problems on other sites so what makes iStock different?
Multiple choice:
a. They don't care
b. They haven't a clue how to make it better
c. They're testing our patience.
Actually, it's probably
d. All of the above.
I'm beginning to think that iStock, since September is just a giant experiment to see how much cr*p contributors and buyers will take before leaving. Nothing else. Just like the mice and the earth in H2G2.

Im in no way defending istock but we dont know the full story.

e. I think somewhere along the lines of when their IT initially set the system up (wrote the code), it wasn't nearly as complicated as what they have now with all these new price differences, best match algorithm, linking between sites and lighboxes and such. Constantly adding new equations into the mix that the original code wasnt meant for is bound to have adverse effects. I just hope the site doesnt crash for more than a day. that would be devastating.

ShadySue · « **Reply #31 on:** January 20, 2011, 14:02 »

Quote from: VB inc on January 20, 2011, 13:55

. Constantly adding new equations into the mix that the original code wasnt meant for is bound to have adverse effects.

Amazon seems able to do it.

jamirae · « **Reply #32 on:** January 20, 2011, 14:26 »

Quote from: ShadySue on January 20, 2011, 14:02

Quote from: VB inc on January 20, 2011, 13:55
. Constantly adding new equations into the mix that the original code wasnt meant for is bound to have adverse effects.
Amazon seems able to do it.

exactly. a company as big as iStock should employ a development environment where real-world scenarios can be tested and vetted prior to going into production. These continual site issues are a testament to the fact that this was clearly not done, or at least only done half-assed.

The blame/problem does not lie with the technology, it lies with the people running that technology.

123XXX · « **Reply #33 on:** January 20, 2011, 14:27 »

Quote from: ShadySue on January 20, 2011, 14:02

Quote from: VB inc on January 20, 2011, 13:55
. Constantly adding new equations into the mix that the original code wasnt meant for is bound to have adverse effects.
Amazon seems able to do it.

As do many others. Facebook is constantly adding new elements to their site design and they don't even have any significant income from the site yet as iStock does. And the list goes on.

123XXX · « **Reply #34 on:** January 20, 2011, 14:28 »

Quote from: jamirae on January 20, 2011, 14:26

The blame/problem does not lie with the technology, it lies with the people running that technology.

Amen.

VB inc · « **Reply #35 on:** January 20, 2011, 16:17 »

Quote from: VB inc on November 09, 2010, 18:56

Given that they have mulltiple openings for App developers, it just seems like they have some incompetent IT staff. I would expect IT to be top priority for any company that deals in financial transactions online after maybe marketing. What else do they really need to do besides those two.

Maybe the top IT people from istock are still the same people who started with the company in its infancy and isnt qualified to oversee an operation the size of istock.

Posted sometime in nov. so im def not defending them but i dont think comparing what goes on at istock is the same as what happens on different sites like amazon or facebook. facebook employs (steals from google) the best geeks in the world.

ShadySue · « **Reply #36 on:** January 20, 2011, 16:42 »

Quote from: VB inc on January 20, 2011, 16:17

Quote from: VB inc on November 09, 2010, 18:56
Given that they have mulltiple openings for App developers, it just seems like they have some incompetent IT staff. I would expect IT to be top priority for any company that deals in financial transactions online after maybe marketing. What else do they really need to do besides those two.

Maybe the top IT people from istock are still the same people who started with the company in its infancy and isnt qualified to oversee an operation the size of istock.

Posted sometime in nov. so im def not defending them but i dont think comparing what goes on at istock is the same as what happens on different sites like amazon or facebook. facebook employs (steals from google) the best geeks in the world.

I've often said that iStock should headhunt techies from Amazon.

aeonf · « **Reply #37 on:** January 20, 2011, 16:42 »

Quote from: VB inc on January 20, 2011, 16:17

Quote from: VB inc on November 09, 2010, 18:56
Given that they have mulltiple openings for App developers, it just seems like they have some incompetent IT staff. I would expect IT to be top priority for any company that deals in financial transactions online after maybe marketing. What else do they really need to do besides those two.

Maybe the top IT people from istock are still the same people who started with the company in its infancy and isnt qualified to oversee an operation the size of istock.

Posted sometime in nov. so im def not defending them but i dont think comparing what goes on at istock is the same as what happens on different sites like amazon or facebook. facebook employs (steals from google) the best geeks in the world.

Can't IS afford to do the same

caspixel · « **Reply #38 on:** January 20, 2011, 16:43 »

Quote from: ShadySue on January 20, 2011, 12:41

Posted by Roger Mexico:

Over the last few years we've really restructured our technology team in order to base its priorities more around long term plans rather than the more reactive approach we used to take. The trade off is that while things take us longer to do, the site is more stable and performs better than it ever has. Yes there are still usability bugs and yes some of them are a pain. Yes we are still far from perfect. But on the whole the site works better. And this will continue to happen - gradual improvement.

I wonder if he wants to rethink that. Things have been on a steady decline, not improvement.

caspixel · « **Reply #39 on:** January 20, 2011, 16:48 »

Oh, brother. Stuff is still wrong with that site. Now when I try to access the forums I'm getting blank white page.

donding · « **Reply #40 on:** January 20, 2011, 17:55 »

When I try to log in I get a partial log in panel...if that makes sense. it only shows the upper left corner of it and no where to click ok.

jamirae · « **Reply #41 on:** January 20, 2011, 18:26 »

come on you guys. Have you not been paying attention to the iStock posts? clear your browser cache, switch to a new browser, then spin around in your chair three times clockwise chanting "F5! F5! F5" ... and the iStock site will magically be perfect.

caspixel · « **Reply #42 on:** January 20, 2011, 19:45 »

Quote from: jamirae on January 20, 2011, 18:26

come on you guys. Have you not been paying attention to the iStock posts? clear your browser cache, switch to a new browser, then spin around in your chair three times clockwise chanting "F5! F5! F5" ... and the iStock site will magically be perfect.

You forgot "Download a Greasemonkey script:.

Noodles · « **Reply #43 on:** January 20, 2011, 20:31 »

Quote from: jsmithzz on January 20, 2011, 09:42

I used to work in IT and most project failures were due to poor testing of the product prior to delivery. It seems that is the case with some of iStock's releases that don't work in certain browsers or at all. They need to do a more thorough job with testing and/or roll out a beta site to select users to kick the tires. That's pretty standard in the project management world. I'm sure there are lots of factors going on that we aren't privy to but that's just what I see as an observer.

I agree. As you say, testing before going live is a standard procedure for even small corporate businesses let alone a company like iStock. I just don't get it. Very poor management.

visceralimage · « **Reply #44 on:** January 20, 2011, 22:45 »

While they were down I got three subscription sales at DT; I don't usually get many subscriptions so I wonder if the IS clients are shopping elsewhere for images during the shutdown.

I am not contributor at IS yet as waiting for portfolio to be approved. I have been exclusive at DT but my contract expires in a couple days; will be joining the mad rush to get images spread all over the microstocks; again.

Correction: Just received email for IS accepting me as contributor.

travelstock · « **Reply #45 on:** January 20, 2011, 23:16 »

Quote from: 123XXX on January 20, 2011, 14:27

As do many others. Facebook is constantly adding new elements to their site design and they don't even have any significant income from the site yet as iStock does. And the list goes on.

You are joking aren't you??

Micro · « **Reply #46 on:** January 25, 2011, 06:34 »

Quote from: 123XXX on January 20, 2011, 12:11

Quote from: aeonf on January 20, 2011, 09:35

Have you ever seen such a huge internet company have such a high level of incompetents within their IT team? ...

Money is not problem in IS. They earn a lot on our shoulders, and we get less than the other stocks. The problem is - "greed" and low levels of the organization.
I think that the reputation of IS is lost forever.

dscott · « **Reply #47 on:** January 25, 2011, 17:55 »

For years it has amazed me that given the incredibly vocal community iStock doesn't have much better pre-launch testing. It would be so easy for them to invite the active community members to give real feedback on site design ideas, new features and updates. So many of the suggestions in the forums have been met with a "we know better" response or nothing at all and that it is more of an indictment of the culture at iStock. I recall early on making some very specific performance and coding suggestions, complete with actual code to replace their mess only to get a canned response and years later see the same buggy code.

As a developer it would be a dream to have the community they do in order to drive forward and make the site better. Obviously, not all suggestions are gold or should be implemented but over the years I've seen many that would have been huge improvements over anything iStock has put out. You'll never please everyone but it might be nice if new features and updates weren't so far of the mark.

RayW · « **Reply #48 on:** January 25, 2011, 18:09 »

And another old goat heard from!

YawningDog · « **Reply #49 on:** January 25, 2011, 18:26 »

Don't you mean herd from, Ray?

RayW · « **Reply #50 on:** January 25, 2011, 22:01 »

BAAAAA AAAAA

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Author Topic: iStock site down (Read 16469 times)

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