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Agency Based Discussion => iStockPhoto.com => Topic started by: Anyka on January 17, 2008, 14:46

Title: Istock twisting my keywords?
Post by: Anyka on January 17, 2008, 14:46
I know Istock's keyword system has its pros and cons, but what can I do against them twisting my keywords?

I submitted a photo with a burning computer hard disk (it was broken anyway) and used the usual keywords, including :  drive (like in hard drive), digital, crash, magnetic, data, deleted, memory, save.
Istock rejected the photo due to incorrect keywording, and lists the "guilty" keywords (in the same order) :

Drive(Sports Activity)
Digital Display(Text)
Crash(Transportation Event)
Magnet(Man Made Object)
Document(Printed Media)
Delete Key(Computer Key)
Nostalgia
Savings(Financial Item)

I did not tick these meanings, in fact if the exact meaning is not mentioned in Istock's list, I don't tick a meaning, but leave the keyword in my list. 

Of course it's easy to resubmit the photo without the above keywords, but that would mean that it will not appear in searches for "computer crash" or similar.

Any one here who knows the tricks how to play Istock's keywording system?
Title: Re: Istock twisting my keywords?
Post by: madelaide on January 17, 2008, 15:25
If I am not wrong, if you untick the DA options it still picks the first one in the list.

When I don't find the right meaning in the list, I sometimes write to the keyword team to have them added.  After months not seeing any addition, I haven't returned anymore to see if they added them.

What irritates me is to know that I am trying to disambiguate and they don't let me, and in the end they may even edit my keywords if someone reports them, and they will delete them instead of adding the correct meaning.

Regards,
Adelaide
Title: Re: Istock twisting my keywords?
Post by: Anyka on January 17, 2008, 15:53
Correct!  It's as if they have created a limited vocabulary in the beginning of the new system, and anything that does not fit into it, should be deleted.
But they forget that they cannot control the vocabulary that is used in the searches ...

The system picks the first meaning if I don't pick one?  OMG, that is awful. 

I wonder if we could just delete the rejected (or non-fitting) words, and then add them again after acceptance ... like some voluntary second disambiguation  ;)
Title: Re: Istock twisting my keywords?
Post by: madelaide on January 17, 2008, 16:07
I wonder if we could just delete the rejected (or non-fitting) words, and then add them again after acceptance ... like some voluntary second disambiguation  ;)

You can delete the words and ask keyword team to include them, but as that doesn't work either....  In one emal they acknowledged I was right about one lacking meaning, but said they didn't know how to solve that.  Geez...

Regards,
Adelaide
Title: Re: Istock twisting my keywords?
Post by: Sean Locke Photography on January 17, 2008, 16:26
The system picks the first meaning if I don't pick one?  OMG, that is awful. 

Sure, if you don't pick a meaning, it has to pick something as a meaning.
Title: Re: Istock twisting my keywords?
Post by: yingyang0 on January 17, 2008, 16:50
I haven't had a problem getting meanings added to keywords. Just last week I sent a sitemail about "worker" mapping to "manual worker" and they fixed it within 2 days.

The system picks the first meaning if I don't pick one?  OMG, that is awful.
You're right, but for the wrong reasons. People that don't take the time to actually pick the right ones (or even learn the system they're uploading to) shouldn't get the benefit of the auto pick feature. Instead the system should not pick a meaning and any keyword that doesn't have a user-picked option should be deleted. That way photos of computer hard drives don't show up when someone is searching for the concept "savings(financial item)".
Title: Re: Istock twisting my keywords?
Post by: Peiling on January 19, 2008, 07:35
i am so irritated with the keywords in istock!!! ???
Title: Re: Istock twisting my keywords?
Post by: CCK on January 30, 2008, 07:39
I've been receiving rejections from iStock lately for keywords. I don't use many keywords on a photo, but when I submit I'm sure that my keywords are what a buyer looking for my photo would use to search for it. I get the idea that if I post a photo of a chair, they want me to use "chair" as only keyword, and nothing else!
Title: Re: Istock twisting my keywords?
Post by: KiwiRob on January 31, 2008, 11:25
what I find really annoying is keyword spam, I sometimes review keywordsand ask for some to be deleted,a couple I did this time last year are still pending approval, do Is ever look at peoples suggestions?
Title: Re: Istock twisting my keywords?
Post by: madelaide on January 31, 2008, 15:47
Sometimes an apparent spamming in IS is in fact due to the CV (have I said this before?).  My rapeseed flowers image had "rape" as one keyword, and it did not have the correct meaning so it showed "sexual abuse" (now it does, and I've corrected it). 

If someone did not disambiguate their old images, many inappropriate keywords may show. 

Now, what is really spamming for me is "red" in an image that is blue or "euro" in an image that shows dollars.  I've seen and reported these examples in IS.

Regards,
Adelaide