pancakes

MicrostockGroup Sponsors


Author Topic: Istockphoto Down For Maintenance or Hacked?  (Read 61431 times)

0 Members and 2 Guests are viewing this topic.

« Reply #150 on: November 29, 2011, 13:25 »
0

Here is the inevitable response from the mendacious (He'll have to goggle the meaning)  Lobo,

"Here is hoping the ban button works again. Please continue to gnash your teeth elsewhere. Your participation is the community is once again be revoked.

Have a super terrific day :)"

Lobo

Say's it all really What a classy professional little outfit their not.


I guess we're all just pointing out the obvious at this point.  I used to work for software company and one of my responsibilites was the web site, which sold and activated products. The idea of multiple, serious problems like this dragging on for days, or even weeks, is just inconceivable - I'd have had the owners on my case on the second day, and would be called on the carpet on the 4th.   Sorry if I keep pointing this out, but  30 years in the software business are telling me that what's happened to the site is that at least one key IT person is gone, and someone else is trying to patch things up and make changes, and has gotten snarled in the complexities.   They probably tried changing something that created other problems and have had to back off until they can figure it all out.  Either that, or the site is totally managed by a subcontractor, who's gotten swamped.   I know the signs.

And if I'd ever responded to a supplier or a customer like that guy just did to you - even if it was the biggest jerk we had to deal with - I'd be out.  Done.

 
« Last Edit: November 29, 2011, 13:27 by stockastic »


« Reply #151 on: November 29, 2011, 13:29 »
0
Here is the inevitable response from the mendacious (He'll have to goggle the meaning)  Lobo,

Say's it all really What a classy professional little outfit their not.

At least Lobo can usually spell and has a grasp of English grammar. You could 'goggle' that for some elementary tips. Alternatively you could blame your errors on a mythical 21-year old female intern in your office. Classy!

Cogent Marketing

« Reply #152 on: November 29, 2011, 13:38 »
0
gostwyck
Quote At least Lobo can usually spell and has a grasp of English grammar. You could 'goggle' that for some elementary tips. Alternatively you could blame your errors on a mythical 21-year old female intern in your office. Classy!

Happy hour over is it? Time for bed.

Cogent Marketing

« Reply #153 on: November 29, 2011, 13:42 »
0

Here is the inevitable response from the mendacious (He'll have to goggle the meaning)  Lobo,

"Here is hoping the ban button works again. Please continue to gnash your teeth elsewhere. Your participation is the community is once again be revoked.

Have a super terrific day :)"

Lobo

Say's it all really What a classy professional little outfit their not.
I guess we're all just pointing out the obvious at this point.  I used to work for software company and one of my responsibilites was the web site, which sold and activated products. The idea of multiple, serious problems like this dragging on for days, or even weeks, is just inconceivable - I'd have had the owners on my case on the second day, and would be called on the carpet on the 4th.   Sorry if I keep pointing this out, but  30 years in the software business are telling me that what's happened to the site is that at least one key IT person is gone, and someone else is trying to patch things up and make changes, and has gotten snarled in the complexities.   They probably tried changing something that created other problems and have had to back off until they can figure it all out.  Either that, or the site is totally managed by a subcontractor, who's gotten swamped.   I know the signs.

And if I'd ever responded to a supplier or a customer like that guy just did to you - even if it was the biggest jerk we had to deal with - I'd be out.  Done.

Your description suggests you worked for a 'proper company'. But in this instance we're not talking about a proper company we're talking about iStock. That's the difference. These amateur admins have been making decisions way about their pay grades for years and have driven customers and contributors away in the process. This is merely the death throws of a subsidiary in their final moments. They deserve it too.

« Reply #154 on: November 29, 2011, 13:47 »
0
Here is the inevitable response from the mendacious (He'll have to goggle the meaning)  Lobo,

Say's it all really What a classy professional little outfit their not.

At least Lobo can usually spell and has a grasp of English grammar. You could 'goggle' that for some elementary tips. Alternatively you could blame your errors on a mythical 21-year old female intern in your office. Classy!

haha good

Cogent Marketing

« Reply #155 on: November 29, 2011, 13:55 »
0
I fear we may have woken the trolls in the form of Gostwyck and Loop, although many miss their contributions as their on ignore. For the uninitiated, these are the spineless members who prefer to keep their identity private, but still feel qualified to masquerade as 'real contributors'. aka TROLLS. ;)

SNP

  • Canadian Photographer
« Reply #156 on: November 29, 2011, 14:00 »
0
^ um, you're one of the biggest trolls here. your posts are negative, inflammatory, and ill-informed most of the time. far be it for me to defend some of gostwyck's more aggressive posts, but I'd take his input and loop's any day, since they're actually invested and experienced in microstock. you have what...26 files on iStock?
« Last Edit: November 29, 2011, 14:02 by SNP »

« Reply #157 on: November 29, 2011, 14:04 »
0
For the uninitiated, these are the spineless members who prefer to keep their identity private, but still feel qualified to masquerade as 'real contributors'. aka TROLLS. ;)

Is that you posting or Sara ?

Or is it Sybil, or Vickie, or Peggy, or Marcia, or Vanessa ?

Cogent Marketing

« Reply #158 on: November 29, 2011, 14:05 »
0
^ um, you're one of the biggest trolls here. your posts are negative, inflammatory, and ill-informed most of the time. far be it for me to defend some of gostwyck's more aggressive posts, but I'd take his input and loop's any day, since they're actually invested and experienced in microstock.

Good morning. How's the mood today? Reference your quote - Like you would know the difference. You might be better off going to the ISP site and wallow in your congratulatory thread, although you won't be able to see your accurate downloads for the day or month.

Sara sends her best regards. X.

« Reply #159 on: November 29, 2011, 14:20 »
0
Posted By joyze:

We are aware there are a number of bugs that are affecting contributors. Some of them are being worked on as I type and others are queued up to be addressed. Here is an update on the two major ones that are being worked on right now.


1. Royalty adjustments for the royalty issue we had two weeks ago - We've just received the reports from BI with all of the data. As you can imagine this was a task in itself to go through every download, look at the credits used, determine what value each credit was at, then work out the royalty rate etc. Our next step is to create a script that will email each contributor affected with a list of each download and what royalty is due for that download. Then we'll add the royalty owed as a bulk to your account. We are estimating this to occur on Tuesday of next week.


2. The 'My Uploads' page - The dev team is working on this one as well. However, they are holding off on fixing this until they get all of the bugs worked out of the DB release we did this past weekend. They don't want to create a fix on a system that is still being tweaked and adjusted. They have promised me however, that their goal is to have this bug fixed by end of next week as well.

« Reply #160 on: November 29, 2011, 14:24 »
0
I fear we may have woken the trolls in the form of Gostwyck and Loop, although many miss their contributions as their on ignore. For the uninitiated, these are the spineless members who prefer to keep their identity private, but still feel qualified to masquerade as 'real contributors'. aka TROLLS. ;)

Hmm, let's play like kids: you double my ignores. And I'm not ignoring you, you and your young intern are entertaining enough.
« Last Edit: November 29, 2011, 14:26 by loop »

« Reply #161 on: November 29, 2011, 14:25 »
0
...
« Last Edit: November 29, 2011, 15:24 by gostwyck »

SNP

  • Canadian Photographer
« Reply #162 on: November 29, 2011, 14:25 »
0
I'm worried that they have to calculate royalties. I'd hoped they were being tallied automatically somewhere in the back end at the correct royalty percentage. just means a whole bunch of accounting work to make sure I'm receiving the correct royalty difference.

ETA: and sales yesterday and today suck. could it be that every second page load produces a white screen?  ::) apparently customers have reported not being able to purchase too (take that with a grain of salt, I didn't read the post myself, another contributor mentioned it to me)
« Last Edit: November 29, 2011, 14:28 by SNP »

« Reply #163 on: November 29, 2011, 14:35 »
0
I'm worried that they have to calculate royalties. I'd hoped they were being tallied automatically somewhere in the back end at the correct royalty percentage. just means a whole bunch of accounting work to make sure I'm receiving the correct royalty difference.

What's disturbing to me is the fact that the broken Istock works similarly to the correctly working Thinkstock and Getty Images in regards to sales reporting. Instead of transparent reporting of sales when they happen, everything is now opaque. I know I'm being a conspiracy theorist but its tough not to be these days.

« Reply #164 on: November 29, 2011, 14:36 »
0
The site is quite buggy, but I'm not sure it affects searches. The searches I've tried worked. Judging by income, sales are a bit weak, but not much (in my case, of course)

SNP

  • Canadian Photographer
« Reply #165 on: November 29, 2011, 14:41 »
0
I'm worried that they have to calculate royalties. I'd hoped they were being tallied automatically somewhere in the back end at the correct royalty percentage. just means a whole bunch of accounting work to make sure I'm receiving the correct royalty difference.

What's disturbing to me is the fact that the broken Istock works similarly to the correctly working Thinkstock and Getty Images in regards to sales reporting. Instead of transparent reporting of sales when they happen, everything is now opaque. I know I'm being a conspiracy theorist but its tough not to be these days.

I'm not thinking in terms of a conspiracy. I think the site is more broken than we're being told though. these are major bugs, not just minor inconveniences. there's no way we should lose access to our sales data for extended periods of time. I'm jumping to a huge conclusion, but I would not support a move to sales reporting like Getty does. I want to see my individual sales stats daily. it really scares me that they're playing with the upload system and clearly all sorts of back ends systems. adding technical issues and site overhauls as factors influencing sales in an already poor economy certainly is no recipe for success....iStock needs to leave well enough alone now.

« Reply #166 on: November 29, 2011, 14:48 »
0
I think the amount of time between the site problems that at a minimum paid us at the wrong royalty rate for a few days and "...the end of next week" is outrageous. And that's just their goal, not date certain.

I suspect that iStock is tight lipped about what has to be done to pay us because their internal systems are primitive and teetering on the edge of being functional. There's no point in railing at them as I don't think they're lying about the shambles the system is in, but if I got notes from my bank about running a script and it taking several weeks to straighten out an error in my account I'd be in touch with the regulatory authorities to report them. It's an utter disgrace for the custodian of our funds to be (a) this inept and (b) this lackadaisical about a prompt fix.

My mood is not improved by seeing my balance go up and down this morning. And Lobo's rude "sorry" didn't help either. OTOH I doubt customers seeing random objects in their search results are any happier.

Last year they effed up the site during the busy season. How could the dumb clucks have done it all over again - anyone see the old move "Same Time Next Year"?

« Reply #167 on: November 29, 2011, 14:53 »
0
The site is quite buggy, but I'm not sure it affects searches. The searches I've tried worked. ...


All the search bugs reported in the last few pages here still remain. Many searches are sprinkled with totally unrelated items.

« Reply #168 on: November 29, 2011, 15:12 »
0
ETA: and sales yesterday and today suck. could it be that every second page load produces a white screen?

I noticed this going on too. I was hoping it was just me.

« Reply #169 on: November 29, 2011, 15:37 »
0
What's disturbing to me is the fact that the broken Istock works similarly to the correctly working Thinkstock and Getty Images in regards to sales reporting. Instead of transparent reporting of sales when they happen, everything is now opaque. I know I'm being a conspiracy theorist but its tough not to be these days.

Actually, I was thinking along these same lines. Remember when we used to have live stats on our DLs and that went wonky? Well... we never got that back did we? I may just be a matter of time before iStock stops giving daily updated stats and we have to wait for an end of month report like Getty. They seem to be moving towards alignment in other areas so why not in this one?

Long gone are the days when iStock was its own company or at least allowed to operate independently of Getty even once they were bought. Now iStock is just another portal for Getty and it probably makes sense to them to bring their reporting practices in line with the rest of the "family". They probably think that passing it off as a bug initially will break us in to the idea easier than if they just announce it. Bah... who knows, but it does sound like something they might do.

« Reply #170 on: November 29, 2011, 15:45 »
0
I do remember live stats and now it feels a bit like looking at those old airplanes where they had tables and chairs set out for the passengers as if on a country house patio.

However, I'd settle for rock solid data with complete reporting of all the sales details, even if it was once a week, over continued live reporting with insufficient information to have a clue whether anything is correct. Contributors need detailed accounts, and much as I'd love things to be complete and timely (my bank can manage it, even if they are scum of the earth, so I'm not sure what's stopping iStock/Getty/H&F), I'd pick complete over timely if forced. At least that way we'd have a prayer of keeping track of what's going on.

lisafx

« Reply #171 on: November 29, 2011, 16:05 »
0
JoAnn, you're right.  This is the second year in a row that they've made the site unusable during the busiest time of year.  If I were an exclusive I would be having a panic attack over this.  As it is, I'm not all that happy about it.
« Last Edit: November 29, 2011, 16:17 by lisafx »

helix7

« Reply #172 on: November 29, 2011, 16:10 »
0
ETA: and sales yesterday and today suck. could it be that every second page load produces a white screen?

I noticed this going on too. I was hoping it was just me.

I'm looking at the same account balance now that I was looking at this morning. Despite how bad things have been at istock, I still always made some money on a daily basis. This, however, is a first for me.

« Reply #173 on: November 29, 2011, 16:19 »
0
What's disturbing to me is the fact that the broken Istock works similarly to the correctly working Thinkstock and Getty Images in regards to sales reporting. Instead of transparent reporting of sales when they happen, everything is now opaque. I know I'm being a conspiracy theorist but its tough not to be these days.

Actually, I was thinking along these same lines. Remember when we used to have live stats on our DLs and that went wonky? Well... we never got that back did we? I may just be a matter of time before iStock stops giving daily updated stats and we have to wait for an end of month report like Getty. They seem to be moving towards alignment in other areas so why not in this one?

Long gone are the days when iStock was its own company or at least allowed to operate independently of Getty even once they were bought. Now iStock is just another portal for Getty and it probably makes sense to them to bring their reporting practices in line with the rest of the "family". They probably think that passing it off as a bug initially will break us in to the idea easier than if they just announce it. Bah... who knows, but it does sound like something they might do.

When did live stats end?

My member date (April 2006) is not my contributor starting point. I started uploading in November 2006 and managed to get a whopping 70 files up by August 2007. Then I didn't upload again until May 2008 and I've been consistent since then. I don't remember anything different in the early days though.

Back on topic:

I will certainly drop my crown if we get pushed into monthly reporting like the rest of the"family" or if we are forced into the PP. I dropped photo exclusivity when they forced independents into the PP so I could establish accounts at the other sites. If the other shoe drops, I'm totally done with exclusivity.

SNP

  • Canadian Photographer
« Reply #174 on: November 29, 2011, 16:25 »
0
now you've all got me convinced this is a harbinger to monthly reporting. I certainly hope it isn't. the live stats debacle is still fresh enough in my mind and it did in fact finish off the era of live stats, which never returned.


 

Related Topics

  Subject / Started by Replies Last post
6 Replies
3888 Views
Last post December 13, 2010, 10:15
by pet_chia
4 Replies
4586 Views
Last post March 06, 2011, 01:11
by PaulieWalnuts
2 Replies
2151 Views
Last post October 07, 2011, 09:07
by Graffoto
Hacked

Started by tab62 General Stock Discussion

13 Replies
5231 Views
Last post October 27, 2011, 17:51
by madelaide
6 Replies
6141 Views
Last post March 16, 2012, 22:26
by sbonk

Sponsors

Mega Bundle of 5,900+ Professional Lightroom Presets

Microstock Poll Results

Sponsors