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Author Topic: Ratings? What, who, why, how?  (Read 4734 times)

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« on: July 17, 2007, 01:38 »
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I am wondering how the ratings/reviews at iStock come about.  I have 92 pics online (yeah, I know, not enough to be taken seriously but I am working on it) and 32  reviews/ratings and I thougth that was pretty cool but I noticed that there are people out there with portfolios of equal size or even smaller with way more reviews. Who rates what?  What roles do the ratings play in the search algorithms.

Thanks for your input.

Tina


« Reply #1 on: July 17, 2007, 01:58 »
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Don't bother! Not only are ratings barely, if at all, now used in the 'best match' search due to major 'gaming' by 'ratings rings', but having lots of views of a file without them being downloaded, caused by your friends viewing and rating  them is a positive disadvantage as it dilutes one of the metrics that does get used in the best match.

There are still 'ratings rings', but look through the most popular section by ratings. One in the last month for example has 72 reviews, 255 views and NO downloads !

This is in contrast to a situation last year when well orchestrated ratings could catapult a file into top of best match within days.


« Reply #2 on: July 17, 2007, 02:16 »
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Hi Tina,

The most ratings I get are when an image gets accepted and it is one of my better images. I get a lot of ratings from people who just seem to see it under new uploads, people I do not know. Then I get ratings from my CN. There is a section where you can see what are the newest uploads from the CN members.  After the image is online a month or two,  it allmost never gets a rating anymore.  Ratings does not seem to improve the showing up under the "Best Match" search. The only thing which improves is, when you search files according to their rating. But for whatever reason buyers seem not to use that search tool. Where your file shows up in the best match is the most importent criteria for getting downloads. Rating used to improve the best match search. But IS changed that, because people formed "rating gangs" as thesentinel said. So yes you do not have to bother about the rating..

« Reply #3 on: July 17, 2007, 06:04 »
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Check those images of the same subject, the pleiades star:
http://www.istockphoto.com/file_closeup/character_traits/celebrity/celebrities/2751348_pleiades_seven_sisters.php?id=2751348
http://www.istockphoto.com/file_closeup/astronomy_and_space/outer_space/stars/2716873_pleiades_star_cluster_and_nebula.php?id=2716873

the first one data:
397 downloads, 2865 views, uploaded on 18-1-2007,11 ratings
the second one data:
817 downloads,3845 views, uploaded on 12-1-2007, 2 ratings

well, if you search for "the pleiades" using best match search, then the first one shows first.
Do you really think ratings doesnt't matter?

PS: the number of keywords of the two photos is similar and, obviously, the photographers are not exclusive

« Reply #4 on: July 17, 2007, 06:21 »
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I still think rating does not affect the searchengine for best match search or only very minor. I have one image with 42 ratings. Search for penguin and it will show up on just the 9th page, while I have plenty other penguin images showing up much higher in the search engine with less ratings.

« Reply #5 on: July 17, 2007, 06:37 »
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I still think rating does not affect the searchengine for best match search or only very minor. I have one image with 42 ratings. Search for penguin and it will show up on just the 9th page, while I have plenty other penguin images showing up much higher in the search engine with less ratings.

maybe those are newer?
I think they use a formula with many parameters: downloads, download per view, age, number of keywords, ratings... and, most important, exclusivity
« Last Edit: July 17, 2007, 06:39 by snem »

« Reply #6 on: July 29, 2007, 17:08 »
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I rate when I think an image is really special and I do very little of that these days. High ratings will get you in the highest rated list which does mean more exposure but doesn't guarantee sales. A lot of really pretty, art shots get a lot of ratings but these generally don't sell well. Of course, there is always the exception.


vicu

« Reply #7 on: July 29, 2007, 22:01 »
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maybe those are newer?
I think they use a formula with many parameters: downloads, download per view, age, number of keywords, ratings... and, most important, exclusivity

Several people have posted evidence to the contrary. Do you have evidence to back up this statement?

« Reply #8 on: July 30, 2007, 02:19 »
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I've just done a 'quick and dirty' analysis on my iS portfolio comparing ratings with downloads ...

For my 10 highest rated images
Average rating = 5
Average number of people rating each image = 8
Average Downloads per month = 1.2

For my 10 best-selling images (in Dl/Mo)
Average rating = 2.5
Average number of people rating each image = 2.1
Average Downloads per month = 6.2

For 10 randomly-selected images
Average rating = 2.5
Average number of people rating each image = 1.2
Average Downloads per month = 0.7

Seems to show that ratings have a small effect on sales but won't push an image into the best-seller category. 
« Last Edit: July 30, 2007, 02:53 by Bateleur »

« Reply #9 on: July 30, 2007, 04:01 »
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But maybe image which are rated more tend to be also nicer and more interesting. Images which are nicer and are more interesting usually tend to get more downloads in the average. So the rating does not mean anything necessarily.


« Reply #11 on: August 18, 2007, 08:00 »
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Sales.

 ;)


 

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