MicrostockGroup
Agency Based Discussion => iStockPhoto.com => Topic started by: 123XXX on January 07, 2011, 00:47
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We used to get stats updated twice a day and it was very easy to know how you are doing for the day at a glance. Now the stats are often 2 days behind. For example, the Jan 6th sales day is about to come to a close in about an hour and a half from now and yet we still done even have stats for the 5th. Has anyone heard why we stopped getting updates on stats regularly? Or is it just part of the F5 mystery of things that don't really work right on a consistent basis anymore?
Also, the 3rd party istock stats app for the iPhone has become practically useless for looking at sales figures because 1 - By the time they update for the previous day, the system drops the data for some reason so there is hardly any data ever showing in the app and 2 - Under total income for the month there is never any figure at all. It only shows royalty totals. So if your total for the month includes some EL sales the total it shows does not reflect you actual total.
I am not sure if the software manufacturer is to blame, but I imagine the app practically shows no data because all the coding on pulling data from istock has either changed or is not provided anymore.
As a result, it is very hard to know where you stand for the month at any given time. At best you have an idea of where you were 2 days back.
It used to be more fun knowing where things are and part of the fun was being able to get stats every 12 hours or so. I think it adds to the momentum and enthusiasm of contributors and not having any stats for 2 days kind of makes you not want to look at the site often, which is not a good feeling to give to contributors who need to try to keep their enthusiasm up.
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The earnings figures still update regularly, if not the charts.
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The earnings figures still update regularly, if not the charts.
Thanks. I wasn't referring to earnings though which updates in real time. My entire query is in regards to stats only.
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The earnings figures still update regularly, if not the charts.
Thanks. I wasn't referring to earnings though which updates in real time. My entire query is in regards to stats only.
there used to be a time when stats also updated real time. They were supposed to bring those back, too, but since most people have now forgotten that we used to have live stats (everything was updated right away just like the earnings), I don't see that ever happening again.
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I'm beginning to think they have outsourced their IT to India.
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I'm beginning to think they have outsourced their IT to India.
Had they done so it would probably be working perfectly. Lots of good IT people there.
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I'm beginning to think they have outsourced their IT to India.
More like China. LOL
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I'm beginning to think they have outsourced their IT to India.
More like China. LOL
So you saw the movie Outsourced? And if you didn't, you should - it was a lovely cross-cultural misunderstandings movie.
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I'm beginning to think they have outsourced their IT to India.
More like China. LOL
So you saw the movie Outsourced? And if you didn't, you should - it was a lovely cross-cultural misunderstandings movie.
Never saw it, don't need to. I have an abundance of first hand experience working with Indian IT people.
On the plus side they are very astute and knowledgeable.
On the minus side, they are as a general rule not innovative, preferring to adapt existing open source software for their own purposes rather than build to suite.
Due to their culture, it generally takes a good hard push from the client side to get them to complete anything on time.
Communication? What's that? While they may THINK they are speaking English it's not a form anyone in the US can fathom.
But, "we will do the needful"!
I could go on about this for hours, but I doubt anyone here wants to read a novella on the subject.
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So you saw the movie Outsourced? And if you didn't, you should - it was a lovely cross-cultural misunderstandings movie.
+1
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They made a TV show from the movie. I tried watching it. It was reasonably cute and funny, but I only watched a couple of episodes.
To be honest, in light of the current US economic situation, I just don't find the outsourcing of jobs to be a suitable subject for light entertainment. It is too depressing.
Oops - edited "to" to "too". ;D
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They made a TV show from the movie. I tried watching it. It was reasonably cute and funny, but I only watched a couple of episodes.
To be honest, in light of the current US economic situation, I just don't find the outsourcing of jobs to be a suitable subject for light entertainment. It is to depressing.
I agree.
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Sorry, but getting back to my OP - I wasn't suggesting stats need to be updated in real time, although it would be great :)
Once every 12 hours was great already, but it seems it has gone from once every 12 hours to 48 hours until you get stats even once from that day.
All the delays on stats also renders the iPhone istock stats app pretty useless at this point since most of the data that program provides is based on data that is updated regularly. Now the program has very little to show anymore unfortunately. It used to be a very good way of knowing where you stand at a glance. Again, probably not the software creators fault since istock is not feeding the stats data in the same way anymore it seems.
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They made a TV show from the movie. I tried watching it. It was reasonably cute and funny, but I only watched a couple of episodes.
To be honest, in light of the current US economic situation, I just don't find the outsourcing of jobs to be a suitable subject for light entertainment. It is too depressing.
Oops - edited "to" to "too". ;D
I didn't want to look at the sitcom version, but my husband TiVo'd it and suggested it might be better than I thought. It was truly awful. I left after about 15 minutes. Dreadful writing, posing rather than acting, low quality production, none of the charm that the movie had.
If you get a chance to watch the movie, it isn't making light of people losing their jobs at all. The Seattle based guy who's sent to India is training his own replacement and trying to set up the Indian operation. It's more about the individuals involved than the politics of the move to cut costs by moving to lower wage countries.
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If you get a chance to watch the movie, it isn't making light of people losing their jobs at all. The Seattle based guy who's sent to India is training his own replacement and trying to set up the Indian operation. It's more about the individuals involved than the politics of the move to cut costs by moving to lower wage countries.
Netflix agrees with you that I'd like the movie. I may give it a try, if I can ever manage to get the politics of it out of my head.
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When you think about it Lisa, the crowd sourcing model of microstock is very similar politically to the outsourcing of other jobs from the US to the - ahem- 'Third World".
The microstock model brought in the cheap labor of the former Soviet block countries, South America, Asia, etc. etc. to the detriment of traditional US and UK high end photographers.
At any rate the damage is done and there is no going back.
As for outsourcing mfg and IT jobs... if US business does not bring some of the work back home I fear that the government may just step in with protectionist measures to make it happen. Otherwise, our jobless recovery will remain largely that. Jobless.
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Good points, Nosaya, overall. I have thought similar myself about microstock, but on close examination, the parallels to outsourcing don't fully hold up.
The primary difference is that microstock is open to all who can produce the quality required. Yes, there are lots of people from all over the world getting into microstock, including "third world" countries. But unlike outsourcing, that does not mean the jobs disappear from developed countries. We (westerners) are still able to participate and succeed. Judging from the "cost of living" thread, there are quite a lot of us from higher cost of living areas that are doing well in micro.
I agree that if private businesses don't start bringing some jobs back to the US there may be protectionist measures put in place. Not sure why that is something to fear though. Someone needs to do something to stop the US's slide or we will very quickly become part of the third world ourselves...
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I use the term 'fear' because whenever the federal government starts messing around in business affairs, they tend to overdo it, screw it up or make gigantic loopholes for the mega corps that make the biggest campaign contributions.
I spent three years working for the federal government. I have little faith that they can ever do anything right.
I ran as far and fast from government work as I could as soon as I was able.
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...the crowd sourcing model of microstock is very similar politically to the outsourcing of other jobs from the US to the - ahem- 'Third World".
The microstock model brought in the cheap labor of the former Soviet block countries, South America, Asia, etc. etc. to the detriment of traditional US and UK high end photographers.
At any rate the damage is done and there is no going back.
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Welcome to the globalized world and greetings from the "Third World".
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My wife is from a third world country in Asia and I've spent quite a bit of time there.
No disrespect mate, but it is what it is. I don't use PC terms like 'developing nations' because SOME of these places still have 30- 40 years to go before I would consider them developed.
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No disrespect mate, but it is what it is. I don't use PC terms like 'developing nations' because SOME of these places still have 30- 40 years to go before I would consider them developed.
Absolutely. No offense intended here either. I didn't know the term "third world" was not PC. It's hard to keep up. Maybe someone should put out an English to PC dictionary or something so that we can have discussions without unintentionally upsetting anyone... ???
And Nosaya, you may be right, much of my family lives in DC and have served in various gov't posts over the years and they would probably agree with you about the competency (or lack of) in government. Still, I feel like we send them there to work for us and they ought to be doing their job!
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I didn't know saying "third world country" was unPC either. No offense intended here either.
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I didn't know saying "third world country" was unPC either. No offense intended here either.
I didn't either. I tend not to use it myself just because it doesn't seem logical... I mean... if the 'rich West' (not so rich any more...) is supposed to be the 'First World', what's the 'Second World'? Did they just skip that one?
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I didn't know saying "third world country" was unPC either. No offense intended here either.
I didn't either. I tend not to use it myself just because it doesn't seem logical... I mean... if the 'rich West' (not so rich any more...) is supposed to be the 'First World', what's the 'Second World'? Did they just skip that one?
The "First World" is the "Old Europe". The USA is the "Second World" ;)
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I thought the second world was the communist eastern bloc. (with first world being the allied capitalist west and the 3rd world being those that were unallied). 3rd world has come to mean undeveloped though and 2cd world has been dropped.
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I'm still confused... I thought the USA was the 'New World' - or was that Australia?
Eastern Bloc? Crikey... so many worlds to choose from...
I think I'll stick with the term 'poorer countries' and leave it at that (although then there's the question of what truly constitutes 'rich' and 'poor' depending on your value system....)
Argh! ??? :D
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I thought the second world was the communist eastern bloc. (with first world being the allied capitalist west and the 3rd world being those that were unallied). 3rd world has come to mean undeveloped though and 2cd world has been dropped.
Yes, I don't know if the expression 'second world' was ever used, but it was the communist bloc which was implied.
I try not to use the term 'third world', though old habits die hard, but Developing World I thought was OK?
@nosaya: I don't understand the logic of "I don't use PC terms like 'developing nations' because SOME of these places still have 30- 40 years to go before I would consider them developed." - isn't that exactly what's meant by 'developing'?
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3rd world has come to mean undeveloped
That's why I refer to the USA as "second", not "first". Everytime I'm over there I'm really wondering about the infrastructure (like streets etc.) in the "Leading Economy of the World" :o
[ducksforcover...] ;D
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Ah, you were angling for a fight. Didn't realise :D
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@ShadySue, I was attempting to be generous.
I have been to parts of the world where the culture is so backwards and the governments so corrupt that it will probably be several hundred years (if ever) that these areas will catch up.
Hardly what I would call developing.
It is a catch-all phrase that elevates those countries where the people have nothing but dirt to eat to the same status as China which actually IS developing at an amazing rate.
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That's why I refer to the USA as "second", not "first". Everytime I'm over there I'm really wondering about the infrastructure (like streets etc.) in the "Leading Economy of the World" :o
No argument from me. Our crumbling infrastructure, disastrous healthcare system, and flagging education system would suggest you are right.
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I actually heard the term "second world" on the radio this morning - I was listening to the BBC world service (in the US) and they used it in a story about some in Croatia not wanting to join the EU. There's a referendum coming up, I gather. I'm fairly sure they were referring to Croatia and the countries around it as second world.
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Well, well, well! That's synchronicity for you. I've listened to and watched the BBC all my life and never heard that term used.
Thanks Jsnover! :D
BTW, do you have English roots? Something about your phraseology sometimes makes me curious.