MicrostockGroup

Agency Based Discussion => Mostphotos.com => Topic started by: anonymous on February 22, 2008, 00:39

Title: really starting to hate your "ratings" system
Post by: anonymous on February 22, 2008, 00:39
you have a tardo blasting my stuff with "1"'s, blocking any of my feedback, and their pi$$ing in the Wheaties has got me 1 step from pulling my work from your site and saying F it. Your rating system is sooooooooooooooo lame and damages what would otherwise be a good site. Yeah I know, "you have a system that takes care of the abusers" but it really doesn't and it's turning into a train wreck.

Kill the stupid rating system and run a legit micro for god's sake.

Title: Re: really starting to hate your "ratings" system
Post by: a.k.a.-tom on February 22, 2008, 00:44
anonymous.....   what site are you talking about, bro?  8)=tom
Title: Re: really starting to hate your "ratings" system
Post by: Pixart on February 22, 2008, 01:25
MostPhotos.  That site that won't load in Central Canada.
Title: Re: really starting to hate your "ratings" system
Post by: Clivia on February 22, 2008, 03:06
I had an idiot doing the same to me. I commented that one of his pictures was out of focus, and he took real offense. (It was very out of focus!) He worked his way through my portfolio giving everything 1's and 2's. You can go to his profile page, and under 'Options' you can select to block him from rating you images.
Title: Re: really starting to hate your "ratings" system
Post by: ason on February 22, 2008, 03:36
I also hate this ratingsystem, it mad me so mad 5 month ago so I killed my account at MP. Some people got really mad if you try to help with logos, out of focus, bad scannings...
I started to work wih MP again for 1 month ago, I had my first dl yesterday and I dont read the comments or ratings anymore...
/lena
Title: Re: really starting to hate your "ratings" system
Post by: madelaide on February 22, 2008, 17:22
As I said long ago when MP admin was here, the rating system is a source of discontentment, like it is in SP. 

Regards,
Adelaide
Title: Re: really starting to hate your "ratings" system
Post by: Arian on February 27, 2008, 16:34
Ok!
Now I have followed this thread and therefor I decide to break a news that we so far has kept in secret on www.mostphotos.com.

Mostphotos has a more complex and intelligent backbone that is not showing on the outside. I will not go in to the technical details, but for example if you behave bad on the site, voting low on pictures that does not deserve it, it will affect your trustworthiness. So what I want to say is that if you in someway behave badly, the site will notice that and your reliability will automatically go down and next time your word will be less worth.
So in other words by behaving badly you just destroy for your self.

What is MostPhotos index (MPI)?

MPI is used to separate "good" pictures from "bad" pictures. On a ordinary Stock photo site it is the administrators/moderators or similar on the site that approves if a picture can be uploaded or not. On MostPhotos we (the users) has the possibility to impact this.

The MPI is mainly used by the search engine to give the buyers the "best" pictures that matches their search criteria first.


Exactly how the calculation of MPI works is a business secret for MostPhotos, what is known is this:

* The MPI is partly built up around the votes, comments and views your picture has.
* The MPI also looks on the persons that voted, commented and viewed the photo.
* The clicks that a photo gets has a very big impact on the MPI.
* The way buyers act on the site has a large effect on the MPI.


In other words, the ratings is a small piece of the MPI.

 ;)
Title: Re: really starting to hate your "ratings" system
Post by: Pixart on February 27, 2008, 17:11
So what I want to say is that if you in someway behave badly, the site will notice that and your reliability will automatically go down and next time your word will be less worth.
So in other words by behaving badly you just destroy for your self.

How can you possibly know if someone is behaving badly?  I thought MP doesn't rate photos itself?  Does a script determine the bad guys?  And... If someone does gives a bad rating to a bad photo they are not behaving badly.  And isn't the difference between a bad and a good photo personal taste?  Your post here still does not clear much up.

Oh, and by the way, out of all the sites out there - I cannot even visit MostPhotos.  People post photos and I cannot open them (well, I can - but it takes several minutes).  And I'm on a pretty fast connection.   Wonder how many buyers you have lost?
Title: Re: really starting to hate your "ratings" system
Post by: anonymous on February 27, 2008, 17:23

voting low on pictures that does not deserve it, it will affect your trustworthiness. So what I want to say is that if you in someway behave badly, the site will notice that and your reliability will automatically go down and next time your word will be less worth.
So in other words by behaving badly you just destroy for your self.

In other words, the ratings is a small piece of the MPI.

how do you know if a photo "deserves" a bad rating?
what . is "reliability"?
what . does "behaving badly" have to do with selling photos?

c'mon man, stop defending a flawed design. if you guys are in the business to sell photos...then sell photos and don't entertain people's vanity.

I DO like your site (still haven't sold anything but look forward to doing so) but you guys need to get over the "ratings" thing...it REALLY does not add anything to the site inspite of what you think. It is purely a source of vanity and vengance. And by the way, I have retaliated with crap votes on those that did it to me and my rating is climbing nicely...so my "behaving badly" hasn't affected me in the slightest.

run your site like pro's and not cons :P
Title: Re: really starting to hate your "ratings" system
Post by: Arian on February 27, 2008, 17:26
Hello Pixart!

If you vote a 2 on a photo that has an average of 8, then you are abviously doing something that you shouldn't and that is something that the system recognize. Mp-crew is not doing anything manually regarding the the MP-Index.


The issue with the speed is also something that we are aware of. The reason is because our servers are in Sweden and you probobly are somewhere far from us. We are at this moment looking for some investors to invest money to our site, and the first thing we will invest in are in some servers across the world. This will definitely solve the speed problem.

We have been working really hard but as you know it is darn difficult to compete with the major stock agencies since we donīt have the big bucks that they have. But we are working day in and out, concentrating on selling our members photos on our own market, scandinavia.

Title: Re: really starting to hate your "ratings" system
Post by: Arian on February 27, 2008, 17:35
The ratings and comments is just a small piece of the MP-index. The MP-index actually works really nice now and we are constantly tweaking it to become more and more accurate. We have two guys constantly working on the Index right now and they are doing a great job. So please have faith.



I have explained it here in this thread, where we can see an example.
http://www.microstockgroup.com/index.php/topic,3718.0.html

Regards Arian
Title: Re: really starting to hate your "ratings" system
Post by: madelaide on February 27, 2008, 18:35
Oh, and by the way, out of all the sites out there - I cannot even visit MostPhotos.  People post photos and I cannot open them (well, I can - but it takes several minutes).

Funny, MP is not slow at all to me. 

IS however is.  If I click on a thumbail there, it takes 15s for the page to load, and then more 40s to get see main image.  In MP, it takes 10s for the page fully load, and more 10s to upload the full size image if I click on the preview.

Regards,
Adelaide
Title: Re: really starting to hate your "ratings" system
Post by: Pixart on February 27, 2008, 19:41
Hello Pixart!

If you vote a 2 on a photo that has an average of 8, then you are abviously doing something that you shouldn't and that is something that the system recognize. Mp-crew is not doing anything manually regarding the the MP-Index.

Thanks Arian, and I'm not really attacking you here... but take the famous seagul photo for example.  20 of his buddies give it 10 for 10, and I come in and give it a 2 for effort and I am then penalized for telling the truth as I see it?  (because I am obviously doing something I shouldn't). 

Hmm.   In other words, only rate photos if they are 10's?
Title: Re: really starting to hate your "ratings" system
Post by: Stitcherladyxx on February 28, 2008, 01:57
I'm on the fence with MostPhotos.  If it was my only stock site, ok...I can see * around and voting.   But it's not, and I just don't have time, not to mention I have kids and a life going on around me LOL   This is my hobby.  But it is disheartening to go there now and see a good bit of my stuff in the negatives, whether it due to someone giving negative voting or simply my lack of 'voting' affecting my MPI.  I have to wonder what do potential customers see when they see a low or negative number for a rating?  Are they thinking...hmmm... must be something that is better if this is so low?

The stuff I have is staying there for the time being.  But I really wish the 'ratings' would be done away with.  I think arranging by 'most viewed', 'newest', and 'most downloaded' is fine.  But if customers are seeing the low ratings, I can't think it is doing anything wonderful for sales.
Title: Re: really starting to hate your "ratings" system
Post by: Arian on February 28, 2008, 03:57
Hello Pixart!
The case you are describing is not really an issue, and of that we can see proof of in our top lists. If a person with 20 friends rate up a bad photo, that photo will probobly end up in the top list. And when a bad photo will be exposed in the top list there will be thousands of other members that will rate that photo down. The only ones that will loose in this case are those 20 that gave high rates on a photo that ended up with a low average.
And like I said previously the ratings and comments has just a small part in the calculation of the index.


Hello Stitcherladyxx!

Do not worry about those low votes or bad comments. Because buyers wont see those. Only when you are logged in as a photographer you will see the hole community part of Mostphotos.
When you are logged in as a photo-buyer the environment is built to suit their needs. And buyers are not really interested to read comments and ratings, because they often has tight scheduls, they just want to come in, buy a good photo and go.

--
Regards
Arian Bahrami
Title: Re: really starting to hate your "ratings" system
Post by: rosta on February 28, 2008, 16:56
I am repeating myself here, I've grown tired of saying this over at the MP forums.  I do not want my image placements in the match algorithims being influenced by what my "peers" think.  The search placement is influenced by the MPI, the MPI is influenced by the votes received, and even worse..the more voting someone does, be that voting good, bad or indifferent, the higher their profile rating goes and the more weight their vote counts when it comes to my images. therefore all the ratings and comments, although "hidden" from the buyer directly affect whether or not my images will even be seen amid the rest.
No matter how you try to justify it, the rating system is a very poor design and should not figure into the search engines at all.
Title: Re: really starting to hate your "ratings" system
Post by: anonymous on February 28, 2008, 17:54
I am repeating myself here, I've grown tired of saying this over at the MP forums.  I do not want my image placements in the match algorithims being influenced by what my "peers" think.  The search placement is influenced by the MPI, the MPI is influenced by the votes received, and even worse..the more voting someone does, be that voting good, bad or indifferent, the higher their profile rating goes and the more weight their vote counts when it comes to my images. therefore all the ratings and comments, although "hidden" from the buyer directly affect whether or not my images will even be seen amid the rest.
No matter how you try to justify it, the rating system is a very poor design and should not figure into the search engines at all.
amen
Title: Re: really starting to hate your "ratings" system
Post by: madelaide on February 28, 2008, 21:44
Agreed.  Let title, description and keywords do their job.  I can accept that there is a choice for "popularity" or whatever in which ratings prevail, but default search should consider title/description/keywords only.

Regards,
Adelaide
Title: Re: really starting to hate your "ratings" system
Post by: leszek on February 28, 2008, 23:14
Madelaide - this is fine with me. But then - a quality inspection has to be introduced. The buyer does not have a duty to put up with images which may not meet some basic requirements. I am not a big fan of pixel peeping in order to determine whether or not there are "artifacts" present - but I honestly believe that some acceptance criteria must be at work - or the site will vanish very quickly.
Title: Re: really starting to hate your "ratings" system
Post by: jorgeinthewater on February 28, 2008, 23:44
???What I don't understand is why once an image has reached a certain level it continues daily to alter it's number. It's almost like the stock market one day is worth 2.50 next day 2.25. Why can an image just stay at its level or increase only. It's almost a hobby type of environment not a real business atmosphere :P. I'm also getting frustrated by this rating system especially on a site with no sales for me yet. If I wanted a critique of my work I would go back to school or bring it to this site where we tend to understand each other it seems. I mean most members on this forum are very helpful to each other. ;D Of course I'm guilty of playing the numbers game and rating images, but it just takes too much of my time, another dud it seems going like LO for me.
Title: Re: really starting to hate your "ratings" system
Post by: swedstock on February 29, 2008, 01:32
Remember that there is a market out there for different images. Images that is not "microperfect". There a buyers out there who wants to find different images then what they can find on every other micro. My sales so far tells me that. Im selling things there that don't sell well on the micros and it give me a commission that is way higher then all the other newcomers/lowearners (LO, albumo, canstock etc) together. MP is trying something different. If they did it like every other micro did....well....they would be like every other micro.
 I am not that personally attached to my images that I can't handle some negative votes. Different people have different taste, just like buyers.  I don't really see the problem....but apparently thats' just me  ::)
Title: Re: really starting to hate your "ratings" system
Post by: suziecee on February 29, 2008, 06:44
It creates bad feeling, it's unprofessional. You only have to look in some of the sites chat today to see that. The site can still be 'different' but the rating system needs to go.
Title: Re: really starting to hate your "ratings" system
Post by: swedstock on February 29, 2008, 07:20
Without a rating system you would need a physical reviewer to control the images, and then it wouldn't be that much different would it? I like the fact that I can control what I want to sell. It is a nice addition to the other stock sites. I was sceptical at first too, but I will not make any final judgements until I have seen  the system at work for a longer period of time. So far I think it seems to work just fine, and I know they are constantly make improvements in the index system according to how buyers react to pitures and so forth. Arian has explained how complex the system is over and over again, and that votes is only a part of the whole thing, but the only thing some seems to see is some "bad votes".  Does that really matter if you get images sold? To me it doesn't. I don't think it is unprofessional. It is just a new take on the "micro thing". If you don't want others to rate your work, sell elsewhere. Simple as that.  :)
Title: Re: really starting to hate your "ratings" system
Post by: null on February 29, 2008, 07:21
* The clicks that a photo gets has a very big impact on the MPI.
* The way buyers act on the site has a large effect on the MPI.

I just had a look at the most popular shot at MP. So, I added to the viewcount. It's a fantastic shot at thumbs size. I was curious and zoomed in on parts of the sky at 100%, and yap, full of jpg artifacting.

That's why you need knowledgeable reviewers instead of glorified Flickr junks. A buyer at 50Euro is entitled to top quality, not to jpg and banding artifacts that obviously came out of the cam or by saving under 8 in Photoshop.
Title: Re: really starting to hate your "ratings" system
Post by: null on February 29, 2008, 07:31
Without a rating system you would need a physical reviewer to control the images, and then it wouldn't be that much different would it?
Yes it would. Reviewers are trained and experienced to spot technical deficiencies, pixelation, noise, hazing, banding, jpg artifacts, isolation quality. At 50Euro, buyers are entitled to top quality.
I like the fact that I can control what I want to sell.
That can be done with reviewers too. A site like that exists already, and it's called FeaturePics. MostPhotos was second.
If you don't want others to rate your work, sell elsewhere. Simple as that.  :)
MP could cancel the rating system and become a real quality Midstock site. People on this forum are probably more knowledgeable on stock than the average MP voter. They just try to help. It's as simple as that ;-)
Title: Re: really starting to hate your "ratings" system
Post by: suziecee on February 29, 2008, 08:04
moori, I think it's fair to say that the people here like the site and would like to help make it successful, it's in all of our interests! I assume that MP want us to contribute - the site is advertising here. The rating system isn't working and it is annoying a lot of people. There are now many pornographic or near pornographic images appearing because they are not checked. How many female buyers are going to take offence with that? Sorry but I don't have the time to report each of these!
Title: Re: really starting to hate your "ratings" system
Post by: swedstock on February 29, 2008, 10:42
moori, I think it's fair to say that the people here like the site and would like to help make it successful, it's in all of our interests! I assume that MP want us to contribute - the site is advertising here. The rating system isn't working and it is annoying a lot of people. There are now many pornographic or near pornographic images appearing because they are not checked. How many female buyers are going to take offence with that? Sorry but I don't have the time to report each of these!

Of course they want you to contribute! Im not a spokesperson for MP in any way, I'm just talking out of my own ass :)

I couldn't agree more what you are saying about the near "pornographic images"! I read in the recent newsletter from MP that they are working on some kind of adult filter which will be released soon. I hope it will work well because some of these images will surely scare away some female (and male) buyers. They have also put in "Pornographic or any offensive photos may not be uploaded on Mostphotos" in the upload agreement. That was not there before (I think).

FlemishDreams : I contribute to Featurepics too and I do like that site. The upload is smooth and painless. It doesn't seem to generate a lot of sales though. (or maybe its just my work) One difference between these are that featurepics doesn't do any marketing. You are supposed to do that yourself if I understand it correctly?? MP is at least doing a lot of marketing in its primary market Scandinavia and will hopefully do more in the future. And btw the RF price at MP is 25 EUR, not 50  ;)
Title: Re: really starting to hate your "ratings" system
Post by: Clivia on February 29, 2008, 13:32
The rating system has a basic flaw. The greatest picture in stock can be uploaded at a time when lots of people are uploading at once. It is pushed very quickly five or six pages back in the lastest uploads search, and so gets no ratings. It will appear to someone in the unrated pictures search, get a single rating, and disappear from view.
In the meantime, an average picture that was uploaded when no-one else was uploading, stays on the lastest images first page for ages, and gets loads of ratings. It rises in the searches, and  stays near the top.
The pictures that rose to the top early on in the life of the site, appear in the Toprated search, and continue to get more and more ratings, keeping out some very good pictures. and making the site appear almost static.
I asked in their forum for another search option to appear under the menu, but it has not happened yet. Maybe soon?
We are continually told that the ratings are only a small part of the criteria taken into account in the buyer search. When the site reaches a million pictures or more, a tiny shift can have a drastic effect in placement, and so become very important. When a site reaches a million or more pictures, a shift of only 0.25% can mean being pages back in the search results, and an image never selling.
Title: Re: really starting to hate your "ratings" system
Post by: null on February 29, 2008, 14:42
When the site reaches a million pictures or more, a tiny shift can have a drastic effect in placement, and so become very important. When a site reaches a million or more pictures, a shift of only 0.25% can mean being pages back in the search results, and an image never selling.

Yap, my analysis too. It's the battle for page 1 and I wrote an article (http://flemishdreams.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=19&Itemid=62) about it. Once your down the drains, no way to come out. It's a bit like the Flickr approach: upload daily but just 5 shots, so you will fly high in the radar beam. It's the basic flaw of political sites were network-rating drives popularity. I saw some tecnically bad shots on top of MP, and once buyers find out that MP has no real QC, they will hesitate to lose 25 Euro.
Title: Re: really starting to hate your "ratings" system
Post by: madelaide on February 29, 2008, 17:19
Remember that there is a market out there for different images. Images that is not "microperfect". There a buyers out there who wants to find different images then what they can find on every other micro.
I agree with that, and a site doesn't need to be so picky as some microstock ones are, and that there's room for not-so-perfect images.  Relying on peer review could be a good thing, but as it happens in SP, there is abuse.  What could exist to minimize site inspection was a sort of "thumbs down" button. Once you see a bad image, you click on this button and site management will check it, and eventually delete it.

But peer rating should not be used for searches, at least not as a default.

Regards,
Adelaide
Title: Re: really starting to hate your "ratings" system
Post by: leszek on March 01, 2008, 07:47
With all due respect to "perfect images" - but images are not being used at 100% magnification. Sure, a decent level of quality is a must, but a lot of images rejected due to "artifacts" print perfectly OK at 12"x8" size. There is a lot more to an image than pixel peeping and looking for "jaggies" at 100%. Particularly, when in a lot of cases "jaggies" and "artifacts" are just part and parcel of digital imaging - this is to say that they are not what they are called, but just normal effects due to the fact that the image is built from individual pixels. OK, I am awaiting flaming now  ;D
Title: Re: really starting to hate your "ratings" system
Post by: Clivia on March 01, 2008, 08:34
Its not the artifacts that concern me as much as the large number of images that are just not in focus, or lack any attempt at composition. The top rated images are nearly all 'pretty' thumbnails, but not a lot of use to a designer.
Title: Re: really starting to hate your "ratings" system
Post by: null on March 01, 2008, 10:00
With all due respect to "perfect images" - but images are not being used at 100% magnification.

1. Some are, for instance for posters or large calendars. I had an EL end last year on DT of a nature shot, and in the nex hour, the buyer (?I guess?) came back for more EL's of other nature shots, all full-size. I bet that wasn't for a 300px blog. With a price of 25Euro, customers pay in fact for an EL and when they find out that MP is a noise factory, they will go elsewhere.

2. Designers sometimes like to crop a detail, for instance with people shots or for banners.

3. Good isolations are essential for a designer's workflow. There are many sloppy isolations around, even on established sites. I once bought an "isolated" image from LO and when I wanted to make a composite with it, I found out the shot was full of non-255/255/255 in the "white" area. I had to do it all over. I made a naughty comment about on that image on LO, but what the heck... the comment is gone. I wouldn't dare to comment on any MP image since I don't want to be flooded with 1's.

4. Looking at some MP top images that show great on thumb but bad at 100%, I can just wonder why those people don't use their gear properly, and amongst that gear is PhotoShop. Most of those flaws are very avoidable.

5. It's your (?) site of course and your(?) choice. I just hope that your(?) customers won"t find out they can find perfect shots elsewhere for 5$ instead of unwarranted shots for 25Euro. Sometimes ignorance is a bliss (for the photographer).

6. I have some slightly out-of-focus images too, and even noisy. For noise there is a bag of tricks in Photoshop and I don't mean the overall NR that makes the image plastic. In that case, I just do all the patching at 10MP, then resize to 4MP (when it looks perfect), and upload the 4MP version.

7. Dedicated photogs don't have time to comment in a Flickerish way. We all started like that probably but found out it's a gigantic waste of time. Better invest that time in enhancing your skills. If I want to hang out socially, I go to a disco or to a dinner with friends ;-)
Title: Re: really starting to hate your "ratings" system
Post by: ChasingMoments on March 01, 2008, 13:19
I agree with somebody's suggestion (Adelaide's?) to offer a flagging system/button to pick out really bad pictures and incorrect ratings that clearly try to abuse and play the system.

You can do it the way they do reviews in tennis: say each photog gets five "flags" to flag any pictures they don't like or think should be re-reviewed with a brief explanation (one picture one flag0 - then reviewers will check those flagged images, and then, if they agree that there is a problem - the number of "flags" will remain at five, if they disagree - the number of flags will go down to four (per each "incorrect" flag). Over time, you can even start rewarding "correct" flaggers by giving them more (in a graduated manner) flags. This way you'll have a peer-reviewed site, you won't have to hire reviewers to review ALL images, your members will help you figure out which ones need review, you will have a site with some quality control and with a possibility to filter out abuse of the system.  These flags may be for pointing out really bad or inappropriate photos, and / or mismatches bw photos and ratings.  And the system will teach flaggers to figure out "real" problems and not to abuse  the system...

Here's a recent example that I believe (and i have nothing against a photog, but I don't believe that stuff should be on MP and somebody gave it a rating of 10 for both "stock" and artistic ratings... HUH?) is a good example of what could be flagged:

http://www.mostphotos.com/view.php?imgid=150035&offset=31&thumbnailsize=large&displayinformation=standard&reflections=on&imagetype=all&orderby=imgdate&periodlimit=-1&category=all&usage=all&shape=all&querytype=latest&search=1
Title: Re: really starting to hate your "ratings" system
Post by: fotoxalia on March 01, 2008, 13:31
i ask my self sometimes why spend my valuable time to write comments for the same agencies which don't generate any or not good money for me...
So i make up my mind. i prefer to invest my time to shoot for agencies which returns money for my images.
Maybe all of us have to ask ourselves that question.

PS: of course this is out of question for those trying to promote these agencies and some times pretend they are contributors...
Title: Re: really starting to hate your "ratings" system
Post by: MikLav on March 01, 2008, 13:33
I am new at MS but my first impression about rating system is also quite negative. Most pictures just stay un-noticed i.e. without any marks; and I have no doubts that any perfect picture will not stay long on top (if it ever get there) because it will receive a lot of not-perfect rating.

Flagging system by peers - with final decision made by MS staff members sounds to me as much better idea.

P.S. No inspection at all means so much crap images submitted :( I have serious doubts whether it will work successfully in a long term
Title: Re: really starting to hate your "ratings" system
Post by: gbcimages on March 01, 2008, 13:43
I'm not impressed with MP even though I have photos on the site. I'll leave them there for awhile
Title: Re: really starting to hate your "ratings" system
Post by: ChasingMoments on March 01, 2008, 13:45
i ask my self sometimes why spend my valuable time to write comments for the same agencies which don't generate any or not good money for me...
So i make up my mind. i prefer to invest my time to shoot for agencies which returns money for my images.
Maybe all of us have to ask ourselves that question.


in general, i agree, i never rate and only very rarely leave comments, no time. i only upload and that's it, and that's what i'd prefer to do. BUT, occasionally i'll look at the "latest" page, or browse through the collection to see what images there are from the same series as mine... whatever the reason - from time to time, even raaaarely we all do it.. and in those cases, when i see a bad or poorly rated image, i'd prefer to have a flagging option, and i will only "cost" me five-ten seconds to type a brief sentence about the problem. i like the flagging system on dt, i've only used it may be one time - when i was browsing for a certain keyword and saw an image that had absolutely nothing to do with my keyword - it cost me half a second to "flag" it and move on with my life. and i believe that whereas it's our job to shoot, it's also our responsibility to - if we have half a second - press the 'flag' button if we know it'll help our stock-site-agents to sell our work.... mew.
Title: Re: really starting to hate your "ratings" system
Post by: madelaide on March 01, 2008, 21:15
With a price of 25Euro, customers pay in fact for an EL and when they find out that MP is a noise factory, they will go elsewhere.

One positive aspect in MP for the buyer is the 100% zoom.  They can easily scan the whole image.  Were I a buyer, I would use that (SP also has a similar tool), especially for one of those special applications you've mentioned.

I think what really hurts a site are images with very obvious quality issues - lighting, color balance, composition.  I don't browse MP but I know what I see in SP - some people don't even bother rotating vertical images to the right position!  I would easily delete 5-10% of what's submitted there just by the thumbnails. 

Another common mistake that happens in SP and may occur in MP is image uprezzing - and I'm talking about making a 6MPix image out of a 2MPix one...  Even at smaller ratios, if the original is not really sharp the resulting image is so poor. Yet people think this is a good thing because people can print larger.

Regards,
Adelaide
Title: Re: really starting to hate your "ratings" system
Post by: anonymous on March 02, 2008, 14:40

One positive aspect in MP for the buyer is the 100% zoom.  They can easily scan the whole image. 


The "Zoom" feature stopped working for me about 6 weeks ago. Nothing on MY end changed... (sigh).