MicrostockGroup

Agency Based Discussion => Pond5 => Topic started by: Cricket on January 30, 2013, 14:04

Title: Pond Website Changes -- Grrrrrr!
Post by: Cricket on January 30, 2013, 14:04
Hi Everyone,

What do all you think of the website changes at Pond?  I really don't like them!  It seems like they are making it more difficult for people to submit their work:

The things that annoy me when uploading pictures at Pond are:

1. Camera Model/Software Used is a required field. 
2. Date Created is a required field.

Anyone else find these to be a royal pain in the butt?

Also... does anyone have trouble with Pond reading the IPTC info of your photos?  For some reason Pond reads the keywords and descriptions just fine.. but it doesn't read the titles. This problem was in the old version too.

Cricket
Title: Re: Pond Website Changes -- Grrrrrr!
Post by: Poncke on January 30, 2013, 14:39
Old or new, I find their site a pain. I cant get any model releases attached in batches, not can I batch edit some fields that I want to change. So no go unless they get their act together.
Title: Re: Pond Website Changes -- Grrrrrr!
Post by: JohnItalia on January 30, 2013, 15:11
Old or new, I find their site a pain. I cant get any model releases attached in batches, not can I batch edit some fields that I want to change. So no go unless they get their act together.

Trying to get a model release attached period, is enough for anyone to look elsewhere to upload photos.
Title: Re: Pond Website Changes -- Grrrrrr!
Post by: enstoker on January 30, 2013, 16:19
Worst upload system.
Too long rewiev times.
No answer on tickets.
No photo sales.
Bljaak agency.
Title: Re: Pond Website Changes -- Grrrrrr!
Post by: fotoVoyager on January 30, 2013, 16:31
Here's a positive review posted today by Lee Torrens:

http://www.microstockdiaries.com/pond5.html (http://www.microstockdiaries.com/pond5.html)
Title: Re: Pond Website Changes -- Grrrrrr!
Post by: Cricket on January 30, 2013, 16:41
fotoVoyager,

I have always liked Pond myself, I have had a few sales there... but I don't like the website changes as it makes it harder to submit photos. It's like you have to jump through too many unnecessary hoops to submit an image.

IMHO, camera and software used should not be a required field that you have to complete for submitting each and every image.  Ditto for creation date.  The only time a creation date is valuable is if it is an editorial photo-- particularly a photo journalistic shot... where it might be good to know when the photo was created.

Cricket


Title: Re: Pond Website Changes -- Grrrrrr!
Post by: sharpshot on January 30, 2013, 18:14
The date is usually filled in automatically with my photos now.  If it isn't, they only need the year and if I can't remember, I guess it.  The camera is also there a lot of the time and if it's not, I just type "Canon" once and now all I have to do is press C and click on the word Canon.

It's a bit clunky compared to other sites but how many accept everything, let you choose prices, pay a 50% commission and have some buyers?  We can't have it all.
Title: Re: Pond Website Changes -- Grrrrrr!
Post by: stockastic on January 30, 2013, 18:31
I have no interest in any new site that doesn't just read my IPTC data and accept it pretty much as-is.
Title: Re: Pond Website Changes -- Grrrrrr!
Post by: Poncke on January 30, 2013, 18:33
I was trying out this POD site in Germany, called Artflakes, when I uploaded my images all fields were empty. I had to fill it out myself. I emailed them if they read IPTC and if not, would they have plans for the future. Answer was no and no, I deleted my account.
Title: Re: Pond Website Changes -- Grrrrrr!
Post by: cascoly on January 30, 2013, 19:43
The date is usually filled in automatically with my photos now.  If it isn't, they only need the year and if I can't remember, I guess it.  The camera is also there a lot of the time and if it's not, I just type "Canon" once and now all I have to do is press C and click on the word Canon.

It's a bit clunky compared to other sites but how many accept everything, let you choose prices, pay a 50% commission and have some buyers?  We can't have it all.

i dont like the new camera requirement, but for footage i'll just have it as part of my templates

i havent made a recent upload of images, so dont know how that will affect me - otherwise they're one of the easiest systems to upl to -- ftp your images, set a price for all in the batch,  and submit

1-3 day review & almost total acceptance.  no silly categories to bother with. 

the staff are friendly and helpful

over last 6 months, they've been my 2-4th best performer

Title: Re: Pond Website Changes -- Grrrrrr!
Post by: cascoly on January 30, 2013, 19:49



Also... does anyone have trouble with Pond reading the IPTC info of your photos?  For some reason Pond reads the keywords and descriptions just fine.. but it doesn't read the titles. This problem was in the old version too.

Cricket

 
as far as the iptc -- sites vary in what they read - when i changed editors, for about 6 months, i had several sites that couldnt read my title info - using exiftoolGUI i now add title info in iptc and xmp and havent had a problem since.  so it may depend on which fields your meta-editor is using for 'title'

the 4 possible title fields are
iptc: objectname or headline
xmp: title or headline

some agencies do not use the iptc objectname as the title
Title: Re: Pond Website Changes -- Grrrrrr!
Post by: ruchos on January 30, 2013, 22:20
All IPTC info, including date and camera model always come up automatically on Pond5 when I upload. Makes it really easy to upload.
Title: Re: Pond Website Changes -- Grrrrrr!
Post by: Jo Ann Snover on January 31, 2013, 12:57
I just uploaded 25 files as a test - I never used the old site, so I can't compare, but I have used a ton of stock web sites and I think Pond5's interface is just awful.

It's very, very hard to find things - and you often have that sensation that you saw what you wanted somewhere but can't remember how to get back to that screen. Attaching model releases is not intuitive and there is no feedback after you complete that step of how many releases (or their names) you attached when you look at the list of images. I filled out their survey - even though it's mainly asking about old versus new - saying that compared to competing sites, their upload and contributor process is not good.

It did read my camera data, copyright and creation date from the EXIF, but for composites or other items, I don't want to waste time telling them what software I used (not even sure it's any concern of theirs anyway). I just put PS in for one composite that didn't have camera data.

Even when I thought the files had all the necessary information, the "Needs Edit" button still showed. So I just did a bulk "Send to Curator" anyway and they become pending. No feedback in the interface I could see what it was that needed editing (all the required fields were filled in).

We'll see how this test goes, but compare Pond5 uploading to GL Stock or even PhotoDune, let alone Shutterstock, and it's pretty poor.
Title: Re: Pond Website Changes -- Grrrrrr!
Post by: rimglow on February 01, 2013, 11:56
I tried uploading several photos from the web uploader. All said they uploaded, but only one showed up in the "needs edit" window. I edited it, and it is now pending. But, now when I upload photos, the window says "uploaded", but when I go to check my uploads, the only image that shows up is the pending photo even though the "status" indicator is set to "all".

What am I doing wrong?