Guys, I am not sure if this has been mentioned in the 10 previous pages, but deleted x0,000 images from istock is completely useless if you only delete them. The news will not get to the decision makers at Getty or Carlyle.

This need to be followed by a PRESS RELEASE in newspapers if you want it to get noticed....

Did you see this post
http://www.microstockgroup.com/17961/17961/msg291246/#msg291246

I like the idea but I would almost like to see it more like a rating that constantly changes as the agencies come up with "ideas". I'm not sure an annual rating is current enough. If it worked like the poll on the left but you could change your vote at any given time and was for contributor satisfaction issues like - review, service, upload, overall satisfaction etc. I would find that information very interesting and I think the agencies would be very keen on keeping a good rating in some of these categories.

There used to be monthly voting for upload speed, reviews, general likability of a site etc. but only a handful of people (under 10) voted each month so I removed it.  The advantage of a yearly 'award' vote would be that it would attract more voters and be a bigger deal than a monthly continual 'rank'

Hello Everyone,

Thanks for your detailed feedback...it has been very helpful.

We've been looking into this and we found an issue that started a few days ago with a normal refresh of our search records. The effect of the issue is that some older popular images are ranking higher than they should be. This was an issue with the normal refresh and not a change made to our search algorithms. The team has already identified and implemented a solution.  Only a portion of the collection was affected and you should see the impact of the solution as early as today, though it may take a few days for everything to be 100% back to normal.

Thanks again for your help and patience as we resolve this.

Best Regards,

Scott
VP Content
Shutterstock

Thanks for the update Scott.  It's great to hear the facts.

First you have to install greasemonkey as a firefox
plug in
Then you click Sean's link and it will automatically install the script within greasemonkey.

Then, when you visit the iStock portfolio page, you'll have an extra collum that gives you the option to deactivate an image.  I just saves clicking into each image individually and lets you do 20 deactivations on a single page.

Quote from: leaf on January 14, 2013, 17:45

So far, the facts are that Getty decided to give away my image for free on Google and stated they have more plans to do so.  My reaction to these facts are that I'm going to deactivate my images.
I'll for sure do 1000 on feb 2.  Not sure I feel like clicking that many boxes for too many hours but I'll commit to 1000.  I may get addicted and do more though

Leaf - I have heard that Sean Locke added a 'deactivate' button to his Greasemonkey script that helps with that sort of thing.  I have absolutely no idea what a 'greasemonkey' or a 'script' are, but I have heard tell it is a nifty thing for those in the know and saves a lot of bother...

Yeah, I've been using it already.   Thanks.  Here's the link for others
http://www.istockphoto.com/forum_messages.php?threadid=350491&messageid=6818805#post6818805

edit: fixed the quotes

This is the type of story that the consumerist might be interested in.

This is exactly how Blend images got started.  A group of photographers (20 I believe) were really tired of the crappy deals they were getting (I think it was Getty again who inspired it) and started their own agency.  If Jonathan Ross is reading, he can fill you in on the details.. he was one of the founders.

I had a few minutes to kill so I killed another 20 images

running total: 512

I'll try to resist doing more until Feb.2

make sure you update the total when you make a post that you have deactivated some files.

--
Running Overall Total 280

100 more files deactivated from my port.

-edit: and just to be transparent here, I'm deactivating my poor sellers first.  I'm willing to give iStock a chance to explain themselves and try to change my mind.  So, they can do so while I chop off the bottom of my portfolio.  I'll keep moving up to the top while I wait for their answer and delete the entire port if they don't come up with something persuading in time.  I am not interested in having my images given away for free and iStock said themselves that there are more 'deals' to come.

Google is an important partner for us and we have many innovative licensing arrangements with them in place and in negotiations. Our goal is to continue to expand and improve this partnership over time

http://www.istockphoto.com/forum_messages.php?threadid=350491&messageid=6817897

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Total = 108

I thought we could keep a little list of how many images we have collectively deactivated on iStock photo. 

When you deactivate some files, add to the tally here.

I just did my first one.
------------
Total 1

Quote from: leaf on January 13, 2013, 17:34

Quote from: jm on January 13, 2013, 17:31

I didn't know until now that it is possible to reactivate images on iS again. So it's not difficult choice for me. I'll wait two or three days for new batch of spin doctors' fairytales and if nothing significant happens - then I'll deactivate images.

I didn't know that either.  I think I'll be deactivating my port very very soon.  Perhaps tomorrow I create a script to automatically deactivate my port so I don't have to do it manually one image at a time.

Sean already created some script. But it seems that I can't make it work.
http://www.istockphoto.com/forum_messages.php?threadid=350491&messageid=6818805   

Thanks, I hadn't seen that.  He's always one step ahead!

As a sort of middle ground aggressive retaliation we could all remove 10 images a day til our portfolio's were depleted.  That might send iStock (and other agencies) a message.  It would start a move in the right direction, show iStock we are serious while at the same time give iStock a time to come up with something better.