Quote from: lagereek on April 03, 2011, 11:11

Lobo, the poor guy has just shut down a slider thread, saying its just turning into another best match complaints thread. Well what . did they expect???
breakfast in bed?

Nonono,
He has ordered you to 'have a nice Sunday', though how he's expecting that with the best match the way it is beats me.

Yeah, urging patience until early next week when we can't even get a photo in the results?!?! He needs to wake up. There's really no excuse for this.

Quote from: BaldricksTrousers on March 28, 2011, 10:36

Maybe a deep discount but more likely its a 2003 or 2004 50c credit.

But if it is a 50c credit, then my 17% commission should pay 8.5c. But the iStock rounding down reduces 8.5c to 8c, which is a further commission cut of 5.9%.

It's amazing how they grab 5% or 10% or 15% more to top up their commission share, as it's vital for their "sustainability", then casually slash an extra 5.9% off my commission in what appears to be violation of the terms they imposed on us, because it's merely "rounding" the money and 6% therefore is of no consequence.

Wow, that's disturbing but what I find even more disturbing is that you haven't packed your bags and left.  Really is 8.5c a whole lot better than 8c?  They have insulted you and many others time and time again with these degrading commissions yet a lot refuse to leave?  Why? What exactly are you all waiting for?  At what point will enough be enough for you?  Do they need to actually give your images away for free before you decide it's not worth selling through these arseholes?  

These companies rip you off because you allow them to.  They're going to keep squeezing you until you've bled dry because they know you're a bunch of suckers.  I'm not trying to be rude but you can't argue here that you're not when you complain about 8c commissions and still stay.  And what's worse about people staying is that it brings down commissions in the entire industry over time.  8c!!!  Give them the flick already, Jesus!

That makes me so mad, but not just with them, with you and your tolerance for it!

Wow. I wish you'd harness some of that passion and start up a company that pays us better. I dropped the crown 1 Feb, and I'm still trying to get things online elsewhere. This is not my only job, and I'm going as fast as I can. Believe me, there's nothing at all I'd like better than to have better alternatives . . . but in the meantime, I still have bills to pay and iStock isn't making me a lot, but I can't turn it down just this second.

I'll be the first to admit: when they started all their baloney with the PP so long ago, I fought hard against that because I thought there was a battle to be won by the contributors. I never dreamed that the canister thing, the RC thing, the Agency thing and now the fraud would follow within two years and bring the site so far down. In 2007, I was able to pay my house payment with my monthly earnings (on less than 300 images). I foresaw dilution and increased competition, but I never in a million years saw it coming to this. And it's * hard to get everything placed with other agencies.

I had about 10 downloads today most of which were 16 cents to 25 cents.  What ever happened to 2-3 buck dl's? Geeze.

That was my question . . . I used to get mostly medium sales, some large, some small and xs. I bet I might have gotten a handful of large downloads in the last month. It seems almost everything is small and smaller.  With prices as they are though, I guess I can't blame the buyers :/

Ugh. I'm having a hell of a time adjusting to my new fancy 23 cent royalties for XS You know it's bad when you can't tell by looking at the balance if you've had sales or not.

And yes, that * partner program. I'm thoroughly against it, always have been, but man, would I love to make more than a buck or two a day again  

Yeah, I tried to look up something on the forums that i remembered reading a long while ago . . . anyway, spent about an hour re-reading old (fun, happy) threads from 2006 & 2007. Made me smile to read them . . . then made me sad at how far gone they are.

The question is: does that change things for us for the better or for the worse (or for no change at all)?

The search is randomly throwing up nil results. (i.e. sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.
E.g. I searched on 'duck' and changed best match to Age.
No results "Tell us more".
Started again, duck, best match.
Clicked on photos, no results, "Tell us more".
This doesn't always happen. It was happening apparently randomly last night and that one gain this morning.
I think I've read somewhere that a random problem is more worrying (harder to nail down and fix) than a replicable problem.
Maybe there's a random 'piss off the customers' feature thrown in to the algorithm.

Well, the random "piss off the customer" feature should be very easy. We've had 2 years of beta testing on continual "piss off the contributor" feature

http://www.istockphoto.com/forum_messages.php?threadid=314342&messageid=6107482

JJ's message. I'm sorry, but didn't it basically just say, "Trust me" I really don't see anything different.

http://www.istockphoto.com/forum_messages.php?threadid=314342&messageid=6107312

JJ is writing and promises to post about the search issue. I am (literally) holding my breath. I so look forward to his posts

Quote from: ffNixx on March 16, 2011, 15:52

Now we need a campaign to get jsnover in on that call, get them to admit how the voting went!

While I completely agree I would have liked to see her on that call, I think it is a waste of time to campaign for her.  Our time would be better spent organizing an audit.  The whole phone call thing is an intentional distraction.

I think that's absolutely right. Because now there are apparently more than 5, according to Andrew? Typical istock, just make the crap up as they go along.

LeggNet is in.

Quote from: OhGoAway! on March 14, 2011, 12:43

Quote from: caspixel on March 14, 2011, 12:35

Too funny that rogermexico is now talking about more contributor panels. The talk of class action lawsuits and audits in particular must have them running scared. Clearly they have something to hide. If I were a contributor I would not be mollified by these empty attempts to placate. They have the forums for to communicate with contributors, why do they suddenly need contributor panels? This just means more and more critics are going to have to sign NDAs. And how is anyone even going to know what they are being told is the truth.

You guys need to go for the jugular and follow through on the threats to get any real action. I bet an audit would show some really interesting things...

The audit is what I really want.  If they want to have panels, then fine -- I think those are helpful, especially with regard to site functionality. Ideally, the panels would be composed of buyers and contributors (a unique and unheard of concept, I'm sure .  But as far as the fraud, yeah . . . I'm interested in getting Sean's et al impression of the plans, but what about the money problems of the last 6 months? We need an independent audit, just so we have a good place to start over again.

But according to iStock, they already do extensive research with regards to site functionality and other features, right? According to them, in the whole course of implementing the new F5 designers, users, and contributors (?) were consulted on the new design and asked to test the new features. Or was that a lie too?

well, it was either an outright lie or their "research" isn't worth squat. The site absolutely sucks. I don't know anyone who wouldn't have had problems.

What I really really don't want to see is a figurehead "panel" that has no real input, or the input they give is wholly disregarded. Otherwise, it's just busywork.  And I don't know anyone who needs more to do just to waste time.

Couldnt care one iota. Just want the site to get back to normal again without hickups and bugs. Oh yes, Im going to as Ingemar Kamprad, the owner of IKEA if he wants to buy IS, everything would be working in five minutes flat and he only lives a few kilometers from me.

Site would look a lot nicer too   Ask him