And if we didn't, we were LOBOtomised.

lol, glad to see my ban at least bared some fruit.
next time i'm making the tshirt as well..

If you are still banned after a few months i would not hesitate and call head office to kindly ask if they can look into it.
Chances are they have forgotten about your ban altogether and emailing support can take a long while as we have noticed.
Cheers peeps, Kurt

I noticed the same, very silly to receive a rejection for a keyword, really.
I can understand how they feel if people use wrong keywords. However sometimes it is quite obvious a wrong keyword was chosen and we should be made aware of it for the future.
But rejecting a few images because of one poor keyw is silly.
Maybe they should optimize this like they did with releases, instead of a rejection just mark it as "needs keyword review" and once you corrected it it is accepted.

I've asked that very question many times. Sometimes the forums seems to do more harm than good for them. And it's pretty obvious lately that they have little regard for the concerns of the contributors. So why bother?

I may seem an idealist to you or an anoying person at the very least but i firmly believe if more people put in the effort of not letting others walk over them we wouldn't be having this problem altogether.
It's called fighting a good cause or standing up for yourself or not being lazy nor scared.
I may fail miserably and suffer the consequences but i will have cracked the wall (and my head ) making it easier for the next guy to open it up.
I can't stand things like this, never have and never will.

Hey peeps, been away for the weekend and I'm glad to see many more people joining in.

I feel i have to clarify a few things:
Firstly, i was not banned by iStock, i was banned by Lobo who seems to own the right to do whatever he wants without having to check back with a superior.
Secondly he (most likely) banned me because i mentioned he was deleting posts in the thread, something he hates because he probably feels exposed (a feeling shared by many people who are doing dubious things..). And because i dared to respond (politely) to his (intimidating) sitemail saying "In future posts i will choose my words more carefully. While i do that you might want to check into http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_of_speech..." basically asking for a ban but at the same time letting him know he has his priorities all wrong and i wont stand for it.

So the point of iStockphoto being a business with their own site and forum in which they rule and decide what can or cannot be said is clear and fully legal. I couldn't agree more and i have no issues or problems with iStock other than the ones they admitted to and have promised to fix in the near future.
My protest is focused solely on the personal attacks, below the belt actions and bullying of fellow contributors and myself by Lobo which is harming our workflow and is keeping us from the support we should be enjoying through the forums and sitemail.

Why the sitemail ban ?I think that in the light of things this is quite obvious.
When you try to shut a person down you need to make sure he/she cannot contact anyone who might not agree with this kind of intimidation. Be it iStock staff, important contributors and personal iStock friends whom might try to stop this from going on.
So that's why he locks your mailbox as well eventhough you could be contacted by a friend or client who needs something urgently.

In my view of things, Lobo is a moderator who, over the years, acquired some form of right to act on his own, to punish and spank whoever he feels like in the light of keeping the peace on the forums. A hard task that seems endless and without reward (new contributors who have to be whipped every day..) which can turn any forum-hero into an evil professor trying to wipe out those pesky little know-it-all forum-addicts.  A bit like Batman getting tired of saving Gotham over and over again...
Heck i can imagine what it's like and i would not be able to cope with it as well as he does, I'd be Darth Vader in a second...
But.. that's why I'm not an istock moderator and that's also why i want to blow this wide open.

I am still banned form the forums and sitemail and i do realize my protest won't be favorable for him to lift any bans, on the contrary.
He is probably following this (hi Lobo) and not quite happy the way this is going.
So i do apologize if this might grow into real consequences for him as a moderator but i think it is for the best.
iStock is growing into a big corporation with thousands of people depending on it and investing in it.
A business of this stature should not have problems like this, ever.
I fear if Lobo persists like this, things might become quite unsustainable for him.

Again many thanks for the reading (sorry about the longwindedness ) and please share your views and experiences.
Cheers, Kurt

Quote from: Noctiluxx on February 05, 2011, 10:44

Hi Caspixel,
Wow, banned for months, that sounds really harsh.
I wonder what did you say that was worth that kind of ban
Did you call "a certain person's" cat names ? That would explain a lot.

All I did was make some jokes (which people liked and thanked me for the comic relief at a time when everyone was so stressed out) and commiserated with the contributors. But it was a long-standing grudge that Lobo had against me. He told me as much via sitemail right before the banning.

Yes unfortunately some people do not get or even appreciate the concept of humor. A concept that can make life a lot easier.
This kind of personal grudge, intimidation and downright bullying people is the exact reason of my protest.
It is not becoming for an agency of this level (or any agency at that) and it should not be tolerated.
Thank you for sharing that Caspixel.

Hey everyone,

Thank you for all the responses.
I am shocked how many of you are getting banned as well for not doing anything wrong.
Lobo seems to be riding his oversized gerbil through the masses whipping everyone into submission which is an odd sight in these modern times of democratic diplomacy and common sense.

I am still banned from both the forums and sitemail which has been longer than 48 hours (what i believe to be the going rate..) and i feel this is overdoing it a tad bit since i didn't even post anything offensive, abusive or even damaging to iStock.
In my opinion Lobo's personal vendetta's and frustrations should not interfere with normal iStock operation and currently he is denying me access to client questions via sitemail and the forums i need for criticism, help and support.

I can only suggest that we notify as much people as possible who could have any interest whatsoever in this matter so they can read what is going on and maybe even comment or vent their own experiences.
I think it is quite important that this kind of behavior is addressed by iStock management so only people who are offensive and repeatedly break the rules are being dealt with accordingly and consequently.
As said before, banning people who aren't happy will make them less happy and is not solving any of the issues at hand.

In any case i wish you all an awesome weekend with maybe even some good stock sales
Kurt

Quote from: Risamay on February 03, 2011, 19:28

So I'm now banned, by special request.

Hey, look: the Club of the Banned is so cool, people are asking to join.
Welcome! 

Lol, hey Soopy
Welcome to the club, we have t-shirts!

Respect Marisa,

Only a handfull of people have the guts to do a thing like that.
Let's call being banned by Lobo a "Lobotomy" shall we

I am surprised how many messages and even emails i get with support of people who have big concerns with IS

This is not IS specific, or directed at them specifically, it's for any forum run by anyone. Consider the other agency which announced that what we write on blogs or outside public forums, could be cause for having our sales account closed. Now that's beyond and over the top and censorship. But the problem is, it's legal because they can do whatever they want.

Cheers for your insight RacePhoto,
Could i ask which agency made this bold statement and maybe even a link to it ?
I wonder how far they can strecht statements like that... "We hereby inform you that we have come to your house and slapped your kids around a bit because you said our agency smells like a dead hamster. Please don't make us come over there again. Sincerely yours."

First of all thank you all very much for your support!

I have a strong feeling iStock is in a transitional phase going from a relaxed environment to a corporate one with the inevitable semi-apocalyptical implosion that usually follows.

The fact that they don't seem to have systems present to prevent the most obvious problems of today�s corporations is proof of that.
They know this and they seem to be trying to change everything at the same time possibly under high pressure of the Getty group.
During this transition they seem to treat their contributors as cattle, killing the weak, smooth talking the strong and silencing/ignoring the ones that retaliate or ask questions.

I am only a bit shocked on how they get away with this to be honest which is why I wanted my voice to be heard.
There are far better ways to conduct business than this and I feel for the ones who invested time and money into iStock only to realize they are now depending on a business that doesn't care about them at all.

I understand forums have to be policed, I myself am a moderator of a well know 3D community and know all too well how this works.
However, I would never send out an intimidating sitemail to someone in the way Lobo just sent me one.
I can see he has to do his job and keep the peace but I feel he is taking this a tad too far.
When he posted the thread where he stated we could no longer post "+1" messages (meaning we agree with the above) because they take up space in the thread I instantly knew I would meet him verbally very soon...

In all honesty I still think iStock is doing a really good job and if they succeed they will harvest the benefits of their efforts.
I only wish they would keep their priority-list in good order to prevent all these silly and unfortunate mishaps that seem to follow each other faster every time.

In any case I wish you all the best.
Kurt

I am also one of the affected and also surprised at istock taking funds from my account without any notice.
The current thread on the istock forums is full of people angry about the conduct of istock lately, trying to milk the artists, cutting their commissions and just plain treating them like a cheap prostitute.

When, in that same thread, i mentioned posts were being deleted, for example one of mine where i state "Istock will do what they always do, let us rant for 3000 posts untill we grow tired of it and resume our sweatshop uploading to make them more (loads more) money"...

After which i received a rather blunt and intimidating sitemail from a known moderator stating if i wanted a ban i could get one real quick.
I replied with kindness and understanding but also stating i value my right to freedom of speech which resulted in an instant ban.

It seems iStock is quickly turning into a dictatorship where artists have to swallow just about anything they feel like stuffing in their throats and the ones that dare speak up are quickly silenced. Ironically kindof the same scenario is all over the news in Egypt right now... funny that.

Anyway, i feel they are taking this too far and they should value their artists by not treating them this way.
I don't know where this will end but i things are looking dim right now.
Kind regards, Kurt