I think we should introduce a new voting systyem with a "skull and bone" icon, that could be used when you really dislike people.

Hi guys,
 
We've been in the process of creating a more detailed FAQ on Review, but to answer the basic question(s) in the meanwhile:
 
We welcome review disputes and feedback when you're unhappy. You guys put a lot of work into image creation and we respect that. Many people on the team are photographers, videographers and illustrators themselves and appreciate the effort that goes into content creation.

There are three basic scenarios that we find when we research review disputes:
 
1. You�re 100% right and there was an error made during the process. Please let us know. We�ll fix it.
2. The review determination was �on the line� and could be viewed either way.  A more forgiving second review can result in the images being approved.  This is a long-standing policy.
3. The original review determination was correct.
 
In terms of communication, we have individuals participating in the various forums.  For example, Vincent administrates the SS forums, Anna participates in the Russian-speaking forums, and I�ll often respond to inquiries at MSG. We have over a dozen different communication channels, ranging from the blogs, social media, forums, workshops, contributor meetups, email tickets and more.     
 
We read all of that incoming feedback, but we often don�t participate in review threads.  We also ask that support questions only go to our email address.   Why?     
 
With a large team of individual reviewers, over 55,000 contributors and millions of images passing through this process, every single case is different.  We also need to see the exact images in question.
 
The only "official" process at the moment for handling review feedback is to contact Support.  That logs a trackable ticket in our system which we can then assign to our review coordinators; the "Tier 2" leaders who work directly to evaluate, train, and mentor specific reviewers. They also own the maturation of our guidelines and standards. Tickets can be tracked, escalated, closed, and have the full history of the questions and feedback. We can tie the issue or question to a specific group of images and a specific reviewer.
 
We track the number of issues on a daily and weekly basis, as well as many metrics that allow us to analyze the review process. Statistically speaking, we receive very few complaints to Support relative to the many millions of images that we process, but any number of issues greater than zero is too many and we always want to improve.   
 
As always, if you have a specific batch that was an issue, please let us know at [email protected].  We're happy to help.

As mentioned, we're also writing up a more extensive FAQ to supplement what's found on the Contributor blog and in educational materials such as our Success guide. We don't want this process to feel mysterious. More to come.

Best,

Scott
VP of Content

I think we all need to get one big letter together for everyone to use then we all send it to SS and let them know there is something wrong!?

If no one is letting SS know anything is wrong then they will do nothing but if everyone starts sending a letter then they will fix it just like a power outage if 10,000 people loose power and only 50 call about it the power company thinks it is a small problem and nothing much to worry about so they are slow to fix it but if all 10,000 report it then it gets fixed almost right away.

Quote from: luissantos84 on May 15, 2014, 01:36

its not a bad thing they ended it, BigStock is paying us less

Not a bad thing if it ended BS paying us less. Nobody knows if it ended for sure its just guess. No bridge is good for mine.

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Quote from: stockastic on May 17, 2014, 17:38

Quote from: Jo Ann Snover on May 17, 2014, 16:01

...
I believed the automation theory in the first place - not that they don't have human inspectors but that there is some type of pre-screening (and I'm fairly sure one of their early earnings calls made some reference to automation of the review process).

Go the SEC Filings section of the SS site and pull up Form 424B4 (a prospectus from 2012), search for "review", and you'll find this:  "We also leverage proprietary review technology to pre-filter images and enhance the productivity of our reviewers."

That document is about 18 months old.  I think it's obvious that they've implemented software screens for focus, white balance, noise and "lighting" - that don't work all that well, yet.

Good find.  That explains some of why the focus rejections are so prevalent. I assume those are automated rejections then and never see the eyes of a reviewer or the reviewer is too cautious not to override that expensive technology, otherwise why would they need it.

I got an email from FT this morning asking me to come back, and that all I have to do is open ticket and they'll put my files back, and that they'll opt me out of DPC.

I just did a search and there was the e-mail in my trash folder! I hadn't even looked to see what the offer was

I have never used this sort of canned filter product - does anyone have any experience with it and find it helpful?