Istock.... what were they thinking?

Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 USM Macro

09/18/2006 04:34:48 PM · #1

Anyone check their Istock portfolios since they "translated" keywords for the foreign sites? Wow, talk about screwing everything up. Makes me wonder why they had to translate the keywords for all sites. Why couldn't they just leave the English site alone? I don't have that many images there but for people with 1000+ images it's going to take months to go through each one and fix what they've screwed up.

cpurser

Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM

09/18/2006 04:55:37 PM · #2

What did they screw up? My keywords still look fine in English. I have no idea how they look in the other languages though :-)

-Chad

fotomann_forever

09/18/2006 05:04:20 PM · #3

I think he means this ...

Which could be a royal pain in the butt wiht a lot of images.

leaf

Canon EOS-5D Mark II

09/18/2006 05:08:17 PM · #4

and also in the translating they seemed to have changed keywords of some or most images, like for example one person who had pictures of pumpkins, and appropriate keywords, now have pictures of pumpkins with the keywords "Large Group of People", "Atlantic Ocean", "Showing", "Remote", "Figurine", or "Traditional Culture".... seems like a bit of a mess

TechnoShroom

Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 USM Macro

09/18/2006 05:15:47 PM · #5

They've rewritten everyone's keywords to fit into their standardized vocabulary. Which, isn't really a bad thing per se but in doing so they've broken keyword phrases up into individual keywords which means that if somebody uses a phrase in the search box they won't see your image. They want everyone to go back and add the phrases they broke. They've assigned incorrect meanings and/or added incorrect meanings to a vast number of keywords which they want us to go back and fix. Many keywords were incorrectly translated into the foreign languages. Many keywords do not have an option for the correct definition.

For example, I have an image of a spider. One of the new keywords for it, "Human Leg". A photo of eggs with the keywords "Tofu", "Candid", "One Person". A photo of an apple with the keywords "Swarm of Insects", "Pets". Every image I've uploaded has multiple problems.

Apple iPhone 5

Nikon AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 ED

09/18/2006 05:28:10 PM · #6

Originally posted by TechnoShroom:

For example, I have an image of a spider. One of the new keywords for it, "Human Leg". A photo of eggs with the keywords "Tofu", "Candid", "One Person". A photo of an apple with the keywords "Swarm of Insects", "Pets". Every image I've uploaded has multiple problems.

It sounds like their website programmers are on LSD.

kyebosh

Canon 12x IS USM (S3 IS built-in Lens) -- 36-432mm (35mm EQ)

Canon EF 80-200 f/2.8L

09/18/2006 05:38:27 PM · #7

Originally posted by jhonan:

Originally posted by TechnoShroom:
For example, I have an image of a spider. One of the new keywords for it, "Human Leg". A photo of eggs with the keywords "Tofu", "Candid", "One Person". A photo of an apple with the keywords "Swarm of Insects", "Pets". Every image I've uploaded has multiple problems.

It sounds like their website programmers are on LSD.

Maybe that's a good thing.

//www.wired.com/news/technology/0,70015-0.html?tw=wn_story_page_prev2

nova

Canon EOS-6D

Canon EF 35mm f/1.4L USM

09/18/2006 07:08:40 PM · #8

Oh man some of these keywords are hilarious! This image of mine now includes the keywords "wrinkled" and "potato chip".... huh?? What a screwed up mess!

GeneralE

Canon PowerShot S3 IS

09/18/2006 07:23:35 PM · #9

They must have an archive or backup which could restore the original keywords. Then they can issue any instructions they want as far as their "standard vocabulary" goes ... no way I'm going back to change a bunch of keywords from garbage they put there unless they want to pay me.

dswebb

09/19/2006 07:11:36 AM · #10

The really horrible thing, in my opinion, is that you have to go into each and every image INDIVIDUALLY and correct the problems! What a waste of time! So that if I have 50 images with the same incorrect keyword now, (which I do) rather than fix it once for all 50, I have to do it 50 separate times! How could they not think of that???

Another thing that amazes me is the inconsistancy of what I thought would be an automated (i.e., repeatable) process... For instance, I have more than 50 images with the keyword "pool" in them. Their two optional definitions for pool are "swimming pool" and "snooker or pool table" (and no other options). Well, on some of my images my pool was translated to swimming pool, which it is in ALL of them. In some of the images it was translated to pool table. And in yet other of my images it was translated as BOTH. Why the inconsistancy? Weird...

nova

Canon EOS-6D

Canon EF 35mm f/1.4L USM

09/19/2006 08:45:41 AM · #11

What gets me is that they have created this keyword fiasco on the heels of their other program giving everyone grief about questionable keywording! I'm not at all inclined to expend any effort to clean up the mess they've made.

And it keeps getting worse: this morning I uploaded a photo with a dozen or so bland, everyday keywords, and was asked to verify the meanings of about half of them!

I've modified the cut-and-paste because of formatting, but this is the gist of their questions:

Language Terms

man U.S. English Did you mean...
Men(Males)

White U.S. English Did you mean...
Caucasian(Ethnicity)

middle-aged U.S. English Did you mean...
Mature Adult(Adult)

happy U.S. English Did you mean...
Happiness

glad2badad

DJI Mavic Air 2

Sears 55mm f/1.4 M42

09/19/2006 08:54:52 AM · #12

I tried to upload a couple of images yesterday and it (uploading) was "temporarily unavailable". Now I know why! Yikes! Their backlog was around 15,000 images waiting approval. Getting too big for their britches? ;^)

dswebb

09/19/2006 09:19:26 AM · #13

That 15,000 queue is down from about 32,000 only a few days ago... They turned off uploads for a few days to get it down that far...

cpurser

09/19/2006 11:55:45 AM · #14

My sales are down the past couple of days. Could that be related to this fiasco? Hmmmmm....

-Chad

TechnoShroom

Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 USM Macro

09/19/2006 12:12:53 PM · #15

Originally posted by cpurser:

My sales are down the past couple of days. Could that be related to this fiasco? Hmmmmm....

Wouldn't be surprised if it were. I haven't noticed a real decrease at Istock but I believe I'm seeing an increase in Fotolia and Dreamstime sales. It could be related.

admart01

Canon EF 70-200mm f/4.0L USM

09/19/2006 02:17:07 PM · #16

I just got the message "File updating has been deactivated for all users" when I was trying to take a look at one of my images.

Sunniee

Canon EOS-40D

Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6

09/29/2006 11:34:20 AM · #17

Yeah.... what are they thinking... just a little whining because they have rejected 6 out of 6 photos of mine so far... makes me wonder if I want to even try 3 more..... /whining

gbautista87

Nikon D70

Nikon AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor 18-70mm f/3.5-4.5G IF-ED

09/30/2006 05:37:16 AM · #18

I haven't been able to make any changes to my keywords too.

iStock has a very user-unfriendly system in terms of uploading...

cpurser

Nikon AF Nikkor 50mm f/1.8

10/05/2006 12:38:33 PM · #19

It is only getting worse. They have deactivated the forums today. Probably because so many people are pissed off. Your account balance no longer shows up at the top. They changed the search engine to only look for phrases if you put more than one word in the box.

My sales in October SUCK. I'm making more on Dreamstime now, and it used to be a 2:1 or 3:1 ratio in favor of istock.

-Chad

pcody

Canon PowerShot G6

10/05/2006 12:53:47 PM · #20

waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah, I can't see my money!

pineapple

Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 USM

10/05/2006 01:01:42 PM · #21

Diversify. The same could happen to Shutterstock or Dreamstime. All such companies sooner or later get sold on upgrading their databases and front end s/w. The IS situation is just another such situation.

Message edited by author 2006-10-05 13:02:07.

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