Author Topic: Days required for approval on Shutterstock (Read 28761 times)

luissantos84 · « **Reply #25 on:** March 22, 2013, 11:50 »

Quote from: stockastic on March 22, 2013, 11:32

Is anyone currently getting responses to 'support' emails, and if so how long are they taking?

12 days for the last time (March 8th - 20th)

Poncke · « **Reply #26 on:** March 22, 2013, 13:06 »

Quote from: stockastic on March 22, 2013, 11:32

Is anyone currently getting responses to 'support' emails, and if so how long are they taking?

Nope.

stockastic · « **Reply #27 on:** March 22, 2013, 13:56 »

So let's see... 6 days for the bogus rejection, 2 weeks for (maybe) a response from support, re-submit, 6 more days for (maybe) approval.

From this, I think we can see just how badly SS wants new images.

Poncke · « **Reply #28 on:** March 22, 2013, 14:03 »

Quote from: stockastic on March 22, 2013, 13:56

So let's see... 6 days for the bogus rejection, 2 weeks for (maybe) a response from support, re-submit, 6 more days for (maybe) approval.

From this, I think we can see just how badly SS wants new images.

Just recently I had such scenario indeed. Took me 6 weeks to get an illustration accepted.

Tryingmybest · « **Reply #29 on:** March 22, 2013, 14:50 »

None. It's been over 3 days since my support contact. Next week will be one month of images sitting in queue. We've all been flagged it seems. Meanwhile all the real image thieves keep uploading without a second glance.

Quote from: stockastic on March 22, 2013, 11:32

Is anyone currently getting responses to 'support' emails, and if so how long are they taking?

Tryingmybest · « **Reply #30 on:** March 22, 2013, 14:52 »

6 weeks!? How many releases and blood samples did you give them?

Update...Just had my batch of 20 finally reviewed and approved. I was very happy and grateful. But still no word from support.

Quote from: Poncke on March 22, 2013, 14:03

Quote from: stockastic on March 22, 2013, 13:56
So let's see... 6 days for the bogus rejection, 2 weeks for (maybe) a response from support, re-submit, 6 more days for (maybe) approval.

From this, I think we can see just how badly SS wants new images.
Just recently I had such scenario indeed. Took me 6 weeks to get an illustration accepted.

Tryingmybest · « **Reply #31 on:** March 22, 2013, 17:36 »

I got my response this afternoon (included a suggestion that they state review times should be "3 weeks" instead of "3 days":

Your suggestion is duly noted and will be added to our team's backlog of ideas. If you are interested, you may also add feedback from within your contributor account as well.

Should you need anything else, please feel free to write back in to us here at Shutterstock.

Not a bad response.

scottbraut · « **Reply #32 on:** March 22, 2013, 19:57 »

Hi Guys,

To add a little background information here - when a group is selected for a more thorough review, it's typically because a reviewer had a specific policy or judgment question or there was a question that our team extended to the contributor, with the subsequent back-and-forth that ensues with Support.

Being put into a more thorough review doesn't indicate that there's any suspicion of wrongdoing. It can mean that a reviewer has asked for a more authoritative judgment or answer before choosing to accept or reject a group of images (which is a good thing), or that the team is following standard policies and procedures related to ensuring the integrity of the collection (which is also a good thing). Those procedures are in place to ultimately protect you and your images as a contributor, as well as protect our customers.

We understand that timely delivery is important to earnings and completely understand frustration you might have when there are delays and it's not clear to you why there are delays. There may be features we can add in the future to better communicate back where individual images are in the queue and our ultimate goal is build more transparency.

Thanks for your patience and understanding in the meanwhile.

Best,

Scott
VP of Content
Shutterstock

Tryingmybest · « **Reply #33 on:** March 22, 2013, 20:05 »

Thanks Scott.

Quote from: scottbraut on March 22, 2013, 19:57

Hi Guys,

To add a little background information here - when a group is selected for a more thorough review, it's typically because a reviewer had a specific policy or judgment question or there was a question that our team extended to the contributor, with the subsequent back-and-forth that ensues with Support.

Being put into a more thorough review doesn't indicate that there's any suspicion of wrongdoing. It can mean that a reviewer has asked for a more authoritative judgment or answer before choosing to accept or reject a group of images (which is a good thing), or that the team is following standard policies and procedures related to ensuring the integrity of the collection (which is also a good thing). Those procedures are in place to ultimately protect you and your images as a contributor, as well as protect our customers.

We understand that timely delivery is important to earnings and completely understand frustration you might have when there are delays and it's not clear to you why there are delays. There may be features we can add in the future to better communicate back where individual images are in the queue and our ultimate goal is build more transparency.

Thanks for your patience and understanding in the meanwhile.

Best,

Scott
VP of Content
Shutterstock

gillian vann · « **Reply #34 on:** March 22, 2013, 20:19 »

I've not noticed any real delay, @ two days, might be at 3 for my last batch. having a great month, I'm happy.

Tryingmybest · « **Reply #35 on:** March 22, 2013, 20:23 »

Quote from: gillian on March 22, 2013, 20:19

I've not noticed any real delay, @ two days, might be at 3 for my last batch. having a great month, I'm happy.

Seems to not be such a problem for photographers. 3 days is really good.

Poncke · « **Reply #36 on:** March 23, 2013, 03:51 »

Quote from: gillian on March 22, 2013, 20:19

I've not noticed any real delay, @ two days, might be at 3 for my last batch. having a great month, I'm happy.

Thats great for you, but really shocking to find out. Monday I will be on 17 days, as are many others. You have a review in 3 days. If this is general practice then my images will go live somewhere on page wherever, without any chance of every become best sellers. I know its subject related, but these different review times are not fair.

gillian vann · « **Reply #37 on:** March 23, 2013, 03:57 »

Quote from: Poncke on March 23, 2013, 03:51

Quote from: gillian on March 22, 2013, 20:19
I've not noticed any real delay, @ two days, might be at 3 for my last batch. having a great month, I'm happy.
Thats great for you, but really shocking to find out. Monday I will be on 17 days, as are many others. You have a review in 3 days. If this is general practice then my images will go live somewhere on page wherever, without any chance of every become best sellers. I know its subject related, but these different review times are not fair.

subject related?

17 days?! ouchie.

Poncke · « **Reply #38 on:** March 23, 2013, 04:07 »

Quote from: gillian on March 23, 2013, 03:57

Quote from: Poncke on March 23, 2013, 03:51
Quote from: gillian on March 22, 2013, 20:19
I've not noticed any real delay, @ two days, might be at 3 for my last batch. having a great month, I'm happy.
Thats great for you, but really shocking to find out. Monday I will be on 17 days, as are many others. You have a review in 3 days. If this is general practice then my images will go live somewhere on page wherever, without any chance of every become best sellers. I know its subject related, but these different review times are not fair.
subject related?

17 days?! ouchie.

Subject, you know, if you shoot i.e. seniors in love, and I shoot london landmarks, then your faster approved images wont affect my later approved images. But if we shoot the same subject, then your images are leapfrogging my images when the come live on the new search.

And with the amount of images submitted to SS, you can count on it that someone is shooting the same stuff. So if my review of london landmarks takes 17 days, and someone else has em live in 3 days, I am disadvantaged.

gostwyck · « **Reply #39 on:** March 23, 2013, 04:42 »

My latest batch all approved in about 14 hours after uploading. Previous batch took about 48 hours. Good stuff!

gbalex · « **Reply #40 on:** March 23, 2013, 16:08 »

Quote from: Poncke on March 23, 2013, 03:51

Quote from: gillian on March 22, 2013, 20:19
I've not noticed any real delay, @ two days, might be at 3 for my last batch. having a great month, I'm happy.
Thats great for you, but really shocking to find out. Monday I will be on 17 days, as are many others. You have a review in 3 days. If this is general practice then my images will go live somewhere on page wherever, without any chance of every become best sellers. I know its subject related, but these different review times are not fair.

Quote from: gostwyck on March 23, 2013, 04:42

My latest batch all approved in about 14 hours after uploading. Previous batch took about 48 hours. Good stuff!

If a site were to treat all of its submitters fairly they would commit resources to ensure that they offer a level and consistent playing field for each and every submitter. It is clear that this is not the case at SS when some submitters are left without a review for literally weeks and in the same time period others have their content reviewed in 14 hours or less than one day. As previously stated this also gives them a distinct fiscal advantage as far as image placement and thus significantly more sales.

Poor show all around SS, you are clearly show favoritism and financial advantage to some submitters while financially snubbing others.

scottbraut · « **Reply #41 on:** March 23, 2013, 17:34 »

Hi gbalex,

Our system is pretty straightforward - images are reviewed in the order in which they are received. We have specialists who work on specific queues, such as the vector queue, which I've pointed out in the past. That would apply to videos as well. First-time contributors go through a two-step process, since both IDs need to be approved and their first submissions. Having specialists improves the overall quality of the review.

Sometimes images are escalated to a second-level review if there are questions that require specialized knowledge, a policy call, or specific judgment. That's a good thing - it means that the reviewer is trying to see that the images receive the best decision possible.

Those reviews also occasionally entail one or more support tickets - in other words, there's a back-and-forth exchange between members of the Review team, Support team (also known as Contributor Success) and the contributor to ask for more information about a particular submission. We also work very closely with our legal department to establish and maintain policies regarding trademark, copyright, and fraud prevention to ensure the integrity of the marketplace.

Our turnaround times will generally hover between 2 and 6 days. Our vector queue has been running high lately and our "second level" review will take longer as well, because those reviews are more time consuming and there are specialists working on them. We do shift and add resources if submission volume spikes.

Differences in review times is highly likely to be a difference in queues and whether a more-thorough review was requested for a specific batch of images. Across all content types, our ultimate goal is to provide the highest quality reviews with the lowest turnaround times. Individuals often come to the forums when they're frustrated or having an out-of-the-ordinary experience, but we own that - we want our contributors to have the best experience possible.

Best,

Scott
VP of Content
Shutterstock

dirkr · « **Reply #42 on:** March 23, 2013, 18:44 »

One proposal that would make the issue less important:
If SS would assign image IDs (which I believe is the key for the "newest" sort order) after acceptance and not after upload, a longer review time would not lead to a disadvantage in search order...

Essentially the "newest" search should sort after time accepted, not time uploaded.

Poncke · « **Reply #43 on:** March 24, 2013, 13:31 »

Quote from: dirkr on March 23, 2013, 18:44

One proposal that would make the issue less important:
If SS would assign image IDs (which I believe is the key for the "newest" sort order) after acceptance and not after upload, a longer review time would not lead to a disadvantage in search order...

Essentially the "newest" search should sort after time accepted, not time uploaded.

Excellent

gillian vann · « **Reply #44 on:** March 24, 2013, 20:29 »

Quote from: Poncke on March 24, 2013, 13:31

Quote from: dirkr on March 23, 2013, 18:44
One proposal that would make the issue less important:
If SS would assign image IDs (which I believe is the key for the "newest" sort order) after acceptance and not after upload, a longer review time would not lead to a disadvantage in search order...

Essentially the "newest" search should sort after time accepted, not time uploaded.
Excellent

ah, that also explains what you mean by being disadvantaged in the "newness" race. I wasn't quite understanding the problem but now I get it, anything I upload today is marked as 25March, so if it takes 2 weeks to review it's already "old" by the time it goes live? Is that really how it works at SS?

gbalex · « **Reply #45 on:** March 25, 2013, 13:05 »

Quote from: scottbraut on March 23, 2013, 17:34

Hi gbalex,

Our system is pretty straightforward - images are reviewed in the order in which they are received. We have specialists who work on specific queues, such as the vector queue, which I've pointed out in the past. That would apply to videos as well. First-time contributors go through a two-step process, since both IDs need to be approved and their first submissions. Having specialists improves the overall quality of the review.

Sometimes images are escalated to a second-level review if there are questions that require specialized knowledge, a policy call, or specific judgment. That's a good thing - it means that the reviewer is trying to see that the images receive the best decision possible.

Those reviews also occasionally entail one or more support tickets - in other words, there's a back-and-forth exchange between members of the Review team, Support team (also known as Contributor Success) and the contributor to ask for more information about a particular submission. We also work very closely with our legal department to establish and maintain policies regarding trademark, copyright, and fraud prevention to ensure the integrity of the marketplace.

Our turnaround times will generally hover between 2 and 6 days. Our vector queue has been running high lately and our "second level" review will take longer as well, because those reviews are more time consuming and there are specialists working on them. We do shift and add resources if submission volume spikes.

Differences in review times is highly likely to be a difference in queues and whether a more-thorough review was requested for a specific batch of images. Across all content types, our ultimate goal is to provide the highest quality reviews with the lowest turnaround times. Individuals often come to the forums when they're frustrated or having an out-of-the-ordinary experience, but we own that - we want our contributors to have the best experience possible.

Best,

Scott
VP of Content
Shutterstock

Scott, I am sure you can understand that as contributors we have been talking between ourselves for years and our knowledge base comes from personal experience as well as the experience of other submitters who we know personally and well.

When one of us submits isolated fruits and vegetables or generic travel photos with no copyrighted material and it takes 1 day to review and the other submits similar images and it takes 21 days. After 21 days we do not even have to compare image ID numbers to know something is really off in the review process.

So yes we know from personal experience that our images are not being reviewed in the order they are received and we know from years of experience that our reviews should be straight forward and easily performed by any competent reviewer.

As always actions speak louder than words:

"Our system is pretty straightforward - images are reviewed in the order in which they are received."

"Sometimes images are escalated to a second-level review if there are questions that require specialized knowledge, a policy call, or specific judgment."

Poncke · « **Reply #46 on:** March 25, 2013, 16:03 »

I dont understand the difference of 2 days for some and 21 days for others. Even if there is a 2nd tier review, that is still unfair competition and I still dont get the difference of 19 days. If the images were placed on when they come online instead of when they were submitted, it would matter.

Mantis · « **Reply #47 on:** March 25, 2013, 16:16 »

My image submissions ALWAYS take 7-14 days, never sooner. So I guess I am screwed. I really like the idea of tagging the image with the acceptance date, and not the submission date....if indeed the positioning of images is based on that.

Poncke · « **Reply #48 on:** March 25, 2013, 17:35 »

Just got reviewed after 17 days, and the rejections were disheartening. Sigh.

stockastic · « **Reply #49 on:** March 26, 2013, 13:06 »

6 days to get a bogus 'lighting/white balance' rejection on a perfectly executed isolation. Resubmit with note: "the white balance is correct, please look again". 6 more days for approval. So, 12 days to get a single, very simple photo approved.

What bothers me more is the lack of response to a support question I sent in many days ago (can no longer even remember the exact date).

I think they must have cut staff, or outsourced things about 3 layers deep. Hey, it's their business. I'm just a small time photographer who's steadily losing motivation.

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Author Topic: Days required for approval on Shutterstock (Read 28761 times)

luissantos84

Poncke

stockastic

Poncke

Tryingmybest

Tryingmybest

Tryingmybest

scottbraut

Tryingmybest

gillian vann

Tryingmybest

Poncke

gillian vann

Poncke

gostwyck

gbalex

scottbraut

dirkr

Poncke

gillian vann

gbalex

Poncke

Mantis

Poncke

stockastic

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