Milinz, I think we talked enough about your cevapcici. Yes, I adore cevapcici, and they look tasty to me on your image because I know how they should look like. They look on your image exactly how they look like on real BBQ. Ok, you didn't take this image from some extraordinary angle, but the image is OK. You could crop it just a little on the right side, on on both sides like this designer did here http://www.ichkoche.at/Cevapcici-Kroatien/rezepte/detail/html/93283 because cevapcici are spread over BBQ pretty evenly, and it looks bit strange that you leaved those uneven spaces on the sides of the image. No matter you had expensive light equipment, because of non existing crop, and because of an angle, this image could look like a snapshot to someone. Maybe the reviewer should recognize a state of art in this image because he is paid to do it. But for God's sake, how long we will discuss this image? If it's your good seller you will continue to sell it on other sites, and Zymmetrical will  be without this image, that's all. Is it so important for you to sell this image exactly on Zymmetrical?? I don't get you really. If they don't want this image why you so badly trying to prove them that your cevapcici look tasty on this image? Reviewers are human beings and they will always make mistakes. What I know, is that some of reviewers on Zymmetrical are (or were) most remarkable reviewers on some other very well known agency that you like so much. So, it's the same people basically. Why don't you leave it this way, and leave Zymmetrical without this image? If you want, you can continue to upload to Zymmetrical, or you can stop it. The choice is yours. They rejected many of my images, so what? I have those images on other sites and they sell. You act like this is the only image that is important to you. I mean, I don't know what you trying to prove? Are you trying to prove that your image of cevapcici is so remarkable, or you want to prove that some reviewer on Zymmetrical should be fired, or you want to prove that Zymmetrical is poor agency, or you maybe want to show to everybody that you are from here (Balkan peninsula) and that we are able to get through the wall with our heads and to lose days to prove something that isn't important to anybody else?

Milinz, I think we talked enough about your cevapcici. Yes, I adore cevapcici, and they look tasty to me on your image because I know how they should look like. They look on your image exactly how they look like on real BBQ.
.............
But for God's sake, how long we will discuss this image? ....
...... Why don't you leave it this way, and leave Zymmetrical without this image? If you want, you can continue to upload to Zymmetrical, or you can stop it. The choice is yours. They rejected many of my images, so what? ....
 you want to prove that Zymmetrical is poor agency, or you maybe want to show to everybody that you are from here (Balkan peninsula) and that we are able to get through the wall with our heads and to lose days to prove something that isn't important to anybody else?

EDITED FOR BREVITY. 

I have to agree again with whitechild . I wrote Keith first time my image got rejected. I got too attached to my work, and was not happy with the reviewer(s) decision. But after an explanation from Keith, I realised that he was not out to insult me or anyone's photography, just trying to run his stock photo business like a business. He and his team , hopefully, know what they are looking for , to sell more images and be viable.
So, I left it at that. Sure, till this day, I still disagree with some rejections. But hey, if I am not happy with Zymm, I will stop uploading to them. Or I will start my own stock site and compete with Zymm,
and put all my rejected photos on the front page. 
So, what will that achieve? 

Like Whitechild, I don't do that. I simply submit those images to other sites and they accepted them,
and some sold as well. The buyers are not all made of the same stripe. It would be wonderful if there is a site that will accept all your images. In fact, there are a few that will do just that.
If it means so much to you Milinz, to be proved right as stone, then submit your images to those sites, and forgot about Zymm.
If , as you so strongly believe, you are a unique photographer, then it's Zymmetrical 's loss,
and ours  too 

I think this thread is going a little too long. And agree with Whitechild. Stop banging your head against a brick wall to prove you have been victimized.
Peace !

I had a rejection once in Zymm that did not make sense to me.  I have three images, basically the same composition, but using three different banknotes (USA dollar, Euro, Brazilian Real).  They are here.  Only the USD one was accepted, the other two were rejected for "too similar". I sent them an email, they forwarded it to the reviewer because it was her job, and the reviewer said she would forward it to Kevin because it was out of her hands.  Too confusing and I am not sure I ever got a final reply about this. 

There was another series (this one), also only one accepted and the others were "too similar". I agree with the horizontal ones, but the vertical one at least should have been accepted. One of my best sellers (this one) was rejected for "limited stock usage".

However Zymm gets good earnings when I sell, so I intend to keep on uploading.  I only wished reviews made more sense.

Regards,
Adelaide

I sent them an email, they forwarded it to the reviewer because it was her job, and the reviewer said she would forward it to Kevin because it was out of her hands.
(EDITED FOR BREVITY)

However Zymm gets good earnings when I sell, so I intend to keep on uploading.  I only wished reviews made more sense.Regards,Adelaide

you mean Keith, don't you ? Adelaide? ...

yes, like other sites, rejections sometimes do not make sense to us. but unless it's a big deal, which it seldom is, i just give them the benefit of the doubt, since they are the rule-makers.
i like most of what i see at zymm, so i think i'll continue to upload there.

Milinz you need to relax, you're going to give yourself an ulcer obsessing over rejections like this.
You are also not going to improve as a photographer till you learn to take criticism.

I am not sure I understand - would it not be more relevant when the bridge is under construction or actually completed?      Surely if someone took a picture of the valley of the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millau_Viaduct before it was constructed, the image would have some extra worth as a historical archive photo (compared to any other picture of the French countryside), but I would certainly expect pictures of the completed project to be worth more. I am not quite sure how we could predict such projects in a practical way however, the bridge you are referencing has been 'in the works' since Roman times.   

My uncle is an architect who helped design the http://www.confederationbridge.com/ connecting the provinces of New Brunswick to PEI. I don't think that the specific location of the bridge, before it was made, was somehow more photo-worthy than any other part of coastline of those areas. Just a basic East Coast Canada beach mostly.

We rely on artist and client feedback for so much - if you are a plant specialist you are going to be able to come up with the scientific names of flowers for the keywords that we just wouldn't have the resources to come up with, if you are a graphic designer with a large inventory of little bird graphics you should remind us that they are selling like hotcakes because they are the Twitter icon and in-demand currently. There's no need to get frustrated - if you have a good point we will listen and in some cases adjust our ideas based on information provided.  Unfortunately accessing sales statistics directly from competing business is not only a grey ethics area, it's also not permitted by any terms of use I know of.  I know, as a techie engineer-type, I wouldn't appreciate my web system being assaulted by robots (or poor interns/outsourcers given a dirty job) only visiting to collect my data for the purpose of outselling my agency, I wouldn't wish it upon others either.

So to know in advance the trends and future sellers we rely on our own internal policies and experience - opinions, feelings, emotions. As mentioned in this thread before, it's never an exact science. When it does become an exact science, I think something must be severely broken because we are not selling car parts here but visual imagery.

Perhaps Keith or Paul can explain the logic for refusing images just because there are a bunch in a given category because I don't understand it...

If an image meets all of your technical standards and guidelines, why reject it at all?

Isn't the goal to get as many choices in front of buyers as possible?  Isn't it likely that a category with no new (or very few) submissions will get stagnant in time?  Aren't designers hungry for new and different images all the time?  Even if that difference is only slight?
>....
<....
What was very interesting was the experiment was in two parts.  The first part students were just asked to pick their favorite.  71% of the picks were in the first 60 images shown (they got tired or bored of looking).  In the second part, students were required to review all of the images before making their selection and 79% of them changed their selection to images later in the batch (even a few who chose the very last image).

On alamy they have a lot of real search data only from selected buyers, that the contributors can look at and download, I collated 6 months worth of all buyer data, over on Alamy you have up to 120 thumbnails a page, and I found that the averages were, buyers viewed about 2 pages from a search, 210 thumbnail were viewed, they have large 170px thumbnails and buyers zoomed only 2 images in 100 which is 1%, by using a diversity function they split images from the same contributor in the search, giving a more even selection and a more varied image search, the buyer can see sibling images from a contributor on a drill down, this gives my images more of a chance of getting a view, I have a small port on Alamy and they have over 16 million images on their macrostock website, and I still get daily views on the first two - three pages of a search.

To be fair the students were not buyers which is not the best data, I have seen data where a buyer has viewed thousands of thumbnails and zoomed tens of images, if there are to many similar images being returned from a search term, then you can understand it would just be an overhead to the website and the buyer, with a smaller set of selected and returned images it is easy to see most of what is on offer, the only problem I can see with this is keeping the collection fresh, and rotation to give ones at the back a chance, if a buyer returns after a month to do the same search they should get a different set of images, these are normally the latest uploads mixed in with best sellers.

With most of the rejections being not quality but to many in this category, the experienced contributors will stop uploading images in these categories, leaving the fresh images needed to update a category later to come from new artists to keep the search fresh.

If you already know which categories are full then why not let contributors know, this will not waste time for you or the contributors, then later when things pick up and you need new assets open the category again and let contributors know, this will keep down rejection rates and contributors own stats will look better, as you know by other posts reward / effort is the key to keeping contributors happy, uploading assets that an agency knows they are going to reject as the category is full is effort than can be avoided, also a reduced cost to the agency, I am sure letting contributors know which categories in the collection are strong or weak is positive communication and would be well received.
  
David  

Thanks for the response. You make valid points. Although, standards are pretty high these days, whether subscription agencies or not. It just seems that a contributor has to learn what an agency wants, which is often difficult as standard rejection answers are often too vague. However, I'm all for learning. These are the photos.

off topic sorry but I think I just found the whole cevapcici thing (and why milinz left), now I am enlightened

351151 is refused with "We cannot accept images of people without model releases"
Of course, because crappy flash-interface is full of bugs, because the release was in fact attached.

Resubmit, now # 351356 is refused with "This image is a duplicate of an image you have already submitted. Please do not resubmit it again"

Is this is a joke?

Either give me a valid rejection reason or accept my image, zymmetrical. And don't ask me for respect towards your agency and stuff. 

Keith,

i assume there might be a slight problem on your side...

I had a rejection with the same reason (""This image is a duplicate of an image you have already submitted. Please do not resubmit it again"), for file ID # 356113.

I double (and triple-)checked, both in my own accounting and on your website this file cannot be found in neither the accepted nor the rejected files.

As to using the support channels on the website: I sent a question there a few weeks ago (can't say when exactly, and the ticket can't be found on the website itself...) and never received any feedback...

Sometimes it looks as though asking here gets far quicker responses...

Regards,
Dirk

Every rejection has an explanation.

I can only second that.