QC 3 stars vs 5 stars

[Kat]

Yesterday, I wanted to upload an archival image, but by accident I uploaded it as a regular 'stock photograph'. 

 

This morning, as expected, the image was rejected by QC as it's soft and lacking definition, which I knew would happen. 

 

Have emailed Alamy about this, but doubt they'd accept this as an error. 

 

My QC rank has sadly dropped now to 3-stars (it was 5 stars ever since they introduced the rating system). 

 

My question is, from anyone's experience on here, how long did it take for it to go back from 3 stars to 5 stars? I'm worried this is going to slow down my workflow.

Edited March 7, 2022 by Kat
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[Ognyan Yosifov]

13 minutes ago, Kat said:

Yesterday, I wanted to upload an archival image, but by accident I uploaded it as a regular 'stock photograph'. 

 

This morning, as expected, the image was rejected by QC as it's soft and lacking detail, which I knew would happen. 

 

Have emailed Alamy about this, but doubt they'd accept this as an error. 

 

My QC rank has sadly dropped now to 3-stars (it was 5 stars ever since they introduced the rating system). 

 

My question is, from anyone's experience on here, how long did it take for it to go back from 3 stars to 5 stars? I'm worried because this is going to immensely slow down my workflow for me. 

I have never failed a QC upload and I've been on 3 stars rating since my first day at Alamy (9 years and counting now).

It's definitely not as dramatic as you think - my uploads go through within 24 hours and I'm happy with this...

Maybe you're going to be penalized for the fail, though. Probably for a week not be able to upload...

Edited March 7, 2022 by Ognyan Yosifov

[Steve F]

1 minute ago, Ognyan Yosifov said:

I have never failed a QC upload and I've been on 3 stars rating since my first day at Alamy (9 years and counting now).

It's definitely not as dramatic as you think - my uploads go through within 24 hours and I'm happy with this...

 

Ditto 3*, 24 hours and happy with it. 2 fails in 7 years.

[Kat]

1 minute ago, Ognyan Yosifov said:

I have never failed a QC upload and I've been on 3 stars rating since my first day at Alamy (9 years and counting now).

It's definitely not as dramatic as you think - my uploads go through within 24 hours and I'm happy with this...

Okay thanks, that sounds re-assuring. 

[meanderingemu]

6 minutes ago, Kat said:

Okay thanks, that sounds re-assuring. 

 

also, if you do your Caption and Keywording in your metadata, set your defaults on upload, it shouldn't really affect your workflow.  Yes it means that the "Optional Info" won't be there when images are up for sale, and you won't have your Supertag immediately, but you can organise your workflow around that. 

 

 

as for your original question, the changing of levels process has never been clarified by Alamy.  One day bunch of us woke up with 5*, some didn't and that was is.  I've actually failed once since and had no impact. 

[geogphotos]

I dropped down from 5 to 3 stars at the end of 2020. I had a break uploading to Alamy ( commission change disillusion) for around 6 months from Spring Autumn 2021.

 

Have done lots of stock uploads since then without any QC fails. Not sure if there is a review process to get back to 5 stars.

 

Two things I particularly like about Archive is no limit on caption and no QC. 

 

Would quite like to be back on 5 stars but as others have said it is not really a big deal. I just had to accept it even though I felt that a couple of my QC fails back in late 2020 were dubious. 

Edited March 7, 2022 by geogphotos

[Kat]

1 hour ago, meanderingemu said:

 

as for your original question, the changing of levels process has never been clarified by Alamy.  One day bunch of us woke up with 5*, some didn't and that was is.  I've actually failed once since and had no impact. 

Thanks for the advice.

I always wondered about the star rating, seems strange that there is no '4 star' rating.

[meanderingemu]

13 minutes ago, Kat said:

Thanks for the advice.

I always wondered about the star rating, seems strange that there is no '4 star' rating.

 

 

😀.  I do wonder when we will see the first 4 Star contributor.  They are even rarer that decent licence fees.

[NYCat]

The number 4 is bad luck somewhere.. in China? Somewhere. I think I read that is the reason for not using it. Could be nonsense.

 

Paulette

[Steve F]

2 minutes ago, Alexander Hog said:

Usually 24 hours and 3 stars as well but now waiting a week and still not passed yet I must have annoyed someone No fails since the first upload 

 

Maybe it's related to frequency of uploads....? Or is this just a one off for you Alexander? I haven't submitted for over a week, maybe it's just like this for other people at this particular time too....

[Cal]

13 minutes ago, Alexander Hog said:

Usually 24 hours and 3 stars as well but now waiting a week and still not passed yet I must have annoyed someone No fails since the first upload 

 

It's not just you. I've been waiting for a result since last week when it's normally within a day max. Single image upload so who knows yet whether it's a pass or fail. Possibly just a backlog.

[Kat]

Does anyone know whether a low QC ranking impacts the overall Alamy rank? 

I suppose nobody knows as Alamy haven't actually explained what determines the rank. 

[meanderingemu]

47 minutes ago, Kat said:

Does anyone know whether a low QC ranking impacts the overall Alamy rank? 

I suppose nobody knows as Alamy haven't actually explained what determines the rank. 

 

based on communication it should not.  I saw no impact when i went for 3 to 5. 

[StanRohrer]

I've been at 5 stars for a while - exactly how long I'm not sure. I don't know of an event or time period that activated my jump to 5 stars. I've been a contributor since about 2002. Recently I've changed monitors and lost control of my "eyeball calibration" of Soft or Lacking Definition. I had a couple batches fail and get rejected. I still had 5 stars until I sent off an Email (perhaps a coincidence) about my situation. With 3 stars I could still submit batches which were extremely sharp and they would pass within seconds of upload. I think there is a gatekeeper software watching the uploads (but don't know for sure). Another batch that was softer by image design (soft focus) apparently got flagged by the upload test but passed about 24 hours later. In my case I can't tell of a difference of upload gatekeeping or QC delays based on 3 stars or 5 stars.

[MDM]

 

23 minutes ago, StanRohrer said:

I've been at 5 stars for a while - exactly how long I'm not sure. I don't know of an event or time period that activated my jump to 5 stars. I've been a contributor since about 2002. Recently I've changed monitors and lost control of my "eyeball calibration" of Soft or Lacking Definition. I had a couple batches fail and get rejected. I still had 5 stars until I sent off an Email (perhaps a coincidence) about my situation. With 3 stars I could still submit batches which were extremely sharp and they would pass within seconds of upload. I think there is a gatekeeper software watching the uploads (but don't know for sure). Another batch that was softer by image design (soft focus) apparently got flagged by the upload test but passed about 24 hours later. In my case I can't tell of a difference of upload gatekeeping or QC delays based on 3 stars or 5 stars.

 

The QC star rating was introduced with the new Alamy Image Manager which was in early 2017 as far as I know. I do wonder if there is a relatively recently introduced automatic gatekeeper software that is failing some images because of out of focus backgrounds but nobody is posting full size failures and Alamy is saying nothing it seems.

 

 4K monitors are great for viewing but not ideal for judging sharpness (depending on the size of the monitor). Viewing at 200% is an option. If in doubt, downsizing to minimum size requirements (around 3000x2000 pixels) might be a good bet (certainly for online use).