The Image Manager thread

[wiskerke]

 

 

In an earlier post, Mark brought to my attention a truncated phrase in my apple pie set. Nearly all of those images were messed up. The phrase was apple pie serving, and ended up apple pie se. This is way under the 30 or so characters said to be allowed.

 

What's disheartening, I corrected every single image. A minute later they were truncated again, NOT after a system update, but within a couple of minutes after saving. I fixed them about five times, then threw up my hands and emailed member services.

 

This is unacceptable. I'd be even more upset if it were a phrase I considered my most important, but it was a lesser phrase. Still needs to work, though.

 

Betty

 

Out of interest, did you check any of them when finding them through alamy.com as a customer would see them? I just wondered if it might simply be a display issue in AIM or if the tag is fundamentally broken in the back-end system.

 

 

When I encountered truncations, I check the buyer side and they were there as well.... 

 

Clarence

 

 

I could search for them and they turned up.

However most of the ones I had problems with in December and January are now without truncations or broken phrases. So perseverance somehow wins in the end.

-Maybe the system gets tired too in the end ;-)

 

wim

[Betty LaRue]

No, I didn't search for them, but Mark did and saw the truncation. I'll check them in a general search.

Edit to add.

Just checked them. Out of 5 images, the fix stuck on two (so far) but three show apple pie se. Grrr.

The two fixed ones may lose the fix after the update.

[M.Chapman]

No, I didn't search for them, but Mark did and saw the truncation. I'll check them in a general search.

Edit to add.

Just checked them. Out of 5 images, the fix stuck on two (so far) but three show apple pie se. Grrr.

The two fixed ones may lose the fix after the update.

 

The trouble with truncations like this is they're hard to spot. Have we really got to go back and check every keyword in every image? Luckily I haven't started reviewing my legacy images yet, as to have to do it twice would be beyond a joke. I'm going to wait till this settles down. I've updated a few when I've spotted a problem and just to check things looked OK, but as for a systematic review that will have to wait.

 

I see in another thread that Alamy have dropped the number of images from the "More" images link because  Alamy - "This number was only visible when showing results with the small thumbnails view which the majority of customers do not use. The link is still there, it reads "More" instead of the number which could often be inaccurate due to the way the search results loaded."

 

Does nothing work properly anymore? I hope the views/zooms/sales recording system is still working!

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[Dave C]

 

The trouble with truncations like this is they're hard to spot. Have we really got to go back and check every keyword in every image? Luckily I haven't started reviewing my legacy images yet, as to have to do it twice would be beyond a joke. I'm going to wait till this settles down. I've updated a few when I've spotted a problem and just to check things looked OK, but as for a systematic review that will have to wait.

 

I'm still seeing these truncations. I have asked Alamy about it and they seem to think it's working, but it isn't and I gave them an example too.

 

It seems to be happening with supertags and not tags. If I enter "old pier Brighton", hit save, deselect then select the image, the tag is complete. If I then change it to a supertag, hit save, it's STILL showing as complete. However, if I deselect then select it again, it's truncated. So the deselecting/selecting has to be done for every image, and all longer tags checked again!

 

This is not a display issue, but the actual tags are saving incorrectly. I have proven this in 2 ways. Firstly, searching for "old pier Bright" (the truncated version for one of my images) brings up my image. Also, re-entering "old pier Brighton" when "old pier Bright" is already saved as a supertag, is accepted, so clearly the system isn't seeing it as a duplicate.

 

Geoff.

 

[edit] I've sent off another email to CR with details of this and will post any helpful response in the "Quotes direct from Alamy" thread. [/edit]

 

 

Hi all.  Yes I've also got some truncated & some where 2 words become one.  No idea how many as these are just the most recent I've looked at.  Reckon I'll wait for a while until the system settles down before making any concerted effort to check every image.  There's the time element too.  Who has time for all this?

[Allan Bell]

Apologies if this has been covered already in this discussion.  I got as far as page 9 of 37 & started to lose the will to live.  Have just received the new IM today.  It seems that the overwhelming number of my images that had phrases separated by commas are now broken up into individual words, which its going to take me ages to rectify.  Anyone else have this problem & found a solution?  Some are going to come up against the 30 character 4 word bar like war of the Spanish succession, but others are as simple as Lord Alderman being broken into 2 words.

 

Also I am trying to assign a category to 1051 images in one of my pseudonyms, but the only option I get is select the first 500 passed.  Once I've done those I can't see any way of doing the rest short of selecting them individually.

 

Any ideas?

 

I have emailed CR but just wondered if anyone else had these problems.

 

ATB,  David

 

 

If I have a lot to change I send details to CR and they do the job for me. Much quicker.

 

Allan

[Richard Baker]

 

.. Who has time for all this?

 

Honestly? None of us. I can barely keep up with this thread, let alone second-guess the glitches and wait for the system to 'settle down'.

 

Rgds,

Richard.

[wiskerke]

I just removed all keywords from am image that has sold 23 times but has fallen from the # 3 spot to #242 for the main key phrase. Probably on December 5th.

 

It has been overtaken by a nice but not so typical image from a lesser pseudonym, that has never sold and now sits at #41.

And one other image from the lowest pseudo, that has been sold 3 times and now sits at #60.

It has been overtaken by 3 other images from the better pseudo too. Those have sold  1 time; 3 times and 13 times. Those images are now at #120 (=sold 3 times) #139 (=sold 1 time) and #158 (=sold 13 times).

Previously most of those would land at the first page or pages for most related searches.

 

Keywords among those images are pretty similar. Some still have a lot, but most have been cut down heavily when in June or July 2015 the most important images had fallen overnight to somewhere between #490 and #807.

Sales for these images fell off a cliff of course. (This also was not a re-rank but a tweak to the search engine. Most of the effect disappeared after some months, but not all.)

 

The total sum of all of those sales: $2445.29

 

So far this would belong in the New Search Engine Thread. (Where is it?)

I include it to show why I care about the image in the first place: it sells pretty frequently. (And has been stolen hundreds of times. -Yes it's only available on Alamy.)

And as a caveat: I already was not in the best of moods.

 

The image had about 50 tags and 5 supertags.

I removed them all.

 

And pasted this in one go on the input line:

 

1 Sydney Opera House,
2 Sydney Opera,
3 Opera House Sydney,
4 Sydney Opera House night,
5 Sydney Opera House sunset,
6 Australia Sydney Opera House,
7 Sydney Opera House bridge,
8 Sidney Opera House,
9 Sydney harbour bridge Opera,
10 Sydney Opera House skyline,

 

But it would only take this:

 

1 Sydney Opera House
2 Sydney Opera
3 Opera House Sydney
4 Sydney Opera House
5 Australia Sydney Opera
6 Sidney Opera House
6 Sydney harbour bridge 

 

Leaving out these words:

 

Sydney Opera House
Sydney Opera
Opera House Sydney
Sydney Opera House night
Sydney Opera House sunset,
Australia Sydney Opera House
Sydney Opera House bridge
Sidney Opera House
Sydney harbour bridge Opera
Sydney Opera House skyline

 

Leaving in twice:

Sydney Opera House.

 

So it broke the single good feature about the new AIM: the only way to put in all keywords in one go in the right order. After upload of course.

 

wim

(quietly sobbing now)

[Betty LaRue]

I'm so sorry, Wim. I wrote and complained about my apple pie images having truncated tags, and the reply didn't help at all, but it was mentioned that I shouldn't have

apple pie slice

Slice apple pie

slice of apple pie

Apple pie piece

Piece apple pie

and so on because that might be considered spamming and hurt my rank. I should have apple pie once.

So Alamy would consider your tags spamming, too.

 

W H A T?

I clearly got different results from the differently ordered tags.

 

Betty

[Jill Morgan]

I'm so sorry, Wim. I wrote and complained about my apple pie images having truncated tags, and the reply didn't help at all, but it was mentioned that I shouldn't have

apple pie slice

Slice apple pie

slice of apple pie

Apple pie piece

Piece apple pie

and so on because that might be considered spamming and hurt my rank. I should have apple pie once.

So Alamy would consider your tags spamming, too.

 

W H A T?

I clearly got different results from the differently ordered tags.

 

Betty

 

Here I am thinking that this is the benefit of the tags - You can put in different search combinations that are frequently used.  I don't see that as spamming, especially when the results in search are different depending on word proximity.  If proximity didn't matter, then we wouldn't need to have tags with different combos. It's just intelligent keywording.

 

Jill

[Matt Ashmore]

I'm so sorry, Wim. I wrote and complained about my apple pie images having truncated tags, and the reply didn't help at all, but it was mentioned that I shouldn't have

apple pie slice

Slice apple pie

slice of apple pie

Apple pie piece

Piece apple pie

and so on because that might be considered spamming and hurt my rank. I should have apple pie once.

So Alamy would consider your tags spamming, too.

W H A T?

I clearly got different results from the differently ordered tags.

Betty

I have to admit, I probably always would have gone with just three tags... "apple pie", "piece" and "slice". All of the phrases above can be created by arranging these three tags. Perhaps I never understood the intricacies of how the search engine used to work.

[Reimar]

 

I'm so sorry, Wim. I wrote and complained about my apple pie images having truncated tags, and the reply didn't help at all, but it was mentioned that I shouldn't have

apple pie slice

Slice apple pie

slice of apple pie

Apple pie piece

Piece apple pie

and so on because that might be considered spamming and hurt my rank. I should have apple pie once.

So Alamy would consider your tags spamming, too.

W H A T?

I clearly got different results from the differently ordered tags.

Betty

I have to admit, I probably always would have gone with just three tags... "apple pie", "piece" and "slice". All of the phrases above can be created by arranging these three tags. Perhaps I never understood the intricacies of how the search engine used to work.

 

 

The problem is none of us know the intricacies of the CURRENT search engine.

[tarsierspectral]

 

I'm so sorry, Wim. I wrote and complained about my apple pie images having truncated tags, and the reply didn't help at all, but it was mentioned that I shouldn't have

apple pie slice

Slice apple pie

slice of apple pie

Apple pie piece

Piece apple pie

and so on because that might be considered spamming and hurt my rank. I should have apple pie once.

So Alamy would consider your tags spamming, too.

W H A T?

I clearly got different results from the differently ordered tags.

Betty

I have to admit, I probably always would have gone with just three tags... "apple pie", "piece" and "slice". All of the phrases above can be created by arranging these three tags. Perhaps I never understood the intricacies of how the search engine used to work.

 

same with me but that's because I never understood how it worked.  Now that I know how it is supposed to work it makes sense to tag the way Betty is tagging.

[Jon Lewis]

Hi Wim

 

 

Thanks for all the hard work but i don't think you or anyone else knows whats going on (i certainly don't) I have a couple of emails into CR about tags will post after resolution .

 

 

 $2445.29 is the worrying bit if you lose out because of a failing system so do Alamy  to the same amount, all the emails I get back seem to be Customer centric not Contributor friendly.

 

 

Regards

 

Jon 

 

Still submitting 

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[Jon Lewis]

Hi All

 

I thought duplicates DID affect rank now Alamy are saying they don't???? 

 

 

"The duplicates will not affect the search engine results or your ranking so it is perfectly fine for you to leave them if you would like to."

 

 

Jon

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[Dave C]

I'm reminded of that line from Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid.  The first rule is there ain't no rules...

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[John Mitchell]

I haven't exactly done extensive research on this, but I don't see any evidence that duplicate keywords in either my "legacy" or new images have had a negative effect on search results.

 

Keep calm and tag sensibly, old chaps. Stiff upper lip and all that rot.

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