Boring but necessary announcements

Happy holidays

Alan Capel - Head of Content — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 11:28:00 GMT

© dov makabawWe wanted to let you know that the Alamy Content team will be operating with reduced staff levels over the festive period. Response times on queries sent to Member Services will be longer than usual. QC times will also be longer as per our previous blog.

We apologise for any inconvenience caused.

Here at Alamy we are excited about the future, our News service is growing rapidly and we'll be adding Stock Video in 2012. We continue to grow in an industry that has its challenges but continues to offer up new opportunities for our photographers and picture providers.Thank you for your continued support and for being instrumental in helping us achieve our goals.

We'd like to take this opportunity to wish all of our contributors a very happy holiday season and here's to a great 2012.

Best wishes,

The Alamy Content team

2011 Christmas QC times

Alamy Quality Control team. — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 11:46:00 GMT

24th - 27th December 2011
31st December - 2nd January 2012

Quality Control (QC) times will take longer than usual. Turnaround times will be back to normal by the 11th January.We apologise for any delays experienced during this period.

A very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from the QC team.

Scheduled downtime this weekend

Alan Capel - Head of Content — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 15:30:00 GMT

We need to undertake some essential maintenance on Saturday the 26th of November. During this time the entire Alamy site will be unavailable including all the contributor facing elements (upload, manage images etc). The work is scheduled to run from 2.30 am (UK time) through to 7.30 am (UK time).

Please note that we will still be able to receive News images via FTP during this downtime.

We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause. We'll be making sure the site is back up and running as soon as possible but we cannot guarantee that it will not take longer.

To avoid any possible complications for any uploads during this time, we recommend for you to not start uploading any images close to 2.30 am (UK time) on the 26th as they may fail to reach us if they are still uploading during the time that the work starts.

Search engine will not update on Friday 9th Sept

Alan Capel - Head of Content — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 09:05:00 GMT

Unfortunately the Alamy search engine will not update on Friday 9th September. This means that the next update will be Monday 12th September. Apologies for the inconvenience.

Changes to the Alamy Contributor Contract

James Allsworth - Video Content Executive — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 11:55:00 GMT

We've updated the standard Alamy Contributor Contract in order to include definitions and clauses for both our upcoming offerings in video and news content.

You can view the full contract here.
You can view a summary of changes here.
You can view a directory of our previous contract changes here.

Other than the odd grammar tidy up, nothing else has been changed.

We have also sent an email to you regarding these changes which you should receive at some point today . If you don't receive this, can you please make sure your details are up to date (as per your contractual obligation) and also make sure that any emails from us are not being blocked by any junk mail filters you may have.

As usual, if you have any questions, feel free to email Member Services who will be happy to help. During UK office hours, they have a fantastic average response time of less than one hour.

Also, for up to the minute news, musings and interesting links, be sure to follow @alamycontent on Twitter. We've also got a Facebook page you can now 'like' - so please come and say hello.

Longer QC times over the Easter

The Content Team — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 09:46:00 GMT

© Gabe PalmerOver the Easter period and owing to the extra bank holiday this year Quality Control (QC) times may take longer than usual, some submissions may take up to 14 days to go through QC from 22nd April.

Turnaround times will be back to normal by the 6th of May. Member Services email support will be available during these dates but response times may be longer than usual due to reduced cover. We apologise for any delays experienced during this period.

Happy Easter from all the Content team here at Alamy.

PsychicSearch - Alamy announces an extraordinary breakthrough in search technology

Nick Rankin - Head of Searchology — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 08:59:00 GMT

An extraordinary breakthrough in search technology

Searching is at the heart of everything we do at Alamy. Our business is selling pictures, yet we are reliant on words to find them. We always believed there could be a simpler alternative.

For the last 5 years our team of highly skilled search technicians have been working on an innovative new way to search for images which will revolutionise the stock photography industry.

Watch our short video below to see how PsychicSearch works.

We are looking for feedback from our valued customers and contributors. To try this amazing technology, you will need:

a bluetooth headset
a bluetooth enabled computer

Please contact psychicsearch@alamy.com for more information.

New Email system in place, don't mistake us for spam!

Alan Capel - Head of Content — Fri, 11 Mar 2011 15:00:00 GMT

We have introduced a new email system which will improve how we communciate with contributors.

This does mean that emails you get from Alamy in the future may look unfamiliar.

You may also see links with some additional info in them which will look like this "http://alamy.msgfocus.com/c/11vPIiPuh2Y6i" again please don't be alarmed, these links just help our tracking and email management.

Many thanks

Thumbnail problem

Alan Capel - Head of Content — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 17:13:00 GMT

Apologies to all contributors who have experienced problems with thumbnails failing to load in Manage Images. We are working on a resolution and are hopeful that it will be sorted by tomorrow. Thank you for your patience.

Cut Out is cut out

Alan Capel - Head of Content — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 09:40:00 GMT

We identify 'Cut Outs' for our customers by a technical process rather than taking the info provided by contributors. We have been doing this for some time now and it gives much better results. The option for customers to filter by 'Cut Outs' remains.

This has the added advantage of removing this step in the annotation process. Don't panic, we are not moving towards a 'Terminator' scenario where technology is taking over completely! In this case, as it saves contributor's time and improves results for customers, it was an easy decision to make.