Myerson Photo Blog

I’m proud to say that Myerson Photo is now a member of the Northern Pima County Chamber of Commerce. We’ve been to a few functions so far, and it has been a real treat getting to know some of the other member businesses. Events are plentiful and well-attended, so this seems like a vibrant business community to become a part of. I’m hopeful that there will be some things that Myerson Photo can do to help grow the businesses of the other members. There are businesses in all fields - woodworking, business coaches, mortgage lenders, insurance agents, colon hydrotherapy, you name it - so there will be lots of ways that I should be able to help out. Some want professional headshots, some want product shots, and many want event photography.

If you are looking for virtually any kind of business in Northern Pima County, I heartily recommend checking out the business directory at the-chamber.com. The excellent businesses in there represent a great way to spend locally and support your community.

Like any community, the iStock forums have evolved their own peculiar vocabulary of acronyms and terms. Here are some of the more common ones for newcomers and oldtimers alike.

AOTW
Artist of the Week. A weekly honor bestowed upon a contributor who has stood apart from the crowd for some reason. See xOTW.

BM
Best Match. Best Match is one of the search results sort algorithms,  the one that seems to cause the most forum angst. It’s powered by a super secret recipe, the details of which are often the subject of speculation in the forums. Thanks, Karen, for reminding me to include this in the list!

BME (also BDE)
Best Month Ever (Best Day Ever). Commonly seen in the “How were your monthly stats?” threads that tend to pop up as soon as a month ends somewhere in the world. See WME.

CN
Creative Network. Your list of iStock friends, contacts, lovers, and idols.

Crickets
The crippling near-silence that follows a failed attempt at humor, trolling, sympathy, or other forum reaction.

CV
Controlled Vocabulary. This is the lexicon of official tags (keywords) in use on iStock images.

DOTW
Design of the Week. The weekly showcase position in the Designer’s Spotlight. See xOTW.

DL
Download

EL
Extended License

ETA
Edited To Add. Fixed a forum post? Add your little “ETA: ” message at the end to let others know what corrections you made.

F5
The F5 key on Windows machines is the page refresh key. iStockers tend to wear the F5 key down to a dull shiny nub when new announcements are on the horizon, when they’re on the verge of a milestone download, or just any old time, really.

FIOTW
Free Image of the Week. Each Sunday, a new image is offered to the community as a free download. To have an image added to the pool of images considered for the FIOTW honors, please send a sitemail to JJRD. Free downloads do not add to your download count for your next canister, but it does earn you some cool visibility. See xOTW.

H*ck
Once, long ago, there was a splash page on iStock that depicted a character uttering the just-past-censors word “F*ck”. Folks felt that, asterisk or not, this may have been too racy, so it was amended to read H*ck. The splash page eventually vanished (was it a 404 page? a contest? I don’t remember…), but the near-expletive lives on.

HHUR
Heart Heart Unicorn Rainbow. Peebert-only.

IOTW
Image of the Week. Each week, the site admins select one of the newly uploaded images as Best-In-Class. On Sunday, the champion image takes it showcase position on the front page. Along with this honor comes a cool little icon, and a week’s worth of front-page visibility.

Lypse
iStockers tend to congregate, descending on a location like a swarm of photographic locusts for the purposes of camaraderie, cameramanship, and consumption of comestibles and … uhhh… booze. Get togethers planned and executed through iStock HQ are known as iStockalypses. Those put on by the community members are known as mini’lypses.

OP
Original Poster, or Original Post (Thanks Mikael!)

Pimp
Generally frowned on in the forums, this is the act of putting one of your own images into a thread discussion (other than into a thread devoted to critiquing, that is). There is a weekly sanctioned thread devoted to themed pimping, however. See PTOTW.

PTOTW
Pimping Thread of the Week. A weekly forum thread (found in the iStockphoto Discussion area) devoted to letting members pimp their favorite images around a given theme.

UL
Upload

Wiki (v)
To wiki a file, in iStock parlance, is to click the “Report Inaccurate Keywords” link to notify the admins of a poorly keyworded image. Wikiing a file puts it into “Keywords Under Review” status, which prevents further wikiing, but does not impact search results.

WME
Worst Month Ever

xOTW
Something of the Week. See IOTW, DOTW, FIOTW, AOTW, PTOTW

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What did I miss? Throw additions into the comments section, and I’ll get them added up here.