Why my perfectly fine photos being rejected

Hello, Hallo,

Why my perfectly fine photos being rejected when there are many obviously violating the photo rules, such as; very far, buried in something like grass etc., not in the focus, blurred, label not visible, using a poster at the background etc? I can send many examples which were accepted.

Many thanks.

Due to this issue I am considering to delete my account, will everything be deleted automatically? Or should I delete all by myself? I don't want to leave any of my photos here.

I see pictures on your profile though. Could you post the pictures here so we can see what the problem might be?

(By the way, to add pictures in your post or reply, you first post a post/reply and then you can add the pictures when you edit them. Took me a while to figure it out too.)

I mean posting perfume photos, for example these...

I understand the frustration you are going through having went through the same thing myself of having a photo that follows the rules being rejected while watching a set of new photos from someone else being accepted that broke more than one rule ending up on the home page. 

My guess about the 2nd photo you posted is because on the car there are numerous brand decals on it,and one of the rules is not to post for example a Versace bottle with a HUGO bottle because some companies don’t like having another company share the light on promotional photos, so with the car having numerous other brands/companies on it it ended up rejected. 

Not sure about the other 2 tbh. The one with the lions looks fine. Did you post another photo for that same perfume at the same time? We are meant to only post one photo per perfume a day, I know I have seen others end up with 3 photos that looked exactly the same with slight angle changes being accepted while I was rejected, but I have had a day where I was one of the people when I was first new here that was allowed more than one photo for a certain fragrance in a day. This was when I was a new member so it could be that they give new members a pass at first for minor mistakes like that and then expect us to get better at sticking to the rules the longer we go on, or maybe there are more than one person who processes them and it was 2 people accepting the 2 different photos I proposed not realising one had already been approved for me already that day.

The one with the T-Rex may have not been accepted because it’s hazy and hard to make the bottle out, I had one like that which wasn’t accepted. 

Another reason I think some are not accepted is because they maybe have existing photos for the perfume that looks exactly like photos we proposed. I posted some Eros photos that were by the rules but were rejected and I couldn’t understand why ,so I went and looked at some other people’s existing photos and realised someone had posted very similar photos to mine already so they most likely decided they didn’t need any more that looked too alike. So we could be following all the rules but it has another reason behind it like there’s already too many photos for said perfume of the same style. They also could have had numerous photos from more than one person applying to have their photos be accepted in one day and they just can’t accept all of them at once.  

I know it’s frustrating but there is a topic i posted here in the forums for people to post their photos that maybe break a rule for uploading to the perfume profile page but don’t break the rules for posting on the forum. So if you want to get more exposure than just uploading to your profile you could post them to that forum topic and help get it moving again as I seem to be the only one posting on it just now so some new people posting may give it some life. 

I am not staff here so I can’t answer definitively why they were rejected, all I can say is it’s best to move past it and make sure to read the rules before posting more photos because sometimes we miss one when being excited to shown our new work and maybe didn’t read it properly. I know I done that once or twice when I was new here. Also in the forum topic we are free to post photos with more than one brand allowing for more freedom of expression. 

I like some of your photos that have been accepted so I hope you stick around and share more with us 😊

So great to hear that I'm not the only one with so much confusion about Parfumo photo system... I already wrote about it here as I spotted that the OP had deleted his account and thought that this thread will be deleted. I made a suggestion, that for saving everybody's time and effort and to increase transparency, Parfumo could have a system that rules are numbered and every time when the photo is rejected, the user will get an automatic notification which rule the photo broke so the user could avoid that in the future.

Well, another story...a couple of days ago I got some messages from a photo moderator and those got me extremely discouraged and thus I haven't cared to post any new photos for days. I was even considering to delete all my existing photos but then I was thinking that probably, and hopefully, the opinions of this moderator are only personally their own and don't represent whole Parfumo.

It all started when a couple of my photos were rejected again, and as you all know, we have no other chance than trying to guess what has been wrong. During one photoshoot I take several photos so usually I'll try again with a different photo from the same photoshoot or re-crop and re-edit the rejected photo. Mostly my guess about the wrong light/edit or too far crop has been correct and the photo has gone through on the second time, and I know several other users are doing the same too. But now I got a warning from a moderator that I shouldn't re-submit same rejected photos for second time. I replied, confused, that I haven't done that and asked for checking again that all my submitted my photos were re-edited or different photos from the same photoshoot. I asked if that's really not allowed, and if it isn't, why there's no mention about it in the rules. I got no answer for several days. Then I sent a new message and told how much I appreciate the volunteer work that moderators do and told I understand that they are busy but to me it feels like lousy customer service to first accuse a user and after that not answering their questions. I, very politely, elaborated the same suggestion about the photo rules that I had made in that other thread too. I told that we users are also volunteers and we spend a lot of time and effort trying to improve Parfumo by adding quality content here, which should be appreciated. The answer I got was basically (direct quotes) "your claim for a prompt reply and customer service here is just brazen" and "I don't want to continue the discussion about your attitude of entitlement". 😳 Also this person repeated their claim that I had submitted same rejected pictures (which I didn't do!) and that it's "disrespectful". Wow. Kinda similar dismissive attitude towards user feedback and suggestions like Fragrantica has, so hopefully this really doesn't represent whole Parfumo. 🤷

But the other thing this moderator said got me thinking.... They said that Parfumo is a free platform and deserves the right to not publish content. Does that mean that also pictures that are not against the rules might be rejected anyway for any random reason, for example just because a particular moderator doesn't personally like the pic or something... That would definitely clarify the secrecy why any hints of the reasons for rejecting pics can't be given. To me it's perfectly fine that a free platform of course chooses its content. However, for the sake of transparency and to save everybody's nerves, it would be great addition to the rules that "if your photo has nothing against these rules, it still might get rejected anyway" or something like that.

I know i have not done any photos or art for a while but the numbering system sounds like a great idea. It would surely help both people on the sorting team and the users. If we know what we are doing wrong and can then avoid it in the future, then that would mean less work for the sorting staff because they would potentially get less work that has problems with it meaning less time looking through errors.

I have been on both sides of the table here having owned my own art websites and helped run many friends art websites in the past with forums where we had people apply to be on the art team or on one site just simply be allowed to post work at all as we were creating a professional site with monthly art packages and the hardest thing i had to do was say no to one of my best friends because we chose as a team rather than one person having the full choice to say yes or no to a person which was a way of negating people bypassing the rules by using their friendship with me personally to get in because it was my site. To be clear i am not saying that is happening here, i am just saying i know how difficult it is on both sides through that experience, but at the same time there were other sites that i applied to which didn't accept my work also, so i understand from both sides what it is to be the person choosing and the person to be rejected. The one thing that did help was obviously sticking to my own rules, but sometimes things will slip through the cracks and users will notice and wonder why they were rejected while someone else got theirs accepted even when they got through the rules while breaking them, i have had to deal with that situation myself, and we are never going to get it right 100% of the time. It's sad when someone leaves because as an artist yourself you sometimes see the potential in someone you had to say no to and hoped to help them get to the point of being considered for our monthly art packages or just to be in the artistry team. It's a shame the OP of this topic seems to have left, i did try to help him and i think the numbering system would help by giving an answer to allow artists to know "OK I have done that wrong, now i will go try to correct it" and hopefully then both Parfumo gets some new cool photos for fragrances that maybe don't have any yet and artists get their work shown to people .

I think the numbering system Lempi suggested sounds like a good idea. I wish we had thought of something similar back when i was running those sites, I don't know if @DonVanVliet you have time to implement such a system but i remember you took the time to look in to one of my prior suggestions so i know you are always open and happy to look in to suggestions and this sounds like a good one for both the staff here and users. Maybe if you don't have time personally with running both the English and Dutch side, there is one of the other staff who would be up for the task? I presume you have a staff section of the forum we don't see that this project could be proposed to any of the staff members who also see it as a way to make things easier for both themselves and the people doing the art they may take it on.

In the end it is up to you, i just thought i would share my insight from being in the position of everyone that is involved in this kind of system and the main thing i see that would benefit for all involved is time. Sure, it would take a little time to implement the number ruling system, but it would then give both the artists and the staff more time in the future for the reasons i mentioned previously. It would also hopefully not lead to situations where people want to leave, as i am loving seeing the English side of Parfumo being so active.

Maybe there is an angle i am not seeing, as it has been 13 years since i last ran a website, and they were nowhere near as big as Parfumo.

Anyway, sorry for such a lengthy post on a Friday evening, lol. I hope it is of some value in any way.

Have a good one everybody

I understand that the mods don't want to have long discussions about every single photo that got rejected, so they use that "no explanation" clause to avoid that. Accusing someone of resubmitting the same pic when they didn't is not great, but mistakes can happen, especially when the photos are similar. What I don't understand is the doubling down and overreaction when Lempi asked for clarification on this! Especially because she already posted a lot of photos that not only got approved, but also get lots of positive feedback from other users.

Thank you so much @Mitchcraft and @DogiCoco for your support, and I totally agree with you both! 

Exactly, couldn't agree more. I too definitely understand that giving detailed information to all users about the exact reasons for rejection would take too much time and resources, so that's why I was thinking that the numbering system I suggested would probably be helpful in the future. And I understand that probably they missed that the photos I submitted were different because they looked a little bit similar than the previous rejected ones, of course mistakes like this happen. (Though they repeated the claim I was submitting exactly same photos even after I tried to explain that I didn't... 🤷) 

But yeah, FYI to all users who don't know it yet, after my latest message to this thread I got banned for submitting any new photos. I have only asked questions and made suggestions and tried my best to be polite and express myself kindly and reasobably. I'm used to make all things clear by discussing peacefully but instead of any answers I just got banned. 😳 Just like DogiCoco I indeed think that this is an overreaction and feels quite extreme to me.

I also got banned for submitting any photos without any explanation, i followed the guidelines when posting photos, and a lot of my photos also get positive feedback from users.

@Lempi Is this ban permanent?

What really? Wow, this is getting weird now 😳 Thank you so much for informing us about your situation @Marcgeurts. I have no idea if the ban is temporary or permanent, I have had it for about a week now and still can't submit any photos. And no explanation or any message how long it will last. I wouldn't have even known that I am banned if I hadn't noticed it myself because no one told nothing about it. What on earth is going on here?

My wife's account (@MiaMadeleine) also got banned from posting photo's (she also has a lot of positive feedback from her photo's, and followed the guidelines, if you look at her photo's, they are just good photos in my opinion).

We don't upload each others photos, and both don't have a clue why we are blocked...

I got banned without getting any info about it. I was so frustrated that I wrote a mail to the support team. I‘m still waiting for a reply. I also would like to know for how long I am banned/we are banned. if it should be permanent I‘m thinking about to delete my account because I don’t understand this hard measure. I feel like being treated like a person who did something really bad. And I don’t like it when people are misusing their power.

@Marcgeurts & @MiaMadeleine Oh wow, both of you too... This is very odd. 😲 And I'm so sorry that this happened to all of us, I totally agree with you MiaMadeleine. Now I'm starting to think if this is a some kind of glitch and not even a ban. But if that's the case, why anyone isn't answering anything? I also sent a PM to the admin about a week ago but still got no answer. Let's see what happens, maybe they are just busy and will answer later. But indeed if this isn't a glitch and such irrational unexplained bans are happening here to several people and no one is answering, I'm definitely not going to stay either.

Thank you, please let us know if you get any feedback/response, we will do the same. I'm a software developer, it's definitely not a glitch or bug.

When I look at your profile and perfume photos (beautiful btw), you also don't strike me as a person who doesn't follow the guidelines. 

This website is only as good as the community who joins/uses it, which makes me understand even less why people who only contribute in a positive way get blocked...

Hi dear members,

In the last few days extreme strange things have been happening in the accounts of several members I have noticed with great sadness. I read about almost hostile acts such as penalties, restrictions, bans, deletion of photos that members have taken with their personal effort, wasting personal time for the sake of the site that some dear members of the community of the european Parfumo have experienced without any rational approach or competent justification on the part of the Parfumo Team and this does not sound nice at all. The members are an integral part of the community and have come here to support the effort european Parfumo is making to grow in the field of perfume and they do so in good spirit and with sincere feelings. Why do they accept this kind of behaviour without having committed any misconduct or any violation of the rules ?. Why do some people treat members in this cold manner ?. These things do not sound nice at all, especially when they happen in the community of the european Parfumo, whose members make a personal effort to develop like its bigger german sister. My personal belief is that the solution to any kind of misunderstanding is found in an appreciative dialogue and good will and courtesy on both sides. Extreme punitive actions lead nowhere but to misunderstandings and unpleasant incidents.

Speaking of unpleasant incidents a few hours ago I experienced a similar one while visiting the german Parfumo site (which I visit for obvious reasons because it is more active and out of curiosity to see what topics the german site hosts) at noon and in a discussion that was going on at that time in the "ticker" about the duration of fragrances three (3) members verbally attacked me because I had a different opinion than theirs about a fragrance. On the occasion of this trivial fact they attacked me by belittling my inability to write in german and almost told me to leave from their page. Also another male member brazenly used a derogatory description of me, calling me a "reptile" and laughed in my face 🤬I only wrote one sentence that their act was rude which is and is objectively unacceptable and reprehensible and my sentence was deleted while the members who were internet bullying and mocking me continued to write undisturbed without any penalty being assigned to their accounts for their actions, and shortly afterwards I was given a penalty of not being able to participate in the "titcker" discussions and then my profile pictures were also deleted. I received an abstract, faceless email stating the justification that I had broken the rules. 🙄I imagine that the members who attacked me in this unacceptable way were abiding by them. This in my eyes looks like discrimination towards me and a targeted attack on me by whoever imposed the penalties on my profile and caused me this unwelcome inconvenience and I would like them to reconsider their decisions and to take back the penalties that put to my account and image profile for no reason and from now on impose penalties on those who violate Parfumo's rules and harass members. This is a useful thing to do.

Multiculturalism is part of democracy and democracy is a constitution that allows diversity to express itself freely in any way it wants and without infringing personal rights or apologising for what languages we speak or do not speak, what fragnances we like or do not like and what sex orientation we have as individuals. This is nobody's business and we shouldn't have to apologize for it to anybody. Whatever country we come from and whatever language we speak here on this site shouldn't matter at all. Full stop. It is rude to do so and increases discrimination between members and this act is unacceptable. I hope that those who have not understood this by now will understand this and correct their actions towards members who have been wronged, mocked and given penalties that should not have even been given. If things are different then Parfumo is no different from other similar fragrance sites and will disappoint many members.

My two unscented cents
Regards

Thank you so much @Marcgeurts, and again I completely agree! And that's very interesting information. So something very weird is indeed happening here now. Many thanks for your beautiful compliments too, and I also checked your and @MiaMadeleine's profiles and you both have only beautiful pictures and positive feedback so I have no idea what could be wrong. Also we all three are quite new members here so that makes it even more odd because if us as new users have missed some of the rules or something, shouldn't we get some advice and information first, not straight bans... 🤔 This is so confusing.

@Nidodelia First of all, tons of thanks for your support too 🙏 I completely agree with you also. And I'm terribly sorry that such things have happened to you too at the German site! That's very rude, unacceptable and unfair! I have got a couple of questionable comments on my photos too so it is very odd that people who are disrespectful to other members can keep commenting while people who are just peacefully discussing are getting deleted, silenced and banned basically for no reason. 😳 Quite shocking really. I truly hope that these unjustified things will get fixed here at Parfumo asap and the moderators will notice this discussion and give some explanation.

Dear @Lempi i was mad and i stiil am and i this is almost embarrasing for the image of german parfumo which the official home - page of Parfumo since it constructed before the european page and it should give the good example to eurpean members. The words that i saw those specific three members wrote on the "ticker" were ugly especially that man who dared to call me a "reptile" made me sick!!. Ughhh..  I was targeted with no reason it was like someone just because.. attacked to me without doing something wrong but i was mistreated like i did which is a big lie. I agree with @MiaMadeleine about the mis or over use their power and act like they can do anything they want without limits which is also wrong. Everyone have to apply the rules. I hope the reasonable team of Parfumo find the blamer who did those acts towards to members and restore the problems and penalties. I still cannot see the ticker. 

Thank you both!

I also had a review of mine deleted, but for this I actually received a reason why: "AI generated content".

Even though my wife helped me translate it sentence for sentence to translate my words to German (she is German, I am not), I can prove this with screenshots, because she typed it on her phone, and sent it to me, so I could copy and paste it. I was not able to contest it, and I also just left it, because it was just one incident, and I am still able to post reviews.

But being blocked from contributing without any explanation, very harsh, and continuing treating all users like this, would be the end of this website. 

I hope more people will join this topic so that one of the admins or moderators actually read this topic, and takes action to help us, because we do like this website, and want it to thrive instead of it losing it's good content creators.

Dear @Marcgeurts i am sorry to read that your review was deleted because it was falsely believed it was an AI review. The style of writing AI texts is easy to be detected and your text was translated and this fact is totally different from what the administrators claimed in their justification to you for removing your review which you spent time on writting it and the effort your wife put to translate the text. Acts like yours should be recognised and not punished by extreme acts like deletion. Your public reference to this unpleasant fact is discouraging for people who speak languages ​​other than german like me for instance, I speak english and some other languages also except german and i am greek so for what reason i sould be punished (; ) the same apply for members who are from Spain, Portugal, Ukraine etc. and don't speak german at all but they write in english so what is the problem i am wondering. This is european page and it should be understoond that we write in english because it is easy and convinient to communicate with each other and that's why this page exists to host european members. Personally I was meaning to write some reviews and have saved some to documents on my p.c (to edit and post when I'm done writing them) but now with what I'm hearing I don't know if I want to do it if there is one treatment of non-german members. It sounds like discrimination and it is derogatory to the european members of Parfumo and that's really bad.

Furthermore i visited your profile and @MiaMadeleine 's profile also and i was looking at photos you uploaded both and i found them creative and beautiful and also the comments from other members down of your photos are positive. So I see no reason why they denied you no to mention ban you from upload photos of fragnances. I was thinking of upload some photos of a few fragnanes some time in the future but reading what happened to you i don't have the desire to do it thinking of i will have the same unpleasant situation like you all had.  I came to this fragnance site with the hope to find calmness, to chill and to be to a positive enviroment with friendly members and i got penalties and bans instead and these acts are not welcomed nor tolerable by me. Who ever is responsible for this unpleasant situation, he will have to rethink what he wants the Perfumo to be. Otherwise it will be empty.

Wow. These unfair issues here went so much further than I originally thought, I actually assumed that they had just something personal against me but seems that these mysterious bans and deletions are much more common here than I could imagine. I 100 % support everything you said both @Nidodelia and @Marcgeurts. Parfumo can still fix this though and get things right so let's hope they will hear us users now, it would be extremely important for the future of this site. It would benefit everybody if especially the English site would be more active, silence and silencing is never a good option.

@Kurai Can this get moved In to the feedback and suggestions please so that it gets the proper attention it deserves. 

Please @DonVanVliet can you address this?

Either there is a bug on the site with people unable to upload or if they are being suspended or permanently banned at the least they should be told so they know their situation. 

If they are indeed banned let them know, if it’s a suspension please tell them so and how long for. 

If it’s a bug which I really hope it is please let them know so people don’t leave thinking they are being punished when it’s an error in the coding or something. 

You was so happy not that long ago how the English side of the site is getting lots of activity. Please don’t throw this away with silence. 

I hope so too Lempi but let's see.. To chose a beaviour to remain silent or to ignore basic issues like penalties or deletion of reviews, while thinking that it does not matter or it will be forgotten by tommorow it is not the proper way to fix the disturbance. The consequences are visible to us and to the majority of members who perhaps migh be the next ones to experience the same mistreatment and unfair acts we had. We communicate in public the problems we have and confront with our accounts which it was not our fault at all because our will is to be solved and someone hopefully can fix them. We don't write to write i hope it is undestoond by the readers. There is a problem going on here and it would be nice if someone can take act and make things right. I was accused out of nowhere that i don't follow the regulations and my profile image was deleted which doesen't make any sense and to this point i will repeat again that many member have a random image on their profile like a cute kitten, or an owl or of some super famous actor/singer they like or a random object xyz you name it and their image profile is still on as it should be and this make me wonder why specificaly my profile image was deleted as it was to the exact same content like other members use images to upload to their profile accounts. Mine was picked because someone wanted to misuse his power?. Was i the lucky one to be picked today by someone complete stranger who had something else on his mind and wanted react on me?. Well, this is not my problem and to be completely honest i don't need those kind of behaviours in my life needles to say on a net page and i would appreciate it if could be fixed and i and all the members who suffered the frustration could return to my/our cool mood. Thank you in advance. 

Thank you for this comment

It's definitely not a bug, the post request that's behind the 'submit' button, is returning a response that confirms that for me. (sorry, I'm a nerd).

I agree with you and hope they will read and act on this, blocking people who only want to make this site bigger, is not the way to go!

Hi everyone,

Let me repeat that I fully agree with @Lempi 's suggestion to accompany a photo rejection with a brief explanation or a reference to which rule was broken. I will keep this in mind while I do moderation myself as well as forward the suggestion.

Regarding the individual upload bans, I cannot comment because it is outside of my control/influence. If you feel you are wrongfully treated, I suggest to use the complaint form in this case. That may be a more effective way than the open forum to settle the dispute.

The comment by @Nidodelia about being harassed shocks me because such behavior is simply unacceptable and should be reported. The community rules are very clear about this.

As a mod I can try to mediate or -in the case of harassment- I can take measures even though my resources are limited. In any case, please feel free to reach out.