Example of how the review process on GraphicRiver is stupid or biased

First of all, just wanted to say that the second flyer is just an example, I believe that the author of that design is a good designer, but that this particular design is not that good in my opinion.

Rejected:

Accepted:

(Removed)

Maybe you are not so sure because this is my own opinion.

Well, let’s compare the design elements and give some arguments of why the first design is better:

The background:

Design 1: I think the background is colorful, current to trends and looks nice

Design 2: Simple, bland, common

The typography:

Design 1: Nice fonts, good contrast between the chosen fonts, in size as well as in color and style

Design 2: Common fonts, fast and crude, not much thought given to typography

The pictures:

Design 1: Nice selection, carefully designed background for the pictures, so that they pop from the design

Design 2: Fast and crude cutout, badly chosen picture in my opinion, you can see the extra white pixels on the edges of the chosen picture. Only for that, the design should have been at least soft rejected, given the new alleged stringent review requirements

Overall look:

Design 1: Grabs attention, current to trends, colorful, looking great

Design 2: Too simple (simple is good, too simple is not good) common design, the only element that is somewhat original is the typography on the right side of the picture, but even that makes the design look unbalanced.

So I am saying that the review process on graphicriver is either stupid, because they accept bad designs which in time will have less sales than other better designs which are rejected, or they are biased, which is not fair and plain wrong.

Not convinced yet ? OK, let’s assume that neither design is better than the other. So maybe they are both bad designs. Then why one of them is accepted, and the other rejected ?

What do you think the reason is ?

By the way, did any of you get soft rejections in the last few weeks ?

Thanks.

I think you won’t get accurate answer for this problem. I will give you example, on the envato elements forum where I am author (contributor) too I am reading some scary posts every day where people are saying they got 100 or even more than 200 good selling designs deleted from envato elements with no reason, no even one word of explanations except “low quality” etc.

So here on the market one rejection is piece of cake, believe me.

Improve your design and try again and try to not copy anybody works, some of the authors on graphicriver are reviewers too :slight_smile: If you got hard rejected make it new, if you got soft rejected read information from reviewer, after improvements (after soft rejection) according to reviewer information you have 95% chance to get accepted.

good luck.

Thank you for the answer !

I’m not expecting an “accurate reply”, as you say. I lost any hope already to get any explanation from envato about this kind of things, based on recent developments in their policy towards the authors on GraphicRiver and other Envato marketplaces.

This post was just to show an example, as you can read from the title.

An example to illustrate a fact, with evidence, so that people will not say: you’re making this up, it’s not true, etc The example is right here.

The fact I’m trying to illustrate is that the review process is wrong, at least for some authors, and maybe benefiting others, therefore not fair.

And your example of thousands of items being deleted versus 1 item being rejected does not negate my statement. You actually kind of accept the fact that what I’m saying is true.

And thank you for the advice. “Work harder, in the end you will get better” etc

I actually appreciate you taking the time to reply to my post.

Even if that is the most common advice people get in threads like this one.

That may be a good advice in a marketplace that is fair, but what about the times, like this, when a design that is better is getting rejected, and an inferior design is being accepted ?

You said: “some of the authors on graphicriver are reviewers too”

That may be one of the reasons why the review process is not fair for some and benefiting others.

No this is no the reason why some items are rejected. I know who is the author and reviewer on GR (you can always check this by yourself in comments to reviewed item) and believe me, there are some authors / reviewers who accepted my items maybe 100 times or more :slight_smile:

What I want to say is when you have item rejected do not give up, when you have 10 or 15 items hard rejected then you need to think about what is the issue.

And last word about this envato elements - there are authors who do their work, their work is selling (they can see this in monthly reports) and their items are deleted, hundrets of them in short period of time - and those items are same on the market, need hours to be done. So imagine you made 150 items, you spend 5 hours for each item in average, so 750 hours of work deleted :slight_smile: (this is about 93 days of work gone!)

Elements is just example :slight_smile: to show you, one rejection is not the reason to be upsett - it is annoying but this is a boost - that’s what I think :slight_smile:

Really - do this item again. Put this item aside, make other one and go back to this flyer again in next 2 weeks - it will be approved :slight_smile:

Thank you for your encouragement !

Unfortunately, the flyer in this thread has been hard rejected, so I can’t submit it again, as stated in the review comment:

“Thank you for your submission. We have completed our review of the flyer and unfortunately we found it isn’t at the quality standard required to move forward, and you won’t be able to re-submit this item again.”

You said:

“and believe me, there are some authors / reviewers who accepted my items maybe 100 times or more :slight_smile:

I’m talking about some items of certain authors that are not up to quality standards, being accepted by the reviewers.

Indeed, having hundreds of items being deleted is very discouraging, but that only emphasizes the fact that there’s something wrong with the review process at envato and especially with their communication, as you say they give no explanation when deleting the items.

If their actions would be justified with true and honest explanations, like giving a reason for deleting an item, people would not be so upset.

Envato, remember, an empire is built on people, and if those people decide that enough is enough, that empire has already fallen. So, take care of your people, and do something to make amends with your authors.
That means at least give us some explanations for your changes and actions, we will understand.

There are enough authors already unpleased with your policies and actions in the last few years.

I really like envato, and I really hope that things will improve.

That’s why I made this thread.

contact me if you want real advice :slight_smile:

hey buddy , sorry to tell u just that, no doubt that u have tried to do your best and put some time and effort in your item but let’s face it, none are good enough to be accepted with a decent quality control process … though i definitely like yours more han the other one, indeed, both are too simple, both backgrounds are too flat (lacking of depth) and not worked out enough … both styles are minimalistic and if u ask me , honestly i am wandering why some people buy something like this , as this is easy to do by themselves …

i tend to believe that yours is better font wise though if u had taken one of the basic design principles (contrast) more into account, your title would be more outstanding and the global work would be better too. In the other one there is no typo combination and texts are placed anarchically, this is completely missed …

yours is better organized and the general occupation of the available space is better, there is more balance. Though the model u use on the right looks as if it has been pasted there (and coming out of the blue), the models u are using are better than the horrible one in the neon one

in other words, if your item is better overall , no doubt in my view, there are many things still to improve all the same, at this stage it still remains simple and can be easily perfected and i can personally identify why it has been rejected this far … with some additional little work u can take it to the next step though and thus manage to resubmit and expect it to be accepted indeed

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What do you mean by real advice ?

The advice that you give in the thread is not real ?:grinning:

Thank you for your honest critique. I am aware that the design can be improved. Any design can be made better.

As I said, unfortunately, the flyer has been hard rejected, so I can’t re-submit it again.

But let’s assume that they are both equally bad designs (even if I believe, and you confirm this in your post, that of the two, the second design is of less quality than the first).

What is upsetting is that if we consider the two designs equally bad, that one gets accepted and the other gets rejected.

That is the problem. So, what is the cause of the problem ? Where should we look for a solution ?

My opinion is that the review process is the problem, and should be improved.

And that’s the whole point of this thread.

The review process is stupid or biased.

Out of interest (not a criticism - just curiosity):

As every item is going to be unique and individual, and there has to be a degree of subjectivity in reviews; how should envato unify or determine fixed criteria to prevent it being “stupid or biased”?

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yes i can understand either what u tried to explain and how u are feeling as this is a feeling that the whole of us have experienced or experience on regular basis indeed

however do not try to make me say what i did not say lol i told u that your item is better, there are thus not equal, now that did not mean that either one or the other did deserve to make it for sale as such …

once again, i reiterate what i was saying, yes u can re-submit, but to be able to do this u need to bring significant changes to your work … this is exactly what i was suggesting that u bring the changes i said about the backrgound and a few other things … once u have made these changes u can surely resubmit

LOL Charlie are u aware that there are basic design principles that all authors are supposed to follow? the problem is that in a great variety of cases , things that are approved do not follow these principles … when they are the criterias that u are talking about … contrast, proximity, repetition, etc …

the example that @prowebmedia emphasized was a good one for that matter … proximity, there is none … contrast, not that much, repetition , this is nowhere to be seen … alignment? where is there alignment , the text is spread anarchically … balance, really there is some here? lol

now u are definitely right there is something subjective in what we all do anyway as the artistic part inside of it is bringing all sorts of emotions and feelings to people who are facing the concerned creations

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So we agree then that the reviews are being subjective.

Subjectivity means it’s biased, so I think you agree with me.

That should not be the case in a fair marketplace, because it helps some authors and makes things more difficult for others.

“how should envato unify or determine fixed criteria to prevent it being “stupid or biased”?”

By comparing two designs not on subjectivity but on design principles. Design principles are not subjective.

You can say what you want, this is supposed to be the kind of place where everyone should speak his or her mind. I won’t mind. It may actually help me. I agree, maybe neither design deserved to get accepted. But then why one of them got accepted ?

That is the problem: two bad designs get treated differently.

The problem is subjectivity, as charlie4282 said, and that should not be present in a fair and professional marketplace.

apart from global coherence the thing is also much about the fact of explaining the reasons why things are being rejected so that , whether they agree or not, people feel like there are sone things that are not good enough … this way people would also feel like they do not lose their time and item , too … that would change it all in my view

But I don’t understand how subjectivity can’t come into it?

Even when it comes to design principals or best practice - there maybe some glaringly great or glaringly awful items but it will never always be that clear-cut.

  • What happens if you (or anyone else) and the reviewer disagrees?
  • What makes you right and them wrong?
  • What makes you wrong and them right?
    It is just subjective.
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I actually made a post regarding this issue not long ago in this forum.

Giving an explanation for the rejection would help a lot and make designers feel more motivated to improve.

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You are right, a little subjectivity will always be present, that is human.

But that will not influence a decision in such a measure that a glaringly bad design will get accepted, if the review process is taking into consideration even the most basic design principles when reviewing a design.

The second design in this thread should not have been accepted even a few years ago, when the requirements were much less strict.

It’s just bad design.

And no matter how subjective one is, it’s clear that it should have not been accepted if the review process was based on the most basic design principles, as I said earlier in this post.

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yes but the thing is that they would have to justify what cannot be … lol

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yes but does anyone here knows about them? lol

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