There's been a lot of justifiable anger over the rampant plagiarism that keeps happening at SS, along at other microstock sites.

Just know that the plagiarism isn't happening in spite of every agency's best efforts to prevent it, but openly tolerated by Big Tech, including YouTube. The plagiarism is a form of insurance in case of a popular contributor closes their account. If they, for instance, happened to do very well in a niche topic or image and they leave, the derivative content takes their place.

It's amazing to me that creatives don't realize this. Until laws are passed heavily legislating platforms like SS and Big Tech in general, there will never be such a thing as not being ripped off. The entire ecosystem is designed for it.

For years now, I have believed that SS's payout structure was never anything more than a pyramid scheme designed to get the vast majority of contributors to crank out photos on the promise that if they worked hard enough, they'd become a high money earner. Meanwhile, there was never a chance in hell that they'd become that, because the search algorithm was rigged so that only a few people would get the lion's share of revenue.

Why put this pyramid scheme in place? So that people would be carrot stick'ed into providing the bulk of the site's content without being compensated fairly, based on the logic that their work wasn't "good enough" to earn money.

The problem with that "not good enough to earn well" logic--to play Devil's Advocate--is that even if that were true, SS has been clearly using the prodigious output of contributions as "product" to boost its valuation in the eyes of investors and VCs. After all, why else would it have that counter boasting how many images it has and get uploaded weekly?

So, I really think there needs to be a criminal investigation into this. By carrot sticking contributors to "work hard," SS was basically getting them to act as laborers, in the sense of working round the clock day in, day out to crank out "product" that could be used as a selling point.

Any thoughts?

So, it's been a week since SS dropped its bombshell announcement. The most frustrating thing to me about this entire affair isn't the announcement but the stubborn refusal on so many people to wake up and realize that all of these crowdsourcing sites and platforms offering people "opportunities" are part of an elaborate scam.

How do I know this is all a scam? I was part of many similar "crowdsourcing/affiliate marketing/make money at home" ventures going back to 2000 (yes, that far back). And what I noticed over the years is that what seems to be an isolated "bad decision" at one site's part is always part of a larger industry-wide trend/pattern playing across multiple platforms in the exact same way.

For example, starting in 2019, other sites have also "pulled an SS." After spending years encouraging people to work their fingers to the bone, sites like Amazon, YouTube, etc. also started slashing rates for their oldest, most dedicated contributors and affiliates. 

Is it coincidence? No. It's all part of a long, elaborate con by ALL of these sites. It works something like this:

1. Create a tech platform enticing people to join, convincing them that they're going to "be their own bosses" and make more money than if they had gone through old school/traditional channels (stock agencies, ad agencies, publishing houses, etc.).

2. Pay them just enough money to make joining worthwhile, but not what they are really worth. Convince them that they'll eventually earn what they're worth if they "chase the carrot" (as in work even harder than ever in the way of "volume.")[/li][/list]

3. Design the platform's algorithm or pay structure in such a way where payout works like a pyramid scheme, where only a few contributors/affiliates/gig workers really make money to become financially independent. Trot these high earners out to further encourage the vast majority of contributors to chase the carrot, as in, "If you work even harder for us, you'll be making $1M a year, too!" Sit back and watch as the vast majority of contributors, affiliates, etc. wind up building 98% of the business while being paid pennies.

4. Go public and get valuated at $10B or more on Wall Street.

5. Start acquiring other businesses to boost valuation and profit.

6. Flush with cash, start cutting the lowest members of the pyramid scheme--the very people who built your business--off. Except instead of having the guts to say, "We just used you all to help build our business and don't need you anymore," do the passive-aggressive thing of slashing commission and rates to discourage them into quitting.

What is the point of me posting this?

1. If you're going to delete or disable your portfolio, do it for the right reasons. Definitely do it out of self respect, because you value your time, etc. But don't do it thinking that you're "sticking" it to SS and will tank the company. SS and all of these other companies purposely slashed its rates to make you leave and have all their ducks in a row financially. Even if SS tanked, everyone there made more money than God, so would be laughing to the bank, anyway.

2. Don't even think of "jumping ship" to Adobe or any other site. The reason why I say that is that all of these gig/crowdsourcing companies are the same. They're just at different stages of "the con." Meaning, they may look good to you because they haven't slashed rates. But they haven't slashed rates because they're haven't reached that stage of the con...yet. In two years, three years, maybe five, they will do the same thing. Trust me on this.

If you really want to make a difference, if you really want to make a change, here's what you can do:


1. As so many people have brilliantly done, start targeting buyers with negative PR about SS. Let them know that they're supporting an exploitative industry.

2. Stop uploading anywhere for the time being + encourage everyone else to do the same. If quitting cold turkey is too much to bear, then just upload your average shots to microstock agencies. But stop uploading your very best work to any of them. Your absolute best work should only be uploaded to your personal blog or website with a watermark.