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Author Topic: I think we should push for a criminal investigation of SS's payout structure  (Read 15356 times)

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« on: June 17, 2020, 07:33 »
+4
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?


« Reply #1 on: June 17, 2020, 07:41 »
+19
Dont be ridiculous.  And research what a pyramid scheme is.

« Reply #2 on: June 17, 2020, 07:42 »
+6
Dont waste your time or money. Remove your portfolio and do business with companies that you think treat you fairly. Hate your employer? Quit and get a better job. Same principle. These big companies employ well-paid attorneys and accountants to hide money.

« Reply #3 on: June 17, 2020, 08:54 »
+2
Dont be ridiculous.  And research what a pyramid scheme is.

I don't have to research anything. That's the difference between a millennial and everyone else, I guess. The older generation speaks from experience. The newer one looks everything up on Wikipedia and Reddit, develops the smug satisfaction of thinking they've got a handle on the subject and then tells everyone else to "Look it up/do your own homework/etc."

« Reply #4 on: June 17, 2020, 09:00 »
+3
Dont waste your time or money. Remove your portfolio and do business with companies that you think treat you fairly. Hate your employer? Quit and get a better job. Same principle. These big companies employ well-paid attorneys and accountants to hide money.

The problem with your "advice" is that you're assuming that this problem at SS isn't endemic to the world of business as a whole as it is right now, or isn't having a rippling affect in other areas of life. It's like when people back in the 1980s and 1990s were telling everyone that the way to solve off-shoring was to just "Buy American," when every last company was doing that, to the point where even if you wanted to, you didn't have a choice.

« Reply #5 on: June 17, 2020, 09:06 »
+10
Dont be ridiculous.  And research what a pyramid scheme is.

I don't have to research anything. That's the difference between a millennial and everyone else, I guess. The older generation speaks from experience. The newer one looks everything up on Wikipedia and Reddit, develops the smug satisfaction of thinking they've got a handle on the subject and then tells everyone else to "Look it up/do your own homework/etc."

Well, what you are describing is not a pyramid scheme. And what Shutterstock is doing is not criminal by law (only in the moral sense of the word), so pushing for criminal investigation is senseless and dumb. You're claiming that millennials look everything up on Wikipedia and Reddit, but you don't have to research anything because of your age and experience, which is an appeal to authority, one of the so-called logical fallacies.

Being older and more experienced does not automatically make you wiser, let alone a lawyer.
« Last Edit: June 17, 2020, 09:09 by Noedelhap »

H2O

    This user is banned.
« Reply #6 on: June 17, 2020, 09:16 »
+3
I think rcherubin has a point here, having a commission structure that is opaque, has allowed Shutterstock to operate insolently, this in the UK is illegal. The Directors can be taken to Court for this.

« Reply #7 on: June 17, 2020, 09:24 »
+9
Dont be ridiculous.  And research what a pyramid scheme is.

I don't have to research anything. That's the difference between a millennial and everyone else, I guess. The older generation speaks from experience. The newer one looks everything up on Wikipedia and Reddit, develops the smug satisfaction of thinking they've got a handle on the subject and then tells everyone else to "Look it up/do your own homework/etc."

Yeah, I'm a "mullennial", lol.   Guess you didn't "look that up".

BTW, a "pyramid scheme" requires a pyramid.  Which this isn't, and doesn't have.

« Reply #8 on: June 17, 2020, 09:53 »
+1
Hi,
If you design a shape in SS earning Schedule based on 6 levels and a different % scheme i think you will find the pyramid shape. But Definitely it will not be the traditional "pyramid scheme" scam but rather something that was thought since Pitgoras and applied by SS to earn more.

It is a simple shape of bad business for you.
Nothing really illegal. But you have a choice of not doing business with them.

For instance my business shape/scheme with SS was like this: 50/60% for me or SS will not have my content.
SS could not match my demands. So i left SS. that was my choice.
This was 10 years ago.
I am still here. still selling with my business shape philosophy and living on stock sales.

Hope you can do the same in future.
Just go to other websites. leave ss.
all the best

whtvr2

« Reply #9 on: June 17, 2020, 10:00 »
0
Quote
So that people would be carrot stick'ed

That is not a pyramid scheme and everyone seemed happy with earnings.
They just rearranged the carrot stick to just a 10 cent carrot sticked to our (you know).

« Reply #10 on: June 17, 2020, 10:00 »
+10
Hi,
If you design a shape in SS earning Schedule based on 6 levels and a different % scheme i think you will find the pyramid shape. But Definitely it will not be the traditional "pyramid scheme" scam but rather something that was thought since Pitgoras and applied by SS to earn more

That isn't a "pyramid scheme", traditional or otherwise.

« Reply #11 on: June 17, 2020, 10:02 »
+4
I think rcherubin has a point here, having a commission structure that is opaque, has allowed Shutterstock to operate insolently, this in the UK is illegal. The Directors can be taken to Court for this.

The crucial thing is that they're not forcing you to work for them, they're not forcing you to sign an illegal contract, there's no employment, so you don't really have a case...I doubt you'd get very far in court.

« Reply #12 on: June 17, 2020, 10:06 »
0
Hi,
If you design a shape in SS earning Schedule based on 6 levels and a different % scheme i think you will find the pyramid shape. But Definitely it will not be the traditional "pyramid scheme" scam but rather something that was thought since Pitgoras and applied by SS to earn more

That isn't a "pyramid scheme", traditional or otherwise.

i am sry sean. it is. cleary you dont know how to draw shapes with numbers. :-)

« Reply #13 on: June 17, 2020, 10:15 »
+4
Hi,
If you design a shape in SS earning Schedule based on 6 levels and a different % scheme i think you will find the pyramid shape. But Definitely it will not be the traditional "pyramid scheme" scam but rather something that was thought since Pitgoras and applied by SS to earn more

That isn't a "pyramid scheme", traditional or otherwise.

i am sry sean. it is. cleary you dont know how to draw shapes with numbers. :-)


Well I looked up the definition of a pyramid scheme on Wikipedia (as the millennial that I am):
"A pyramid scheme is a business model that recruits members via a promise of payments or services for enrolling others into the scheme, rather than supplying investments or sale of products"

How does this apply to Shutterstock? You tell me.
Just because you can draw a pyramid shape from the earnings structure, doesn't mean it's a pyramid scheme where payment is based on enrolling others.

ShadySue

  • There is a crack in everything
« Reply #14 on: June 17, 2020, 10:15 »
+5
Hi,
If you design a shape in SS earning Schedule based on 6 levels and a different % scheme i think you will find the pyramid shape. But Definitely it will not be the traditional "pyramid scheme" scam but rather something that was thought since Pitgoras and applied by SS to earn more

That isn't a "pyramid scheme", traditional or otherwise.

i am sry sean. it is. cleary you dont know how to draw shapes with numbers. :-)

A triangle isn't a 'pyramid scheme' by any stretch of the imagination.

« Reply #15 on: June 17, 2020, 10:24 »
+8
i am sry sean. it is. cleary you dont know how to draw shapes with numbers. :-)

I can draw a triangle and fill it in with contributors' usernames.  That doesn't make it a "pyramid scheme".

« Reply #16 on: June 17, 2020, 10:27 »
+11


SpaceStockFootage

  • Space, Sci-Fi and Astronomy Related Stock Footage

« Reply #17 on: June 17, 2020, 10:42 »
+3
I'm with you dude... give 911 a call and let us know how you get on.

Chichikov

« Reply #18 on: June 17, 2020, 10:48 »
0
I think that the OP means pyramidal system (Ponzi) not pyramidal scheme

« Last Edit: June 17, 2020, 10:55 by Chichikov »

« Reply #19 on: June 17, 2020, 10:58 »
+8
I think that the OP means pyramidal system (Ponzi) not pyramidal scheme

It also isn't that.

« Reply #20 on: June 17, 2020, 11:00 »
+1


Reminds me of that episode from "The Office" lol!

« Reply #21 on: June 17, 2020, 11:11 »
+3
Hi,
If you design a shape in SS earning Schedule based on 6 levels and a different % scheme i think you will find the pyramid shape. But Definitely it will not be the traditional "pyramid scheme" scam but rather something that was thought since Pitgoras and applied by SS to earn more

That isn't a "pyramid scheme", traditional or otherwise.

amazing how many buzzswords have been invoked when posters don't have a clue what they're about! (pyramid, Pythagoras, prisoner's dilemma, even civil disobedience)

Horizon

    This user is banned.
« Reply #22 on: June 17, 2020, 12:14 »
+1
Call Jack Bauer at the CTU!...seriously SS would have gone through everything with their lawyers and with a microscope!..The only thing I find a bit dodgy is the search algorithm?

« Reply #23 on: June 17, 2020, 12:23 »
+8
Who cares what it is ... all SS cares about is that people are dumb enough to support them

« Reply #24 on: June 17, 2020, 13:00 »
0
.



 

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