I wonder if this is why searches have been favouring older images for a while.
I checked my images uploaded in the last year or so and they have actually made more on AS than SS even though SS makes up a much bigger part of my overall income.
Could it be that SS planned this and knew it would result in people stopping uploading, but that most people who rely on this as their main source of income couldn't afford to delete their portfolios right away?
They have been pushing old images to see if new content makes much of a difference to their bottom line?
Of course this will only work as a short term "pump" as people will be pushing buyers elsewhere and eventually the collection will be too stale to compete anyway. Is this more evidence of tarting up the company in the sort term until they can get it sold, regardless of destroying it (and us) in the longer term?
Or maybe just a short term thing to boost the shares of the people at the top until they can sell and move on to strip mine the next company...