Not just algorithm gaming to wonder about here.
Anyone that has or had access to the database or backend itself (so a worker, former worker, hacker) could easily up-rank.

Its obviously a fake name and account, could be anyone anywhere in the world.

Quote from: Firn on May 13, 2021, 11:37
I submit photos to Shutterstock pretty much daily and I don't see my photos ranking No. 1 with every keyword I use, so that certainly can't be what's happening here.

This.

Many contributors are uploading on a daily basis, and many of them more than 10 per day which would get you roughly the amount of images that our friend Oleg has online. They don't have their images at the top of the first page for single and highly competitive keywords.

While I haven't seen any proof of this, I can believe that maintaining an active portfolio is one (minor) of the many factors that can determine the ranking of content and sales. But it will not get it to the front page. I would say that requires very high click-through and conversion rates.

So it's clearly manipulated. Probably by blackhat techniques. Click/buy farms, or an exploit on the algorithm. We will probably never know, as those who know how to do it don't tell. At least, not here. There might be a thread on one of the Russian .onion hacking related forums or so, but hell, I'm too lazy to even start digging for that. I do know such forums have threads on how to download content without watermark, or links to complete dumps of unwatermarked and full-sized content.

Inside job is also possible, but it sounds more complicated and traceable to me. More risky for those involved. It's possible, but whoever did that looses the job and risks legal issues.

Quote from: Roscoe on April 23, 2021, 08:27
Brought up on the Shutterstock forum, but some of you might have missed it.

Can anyone link the thread on the SS forum? I can't seem to find it.

Quote from: LockStockandRoll on May 14, 2021, 09:21

Quote from: Roscoe on April 23, 2021, 08:27
Brought up on the Shutterstock forum, but some of you might have missed it.

Can anyone link the thread on the SS forum? I can't seem to find it.

There isn't really any other info available there. People are as much in the dark about what's going on there than they are here.
https://forums.submit.shutterstock.com/topic/101933-one-account-phenomenon/

Thanks Firn - what a strange situation. Hopefully SS pull their finger out and stop him gaming, r someone else works out how he does it. I could do with a boost on my pics and vids

Quote from: lazy_ella on May 12, 2021, 15:11
What I don't get is this (and I have obsessed far too much about it and will definitely stop after this post!): if he's doing this intentionally – doesn't matter how – why doesn't he shoot more profitable subjects?

If I had a magic button that rockets every picture I take to number one in the search, I would quickly rig together a semi-professional setup – use a set, hire some models, maybe even throw some money at a professional photographer to coach me on lighting and posing etc, so that my shots look the best they can.

Yes to both, good thinking on the quality question. And all the guessing and for some people saying "this is obvious", we have no answers? So it's not obvious and there's nothing to say it's an error, upload volume, location, he's doing it, or it's someone inside or any of the other guesses. We don't know.

When someone provides some proof and evidence, then I'll get interested. I can't do anything about this, so yes... "I have obsessed far too much about it and will definitely stop after this post" no more guesses from me. My guess is link farms, free sites, driving views. And NO  I have nothing to say that I have any better answer than he has hacked the sales site or it's a SS test account.

Anyone can make up anything and none of us can prove it wrong. The responsibility is for someone making a claim to prove it's valid.

Giant Invisible Frogs from outer space are hacking the system. No one can prove that my answer is not the real answer?

my size theory is not it, i tested it

could it be that he uploads an image and then have bots click on the image and maybe download a few from a buyer account to propel them to teh first spot??,

Quote from: Microstockphoto on May 26, 2021, 10:58
my size theory is not it, i tested it

could it be that he uploads an image and then have bots click on the image and maybe download a few from a buyer account to propel them to teh first spot??,

Yes this is my guess too. They have probably found it only takes a few early sales and/or clicks to get an image to the top and that across a portfolio it adds up financially.

Just had to revive this thread after I found this – guess who owns the top placement of 38 Million "isolated" images... with an image that is everything but isolated.
That's the worst kind of advertising shitterstock could wish for and they don't even care.

Olegs Petuhovs
Telas1020 Riga, Latvia
3,854 files 59 sales

Quote from: YadaYadaYada on July 13, 2021, 14:17
Olegs Petuhovs
Telas1020 Riga, Latvia
3,854 files 59 sales

Not many sales for almost 4,000 files.

Is this the same guy, this are his dreamstime sales..

LOL, I love how poorly cropped that image is too!

Hats off to this guy. I find it hard to get too animated about this given SS's behaviour and the fact that there are actual thieves allowed to run rampant on the site.

Quote from: Dumc on July 18, 2021, 06:01
Is this the same guy, this are his dreamstime sales..

Quote from: Firn on April 25, 2021, 20:11

Quote from: Justanotherphotographer on April 25, 2021, 15:28
Is he on any other sites? Are we sure the portfolio doesn't just belong to SS so the stick it front and centre to avoid paying comissions as much as they can?

Yes, he is on other sites:
https://nl.123rf.com/profile_telas1020
https://www.pond5.com/de/artist/telas1020
https://www.dreamstime.com/telas1020_info
https://de.depositphotos.com/portfolio-29995906.html?offset=2500

Quote from: Bad Robot on April 25, 2021, 09:42

Conclusion - I think dear Oleg is a piece of AI masquerading as a person and is probably being used to test search functions and software as there is no way anyone could get the top slot in all of these search terms.

Interesting theory, but since he has real accounts on various stock agencies, I doubt that's what's going on here.

If that was a question Dumc?  If so, Yes he has many accounts, same guy and that data looks like DT. No he's not a SS company account or an AI Bot.

If being on the front page helps, and he figured out how to do that, interesting. I still say, you can be seen first but that still doesn't mean buyers will download substandard images.

He is = "Onion Gum" You can market it all you want but it's never going to be popular.

My question was simple. Is the information, posted by Yada the same guy that this thread is about. No need to read between the lines because there aren't any. I was just curious because I didn't read the whole thread

I would gladly have my mediocre (read, good enough) shots land on the first page of searches. This would be very lucrative, especially for subjects where the buyers just want a good enough image. stuff like background clouds, wood textures, isolated simple objects and food.

Personally I had a fireworks image that was a good image  (but there are thousands just as good) on the first page of search at SS for about 3 or 4 years with daily sales. Then the search got changed and now it gets a few sales a year. Placement isn't everything, but it is very very important and probably more so where the buyer doesn't really care about the exact image, they just want one that fits the simple criteria.

Quote from: pancaketom on July 18, 2021, 22:03
...Placement isn't everything, but it is very very important...

Absolutely. Above a certain (pretty low) quality level it is (almost) everything.

Put it this way, Ted Bundy got more marriage proposals than anyone on this forum. Get enough eyeballs on a product and no matter how sh*tty you're going to find takers.

Quote from: Justanotherphotographer on July 19, 2021, 07:22
Get enough eyeballs on a product and no matter how sh*tty you're going to find takers.

Ha! You just revealed Shutterstock's business plan