A Simple Request from Adobe Stock and our Community Experts.

[Usman34550979leye]

Ever since I came on Adobe Stock as a Contributor and joined Adobe Stock Contributors Community, I am continously observing that the cases of account suspension are increasing day by day.

When a new Contributor join as an Adobe Stock Contributor, He/She starts uploading assets. Then he discover that he can submit only 50 images for review, and the review time is 4 weeks. He waits patiently, opening contributor dashboard everyday and waiting for any activity. After 4 weeks when he see that the images aren't reviewed he contacts Adobe Stock Support from where he gets answer that the images will review in 8 weeks. After few more days and weeks his images get reviewed after a month and a half. Now he gets his first sale which motivates him to upload more. But the thing that he have to wait more 2 months gets him de-motivated. But he uploads and uploads. and after the 2nd or 3rd review his reviewing limit increased by 500 images. And after this process again and again some builds their portfolio strong enough after very very patient wait of 2K assets or 3K or 5K assets maximum. In between of this process he also gets his first payout after 25USD. Which makes him believe on this hustle. Then after sometimes he instantly gets very good sale on a day and when he requests payout. He got permenantly suspended. This thing makes the contributor very stressed and angered. As obviously if a person have given time to their portfolio for half a year or for a year and he got banned without any notification from Adobe. This will give him a shock. Then these contributors contacts with support team and they don't reply. Or if they replies, it's very late. Now there's no hope for him. His hardwork and consistency of a year or half is gone. The compony is not replying. So, they come at Adobe Stock Community and when they see other posts of contributors. Whoose account is also blocked. His complete hope goes off. This is the story of every new contributor with little ups and downs.

The reason of describing this whole thing is to make you guys realise that in how much stress and fatigue that person would be. I know for the submission times that Adobe is revieweing thousands of images everyday and recieving that much images everyday. This problem has been now accepted by the contributors and they wait patiently for it. But the thing is Adobe is not co-operating with Contributors. And the contributors feares when he earns more. Isn't that alarming?

So my simple request from Adobe is that they should also work for their contributors. Especially when thousands of contributors are appearing. They should feel the pain of their contributors. There are very few who increase their sales illegally, other than that the contributors are legit and don't do fraudlent activities. And they got ripped off from your algorithms. 

I know community experts will say that we can't do anything here. And you are not talking to Adobe Here. Which I know. I just want you guys to upvote this post more and more so they notice it. 

The request from our Community Experts is that you guys do really hard work to entertain every type of question but the thing is that if you stay humble with these contributors who are really depressed as I mentioned above, So they will get some hope. Our few Community Experts (I will not mention) are somewhat harsh. If they give only hope and stay humble with these contributors, they will feel good. Even though they are talking against Adobe.

Thank You.

[Abambo]

Accounts get banned for a reason. We are not here to make you feel good, we are here to get you up to the task. And some participants here are more direct then others. But at the end of the day, you have two possibilities:

• You contribute — you play according to the rules
• You leave.

If your account has been suspended, there is nothing that this community of peers can do for you. You will need to contact Adobe contributor support via the link at “Contact us”. Adobe will answer via e-mail, so watch your spam folder. The answer may take some time, depending on the workload of contributor support and the complexity of the investigation. So be patient and do not spam the contributor support.

[Abambo]

I think you didn't understand how frustated that contributor would be who followed all rules and regulations but from very high sales on just 1 day (without any illegal way) Because of that Algorithm Adobe use the user gets banned. I think from this scenario which I also describe above they contributor didn't go against "you play according to the rules"

As for the email I have also described this thong on above text that there isn't any reply from Adobe.

By @DailyLifeImages

So you are the author of above. You should not confuse us. 

@Usman34550979leye wrote:

So my simple request from Adobe is that they should also work for their contributors. Especially when thousands of contributors are appearing. They should feel the pain of their contributors. There are very few who increase their sales illegally, other than that the contributors are legit and don't do fraudlent activities. And they got ripped off from your algorithms. 

There is a simple algorithm. As an example: there are multiple test accounts buying from one contributor. If there is one test account, I even doubt that Adobe would find out. But with multiple test accounts, that is fraudulent. You even do not need to discuss. I know, how to trace back those sales to one single user, so I suppose that Adobe does also. 

Most users do not do fraudulent operations, but from those who get blocked from this activity and stay blocked, I doubt that there are many innocent users. There are people getting blocked temporarily, their illicit sales get removed and they can continue. That is, when Adobe cannot determine that the contributor is the source of the trouble. 

All this happened before, but with the avent of generative AI, many people with shady backgrounds were smelling easy money, by generating massivly crap assets that got accepted. Then, when the sales were not coming in as expected, they thought to be clever, created a free test account and bought own assets. As that worked fine, they created a next test account... 

(There are way other possibilities to fraudulently boost a contributor's account, and I'm sure, Adobe is aware of most of those schemes.)

As a contributor, you are a supplier, and suppliers either supply what Adobe needs, or they get blacklisted. It's different from a paying customer. But as long as there are many contributors, they can block one or the other and there will be no harm done. 

And your choice is either to contribute or not to contribute. If you contribute, make sure to know the quality requirements and make shure to know the rules. 

And yes, I understand the frustration, but not everyone who is frustrated is frustrated for no cause.

As a fellow contributor, I have to say, that I never experienced a spike in sales of ten or a hundred times my usual throughput. And I'm contributing now quite a long time. The trouble (all the trouble) started with the arrival of generative AI. It seems that a whole generation of hopeful contributors started to bloat the database with bad assets. That's real frustration.

[Abambo]

You will get blocked, if you do not pay attention with your "brother"'s account.

[Jill_C]

Your brother's account??? Now, you have left a strong suspicion that you are actually using multiple accounts to upload your assets, which, as you should know, is immediate grounds for permanent suspension. 

[daniellei4510]

Something similar has happened before on a few occasions, when someone writes something to the effect of, "My account has been banned and also those of a number of my friends."

That has always struck me as being a bit suspicious.

[Jill_C]

Same thing reported on the Discord channel earlier today - "Adobe deactivated my account, my wife's, my brother's, and his wife's account..." Does that guy really think that Adobe won't figure out that he's running 4 accounts?

[Abambo]

Same thing reported on the Discord channel earlier today - "Adobe deactivated my account, my wife's, my brother's, and his wife's account..." Does that guy really think that Adobe won't figure out that he's running 4 accounts?

By @Jill_C

A fool who thinks ill of it …

[Ambria38210703cai9]

Your comment was very rude! If that's the case maybe No should contribute to this app! This is absorb, you contribute your time, creativity, get a free trial and have to wait sooo long to receive pay for your creativity. 

HOPEFULLY EVERYONE ELSE THAT WAS INTERESTED AND IS DOING RESEARCH BECAUSE THEY WANT TO CONTRIBUTE SEE THIS COMMENT. It's so careless, to suspend someone's acct after they provided your company with their work, even if it was AI generated. She be considered stealing and lawsuits should be provided to companies that think they have the right to do this to someone. Now I'm interested to know what happens to the photos ones persons uploads. Seem like there feeding people false hopes, making review processing much longer and suspending people accounts! This should be illegal 

[Nancy OShea]

Seem like [they're] feeding people false hopes, making review process much longer and suspending people's accounts! This should be illegal. 

By @Ambria38210703cai9

===========

Nothing illegal about it.  Adobe is a private company. They make the rules as described in your Submission Guidelines and Contributor Agreement TERMS.  Follow the rules as outlined and you'll have nothing to worry about.  😊

If you don't wish to follow Adobe's rules, you may submit work to other stock services. There are lots to choose from but they have rules, too. And most other stock services DO NOT accept AI content.  You'll need talent & skills to create original content with your own hands instead of a machine.

Goodbye & best of luck.

[Jill_C]

I certainly understand how frustrating the process of becoming a successful new Contributor can be in this new post-Gen-AI era. When I started uploading photographs more than 7 years ago - just a few a day - assets were reviewed quickly, sales came trickling in eventually, and payouts were issued on time.

Account suspensions were very rare until 2023. Then, Adobe decided to allow Contributors to submit Generative AI and everything blew up. They were overhwhelmed with Contributors uploading hundreds or thousands of images at a time, many of quite poor quality. Their Moderators were insufficiently trained or experienced to notice all the flaws, and the scammers, trying to elevate their portfolio and get sales any way possible, developed fraudulent schemes to inflate their sales. It has been a roller-coaster year for Adobe as well as their Contributors. Adobe has made many adaptations to improve the Contributor and Buyer experience, and is, no doubt contemplating more.

But what hasn't changed is that fraudulent sales schemes and violations of T&C's and the Contributor Agreement continue. We regularly get new Contributors here and in the Discord channel that haven't read any of the Learn & Support pages - just opened an account and started uploading. The only tool Adobe seems to have to address ongoing fraduluent schemes and rules violations is account suspension; some of those suspensions are only temporary if the violations are minor, and the accounts get restored so the Contributor can continue uploading and earning. Some of those suspension are permanent if the violations are found to be egregious enough. 

Adobe must, first and foremost, satisfy the Buyers; otherwise, they don't make any money and nor do we. Contributors are Suppliers, not Customers, and after many years in business on both sides of that equation, I certainly know that these two constituents get treated differently. Nevertheless, I do feel that Adobe, by and large, treats Contributors with respect; but when a Contributor rips them off with fraudulent sales, or spams the database with low-quality assets, or violates the T&C's, they're done with that supplier. 

These may seem like "harsh realities", but Adobe Stock is running a business, not a charity, not an art gallery, and not a channel for Contributors to learn how to improve their photography or Generative AI skills.  

[DailyLifeImages]

You are right that Adobe should satisfy these buyers but I think they should also make the environment friendly and most importantly accurate for their Contributors.

[Jill_C]

What do you mean by "make it accurate for their Contributors"?

[Nancy OShea]

Unusually high sales or refund activity means you're sleeping with dogs. 

Don't complain when you wake up with fleas.

[Nancy OShea]

You have no idea what goes on behind the scenes.  None of us do.

Adobe Stock isn't social media.  It's a real business. 

Q: What happens to workers who don't follow company rules? 

A: They get temporarily suspended or permanently terminated.

Sadly, many Stock Contributors are young when they join and don't treat this as a serious business.  They think it's easy or worse a big game. They gloss over the TERMS they agreed to. And everything goes to hell in a handbasket when they break the rules.  I chalk this up to inexperience, immaturity and unawareness that there are consequences for trying to game the system.

As fellow users and customers, we don't make Adobe policies.  Those are upper level management decisions. 

If you wish to make suggestions, feel free to submit them directly to Stock Contributor Support.

Hope that helps.

[Ricky336]

Hello,

I can sympathise with your frustration, but the stress and fatigue that one may suffer when their work is rejected, is probably irrelevant from Adobe's point of view. It is up to the contributor to submit quality work. 

"Then after sometimes he instantly gets very good sale on a day and when he requests payout. He got permenantly suspended."

Regarding getting blocked, there must be some reason. I think sometimes contributors try to beat the system, hoping to get themselves noticed more. If one gets very good sales on one day, this does seem suspicious, because it is out of character.

Regarding contributors getting depressed, to put it in a way that may seem blunt is to grow some thick skin.

Life is not a fable, and is full of traps!

[Jill_C]

Indeed, if the Contributor does not find participation in Adobe Stock a worthwhile or satisfactory experience, it is time to move on and find a more enjoyable "hobby"!

[JuliO111]

Absolutely agree. Just I'm hope that all blocked ones was blocked by real reasons (cheating). But the worst thing (and the only one I think real problem) this is lack of an accurate and understandable answer about the reason for the blocking.

I also noticed that the community on this forum is unfriendly towards several topics at once (of course it is AI first, but that's just the beginning and nots so suprising when we talk about AI). I find many of the answers rude and arrogant, despite the fact that this is a professional community in a fairly transparent and modern environment. Perhaps I was just exposed to American culture (or any other, I cant see behind names). 

But I was surprised how much you can read here in a day or two in a disrespectful tone towards newcomers especially. This is passive aggression everywhere, bullying of newcomers. Everything that needs to be said in a response can be said without humiliating the individual. But 50% of participants prefer otherwise. I won’t hide it, I’m not an angel either and rude sometimes. Just I noticed that. 

There is no truth in a hostile environment, even if you all consider yourself smart.

[Nancy OShea]

I don't care what you submit -- photos, AI, vectors, illustrations, videos, etc...

Knock yourself out.  Make sure it's commercial quality.

I am a customer as well as a contributor.

I know what I look for.  I also know what gets accepted.

That's not rude or hostile.

[JuliO111]

There is some bias towards newbies due to the number of people who actually upload bad stuff, but it ends up being everyone's bias. This is just my opinion and how I see it from my side.

Perhaps you are simply jealous of your profession (in good way I mean). However, it can be uncomfortable for those who come for advice and receive a wave of negativity with always the same roots. My opinion may be biased due to differences in culture. In my society this would be called rude. In your possibly logic based warning, smt like that.

[Nancy OShea]

Sometimes reality is counter-intuitive. 

We can look at two objects and not notice their differences until someone shows us how to examine them in new ways. 

If that's rude, please stop this train and let me get off. 

[JuliO111]

I'm not saying that problem in different opinions. Just I wish we can respect each other more from different angles of one boat. Thats all. 

I just remember starting my career in a similar community (different field) at the age of 14. Lets say I was lucky to have family support 🙂