In 3 days, 103 Pages had passed on this original post. There are lots of Freelancers and Clients shared their opinions.
Maybe more than 95% of people just shouted against it as a bad decision. Here, you didn't change anything except the NDA process which was the funniest force to both Freelancers and Clients. But it's good that you have changed it and permitted it before accepting a job.
In a word, you have restricted all kinds of communication ways...even sharing an e-mail address during the interview for the reason of your insecurity. And today I installed UW mobile app. That was horrible. I even can't enter the messages there and everything was too slow...like a snail. Also, I didn't find any video call options neither from desktop or mobile (I failed to enter in messages from the mobile app) I uninstall that and was thinking, how come a company can have such a bad App! Even any unknown company has a better app than yours.
As a Freelancer of Upwork, I never contacted any UW clients or any UW clients had never contacted me outside of Upwork. Yes, sometimes, I might need to talk/chat with them via Email, Whatsapp/Skype especially when I was outside of my studio. But we were always contracted through Upwork and as a commonsense, it's safe to get the money from the clients via Upwork. Personally, I can't even think to get money from the outside of UW...simple reason...there is no guarantee to get payment from outside of UW without a milestone. So I can't even think about that. So whatever the media we choose for the communication, we must have to come here for the deal...for getting the money guarantee. Upwork will never miss a 20% commission.
Honestly, I can manage it without using other communication media. But I really have a major problem if I can't share my email address during the interview if a client is not able to share their Gdrive/Dropbox links without email ID. Though I am not clear what do you mean by "We also have Dropbox integrated already in Upwork Messages". Please note that there needs to create a link for GD/DB and there are many clients who are not able to create and share properly the GD/DB links. I taught many clients how to create GD/DB links. At the same time, I failed to teach them this simple thing. The client asked my E-mail ID and I needed to share my email ID in the UW message in those cases. I can't accept any job without checking the client's sources. Avoiding those clients or Flagging them as Inappropriate only because of asking an E-mail address can't be a good way. This thing will make the process harder and you might lose potential clients. This is a very major thing UW should think about. Please don't submerge yourself in your imaginary insecurities.
Again especially when we are at the outside, your app or browsing from Mobile Chrome is not comfortable. your app is useless and browsing from chrome or others is a long process. You should have a Mobile App which can show a notification (messages/offers/invitation) after turning on the internet connection like messenger, WhatsApp or other media have. It's okay when we are on the PC but it's not okay when we are outside... on the mobile.
I am not sure but I guess, you are suspecting the clients who are posting jobs but not hiring. I guess you are thinking those clients perhaps hiring from the outside. They might or they might not...who know? But blocking everything will not give you anything positive. You will lose Freelancers and clients.
Member Since: Mar 23, 2019
