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petra_r
Community Member

Anyone else noticed those "likely to get hired soon" fire things on profiles?

When did this start to happen?

 

wot.jpg

What next? "SALE - Freelancer half price this week??"

Plus the irony of the "call to action" being "Flag as inappropriate"

 

ACCEPTED SOLUTION


Martina P wrote:

Mary W wrote:

Never saw it.  Mine would be hilarious as I've maybe had 54 invitations over 8 years!


Maybe they have a "puuuleeezzzeee somebody invite her" flag for that... 😉


Maybe you'll get an icon like this.

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146 REPLIES 146


Michael S wrote:

Nichola L wrote:

I would love to know what the average age is of UW's devs. I would guess around pre-school? 


They read that one comic from The Oatmeal about "How a Web Design Goes Straight to ****" and thought it was an instruction manual?


___________________

😄

 

To much time on their hand, not fixing the live/recent bugs and probably creating a few more with every line code they add.

 

"likely to get hired soon"  or more like ''don't invite this guy because he probably will decline your invite'' ...I mean the client see that you have 10x recent invites (not knowing what ''recent'' means in terms of UW time) but on your profile maybe you didn't even had a job in the last month, so why bother to invite, waste a free invite, if you might decline it, judging by the recent work activity..and that ''likely to...'' stays there forever probably, even if you get hired in the mean time...so where's the rush

 

PS: how could someone be ''on fire'' on page 500 from the FL list Smiley LOL. Probably that guy will be hired soon Smiley LOL....like someone has the time to check 500 pages to find the one, who apparently,  everyone is looking to hire.

Useless stuff. I don't like it. Yeah, it makes you look like you are too busy checking invitations... And if the hotel booking system is telling me that room is being reserved or viewed wildly I go check a different one. I don't think a client would want to compete with others to get your attention. If they see you are too busy with others they'll believe you won't even have the time to check another invitation since you are already "on fire."

 

It seems those developers don't have anything to do... Want a suggestion? Go fix the frigging blurry images in portfolio that have been like that for ages, for Christ sake!

What new devilry is this?

I wish Upwork would concentrate on useful information, not on whether or not freelancers are on fire! Smiley Sad

I'd like to know when Upwork plans to correct this?

 

Or, if they are having a fire sale due to crashing business revenue, when they plan to tell us they are shutting the site down.  After all, that is the only reason for a "fire sale".

AveryO
Community Manager
Community Manager

Hi everyone, 

I would like to confirm that this is a test being rolled out by the team. With this test, we are adding banners and boxes to alert clients to facts about Upwork in general, as well as useful details about the freelancers they view. For example, we might test out adding notes like: “580 freelancers with web design skills were hired in the past 7 days!” or “In Demand! Invited by 27 clients in last month.” These are just examples and we will be testing out various messaging to see if it helps boost client engagement and results in more opportunities for freelancers like you. Our goal is to see if this increases how often clients post a job, contracts, save a freelancer’s profile, etc.

 

While I'm sorry to hear a lot of our Community members do not like these additions we are testing, we do appreciate you sharing your honest feedback!


~ Avery
Upwork
petra_r
Community Member

Sorry, I do not appreciate Upwork using me as a guinea pig to test stuff on without warning.

 

It does not help clients to know how many times I have been invited, and to stick that silly flame thing in a visual unity with the "Flag as inappropriate" button is UX/UI-Insanity.

 

If Upwork "appreciates our honest feedback" then it would act appropriately. I wish whoever it was sitting round Upwork's round table would stop overthinking marketing gimmicks that are embarrassing, time-wasting and excessively irritating. 

 

If Upwork regards its clients (us freelancers) as products or assets then it is going entirely the wrong way about making them work productively.

 

The message room is still a mess, the useful "previous client" has disappeared and  the one almost good change for a different profile for different skills is still not quite operative (or user friendly).

 

Wouldn't it be a good idea to perfect at least one change before "prettifying" the site with embarrassing and meaningless "come get me" slogans, that are not likely to bring any noticeable results?   

 

 

kfarnell
Community Member

Apart from the fact I resent having what appears to be a warning on my profile caused by something I have no control over, what's the point of the statement "Likely to be hired soon" when my profile says I have open projects - most of which I AM actually working on?

Avery, please address the removal of the blasted  term "Fire Sale" and flame icon.  These MUST go.  Whomever came up with the term has zero cognizance of the meaning of the term.

 

Do you need FLers to buy your marketing dept.a darn dictionary?


Wendy C wrote:

Avery, please address the removal of the blasted  term "Fire Sale"


In fairness, where did you see the term "fire sale?"

I looked very carefully (as I usually do) and saw no such thing.

 

 

browersr
Community Member

Someone mentioned "Fire sale" earlier in the thread which I took to be a joke about what the flames could represent. The Internet being the Internet, it became reality.

 

I honestly don't particularly mind the concept but agree its placement by the "flag as inappropriate" is well, inappropriate. I don't know that it will help in any perceptible way, but at the same time I don't think it hurts. At worst it feels benign. The perception though of UW rolling these things out while other more pressing issues sit for years, is what tends to get under the skin as well as finding these new features out from other users who happen to see them versus a note in the Announcement section of this forum.

petra_r
Community Member


Scott B wrote:

I don't know that it will help in any perceptible way, but at the same time I don't think it hurts. At worst it feels benign.


I think it does hurt when the number is high.

Clients only get 3 invites without paying. They will be much less likely waste those precious invites on someone who looks to be either too busy or too picky.

 

The wording "likely to be hired soon, recently been invited XX times" sort of implies that those XX invites didn't result in a hire. And the flame thing is cheap and tacky.

 

 

 

browersr
Community Member


Petra R wrote:

Scott B wrote:

I don't know that it will help in any perceptible way, but at the same time I don't think it hurts. At worst it feels benign.


I think it does hurt when the number is high.

Clients only get 3 invites without paying. They will be much less likely waste those precious invites on someone who looks to be either too busy or too picky.

 

The wording "likely to be hired soon, recently been invited XX times" sort of implies that those XX invites didn't result in a hire. And the flame thing is cheap and tacky.

 


 

All good points. When I saw the flames I thought it was just announcing that I was on Team Daenerys. I was great with that until....well no spoilers I suppose. 

I REALLY don't like this.  It shows that I've had 30+ invitations.  Of course, 30 were totally inappropriate, either someone looking for someone to work as an attorney (which I'm not) or something else completely out of my wheelhouse.  I only work 10-15% of my time on Upwork so a client will look at that number and then how few active jobs I have and move on to someone else.

 

And the placement next to the "inappropriate" flag is atrocious and insulting, of course.


Mary W wrote:

I REALLY don't like this.  It shows that I've had 30+ invitations.  Of course, 30 were totally inappropriate, either someone looking for someone to work as an attorney (which I'm not) or something else completely out of my wheelhouse.  I only work 10-15% of my time on Upwork so a client will look at that number and then how few active jobs I have and move on to someone else.

 

And the placement next to the "inappropriate" flag is atrocious and insulting, of course.


I think perhaps the real issue is why this was not announced and why we were not allowed to comment on it before it was rolled out. 

I find these unannounced changes quite irksome as a general practice. At best, they're benign and come across as a little silly; at worst, they fail consider negative ways in which clients may interpret and respond to vague information.

If they didn't test the implementation enough to notice the issue raised by the proximity of the text to the "flag as inappropriate message," you can bet they probably didn't do much in the way of testing to see how clients might interpret the messages about views and invitations. 

We're already saddled with a rating system that was likely designed for rating customer service agents at corporate call centres on their ability to respond to simple customer requests rather than our ability to handle what are sometimes complex professional projects created by clients who often have little or no insight into the work that needs to go into them. I don't understand the constant pressure to keep adding yet another RBI (Really Bad Idea) to the mix. 

Renata, 10,000 kudos and thumbs up for summarizing how often "features" manage to kick the wrong parts of U's anatomy because no one thought, let alone tested an idea.

Renata, as always, you are a gem. Thank you for summing up so nicely what these "enhancements" can actually do in practice rather than in theory. 

 

If I, as a client who perhaps hadn't experienced the rollout of various "enhancements" over the years, saw this fire sale/flag as inappropriate I would't know what to think, but none of my options would be positive. Either the freelancer is likely too busy to accept my invitation so I shouldn't waste it on them, or maybe they're of the rather scammy sort since the inappropriate flag option is so dang close to the # of times they've been invited. 

 

There *might* be some scenario where this feature would benefit the client or freelancer, but I honestly can't think of any. 

lysis10
Community Member

grrrr nvm deleted my post. Stupid question that Avery answered in her last sentence. I should try reading the whole post sometimes. -_-


Petra R wrote:

(...) and to stick that silly flame thing in a visual unity with the "Flag as inappropriate" button is UX/UI-Insanity.


Well, one or two days ago I saw a job post by Upwork where they said they are looking for a UX/UI professional. I hope they'll find a serious one who can put things in order.

 

Just like Scott said I wonder why they don't take care of some more important stuff we have been talking about for years such as blurry portfolio images, old interviews that never converted into contracts can't be deleted, you can't download the whole chat room in a text file, you name it; and instead they keep creating all this gimmicky stuff which doesn't help anyone.


Sergio S wrote:

 

Just like Scott said I wonder why they don't take care of some more important stuff we have been talking about for years such as blurry portfolio images, old interviews that never converted into contracts can't be deleted, you can't download the whole chat room in a text file, ...

... and the time tracker overcharging clients.

 

 

Dear Upwork, can I please have twiddling thumbs icon on my profile? I had 0 invitations and views in the past months and I think that should somehow be presented on my profile page...

Mods, it would be most appropriate if one or you actually commented on correcting the issues cited often in this thread.  We are waiting -

I just wanted to say that when freelancers are too busy, they tend to hide their profiles. So these notes are totally unnecessary.

 

This way, people will stop receiving invitations just because they have received so many irrelevant offers. It seems too random and unfair. 

This way, people will stop receiving invitations just because they have received so many irrelevant offers. It seems too random and unfair. 

 

Worse than that.

 

If you've received invitations, you must be doing something right. If you've accepted those invitations and started work on the project, there's more than one right thing going on.  If Upwork really wanted to highlight such things, a gold star near your name would be nice. Or a bunch of flowers if they felt like being more obscure.  Something positive in an area that would attract positive attention. 

 

Prominently displaying what appears to be a warning next to the button you press to say 'this person looks a bit dodgy to me' is penalising people who succeed in making Upwork work for them. That's more than unfair.  It's short-sighted and counter-productive. It feels malicious.

 

I resented it earlier. I've moved on to extremely cross. 

As has been proven innumerable times - not a single person at U. has a modicum of training in communications, marketing, user experience, or business wherewithal.  These types of mistakes are beyond the pale.

 

Kim phrased the problems far more diplomatically than I'm willing to. 

 

FIX THIS!!! 

 

Mary is correct.  Someone someone with some clout in marketing justify this abhorrent mess.

 

 

Wendy, I don't want to hear from the mods.  I want to hear from someone in Marketing about why on earth this is a good thing.  They seem to be hiding.

Kim phrased the problems far more diplomatically than I'm willing to. 

 

Aah, nice... but on past experience, it will make no difference unless Petra gets bored and repeats it in different words. That's usually the only way what I say gets a response.

 

> I want to hear from someone in Marketing about why on earth this is a good thing.  

 

I don't. I don't give a flying fig why someone in marketing has such a tenuous relationship with reality.  That's their problem. I'd like to hear that it was a misplaced experiment, they've now realized and they're going to stop it (though to save face they might replace it with something more grown up). I'd also like to hear that someone is currently beating the silly chap from marketing over the head with a big stick, but I appreciate that's unlikely.

petra_r
Community Member

This nonsense reminds me of the time someone in Marketing thought it would be real cute to add a tile with "similar freelancers to this one" to every profile. (Obviously those "similar" freelancers were anything but...)

 

That, too, went down like a lead balloon, not surprisingly, and was consigned to the scrapheap of appalling ideas soon after...


Does anyone else remember that?

 

kfarnell
Community Member

penguin.jpg

 

 

@ Kim - you beat me to it. Only I thought of a warmer place:

 

flames 2.jpg

 

@ Nichola: I thought the current situation was more like thissolar.jpg

weinreich
Community Member

Looks like someone in the Upwork marketing department got hold of a behavioral economics book and decided to try implementing scarcity nudges.

 

These numbers (invitations, views, etc.) are meaningless without a timeframe. Is that today? In the last week/month/year? Clients will have no clue how to interpret them.

and more... what is this - a weeping star or what?

 

more.jpg

more 2.jpg

Smiley Frustrated

kfarnell
Community Member

A star is better than being set on fire. Still not sending the right message being next to "flag as inappropriate" though. Anything in that location is going to look like a warning.

We shared your feedback about the fire icon and the "flag as inappropriate" link, but what is exactly is a weeping star? 

Untitled


Lena E wrote:

We shared your feedback about the fire icon and the "flag as inappropriate" link, but what is exactly is a weeping star? 


It's the little star surrounded by little tears.

 

Lena - please do not do this to us. Badges are quite sufficient - and even then. 

 

Little darling icons are coy and  irritating and are not likely to make any noticeable financial impact on Upwork's EOY balance sheet. As for stars. I stopped receiving these when I was about five or six. Do you think Upwork could treat us like the grownups we are, who run our own businesses and who are generally quite educated and intelligent people. 


Lena E wrote:

We shared your feedback about the fire icon and the "flag as inappropriate" link,


Have you also shared our feedback about how much we hate the whole concept, how it is nobodies business how often we are viewed and invited??

 


Lena E wrote:

...what is exactly is a weeping star? 


🤢 This cr🤬ppy thing 🤢

 

weeping star.jpg

 

Seriously, I could not hate the whole idea any more if I tried. I really, REALLY couldn't.

 

 

 

 

 

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