Can someone explain this?

[jr-translation]

https://community.upwork.com/t5/Job-Skill-Discussions/ct-p/job_categories

Why bother calling it job skill discussions when these categories become obsolete?

[colettelewis]

In fact, what happened to job skill discussions?  Have they disappeared into the ether?   

[mwiggenhorn]

There never, ever was a job skill discussion in the legal field.  I get all my good stuff from a private FB group of freelance paralegals.  Upwork has never been any help in any way. Sigh.

They did, however, contact me about questions I would like legal clients to ask.  My profile says what they need to know - I have questions for them.  Generally, their only question to me is how soon I can get started.  SMH.

[kfarnell]

I'm so relieved you said this. I thought it was just me as I find the forum almost impossible to use nowadays 😞

[colettelewis]

The forum is a complete mess. It is not just user unfriendly. It is user hostile.  

It is difficult to credit that some of Upwork's latest bloated rollouts must have been approved and implemented by its head honchos.  

[kochubei_valeria]

Hi Jennifer and others,

Yes, we recently moved Job Skill Discussions so they no longer show as a separate category in the navigation but show under Discussions instead. We'll bring back the navigation for the four separate categories, they aren't showing currently due to a bug.

In general, unfortunately, Job Skill Discussions have always been underused and rarely used for their intended purpose  - to discuss topics, best practices and experiences specific to a job category. We are planning to address it in the future and create better defined spaces for such discussions (and have more than just the four categories.)

I understand that recently there have been a lot of changes in the Community and we do see and take note of the feedback our members share about them. I'd like to note though that this is not the final look of the Community and we have more changes coming. Rest assured we do take feedback we've received recently and in previous years into consideration. 

[researchediting]

Can anyone explain why the Job Skills Discussions (sic) have been merged(?) into a single unstructured free-for-all?

[kochubei_valeria]

Hi Michael,

I'm going to merge your comment with a thread where this question was brought up earlier today and encourage you to check out my response here. 

[researchediting]

---

Valeria K wrote:

In general, unfortunately, Job Skill Discussions have always been underused and rarely used for their intended purpose  - to discuss topics, best practices and experiences specific to a job category. We are planning to address it in the future and create better defined spaces for such discussions (and have more than just the four categories.)

---

Writers and Translators was used exactly for the purpose you describe for years. I suspect use declined when it began to be used by random persons asking generic questions about Upwork, with which Upwork staff would engage without moving the discussion back into whatever more general area it belonged to.

Staff are not in general shy about moving and merging threads. They have shown no apparent interest in doing that as appropriate in the Writers and Translators forum. I can't wait to see what bright shiny new thing is cooked up to solve a perceived problem that may well be of Upwork's own making.

[colettelewis]

God help us all from Upwork's apocalyptic "final look" at the forums/community. Perhaps a phoenix will arise from the ashes ...

I thought this was meant to be a "partnership".  I read that somewhere - perhaps I am mistaken. 

[jr-translation]

How do you feel about this.

[colettelewis]

What can I say? Clunky is as clunky does. I imagine a child could do better with his or her comprehension (and design) skills.  

[kochubei_valeria]

Hi All,

We'll be sharing more information about Groups in general soon but I'd like to let you know here that former Writers & Translators section and its content have been moved into the Group format. Feel free to check it out here. 

[wescowley]

I see we now have the New to Upwork group in addition to the New to Upwork forum. I'm sure that's not going to be confusing at all to those new to Upwork.

[kfarnell]

So in shuffling things about and (presumably) trying to make them look prettier, job skill discussions are now redefined as 'groups'.

The distancing from the idea of skills to one of 'let's have a chat and moan' is a bit annoying, but as far as I can see the biggest achievement' is that you have to click more times to get there. While the drop down menu used to show the categories and give easy access you now have to decide you'd like to be in a group and then go 'oooh, which group shall I choose today' from the offerings.

if the intention is to make the forums harder to navigate, this is a resounding success.

[gilbert-phyllis]

They're Facebookifying the forum. 

Or Facebookitizing it? 

Whatever the appropriate coinage is to describe it, it's not good. 

[colettelewis]

Stan says "it give us a lot more flexibility". I am not sure who the "us" is though.