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6021806c
Community Member

Client's education: reinforcing the Academy and the site requirements.

Hello Everybody:

I've been on Upwork for about a month now, and I noticed that it's very difficult to find good job postings.

I don't know if it's because of my field of expertise (Audio Production, Music Composition and all that stuff) or if its a general problem here for every single freelancer, but:

 

I think Upwork should be more strict with the requirements for the clients. One way to avoid scams would be to request identity verification before the client is able to post a job. Also, when clients add a link, should be reviewed by Upwork before making the posting public. I've flagged a suspicious link (clickbait) in a job from a "not payment method verified" Poland client who had no reviews. A few days later, the same link in another job posting, with a different description appeared, again, from a "not payment method verified" Poland client who had no reviews.  And again, I found the same link in another job posting. But what I noticed then was that this Poland client had a new profile each time. I mean, the membership date was from that day. So, I think this is because clients can post jobs without identity verification. 

 

On the other hand, I find the clients lack Academy education. Not only because they break Upwork's rules about sharing contact information or asking for free tests, which is the same as asking for free work,  but also because they seem to think we are starving people desperate to get a job. Maybe some of the freelancers are that kind of starving workers, but from insulting budgets asking too much for almost cents to a vague or non-description at all in their postings, that's why I think Upwork should reinforce the Academy and the requirements also for clients. 

 

OK. That's my thought while I'm drinking my coffee. Please, don't take me as if I were complaining. I'm just trying to make this awesome site a little bit more awesome.  

 I hope you all are having a great time working on Upwork and please, leave your opinion about this topic!

 

Kind regards!

Horace

 

7 REPLIES 7
paywell
Community Member

I came here to relax while drinking a cuppa Java, and almost spilled my drink!

This is some serious, heavy, Freelancer / Client forum stuff, not Coffee Talk.

 

That being said, I believe that the most scammy jobs should be harder to post:

 

- Typing PDF into Word should make you upload the files in question.

A word/page amount and budget should be input and 170 USD/hr. rates for simple typing should be 

marked red for the freelancer (with a pop-up, that this rate is about 165 USD higher than usual, paid jobs are)

 

- That scammer you talk about, with the same tinyurl/shortened link in 121 jobs (which have all been flagged by me, two days in a row) should think about his ways and become a better, caring person.

 

- I have posted this somewhere and I will repeat myself:

Somebody should make a Browser-game, simulating Upwork, where you have to flag job posts and clients, who offer communication outside of Upwork or offer you to buy bitcoins and provide you with other "get-rich quick with no work" schemes.

Wes-C has practically written a post, which can become the script for this type of "game".

 

 

Anyway, I’m off to the bathroom to get some soap and soda on that coffee spill on my pajamas. Those are my Freelance-office pajamas, I need to look presentable.

6021806c
Community Member

Hillarious! 😂🤣😂

Sorry for the coffee spill! As soon as I get a decent job I'll buy you some new freelancer pyjamas, if possible, one that looks like a suit with a tie.👨‍💼

 

paywell
Community Member

That's exactly the pair of pajamas I've always wanted: "The Executive"! 

With all the bells and whistles of today's fabric-weaving and 3d-design technology making it look presentable in a Zoom-call, while being nice and cushiony on the inside, allowing me to squeeze in that well-deserved nap in between sending proposals.

feed_my_eyes
Community Member

Anything that makes it more difficult for scammers to post on Upwork will make it more difficult for legit clients to post as well. Result: fewer projects available. I'd rather vet my own clients than have Upwork put any roadblocks in the way.

 

That's a valid point in some circumstances, which becomes invalid in others - I believe that there is no black or white solution here.

There should be more options than “on” or “off” here, with either no requirements or a lot of them. There should be an in between. 

 

Although scammers and spammers adapt far more quickly than the platform does, but not adapting at all opens up the ability to automate scams/spams.

 

Introducing little detours instead of roadblocks could be the solution.

Some steps, which would disable the snowball effect of spam/scams spreading like wildfire, without strongly discomforting real people-clients, could prove to mighty beneficial.

 

A real life example would be the Captcha thingie – it’s child's play, which stops serious automated trouble from happening.


Pavlo L wrote:

That's a valid point in some circumstances, which becomes invalid in others - I believe that there is no black or white solution here.

There should be more options than “on” or “off” here, with either no requirements or a lot of them. There should be an in between. 

 

Although scammers and spammers adapt far more quickly than the platform does, but not adapting at all opens up the ability to automate scams/spams.

 

Introducing little detours instead of roadblocks could be the solution.

Some steps, which would disable the snowball effect of spam/scams spreading like wildfire, without strongly discomforting real people-clients, could prove to mighty beneficial.

 

A real life example would be the Captcha thingie – it’s child's play, which stops serious automated trouble from happening.


I'm vehemently opposed to any steps that have even the potential to "discomfort" legitimate clients at all. Freelancing success requires many things including the ability to vet prospective clients for skills/capability fit, honesty, professionalism, knowledge of their own business, etc. The current proliferation of scammers on the platform is a direct result of UW choosing not to vet new FLs, instead letting anyone and everyone set up profiles (including many who are here to work scams on unsuspecting clients). I'm all for anything they can do to filter inappropriate job posts in ways that are transparent to legitimate clients, so long as they don't introduce any friction into the job posting process. 

allpurposewriter
Community Member

Absolutely, Christine and Phylis. I covered a lot of govermnent meetings in my reporting days and one of the persistent difficuilties is how to write new laws that don't punish the innocent. More often than not, there's no perfect solution that bans all the scofflaws and rewards everyone else.

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