Upwork Post Reactions?

[danmiller007]

Am I the only person who thinks job post reactions would be perfect? The kind on social media? A laugh option would be so great for those posts “I need a 1:1 duplicate of the Eiffel Tower made in 24 hours for $10”
I just WISH I had access to a laugh reaction sometimes. Lol! Just a suggestion for the improvement of the Upwork community.

[abinadab-agbo]

Hi!

I'd argue that those Facebook-type reactions aren't needed.

And, if it exists, the client should not see them.

Presently, you can like a job post.

You can also unlike it, giving your reason.

Those are serious, genuine reasons for which you may downvote a job post.

Laughter isn't one of them, and doesn't have to be one of them.

Instead, the feedback you want to give to the system is, the reason why you're laughing at the post.

At any rate, note that the client doesn't see the reaction to their job posts.

If they did, it would deter great clients from posting.

Serious clients who have good money to spend, may not know how to create job posts that will get popular. The whole social media popularity and perfection dynamic should be avoided, which is why, it's very good that the votes are currently kept private.

What does Upwork do with the results of the votes in the system as is?

So far, the answer is: we don't know. But if they wanted to use that data to, for example, improve the system to discourage Eiffel-tower-construction-for-10-freaking-dollars posts, they could.

So my verdict on your suggestion?  SHRED.

[jodypm]

Hi Abinadab,

I'm reasonably sure that Dan is joking since he put it in Coffee Break.

Best regards,

Jody PM

[danmiller007]

Good points Abinadab. I only hope they do more to start reducing these kinds of posts. Although I have seen an influx of great posts these types of unrealistic expectations are rampant as well.

Another thing that’s just terrible is the hourly job posts that ask for a fixed price in the description. Where’s the Bait-and-Switch downvote?? Lol

[abinadab-agbo]

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Dan M wrote:
Another thing that’s just terrible is the hourly job posts that ask for a fixed price in the description. Where’s the Bait-and-Switch downvote?? Lol

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Much as you find it annoying, the Upwork system was indeed designed to allow the behaviour you described above.

Clients can indeed post an hourly job and award that very job as fixed price. It is allowed.

There are clients who do that because they have no idea how much their project will cost, and would really like to know upfront, but don't want to scare away highly qualified freelancers with a $10 placeholder [adding: "price indicated is a placeholder" doesn't change the fact that a $10 placeholder will make the most qualified freelancers avoid that job posting].

Then there's the other category who post hourly and ask for fixed price because they are indeed doing a race to the bottom.

Using your sixth sense and the other data from the client's history, you can know which category of client it is to help you decide whether to spend your connects applying or not.

[tlsanders]

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Dan M wrote:


Another thing that’s just terrible is the hourly job posts that ask for a fixed price in the description. Where’s the Bait-and-Switch downvote?? Lol

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I don't have a problem with this at all. I much prefer it to a client making a random guess at what the budget for a job should be. 

[florydev]

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Dan M wrote:
Good points Abinadab. I only hope they do more to start reducing these kinds of posts. Although I have seen an influx of great posts these types of unrealistic expectations are rampant as well.

Another thing that’s just terrible is the hourly job posts that ask for a fixed price in the description. Where’s the Bait-and-Switch downvote?? Lol

---

I don't pay much attention to budgets at all.  The one thing I never allow a client to do is tell me what something will cost.  If they have an actual budget and I can't meet it then we just part ways.  But usually, it's just a guess or "I don't want to pay more than this" and I pay it no mind.  Because if a client only wants something at a certain price, they are probably not my client.  But if they want the thing, got to have the thing, and I can get them, even perhaps drag them on reluctantly to pay me my value, then we can do business.

You talk about bait and switch but you have to realize that the game plays both ways.  How about finding a way to make a client want you so bad they are willing to go beyond their budget to get you to do it.

Here is a general strategy, you see a job, it says it wants to pay $250.00 for something you do very well and would normally charge a $1000.00 for.  So instead of either throwing up your hands or bidding it at $1000.00, you could instead bid to the $250.00 and say, look I can't give you the whole thing but I can do this part, which is the really critical part, the part you really have to get right, and then maybe you can find someone else cheaper that can round out the rest of it.  Most of the time if you get this and do good work you will be doing the rounding out.

Will it work for you?  No idea, but, in my opinion, even a bad strategry is better than no strategy at all.

[jodypm]

Hi Dan,

I find myself chuckling at job posts probably as often as you do, but to be honest, I shake my head more times when reviewing proposals as a client. You'd be amazed at the proposals I get. 

Best regards,

Jody PM

[danmiller007]

Kind of joking Jody, haha! And I can only imagine how bad some proposals probably are!

[jodypm]

Hi Dan,

Yes, from the client side, I truly see why clients get so frustrated. And you can often tell when a client has been through a series of bad proposals, low-quality interviews, or job experiences because their next job post (if there is one) is often more rigid and laden with a whole lot of dos and don'ts. I used to think that many job posts were unreasonable (how many times have you started a proposal on a job only to be hit in the face with 1001 Required Questions?), but now I feel my opinions are more appropriate. It is extremely time consuming wading through proposals and requires a great amount of patience and research.

I am often just amazed at how some freelancers really think that I, as a web developer, would somehow believe that their Wix portfolio free template site featuring the latest and greatest Pixabay images and a gallery full of website theme thumbnails straight outta _______ (insert any Bootstrap free website template site) is going to really convince me that they are the world's best web designer or social media manager. 

But through it all, you do eventually find the good ones, but they are often, just as the expression says, diamonds in the rough. Of course on the freelancer side of things, we know that we're the good ones, but, anyway, you get the idea.

It has impacted me so much that I've recently started rethinking my own policies in how I approach jobs and clients as a freelancer.

Wishing you continued success,

Jody PM

ETA: Typos

[versailles]

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Jody P wrote:

Hi Dan,

Yes, from the client side, I truly see why clients get so frustrated.

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Especially when you find out that the top rated guy with a brilliant profile that you hired is a scammer who cleans all bad feedback from his profile by refunding and by using the top rated perk as much as he can.

[jodypm]

Hi Rene,

Sure, but I don't see how that could really last long -- the perk only allows one removal out of ten (and every three months), I believe. And, plus, by refunding all the money, he/she would not get the job history or the Top Rated Status, etc. I honestly didn't think that a freelancer like that could thrive on Upwork.

Is that truly possible? If so, I need to take another look at all of these profiles that I have bookmarked.

What I've seen is more along the lines of overstating their skills or language and communication proficiency. And the interview process is, to say the least, time consuming and difficult when you're already a freelancer and don't have much time as it is. 

Best regards,

Jody PM

[lysis10]

lol Jody I like your posts, especially since you mentioned my old nerd crush Matt Cutts.

I've noticed the phenomenon too with clients who go from being very nice to very frustrated once they've posted enough on Upwork. It's why I prefer new clients. They haven't been frustrated or scammed yet so they generally have a good attitude.

[jodypm]

Hi Jennifer,

Yes, ol' Matt is definitely missed and really all that we have is an unnamed replacement after more than three years. What was appreciated was that Matt put a face on the Google Web Spam team.

You're right about the clients going from nice to frustrated as evidenced often in their later job descriptions. How many times have you seen a job description with statements like "will not babysit", "can't hold your hand", or "must read the entire job description first"? At that point, as you say, they've been through it already.

By the way, I'm glad to see your move northward was successful and you no longer even have to worry about hurricane season.

Best regards,

Jody PM