Anyone else have their work-flow stop after ID Verification went into effect?

[lonetreepro]

As soon as the ID verification was complete, it seems new work has dried up. Many many proposals have gone out with no reply at all. I have an excellent history since 2008 (Elance then) with a high rate of proposal acceptence but now only have repeat business coming in. Something is up and I'd like to know what that is.  Anyone else have a similar situation?

[volkot]

Hi

A lot of freelancers have same problem.

I work here since oDesk (2012) and even on start I have one project per week a least. Now I have good account, good portfolio, a lot of feedbacks. And haven’t contracts since spring. I’m only paying for the connects. It looks like, it is a main goal for Upwork managers.

[lonetreepro]

Thank you for the feedback, peculiar indeed.

[luce-neidert]

On UW, things have been bad for me in July and August, now they are picking up a little. Mostly repeat customers here too.

Has UW managed to kill the golden hen?

[tlsanders]

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Valentine C wrote:

. I’m only paying for the connects. It looks like, it is a main goal for Upwork managers.

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That would be sort of bizarre, wouldn't it, if Upwork managers were prioritizing getting a few pennies for connects over getting hundreds of dollars a month in fees from successful freelancers?

[florydev]

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Tiffany S wrote:

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Valentine C wrote:

. I’m only paying for the connects. It looks like, it is a main goal for Upwork managers.

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That would be sort of bizarre, wouldn't it, if Upwork managers were prioritizing getting a few pennies for connects over getting hundreds of dollars a month in fees from successful freelancers?

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On top of that why would you care to get people to authenticate who they are if all you want is to squeeze pennies out of them?

[lonetreepro]

Think bigger folks... social credit score.

[chasb]

Like yourself, Gary, more and more top rated freelancers are appearing on these pages to report the same observation. Also that they're now surviving only on existing contracts.

The standard responses here generally suggest 'oh well, it's summertime when job postings are down anyway' or 'maybe it's something to do with the new connects system.'
My own take is that the parallel introduction of a $50/month fee for clents to access the basic features previously available for free has brought about a significant reaction.
There's no doubt that such a shift would bring about some kind of change - it now seems only the true extent of that 'change' remains left to be decided.

[tlsanders]

Chris, I don't know how long you've been around here, but in the past three years or so I can't recall a single month when there wasn't a very active thread in which a lot of freelancers were agreeing that job postings, job quality, invitations, etc. had declined dramatically in the preceding weeks. 

I happen to agree with you that the change in client accounts is very damaging and is likely having a negative impact. But, you can hardly blame people for attributing the drop-off to summer (or whatever) when they've been through so many cycles of seeing the exact same "change" reported--especially when a lot of us have seen a significant UPTICK in good invitations in the past several weeks.

[chasb]

Actually, I'm a former Elancer and have been around plenty long enough to have seen all of the policy changes from day one.

I've no doubt at all that freelancers operating in a niche segment are indeed seeing an uptick in  invitations. But do these freelancers' findings really represent the community as a whole?

The OP, Gary, also happens to be a former Elancer (read veteran) and does not seem to be operating in one of those niche segments.

Are you suggesting that his, and many other non-niche freelancers', observations are somehow mistaken?

There's some merit to the explanation you offer for similar threads posted here - but the key phrase that's missing from that entire passage is *Top Rated*.