Boosting bids race

[sourceprouk]

I have just seen a job where the bidders have taken the boosted bids to 43 connects! So the person who did this would exhaust his monthly connects by bidding in a couple of jobs.

In fact, this job in question does not look very real. It offers a very high hourly rate (for Upwork) and has no details of the job for such a high value job.

When is this absurdity going to stop?

Are freelancers desperate for work doing this?

[elisa_b]

“If you wait by the river long enough, the bodies of your enemies will float by.” - old saying.

It's just a matter of time before people realise in most cases it's just a waste of money. So far I haven't heard a single freelancer saying "whoa, thanks to boosting I get hired all the time!".

[sourceprouk]

It reminds me of the bidding race in Ebay. I stopped doing this a long time ago. In their efforts to beat other bidders, I have seen people pay more for a second hand item than they would for a new one!

[darrenwall74]

This boosting nonsense may earn Upwork a quick buck, but it will force freelancers not to keep all their eggs in this basket. 

[81f2681a]

Thats right, in short time Upwork will get a lot of money, but in long term the future effects will destroy this platform.

Boosting proposals is like a certain economic system (I can´t say the name here, or this coment will be edited by moderators), but it is the same system that destroyed Cuba, North Korea, Venezuela and is threatening Brasil in this weekend, depending on the results of the elections. In the first moment is a lot of money for Upwork, but when freelancers realizes that boosting proposals don´t bring jobs, and when they see that even the top rated freelancers leaves the platform, then no more money for Upwork and its reputation will just falls.This platform will be a world of scammers and desperate hungry freelancers spending a lot to earn crumbs. Economicaly not viable. It will be a very bad future for the platform if Upwork don´t do something now.

[ericaandrews]

The best way to get it to stop is to NOT PARTICIPATE in the 'boosting' period.  Upwork keeps the program in place because their are people foolish enough to waste 43 connects on a single bid and keep buying more connects.  If you fall into the trap of feeling you have to 'boost' to 'keep up', all you are doing is adding fuel to the fire and causing the platform to go into an even faster 'downward spiral' and 'race to the bottom'.   Simply bid the minimum connects required by the job post with the best proposal you can present, send it in, and move on: If you are the 'most qualified', the client that really wants/needs the most qualified will look past the artificially 'boosted' proposals from people that don't qualify and contact the people that do.

[paywell]

Somebody undigged a post from 2015, stating the technical problems with viewing proposals. It's a good read.

The "boosting" function is basically "pay to win" as well as a way to go on without fixing the issue.

And the issue is, that viewing proposals is a nightmare most clients can't cope with. 

Hence my observation, that 90% clients visit the job posting after I propose, but they don't view my profile, nor my proposal. Usually, they find it days after, but some of them just don't see it, because the way proposals are viewed is deeply flawed. 

[ericaandrews]

That doesn't surprise me at all: There's lots of stuff 'deeply flawed' on this platform. 😂  It's the strangest thing because these forums are filled with information from both clients and freelancers explaining exactly HOW to fix the problems - often repeated posts on the topics mentioning the same problems and explaining the same corrective steps needed to fix the issues.  Our comments are 'read' and 'taken into account', and then the platform always goes and does the exact opposite of what everyone suggested. If we tell them "dump water on that fire", they run over to the fire with a can of gasoline and bundle of fire wood.  Go figure