Bot to send proposals

[shrameesrivastav]

Hi,

Can I just go ahead and write a simply bot to send proposals on my behalf?

[vladag · Accepted solution]

No Shramee, that is not allowed and you need to submit custom proposals for jobs that fit your skill set.

[shrameesrivastav]

Thanks Vladimir,

And all other guys for such a warm response 🙂

Looks like I really don't need to send so many proposals...

Just hand written proposals to hand picked jobs, This has worked a treat for me so far. 😉

Thanks again guys!

[oranus]

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@Shramee S wrote:

Hi,

Can I just go ahead and write a simply bot to send proposals on my behalf?

---

 Shame! Shame! Shame!...

[fraktalmaui]

I like it. If a job is paying five bucks (design a logo, for instance)

the time required to even produce the proposal would eat up

five dollars right there and then.

Now for a more detailed task (write a full app) that's different.

No bot is going to conjure up that kind of proposal.

[researchediting]

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@Dave S wrote:

I like it. If a job is paying five bucks (design a logo, for instance)

the time required to even produce the proposal would eat up

five dollars right there and then.

---

I shudder to think how much/little time one would spend on "designing" a $5 logo. Using the $5 logo as a benchmark for return on one's time and expertise seems downright bizarre.

[versailles]

I'm sure it's been done by many. This is why Upwork put connects in place and started this initiative: Addressing accounts that don’t show work activity

This is robo bidding. It's the best way to:

- never getting hired

- being kicked from Upwork for being unsuccessful

And you will be unsuccessful.

[prestonhunter]

A few days ago we read about a freelancer who was suspended for using the same job proposal repeatedly. He was not even robo-bidding. He was manually sending job proposals.

So one can imagine how much less likely it would be for Upwork is to allow bots to bit on jobs.

How would allowing this possibly benefit Upwork or its customers (the clients)?

It would benefit neither. Which is why Upwork has spent years trying to combat this sort of thing. Upwork has multiple separate, expensive, complicated programs in place whose whole purpose is to prevent clients from being exposed to robo-bidding.

[tlsanders]

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@Preston H wrote:

A few days ago we read about a freelancer who was suspended for using the same job proposal repeatedly. He was not even robo-bidding. He was manually sending job proposals.

 I didn't see that and I find it a bit alarming. Since I bid in such a narrow niche on Upwork, the projects I take on almost always fall into one of two categories, and even those categories are substantially similar. Though I never cut and paste anything, a great many of my proposals are substantially similar, and I'm sure language repeats, though unintentionally.

I get why Upwork would do this, but having to consciously structure proposals differently (and perhaps less effectively) to make sure they're not too much alike seems like an unfortunate unintended result.

[lysis10]

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@Shramee S wrote:

Hi,

Can I just go ahead and write a simply bot to send proposals on my behalf?

---

 lol a robo bidder in the making!

[versailles]

while( accountSuspended != FALSE )

  printf("Hire me!");

[lysis10]

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@Rene K wrote:

while( accountSuspended != FALSE )

  printf("Hire me!");

---

 lololololololol

[prestonhunter]

re: "I didn't see that and I find it a bit alarming."

Well... according to the freelancer and the moderators who commented in the thread, this had been going on for a long time... years I think. The freelancer had been warned about this twice. He had his account tempoarily suspended once over the matter. Then he kept doing it. Finally Upwork permanently terminated his account.

So it wasn't a simple one-time mistake or anything. He knew he wasn't supposed to be reusing the same cover letter but he ignored repeated warnings to stop.

[fraktalmaui]

while (upwork != automatic_turk)

  {

      believe.that.cheapest.developer()isTheBest

  }

[201e667f]

Within a couple of minutes (perhaps seconds?) I received 6 proposals for a job I posted today. All of them looked like form proposals with the name of the job inserted suspiciously in CAPS. The speed and format of these proposals makes me deeply concered that people are actually using bots. How can we be sure?

[759e32fa]

Hi Duncan,

Thank you for reaching out. I checked the job post you listed today but could not find the proposals that are similar to each other. If you encounter this again, please let us know or you can report it to our support team for review.

[201e667f]

Hey, sorry I did not mean that the proposals were the same, just that the speed of response (seemed unrealistically fast) and the fact that some of the (now declined) proposers seemed to have used a “find and replace” macro in some cases to give the appearance of a customised cover letter

I am more concerned - as a freelancer myself - that people are using bots to respond. Is Upwork convinced that they can detect this?

[martina_plaschka]

Definitely using bots. By some unknowable logic some people seem to think fast = good.