To work on a platform where my money is involved, you bet I read everything about Upwork, including the Terms, before I even looked at setting up a profile. How long it took is irrelevant, as everyone reads at a different pace. The important thing is to read it. The vast majority of freelancers just start applying for jobs. Yes, I understood and retained everything, but again, everyone is different. If you need to read it in stages, over time, that's fine, too. Just don't do ANYTHING on the platform until you read every word, go through the scams, and all the Upwork advice for new freelancers.
The Terms of Service is what keeps foolish ones from doing unwise things that primarily impact Upwork. However, if you don't violate the Terms, you will probably never encounter a scam. Terms of Service are to protect the business, but by following the rules, you protect yourself.
Upwork has more clients, therefore, more scammers because Upwork let anything that could use a keyboard, even a little bit, become a freelancer. The unskilled freelancers flooded the platform, with the scammers close behind. The scammers feast on the easily led and unskilled, and there is no shortage of people who think they are going to make lots of money with no skills.
Why do I "push" the Terms of Service? Because if you follow those rules, you won't be scammed. Despite all the advice, working with 200+ people, hardly anyone wants to do the work of being an adult in business.
No one receives any benefit from insisting new and inexperienced freelancers read and follow the Terms, it is because we care. We see and hear from freelancers every day who have lost money because they didn't follow simple rules. I would think you would be grateful for the advice of extremely experienced, quality freelancers who generously post their knowledge of the platform and freelancing. (I am not including myself in this category) I have spoken with numerous freelancers who thanked me for warning them.
The truth is, no one should need someone else to tell them how to function in basic business. However, the majority of people on the platform have no clue what business means.
So, we keep reminding people who haven't done their work, how to avoid being scammed. Instead of listing everything to do and not do - we have the Terms.
Everyone has free will. If you come to the forum, crying you have been scammed because some evil client made you go outside of Upwork because they promised you an outrageous amount of money for nothing, don't expect sympathy.
