Impact of Self-Ended Contract on JSS

[evancater]

My JSS went down 8 points this morning. I've only had two contracts end this period:

1. I ended a contract myself a couple weeks ago. It was a repeat contract that took less than an hour to complete. The client seemed happy and promised to end the contract but did not. More than a week went by, and I ended it myself. He did not provide feedback.

2. A major client ended a long-running contract this morning and gave 5 star public feedback. It appears to have been ended about half an hour AFTER the JSS update, but I can't be sure.

I thought self-ended contracts with no feedback were not supposed to make a significant impact on the score?

Thanks...

[prestonhunter · Accepted solution]

Evan:

Technically speaking: whether or not a contact is ended by a client or freelancer has no impact on JSS.

The reason we talk about having clients end the contract is due to the impact of having a no-feedback contract.

If a client ends a contract, then the client MUST leave feedback. There is no way for the person ending the contract to avoid leaving feedback.

If a freelancer ends a contract, then the client MIGHT leave feedback. Or the client MIGHT NOT leave feedback.

Setting aside the impact on JSS, freelancers LIKE to have feedback on their work history when things have gone well with a contract. We LIKE to see positive feedback there.

None of us know precisely the way in which no-feedback contracts impact JSS. There are indications that the impact has lessened within the latest versions of the JSS algorithm... with a larger percentage of no-feedback contracts being allowed before they have any impact on JSS.

[petra_r]

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Preston H wrote:

None of us know precisely the way in which no-feedback contracts impact JSS. There are indications that the impact has lessened within the latest versions of the JSS algorithm... with a larger percentage of no-feedback contracts being allowed before they have any impact on JSS.

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"latest?" That's been the case for at least 2 years. Upwork themselves say. that contracts that end without feedback but have had payment, do not affect the JSS at all. There is a note that a high number of such contracts might affect the JSS a little, but given that I could show you a profile with 85% of "no feedback" contracts in all three windows and a 100% JSS, I doubt it has any effect at all.

What does affect the JSS negatively:

• Contracts that close with no earnings *EVER* paid *AND* no feedback
• Contracts that are open for 2+3 or more months with nothing *EVER* paid
• Poor private feedback
• Contracts with great outcomes falling out of the relevant calculation window, changing the weighting of the contracts that remain

What affects the JSS positively

• Repeat and ongoing clients
• Positive feedback

That's just about it. It's not magic, not mystical and nowhere near as complicated as people try to make it out to be.