Flipping pesky Facebook

[Dianne M]

this has become a major topic at oDesk's facebook page https://www.facebook.com/odesk https://www.facebook.com/odesk/posts/10152677192754334 https://www.facebook.com/odesk/posts/10152677702384334 I don't get why this thing has to go on, it's been almost a month now... And why are announcements posted in some obscure part of the forum (the portfolio linking) and why not just send a site wide email to inform clients? This and numerous other oDesk glitches are affecting my professional relationship with clients. Now even the team tracker keeps crashing, right when I have a deadline. Before oDesk merged with elance, there were notifications when some issues are present as well as when some areas of the world are experiencing bad weather conditions. Now NADA!

[Stephen B]

So I signed up to oDesk and now it turns out that they give status updates not through oDesk but through the dreaded **. What the ** use is that to someone who doesn't use social networking as a matter of choice, even principle (and I know I'm not alone in that). I know you'll say "ahh but the site was down" but it's up for long enough periods to post updates or (heaven forbid) explanations... *Removed by admin

[Dianne M]

exactly! They must think everyone uses FB. It's the same way they post announcements on their blogs (so we won't even hear about it unless we happened to be doing nothing but checking fb and their blog. I don't understand why announcements are posted either on the forum (which FB odeskers seem to not even be aware of) and the blog. What is the use of having a website if a site wide email and notification cannot be handled? I only saw the fb page because one of my freelancers told me about it.

[Stephen B]

(Edited cleaned up version, for those who think I'm losing it... Note I didn't use any F words or naughty four-letter words, but simply an ironic Spoonerism of the name Facebook, and I only alluded to a version of a place of eternal damnation recognised by one major religion.(Funny I got away with heaven, but not its opposite, without which...)). CLEAN VERSION: So I signed up to oDesk and now it turns out that they give status updates not through oDesk but through the largest social networking site. What flipping use is that to someone who doesn't use social networking as a matter of choice, even principle (and I know I'm not alone in that). I know you'll say "ahh but the site was down" but it's up for long enough periods to post updates or (heaven forbid) explanations... What is wrong with email notifications about site problems? Would that be too hard to do?

[Gillian Michele N]

I'd much rather receive a notification within my account. It's connected to my email too, so I'll get that quickly. It's just common sense.

[Dianne M]

common sense seems to a difficult concept to grasp for whoever is in-charge on notifications and communications. Basically I think they want to give the false impression that all is well to clients at the expense of freelancers. Right now I'm getting nervous about not being able to adhere to a project's deadline because I can't even communicate with my client nor use the time tracker to log-in time properly. I really don't want the client to think I'm giving excuses so I gave the client the fb links, hopefully he will see it. They are sabotaging their freelancers - the real people who are making money for this site.

[Marcia M]

My clients tend to use personal email or project management software. They are wise to the ways of oDesk.

[Dianne M]

Yup! Most clients who have a solid oDesk history would use other apps and software. Maybe over the years they have learned how things are in here. Both of my clients who have deadlines this week are quite new and have had bad experiences with other freelancers here (maybe that's why they insist all communication is through here and are very strict about logging time via the time tracker) so I hope they don't think I'm simply making excuses. You know, from a client's perspective it looks things are perfect here. No notifications about bugs etc. Plus on FB they make it look like every freelancer is livin la vida loca and traveling all over the world with their digital nomad campaign. I don't get it. Why is timezone one of their parameters for the fit/unfit thing and the mad robot thing but in the marketing stuff, they keep saying a freelancer is very flexible etc etc. Must be why some clients here think that paying peanuts is 'life changing' for freelancers. Personally, my rate is a lot higher so I'm not directly affected plus I got great clients; but I feel disgusted with the misrepresentation of things....just like they say "the client paused this contract" on paused jobs even though the client has no idea the contract being paused.