Snapshots, Activity level, and EPM Inconsistencies

[Wassim T]

OK Jean I really don't understand why all of you have focused on the very last item on my list. But anyway since you asked I'll let you know why.

I almost only work on Rush Projects. It's when the client comes and says I need this job delivered today or in few hours. If I am not going to get paid on the spot, why would I put myself under pressure then? This is the idea behind my business. I finish it quick and get paid quick, and often for higher rates because the clients are willing to pay higher for the sake of finishing this really quick by someone professional.

Why do I need the money for assuming I'm making a lot of money? Doesn't matter, that's my money and I need it.

[Natacha R]

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@Wassim T wrote:

OK Jean I really don't understand why all of you have focused on the very last item on my list. But anyway since you asked I'll let you know why.

I almost only work on Rush Projects. It's when the client comes and says I need this job delivered today or in few hours. If I am not going to get paid on the spot, why would I put myself under pressure then? This is the idea behind my business. I finish it quick and get paid quick, and often for higher rates because the clients are willing to pay higher for the sake of finishing this really quick by someone professional.

Why do I need the money for assuming I'm making a lot of money? Doesn't matter, that's my money and I need it.

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 I don’t know about others, but in my case because I only work on hourly contracts and I can assure you I get paid once a week.

There are good clients happy to pay quick for fix contracts, but Upwork holds the money, which is why I don’t think it’s fair..client paid, so release the money.

[Wassim T]

Bless you, Natasha.

"client paid, so release the money". This should be a slogan.

[Setu M]

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@Jean S wrote:

 I have the old installer file from Odesk. Send me a PM with a way to send it to you.

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Thanks Jean.

I owe you for this one.

[Setu M]

Bumping this thread to get a response from a Mod re the original questions asked.

Thanks.

[Valeria K]

Hi Setu,

I have gotten clarifications from our Dispute Team about how they handle low-activity first and last screenshots of a session. So if there is a dispute and the team reviews the work diary, they don't hold first/last screenshots against a freelancer unless their Work Diary shows a pattern of low activity. If during a week a freelancer logged 40 hours, and the only low activity was the first screenshot or last screenshot they logged, the Dispute Team wouldn't consider it 'low activity'. If the work diary shows consistently low activity they would most likely include the first/last screenshots in the refund amount.

Additionally, the Team App tracks how many minutes out of the 10-min interval are spent working along with the total amount of clicks and keystrokes in the 10-min interval. So yes, first screenshot of a session often ends up showing with lower activity since only few minutes of the interval were spent working. It's normal and is taken into consideration during the dispute process as I described above.

[Setu M]

Thanks for the response Valeria.

It is poorly worked out though. A 40 hour work week is not logged at once, so therefore there will be more than just the first and last screenshot with low activity.

I cannot sit and click (work) for 8 hours straight without taking a break. I will work for 2-3 hours then break for even 30 minutes. Therefore there will be several low activity screenshots.

Regardless of this, I have seen several low activity shots of 3, with >300 clicks and >300 keyboard strokes as well as activity for all 10 minutes. Therefore there is some other problems with how the tracker does the calculations.

I am aware you are just passing on answers, but if you could bring up that lat point I mentioned to the team, I would be grateful.

[Natasa R]

The issue I've been having with activity level so far is that I can't use the team app for all the tasks in my hourly contracts. I had a client just yesterday that asked me to watch a video to give him my opinon on some corrections they'll need to do before we continue with the tranlsation. This is part of my ongoing job and not some random task. If I need to work 8 hours per day on a large translation project with included tasks that require less than 5 minutes mouse or keyboard activity, then I will not be paid for them. So even if I work during this time, Upwork offers my work for free to the client. 

Asking clients to either add manual time or shift to fixed-price contracts in the middle of a job is inconvienct to both parties and not even close to the solution of the problem. Upwork needs to take a serious look at this problem and figure out how to make it work for hourly contracts. If the aim is to prevent scammers from abusing the system, then they could offer easier options to the rest of us who are serious about our jobs.

[Setu M]

Since the answer was not forthcoming, I thought I would update this thread with my findings, after working on a hourly contract over the past two weeks.

The question was, how does the tracker determine activity level? because at times there is alot of EPM (events per minute) in a snapshot, but the tracker records it as a low activity level period.

I found out that the tracker just adds each timeframe (minutes between one shot and the next), to the current 10-minute time slot in the diary. So for example the tracker took a shot 6 minutes in, then a next shot 12 minutes later; the diary would show one full 10 minute slot + a second slot with 8 bars depicting an activity level of 8. So 6 mins + 12 mins = 18 mins [10 + 8 in the diary].

Now if the tracker takes a subsequent shot 15 minutes later (6+12+15 = 33 mins), that would be [10+10 (the original 8 from the second slot + 2 minutes from the new 15 minutes) + 10 + 3]. So even though the EPM will show 300+ actions (from the time of the second shot to the third), the diary will show a low activity level of 3 in the 4th slot.

This is always true, except for times when the timestamp of the shot differ from the time of the shot logged in the diary. Yes this also happens, but only varies for a few minutes. So EPM has nothing to do with activity levels; activity levels are determined by how the times add up for the duration between shots, and how far in the 10-minute frame it goes just by chance.

Just sharing this info.

[John K]

Setu, you are truly a gentleman and a scholar.