🐈
» Forums » Freelancers » UW Please DON'T do this: More SPAM is on the ...
Page options
ericaandrews
Community Member

UW Please DON'T do this: More SPAM is on the WAY with this update announced

https://community.upwork.com/t5/Product-Updates/Changes-to-Client-Pricing-Structure/ba-p/1044300

 

"With this change, all of our most popular Client Plus plan amenities (ex. advanced reporting, activity codes, direct messaging) will be available to all clients, without requiring a paid subscription."

 

 

 

Direct Messaging: The fact that you are making this ONE particular feature FREE to ALL clients, whether they pay a subscription or not, is going about to make the lives of Freelancers absolutely Unbearable.

 

https://community.upwork.com/t5/Product-Updates/Direct-message-before-hiring/ba-p/624836

 

For the freelancers who have never received an 'Enterprise Message' out of the blue: 

This currently gives Paid clients the ability to send a direct Upwork Message to you, with NO introduction whatsoever, even if you haven't applied to any of the client's job posts and have never spoken to them ever before.   Somebody can literally just 'search' your name in the Freelancer list and Send you a random Message out the blue, without your consent, and there is no way to disable it, opt out, or stop the message from arriving.  I got one about a week ago - some random guy just sent a 'message' out the blue -  and it was awkward, shocking, and uncomfortable.  It felt like I had been 'hacked' or had my privacy invaded.

 

Yes, you can 'block' them but only after the message hits your Inbox and you open the message, and you can only block that person that messaged you, not all 'direct messages'.   Currently, this feature is only available to Paid clients, which is bad enough. 

 

While some freelancers may think this 'feature' is "good", I don't really want random clients just 'invading' my message box out the blue, because of the potentional for abuse.  It's invasive and inappropriate.   

 

 

 

Dear Upwork - Here's the catastropic problem with what you are about to do:

 

Now, imagine if Upwork gives this same ability to message any freelancer to all clients, including 'new' unverified clients that are setting up new (and fake) profiles everday and spamming the job boards with scam and illegal job posts.

 

We freelancers are going to get bombarded with spam and scams in our inbox, not to mention potential for other abuses by anybody with a client account being able to 'search' freelancer profiles and randomly message any freelancer they find  for whatever reason and say whatever they want - without having any identification check, verification - or anything else by Upwork: That is a gold-mine for stalkers, perverts, criminals, xenophobic folks,  people with restraining orders against them, and anybody else looking for an easy and anonymous way to harass, stalk, or terrorize people. 

 

If a freelancer 'declines' an job invite, the client can simply keep 'pestering' them with unwanted 'direct messages'  under the same profile or different fake profiles.   Freelancers can go create fake 'client' accounts and begin sending 'direct messages' to competing freelancers to 'gather' information to gain inside information. 

 

This also means that now, instead of posting 'fake' scam jobs that can get taken down, the fake 'clients' that are scammers can simply create a new UW account, and begin 'direct messaging' dozens or hundreds of freelancers with the scam/spam instead, literally avoiding any and all 'censorship' by UW by avoiding the job boards altogether.

 

Freelancers aren't permitted to just 'message' random clients out of the blue,  so  clients should not be able to 'message' freelancers out of the blue. A freelancer deserves just as much right to control who they talk to on this platform and if they even talk to them at all.  Allowing any random 'client' to just send an unsolicited message and 'jump' into my Inbox without my permission shows a complete lack of respect for the privacy right of the freelancers.  I'll decide if I want to speak with somebody either by applying to their job post or accepting their invite:  UW doesn't  have a right to try to force or compel me to talk to any and everybody that looks up my name in the freelancer database and decides to bomb 'direct messages' into by Inbox: At a minimum, I have to go into my inbox and open the message, just to block the person.   That's completely ridiculous. You are literally about to create more problems for freelancers, and more mess for us to clean up.

 

So, we told Upwork that spam was a huge problem on the job boards, and your  response was to "open" up direct messaging to freelancers to anybody that sets up a 'client' UW account and help flood our Messages Inbox with the same spam and scams we are trying to avoid on the job boards.

 

Are you serious?

 

We asked UW to clean up the spam/scam mess, not spread it to additional portions of the platform.   What  UW is about to do is going to be a nightmare for freelancers, all to make things 'easier' for clients.   Please take time to think about how a new 'feature' impacts both sides, instead of always favoring the clients and treating freelancers like they are disposable. Remember: You have nothing to sell to clients on this platform if freelancers aren't here.  If you don't have a 'product', you don't have a 'market'.

 

I  can promise you I will not remain on this platform if my Inbox starts getting flooded with the same spam/scam that is overruning the job boards because UW decided to throw clients a 'binkie' by allowing them to 'message' any and all freelancers randomly and indiscriminantly.    A complete invasion of privacy and a complete lack of respect and consideration for freelancers.

 

ACCEPTED SOLUTION
gilbert-phyllis
Community Member

Hold your horses, it's not quite that bad. Only clients who qualify per the criteria below will be able to send us direct messages.

 

All clients who meet eligibility requirements can message talent directly. Here’s how to qualify:

  • Have a current verified billing method
  • Spent over $1,000 in the past 12 months
  • Have been on the platform more than 90 days
  • Made a payment over 90 days ago
  • Account is in good standing (not on hold)

You can make up to 5 new connections via direct message per day. 

 

View solution in original post

10 REPLIES 10
gilbert-phyllis
Community Member

Hold your horses, it's not quite that bad. Only clients who qualify per the criteria below will be able to send us direct messages.

 

All clients who meet eligibility requirements can message talent directly. Here’s how to qualify:

  • Have a current verified billing method
  • Spent over $1,000 in the past 12 months
  • Have been on the platform more than 90 days
  • Made a payment over 90 days ago
  • Account is in good standing (not on hold)

You can make up to 5 new connections via direct message per day. 

 

Whew! Thanks for this.


Peter G wrote:

Whew! Thanks for this.


You're very welcome. All I did was read the information UW made available in connection with the announcement, to get informed about the ins and outs.

 

That is for the 'basic' plan that is going away and being 'merged' into their 'new' plan. The other link said they can send 40 per billing cycle

https://community.upwork.com/t5/Product-Updates/Direct-message-before-hiring/ba-p/624836

 

That 'new feature' announcment posting doesn't say what the 'criteria' will be for sending messages or how many will be allowed under the new plan.  All it says is whether you have a subscription or not, you can send messages.

 

Also, I can tell you that the 'direct message' I got last week came from a client definitely didn't meet all of that criteria (client had $0 spent, so definitely didn't meet items 2-4 in that list), and we all know a 'verified payment method' by itself is pretty meaningless.  So, if that's the 'criteria', it wasn't being enforced as of last week. 

 

So, it's safe to say we don't know right now WHO will be allowed to send messages or how many they'll be able to send. However, what I do know is there are thousands, possibly millions of 'clients' on UW, and if all of them are allowed to send even 5 messages a day , that's a lot of messages being sent - many of which will be unwanted.

 

Either way, allowing clients to 'inject' random messages into any freelancer's inbox without giving freelancer's a way to OPT-OUT of the whole program is simply a new way of taking away a freelancer's right to choose who they communicate with on this platform.  I'm sure many  freelancers would welcome getting "sales pitch" messages from clients in their Messages inbox, but not all freelancers welcome unsolicited messages (I actually 'unsubscribed' from the Talent Specialist program because of unsolicited messages.) If I have to login to UW to delete/block every unwanted message, that's more work for me. I had to waste time cleaning up unwanted 'Talent Specialist' invites, now I'll have to waste time cleaning up unwanted 'direct messages' and blocking people. 

 

The problem is that freelancers aren't being given any choice in the matter and their feedback was never solicited before a decision was made to just 'open up' their inboxes to the entire world of UW.  Anytime you roll out a feature that removes privacy protections, you should roll out a way for people to opt out of that new feature.  If you're going to give clients ability to 'message' any freelancer at the 'click of a button', then give the freelancer the ability to disable that button and not be messaged if the don't wish to be.

 

I'm sorry, but it was simply creepy  looking to have some random guy suddenly jump into my messages last week 'Hi. Are you available?''.    It was just weird and creepy feeling. I've seen more than enough creepy stuff on here, and definitely don't want more of it.  

 

This is definitely a solution in search of a problem, meanwhile the actual problems (spam / scams) aren't being ignored and neglected. 


CJ A wrote:

That is for the 'basic' plan that is going away and being 'merged' into their 'new' plan. The other link said they can send 40 per billing cycle

https://community.upwork.com/t5/Product-Updates/Direct-message-before-hiring/ba-p/624836

 

That 'new feature' announcment posting doesn't say what the 'criteria' will be for sending messages or how many will be allowed under the new plan.  All it says is whether you have a subscription or not, you can send messages.

 

Also, I can tell you that the 'direct message' I got last week came from a client definitely didn't meet all of that criteria (client had $0 spent, so definitely didn't meet items 2-4 in that list), and we all know a 'verified payment method' by itself is pretty meaningless.  So, if that's the 'criteria', it wasn't being enforced as of last week. 

 

So, it's safe to say we don't know right now WHO will be allowed to send messages or how many they'll be able to send. However, what I do know is there are thousands, possibly millions of 'clients' on UW, and if all of them are allowed to send even 5 messages a day , that's a lot of messages being sent - many of which will be unwanted.

 

Either way, allowing clients to 'inject' random messages into any freelancer's inbox without giving freelancer's a way to OPT-OUT of the whole program is simply a new way of taking away a freelancer's right to choose who they communicate with on this platform.  I'm sure many  freelancers would welcome getting "sales pitch" messages from clients in their Messages inbox, but not all freelancers welcome unsolicited messages (I actually 'unsubscribed' from the Talent Specialist program because of unsolicited messages.) If I have to login to UW to delete/block every unwanted message, that's more work for me. I had to waste time cleaning up unwanted 'Talent Specialist' invites, now I'll have to waste time cleaning up unwanted 'direct messages' and blocking people. 

 

The problem is that freelancers aren't being given any choice in the matter and their feedback was never solicited before a decision was made to just 'open up' their inboxes to the entire world of UW.  Anytime you roll out a feature that removes privacy protections, you should roll out a way for people to opt out of that new feature.  If you're going to give clients ability to 'message' any freelancer at the 'click of a button', then give the freelancer the ability to disable that button and not be messaged if the don't wish to be.

 

I'm sorry, but it was simply creepy  looking to have some random guy suddenly jump into my messages last week 'Hi. Are you available?''.    It was just weird and creepy feeling. I've seen more than enough creepy stuff on here, and definitely don't want more of it.  

 

This is definitely a solution in search of a problem, meanwhile the actual problems (spam / scams) aren't being ignored and neglected. 


Actually, the link I posted above is from the info around this new announcement. In any case, I guess you and I have different ways of thinking about our business inboxes. I wouldn't mind getting an unsolicited message from a prospective client every day, even if nine out of ten were pointless. Or 14 out of 15, or even 19 out of 20. It takes what--less than a minute?--to respond, No thanks. I'd do that once a day if it yielded me a good contact once a month. My time and attention are valuable but I don't keep such a tight schedule that I can't afford to field cold calls. 

 

CJ, 

 

We appreciate your sharing your feedback. I would like to confirm though that the eligibility requirements will apply to ALL clients except for a small number of clients who will remain on the client Basic or Plus plans for a period of time.

I would also like to note that with this change the client will actually have to have spent some time and money on Upwork before they can send Direct Messages to freelancers, which was not required before. But just as before, the freelancer can block the client and/or flag their message if they think it's inappropriate or spam.

~ Valeria
Upwork
pgiambalvo
Community Member

This is horrible! Now instead of just having to wade through hundreds of spam and scam posts in both our feeds and inteview requests, they'll also be coming straight into our messages. No, no, no! Will there be a way for freelancers to block them?

martina_plaschka
Community Member

Edit - thank you Phyllis

For sure - CJ had me scared there for a minute. Not as bad as I thought.

kochubei_valeria
Community Member

Hi CJ,

 

As Phyllis noted earlier on this thread, there are eligibility requirements that clients would need to meet in order to be able to send direct messages to freelancers. With that, we do not expect the problem you're describing to happen. 

~ Valeria
Upwork
Latest Articles
Featured Topics
Learning Paths