Unavailable setting

[kfarnell]

I recently set my profile to unavailable. When I have done this in the past (as recently as a couple of weeks ago), it has meant that I have not received invitations to bid on projects. This time I am receiving invitations. 

CS say that it isn't possible to mark my profile as unavailable and prevent invitations that way but I have to make it private. They also told me that it's never prevented invitations despite the help pages indicating it does. And that there is actually no categorical way of stopping invitations, meaning penalties every time I can't log on regularly.

I don't want to make my profile private. I do want to become temporarily unavailable.

Is this no longer possible? If so, why has it changed and what is the purpose of the 'unavailable' setting?

[kochubei_valeria]

Hi Kim,

Setting one's profile as unavailable limits its visibility in search and therefore clients can't find it in search and send an invitation. It also serves to inform the clients who view your profile that you are not available at the moment. However, if the client previously saved the profile or has a direct link to it, they will be able to access it and send an invite. It's always worked this way and the process hasn't changed recently. 

[flamecrow]

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@Valeria K wrote:

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However, if the client previously saved the profile or has a direct link to it, they will be able to access it and send an invite. 

 Hi Valeria,

When a client sends an invite to a freelancer with their profile set to unavailable, are they notified via pop up or some other messaging that the freelancer is not available? I don't want my previous clients or long term clients to feel discouraged to rehire or send invites. 

Thanks

[tinker_bell3]

Hi Tim,

Setting your profile to unavailable only limits your visibility in search results; however, if your previous clients have a direct link to your profile, they will be able to access it and send you a job invite.