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roberty1y
Community Member

What's the situation with writing categories?

There used to be four: "content writing", "editing and proofreading", "creative writing" and "other". Now it's just "content writing" and "editing and proofreading".

 

Have the two missing categories been merged with the remaining two? For the last few weeks, I noticed that the categeries that have since disappeared were all wrong. All kinds of work would show up when you'd filter for "creative writing" or "other". 

61 REPLIES 61
pgiambalvo
Community Member

Yeah, I've noticed this, too. Not helpful and a pain in the butt, actually. They need to improve our ability to see the jobs that we only want to see, this does this opposite.

Yes, it's good to be able to filter the jobs. I'm not sure if this is a deliberate and permanent change, or a temporary state of affairs while they're fixing some glitch.

kfarnell
Community Member

That is ridiculous.

 

There weren't enough categories, anyway (technical, scriptwriting and screenwriting, for example). It not only makes it harder to search, it gives the impression that certain categories aren't covered here. So we aren't supposed to be writing fiction any longer? Or books? or pretty much anything I actually do?

 

What on earth is the rationale behind this?

lysis10
Community Member

Yeah they got rid of technical writing which was my main area. Pretty mad about it. Now I get to see unrelated stuff in my feed instead of just going to a category.

 

They've apparently done it to some other sections too.

ArjayM
Moderator
Moderator

We truly appreciate everyone's feedback and suggestions,

 

From time to time, we evaluate and update the specialties and skills listed on Upwork to reflect the current trends and talents that freelancers offer. These updates improve our site’s search and matching capabilities, so it’s important that they’re kept up-to-date.

 

Often, these updates involve simple renaming, merging, and corrections to streamline the user experience. You may not even notice them! However, they improve our metadata and result in clearer information, improved organization, and more accurate listings in our marketplace and your job searches.

 

For example:

  • If you are a client, specialties and skills help categorize your job post and match your project with the talent you need

  • If you are a freelancer, specialties and skills help you market your talents and create specialized profiles that accurately reflect your expertise


Public Help Article you can check here. 

*Update: article about the most recent update to categories here.

 

~ Arjay
Upwork
kfarnell
Community Member

You haven't read the above posts properly.

 

The categories that appear on the article you've linked to no longer appear when searching for projects. The option (for example) for creative writing no longer exists. Why does this article contradict what actually happens?

 

Why have these categories been removed? How does merging very different categories in this way 'improve our metadata and result in clearer information, improved organization, and more accurate listings in our marketplace and your job searches'?

 

It's annoying enough to have editing and proofreading bundled together as if it's one thing. It would be more than helpful to have them separated and different types of editing indicated. However, I've learned to live with that.

 

But I can't see any advantage in merging technical writing with creative writing. Poetry really isn't the same as a computer article.

lysis10
Community Member


Kim F wrote:

You haven't read the above posts properly.

 

The categories that appear on the article you've linked to no longer appear when searching for projects. The option (for example) for creative writing no longer exists. Why does this article contradict what actually happens?

 

Why have these categories been removed? How does merging very different categories in this way 'improve our metadata and result in clearer information, improved organization, and more accurate listings in our marketplace and your job searches'?

 

It's annoying enough to have editing and proofreading bundled together as if it's one thing. It would be more than helpful to have them separated and different types of editing indicated. However, I've learned to live with that.

 

But I can't see any advantage in merging technical writing with creative writing. Poetry really isn't the same as a computer article.


 

I am glad you said something because I was going to suggest to Upwork to just ignore us instead of insulting us with a bad canned answer but I decided to keep my (snarky) mouth shut. This is a problem but hey they got meta data and things.

I meant to hit "reply", not "accept as solution". But you're right about Upwork. God knows where they're getting their "metadata" they use to recategorize the jobs. Quite possibly it's from the hundreds of thousands of clueless freelancers who wouldn't know an article on AI from mediaeval poetry.

Skill and market matching was already dreadful. The CEO acknowledged as much years ago. How is it even possible to imagine that making skill classification less rather than more granular is going to improve anything? Users here are telling you it's a change that degrades our abiity to find work—and, you know, generate revenue for ourselves and for Upwork.

 

Note: The above question is rhetorical. Please do not feel obliged to throw boilerplate at it.

renata101
Community Member


Arjay M wrote:

We truly appreciate everyone's feedback and suggestions,

 

From time to time, we evaluate and update the specialties and skills listed on Upwork to reflect the current trends and talents that freelancers offer. These updates improve our site’s search and matching capabilities, so it’s important that they’re kept up-to-date.

 

 


Based on Upwork's past problem-solving track record, I get the distinct impression that the update may have been based on what new clients search for or the titles clients choose for their posts rather than what freelancer's corretly call their specialties (in other words, the Upwork Solutions Department is likely using the wrong data to generate a solution to a perceived but non-existent problem in order to create a new and not-so-fun problem for freelancers).

The is wrongheaded in so very many ways, the main one being that a lot of new-to-Upwork clients don't know what they're actually looking for until freelancers tell them what it's called.

kfarnell
Community Member

Maybe it works if only one short question is asked at a time? I'll try:

Why is the 'Public Help Article' so misleading and untrue?

kfarnell
Community Member

I see the categories have now changed. They now include 'professional and business writing' and 'sales and marketing copywriting'. However, creative and technical writing (I'd have thought the next main categories) are still absent. And this still doesn't match the help article.

lysis10
Community Member

Yeah the technical writing should be added back. Has nothing to do with any of those other categories.

kfarnell
Community Member

In the special world where the Upwork category elf works, you and I are interchangeable. My eighteenth century shipwreck and astrological predictions (what I have lined up this week) clearly involve cyber protection issues. 

 

At least these projects are long running enough for me to take them off-platform if creative writing is to be discouraged. And it's starting to make much more sense that the writers and translators' forum was effectively disappeared.

 

You said above that snark is your mode when annoyed here. Mine is being irritatingly persistent. I'm going to keep demonstrating that until someone relatively sensible responds.

 

(Edited for typo)

I see that the help link has now been updated. However, there is no explanation regarding why the original categories are no longer covered. The level 3 categories only exist in the help article and are not something that can be accessed when searching through projects. 

 

Why? How can this possibly be an improvement?

Thanks to the changes in categories and my proflie, I think I'm going to make the leap from writing mostly movies and TV shows into editing and proofreading medical journals.

kfarnell
Community Member

Today's short question:

  • "If you are a client, specialties and skills help categorize your job post and match your project with the talent you need"

How?  Given that categories have disappeared and the help article bears no relation to reality, how can this be achieved?

kfarnell
Community Member

Today's short question:

Why are concerns here not being addressed?

kfarnell
Community Member

Given that no one from Upwork wants to respond here, I opened a ticket. Apparently, my queries are to be passed onto the management team and that could involve correction of the wrong information and considering future enhancements. (This is not a direct quote and therefore does not need to be deleted.) It's good to know that correcting wrong information is only a possibility.

 

However, the same message referred to my questions regarding the categories as 'preferences'. In other words, Upwork sees writers/editors as completely interchangeable. (Excuse me while I bang my head on a wall.) 

 

That response was sent on Thursday morning (US). There has been no follow up.

LuiggiR
Moderator
Moderator

Hi Robert and everyone, 

 

An update was recently done to Categories which you can learn more about in this article. We've read the feedback and questions you've shared in this thread so far, and we'll be sure to share those with the team. We will update this thread once we have more information.

~ Luiggi
Upwork
kfarnell
Community Member

The categories outlined in the article do not reflect what actually appears. The categories are restricted to 'all'; 'content writing'; 'editing and proofreading services'; 'professional and business writing'; and 'sales and marketing copywriting'. There is no option to search for the vast majority of the article's listed categories.

 

Presumably, these changes now also affect search parameters? So we will no longer be found in the categories we actually work in but in a category Upwork has decided we ought to be working in? So invites will become less relevant and it will be harder for clients to find what they're looking for? And this is deliberate?

 

Wouldn't it have been easier to contact us direct and tell us to bugger off as we're no longer wanted instead of trying to squeeze us out?

 

"So invites will become less relevant and it will be harder for clients to find what they're looking for?"

Yes, IMO. If I were a client searching for someone to write a technical manual and had to wade through a bunch of freelencers' profiles who specialize in writing blogs about cats, I would be most unappy.

 

 

lysis10
Community Member

You guys put technical writing in with creative writing. Community Guidelines why.

kfarnell
Community Member

I notice today that my specialised profile has been changed from 'editing' to 'copy editing'. It was previously more accurate as I do a wider range of editing than copy editing alone.  (It also now doesn't feature a recent editing project.)

 

Can someone explain why this has been changed? Are substantive and content editing no longer services I can offer on Upwork? As some of my projects aren't copy editing projects, does that mean they will not appear on what was my 'editing' profile, thereby rendering it useless?

 

Given previous unaddressed problems with disappearing writing categories, are the categories for specialised profiles disappearing in the same way?

 

Edited to add: I strongly recommend people check their specialised categories in case they appear to be offering something they don't do.

Oh, for crying out loud! Kim, thanks for the heads-up. I checked mine and sure enough, I've been recategorized inaccurately. 

I just checked mine. What the heck happened?! So many of the categories, etc. are gone or have been changed. There are very specific things we do and don't do and I want clients to be able to find me, or leave me alone, based on that.

No more market research category?!?! That's a huge chunk of my practice! 

 

Also, one of my specialized profiles now contains an inaccurate sub-head or caption and I can't figure out how to change it. 

 

Please stop making "improvements".

They just can't leave well alone. At the same time. problems that have been plaguing the site for a year or more go unaddressed.

The catagories under Writing have been completely gutted!  This is awful for both freelancers and clients. Clients want to find someone who specializes in what they are looking for, and freelancers only want to appeal to clients looking for their specialty. Upwork should make that as easy and clear as possible, not harder by lumping us all in catch-all categories.

Quite.

 

I've now opened a ticket requesting an explanation about this to accompany the one about writing categories I mention here:

https://community.upwork.com/t5/Freelancers/What-s-the-situation-with-writing-categories/td-p/110131...

 

Given that the first ticket hasn't received a proper response, I am not holding my breath. 

 

It's starting to feel personal... Maybe someone else could try to see if they can get a (sensible and relevant) response?

 

Or maybe a mod could READ what we're saying (not simply copy and paste response #678426) and respond here accordingly?

No doubt they'll tell us this is best for us, having analyzed their "metadata". 

It would probably improve their metadata if they changed my profile to say I spoke fluent Japanese, kept chickens and could do the tango. But it wouldn't make either of us any money.

lysis10
Community Member

**edited for Community Guidelines** I've been changed to "Web and UX Writing." Holy crap this is making me rage it's so terribly wrong. It's really hard to contain my thoughts on how bad this is.

kfarnell
Community Member

The terms of service (1:3) require that no false or misleading information regarding supplied services is supplied on a profile. If anything is false, we're obliged to correct it.

 

Upwork is placing people in breach of the terms of service by changing their profiles to claim they offer skills that they don't. Certain skills no longer exist. Are you expecting people to simply close these profiles and leave?

 

Why does all documentation now only allow copy editing and no other forms of editing? (In a similar way, photography is now restricted to 'product' and 'local' photography.)

 

I suppose the fact that biographies are classed with stories and novels (suggesting they're made up) is a little made up for by the fact there are three copywriting categories, and sales and marketing copywriting are regarded as separate. Indeed, email copywriting is seen as separate to other copywriting. With that being the case, I'd like a writing category of 'it'll end up in a printed book'.

 

Jen, according to : https://support.upwork.com/hc/en-us/articles/360024526754-Profile-Categories-and-Skills technical writing should still be a category for a specialised profile.

lysis10
Community Member

Thank you for letting me know, Kim. Apparently, I have to redo my specialized profile to move it back but that doesn't explain why I was changed in the first place and that means I get to slog through 500 jobs to put them into a new specialized profile. That's what I heard anyway. No way to just change the category.  There also used to be a technical writing section, which is gone too. Now I get to see creative writing and grant writing in with someone who wants content for an API. Wonderful!

 

Upwork, couldn't you have at least asked someone who understands these sections? I guarantee people are looking for a technical writer because this is exactly why they contact me. This is so friggin insanely off.

My profile wasn't changed.

But I'm annoyed at what they've done with the writing categories. They make no sense, and I now have to have everything selected.

gilbert-phyllis
Community Member

I've just discovered that one of my specialized profiles, "Writer, Researcher" contains the tag line (or sub-head or sub-title, whatever you want to call it) "Business and proposal writing". I do not specialize in proposal writing and there is nothing in my profile suggesting that I do. This is a completely inaccurate phrase and I cannot find a way to remove it.

 

This apparently happened with the most recent paroxysm of "updating" skills and categories, as I am hearing colleagues and acquaintainces complain about similar problems that create misleading and inaccurate material in our profiles. I don't have enough available hours in my day to list all the ways it is wrong and counterproductive for UW to muck around in our marketing like that.

 

Please fix it and don't do it any more.

 

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