Canceled my membership, mostly due massive decline in clients, but...

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Yes, the casino-like structure of applying is off-putting and I stopped bidding quite a while ago, but I might have kept my membership active if something else about this site hadn't drastically changed over the past couple of years: clients.

There are far less of them, in general, for my services.

The few that do come here do not post the foundational components of what they need, such as the scope of work or industry niche. Other important details such as gender, age, and vocal tone are also nearly always missing. Even enterprise clients are publishing one sentence posts with minimal tags.

A good number of those who are left are asking for custom samples/auditions without providing the necessary details above, along with their budget. No one with a decent amount of self-respect would offer free work--that can now be (poorly) cloned--without knowing these things.

But, then there's this one aspect of how Upwork operates that really chaps my hide: the refusal to allow freelancers to access only posts within a given category. Clients post within the Voice Talent category, yet they keep freelancers from accessing only those posts, for instance.

I've reached out to CS on a few occasions and posted on the forum about it before. The replies are always a copy/paste reference to advanced search--which also shows far more than what would be only in the one category we are not allowed access to.

I've concluded that Upwork denies you the ability to see only what's posted in a given category because they want you spending connects on anything and everything, and don't care if you are unqualified for what you dump connects into or the overall expereince for those who buy services.

It seems that every platform has their own brand of gamification, but I'm done devoting valuable assets (notably time and attention) to this.