New system aimed primarily at matching newer sellers with buyers
So now it seems I have to wait two hours before I can bid for a job. This is extremely unfair. Not only do experienced creatives/designers have to compete with an unfair playing field, ie people offered to do a job for £10 when it is clearly worth £100, we are now not allowed to bid for jobs as soon as they appear on PPH. What kind of system is this?!
Awful. Unfair. Unprofessional. Discriminatory.
Regards
C. Howe
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@ Paul, I've just seen your comment from last night re a low job budget. I was invited to bid on a job of 16,000 words for £100. Several of us commented on this low budget and the typical response was "we only need one writer and if they want the money, then they will do it". Of course people have bid on it which doesn't help in the slightest and the journey down this slippery slope is gathering speed due to both the job vetting system which I have to presume doesn't exist as I have still had no reply despite repeated questions and the fact that the pin money freelancers swamping the market are prepared to work for peanuts.
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David, you have a rather benign interpretation of the solicitor job. He may want actors, but he's asking for an impersonator. I have never heard the term acting being used interchangeably with impersonation.
I can't think of an above-board reason why anyone would want someone to impersonate a solicitor.
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@Paul - with regards to your query about the Red names on the feedback blogs, I think I may know the answer?
I don't know if it's the same in all cases, but you can click on the Red names, and they appear to be hyperlinks to either external web sites, or profile pages within PPH. And there is a website box in the feedback form. Could this be the answer???
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I'd guess that that's what it is Paul. All of the Orange/Red names that I've moved my mouse across seem to be either websites/pph profile or blog links etc. There was one, that for some reason said "null"??? You can easily see the links at the bottom left corner of the page, when your mouse is over their name. It'll be that website box on the form, people are just typing in their own websites or whatever. I cannot see what else it could be?
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Ironically, the most "spam" I get from PPH is currently from the constant posts from this thread. I was subscribed as I agreed with the original issues being put forward, and wanted to see what PPH was going to do.
But it's gone from reporting actual issues and informing PPH what we would like changed, to a constant barrage of heckling and relentlessly bringing up every possible issue. Including tiny insignificant problems and multiple discussions thereafter, and often (seemingly) just for the sake of being negative towards PPH. This just drowns out PPH being able to focus on actual issues we care about because they are so busy trying to be diplomatic over so many issues and having to jump through political hoops from the endless and inconsequential goading.
There has been some really good points raised, and genuine issues brought to PPH's attention. The recent IPSE survey issue being a notable one, but one always has to wade through countless irrelevant opinion posts thereafter just to keep a track of these issues. God only knows how Michael is keeping track, as I'm sure he has other work to do.
But, the same as users have a choice to stay or leave PPH if they don't like it or disagree with their ethics, I've chosen to unsubscribe - just so I can get some work done.
Good luck to the "5" of you.
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Michael, I have to admire the dedication of PPH staff over Christmas. It's clear that payment processing and customer service will continue across the Christmas period unabated, otherwise PPH would have emailed everyone about any interruption to service by now.
Well done guys, working through Christmas!
Paul
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I thought all actors 'pretended'? That's why they're called 'actors' isn't it?
Or is my brain not wired up properly this morning?
Yes, they do. It's all about context. I've never heard of actors being asked to pretend. They act out a part or play a part. Pretending is fine, as long as everyone knows it's a pretense.
In the past we've seen jobs on PPH asking for people to imitate solicitors at a meeting - so that would be potentially fraudulent. In this case the circumstances of the job seem needlessly vague.
If the job said "Actor wanted for office role-play exercise", I wouldn't think anything of it.
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Well we really are in the PPH factory. Now we can clock-in with the PPH time tracker.
http://blog.peopleperhour.com/blogroll/contact-hire-availability-features/
We are thinking of introducing a setting in the top menu to allow every Seller change status from ‘available’ to ‘unavailable’ and vice versa.
I can see that being really useful. I'll be using it.
PPH a surprise around every corner.
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I have complained many times about PPH customer service but credit where credit's due they have really come through for ,me this time. I have suffered a death in my family and have had to contact several clients due to this. The vast majority have been brilliant but one got really nasty, expected me to do his work while organising a funeral and was being a right arse hole and making all sorts of threats. I turned to PPH, not expecting much I must admit, and they have been brilliant so I thank you for sorting out a difficult situation.
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@Paul, it is going to be a good test of whether PPH is listening or not. They have asked for opinions and it is pretty clear from the comments that neither buyers not sellers want to use time tracking software, and that an availability setting needs to be optional and flexible (so we can indicate things like "I will be available in about two weeks), etc.
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I can understand why PPH thinks people want it - there's support for it in other threads here and other sites have it.
I think if you need that 'evidence' you're in a difficult situation with your client anyway. I suspect it's more important if your language skills are poor and you can't explain how you spend your time and the buyer doesn't trust you.
I see it as a bottom-end of the market problem.
I think some of these trackers track more than time - they can even snapshot your desktop. I have no idea if the PPH one does that, either way I don't care - it's not going on my machine.
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@David, @Paul I do not like it either, but its not quite as bad as your saying - and there is a danger that if PPH implement what I expect they will think its addressed your criticisms so its OK (whereas there is still plenty wrong with it).
I assume that they will do the same as the freelance sites that already do this, so we only run the software when doing an hourly paid job, and it tracks activity (e.g. whether you are clicking keys and moving the mouse) to check time spent at the computer and takes screen shots that are sent to the buyer so that they can see what you are doing.
Confidentiality for non-PPH clients should not be a problem as we will not run the software when working for them. However, if I use this (I only CAN use it if it runs on Linux by the way) I will run in a virtual machine to be sure about security, which will make me less efficient (as my usual notes, bookmarks. example snippets etc. will not be as easily accessible) so clients will be charged more as I will keep to the same hourly rate.
I am also going to be much less willing to bid hourly, which is going to be worse for some clients.
The real problem is related to what Paul says about this being a "bottom-end of the market" problem. It makes perfect sense for something like data entry where all time spent working is time spent typing away at a computer. It makes no sense for work done away from the computer. I often stop typing and think for several minutes about the best way to solve a problem, or get up and research something on my tablet to get away from my desk for a bit. What happens then?
It is also bad for clients as it will no longer be possible to refuse to pay for poor quality hourly paid work. it is also possible to fool the trackers with software that emulates mouse movement and keystrokes. I sometimes discount time spent if I feel I have been inefficient - not even possible with a system like this.
It is also corrosive of trust. As Paul says, if clients do not trust us, they have bigger problems than this solves. I could easily steal large chunks of many of my client's businesses.
All I really want from PPH is to put clients in touch with me and to handle payments through escrow. Can PPH not just stick to that?
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