What's going on with the message & clarification streams
So I go away from PPH for a few weeks and come back to find that more changes have been made which restrict our ability to work.
Firstly you are still blocking clarification messages that are required in order to make bids, how exactly do you decide which questions to block...cause I'm pretty sure it isn't through anyone actually reading them...none of my questions have breached any terms..trust me I've checked!.. And every question I post is necessary in order for me to establish the level of work and quote accurately in a proposal yet every now and then you just randomly remove them, it makes no sense at all.
Secondly, although I did just say you remove my questions, now it's more a case of not posting them at all, In the last 2 days I asked questions on 16 different jobs...only 2 were posted, one got the b/s we have removed your question crap and the rest seem to have just disappeared into the ether???
Why are all questions now being 'moderated' before being posted when you're clearly not actually moderating them, if you were the stupid spam questions from some other freelancers wouldn't be there and mine would...also if they're being moderated in advance why are you then removing some of them after posting for apparent breaches of terms.
Next on the list is this stupid message stream situation. Why cant I access active conversations from my inbox anymore.
I am in talks with 3 people at the moment regarding work yet only one of these shows up in my inbox, the others I simply cannot gain access to unless I get a new message (which now shows up in my notifications and not in my inbox....seriously what the hell?!
How can we effectively communicate with clients/potential clients if you don't allow us free access to talk to them, I understand the idea of waiting for the first client response before allowing subsequent messages but this is ridiculous, once a conversation is initiated and active with both parties we NEED to be able to communicate fully, at any time and the clients need the same ability, otherwise you can encounter all manner of problems in providing the contracted work.
It seems to me that PPH don't want their freelancers to be able to actually get work, I don't understand why but to all intents and purposes you make it as difficult as possible for us to obtain work.
I don't know why I'm actually writing this, I know for damn sure that nothing is going to change, nothing will be done to help us and I'm 99.9% certain this won't even be read by anyone except other frustrated freelancers but hey, figured it's worth a shot here since you don't bother replying to emails..or dont actually read them when you do
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Official comment
Hi Stacey,
Many thanks for your message. I'm sorry about that.
Regarding the Clarification Board, our system has changed and our moderation team is now rejecting questions that are not to the point. I understand you find this frustrating, though we urge our Sellers to always raise a Proposal. By raising a proposal users can now contact each other for the job/project specifically and proceed with it.
We had issues in the past where Sellers and Buyers were exchanging contact details and were working outside of PPH (breaching our terms) under the clarification board.
Regarding the workstream and technical issues you are facing, I have opened up a ticket for you with our customer support team and someone will email you soon.
Please let me know if I can help you with anything else.Comment actions -
Hi Stacey,
I too agree with you. Why make answers public? Moderate but apart from sharing details allow other questions to publish.
You encourage us to send proposals and that we do but before getting questions clarified how am I supposed to assess the right price and time.
Seems PPH is trying to get us to buy Proposal Credits. The percentage is already working alright.
Regards,
Saurabh
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to be fair im not even that bothered that comments are public as I have nothing to hide....but...some of us develop our techniques over years of working in our chosen profession, this applies both to work and pitching for it so I do think it would be preferable to keep discussions private, but thats not essential.
What is essential is the ability to communicate effectively with potential clients, the problems im having show that the recent changes have made this very difficult.
Im having issues because of the moderation process on the clarification board.
This is a typical example of whats been happening...
Mr Brown posts a job but doesn't mention time frame
I then ask him his deadline in the clarification section
Now this question is either not being posted, or takes days to reach Mr Brown, by which time hes usually picked someone else.
(IF) my question does get posted straight away this is what happens next....
Mr Brown then replies with his deadline and asks to see my portfolio
But...I cant tell him where it is as any reply I send gets moderated and not put up...why, because it isnt a question.
So then my conversation stream is stopped, because now we have to wait for a client response before sending a message, but Mr Brown wont respond because he never got my message and I therefore lose a potential job.
This keeps happening to me but customer service cant seem to understand what my problem is.
The only job ive had in the last 6 months is one where the client messaged me directly...any of the ones ive opened with a clarification question have all ended the same way
I dont mind being moderated, but I do mind if it isnt effective and disrupts the process of obtaining work and conversing with clients -
its all well and good telling us to raise a proposal but we are limited on credits and MOST clients do not provide a brief detailed enough to make an accurate bid on...therefore we HAVE to ask questions and in some cases just be able to converse with potential clients.
I understand you dont want people working outside of PPH but none of your changes prevent that from happening, they simply make it impossible to obtain work through this site...ultimately driving freelancers elsewhere to find work, which is what youre trying to avoid -
I'm absolutely agreed with Stacey!
Same for me. Current situation with clarification boards just ridiculos.
Here is one of my many posts about the same:
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You are absolutely correct, I was having a discussion with a client yesterday, and I logged off for some time, and when I logged in again, I couldn't find that chat with the client, nowhere. What the hell happened? I am confused is it done by PPH team or by the client? But this is ridiculous as we just can't get a project if it happens this way.
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