Blind Reviews & The Day I Started Censoring Myself

[socialhonor]

Reviewing buyers should not be so important, unless you have to defend yourself from a bad review, assuming that you have worked properly.

As a voiceover artist, if a buyer has provided the right script and instructions, he only did what he should do to have his order delivered. Period. What should I say about him?

In my opinion it is important - because prospective clients READ reviews and interactions between buyer and seller. They WANT to know how things went.

As a buyer I am reluctant to order from someone who only responds to negative reviews. I prefer to deal with someone who is more personable, and human - negative or positive - a balance.

I also feel that two way feedback, gives buyers a “feel” or sense of who they are working with. I’ve actually has buyers tell me that they read through my feedback and my feedback was part of what influenced them to work with me.

Right now I feel like I am in a choke-hold - and my natural inclinations as a vet advertiser, are being imposed on.

[cal5086]

Well I’ll not be answering any reviews except for buyers I know and have a relationship with.

That is until they make “Review responses” one of the 90% metrics that the site tracks… which is 110% coming.

Why is it every change to this site makes it harder for me to make them money? Ugh.

[misscrystal]

Maybe if a buyer was extremely abusive and cruel to me in how they communicated, or lashed out in some way---- or was overtly explicit in an indecent way I MIGHT be tempted to say that in my review but otherwise I cannot think of what would make me make any even slightly negative comments about them.

Here’s the thing. How people interpret abuse and cruelty isn’t always correct. I have a video gig and buyers often ask for 3-15 revisions per order. - Yes, this is ridiculous. However, all of these revisions are minor. Most buyers decide that they want something worded a little differently. Alternatively, they might see me use stock footage and remember they have something more relevant on file which they would like me to replace used footage with.

This can be hugely stressful. However, I have come to realize 2 very important things. Firstly, I get very few scammers and/or intentionally exploitative buyers on this gig. My gig simply appeals to new startups on a limited budget who appreciate what I have to offer, but not how much time creating a video really takes.

I know this because even my most demanding revisionista buyers leave glowing 5-star reviews. Of course, I could increase my prices. However, then I wouldn’t be tapping the market that I am. Also, this is the only gig I have where it genuinely feels good to know that I have helped someone.

If I had just created this gig and just started getting some of the buyers that I do, I think I would be at risk of scaring my target audience away with brutally honest reviews. Instead, over time I have incrementally increased prices and expanded on the style of video I create, in accordance with how I read my target audience.

I think some sellers may now inadvertently miss-read the intentions of their own buyers, and end up sabotaging their own gigs by leaving ‘honest reviews’ too early. Moreover, this is why I will be declining to review orders myself, at least until the full implementation of this feature is made clear.

I think some sellers may now inadvertently miss-read the intentions of their own buyers, and end up sabotaging their own gigs by leaving ‘honest reviews’ to early

I have a very generous point of view of my buyers and feel that even the difficult ones are not deliberately being difficult. What can I say about someone who sends long annoying messages day and night, that they are a pain to deal with? Or ones who can’t communicate well in English? Or ones who are simply not all there in some way? Should I announce their shortcomings to the world?

[cyaxrex]

I think some sellers may now inadvertently miss-read the intentions of their own buyers, and end up sabotaging their own gigs by leaving ‘honest reviews’ to early

I have a very generous point of view of my buyers and feel that even the difficult ones are not deliberately being difficult. What can I say about someone who sends long annoying messages day and night, that they are a pain to deal with? Or ones who can’t communicate well in English? Or ones who are simply not all there in some way? Should I announce their shortcomings to the world?

Or ones who are simply not all there in some way? Should I announce their shortcomings to the world?

For the sake of politeness, I’d suggest you don’t. However, the blind review system would be brilliant if you ever decided to create a gig called: "I will be brutally honest about all your shortcomings."

Also, some people do look for that kind of service.

[alexmartinelli]

In my opinion it is important - because prospective clients READ reviews and interactions between buyer and seller. They WANT to know how things went.

As a buyer I am reluctant to order from someone who only responds to negative reviews. I prefer to deal with someone who is more personable, and human - negative or positive - a balance.

I also feel that two way feedback, gives buyers a “feel” or sense of who they are working with. I’ve actually has buyers tell me that they read through my feedback and my feedback was part of what influenced them to work with me.

Right now I feel like I am in a choke-hold - and my natural inclinations as a vet advertiser, are being imposed on.

I understand what you mean, but I think that it depends also on the field you are working on.

In my business the process is very simple: the buyer sends me the script and -eventually- some instructions about particular pronunciations, proper names, etc… I do the recording and deliver it to the buyer: that’s all.

It’s rare to face difficult and articulated projects in which the collaboration of the buyer is really important… Only the quality of my work makes the difference.

I used to reply to all feedbacks before, but the result was a list of:

“thanks for the clear instructions”

“a pleasure to work with this buyer”

…and nothing more.

If the answers would appear only on the buyer’s profile it would make more sense… having on my gig a list of repeated answers is annoying…

[psychicbunny]

How will I be able to justify myself now if a buyer leaves a negative review? Where does Fiverr even come up with these ideas

And NO, I will not be giving my buyers 1 star if they’re annoying to work with that’s dumb. My purpose is to work for you and make money - this isn’t a high school clique where I pick and choose who I like and don’t like.

[graciebyrdvo]

G’morning everyone! This was a fun thread to read and a lot to unpack. This feature is not 100% and we are gradually releasing the full flow for this change. While dancing around specifics, I can say that issues and concerns raised here are addressed in the full solution - so stay tuned don’t be worried of providing a candid feedback on your experience with the buyer. We want both sellers and buyers to be truthful with their interactions.

G’morning everyone! This was a fun thread to read and a lot to unpack. This feature is not 100% and we are gradually releasing the full flow for this change. While dancing around specifics, I can say that issues and concerns raised here are addressed in the full solution - so stay tuned don’t be worried of providing a candid feedback on your experience with the buyer. We want both sellers and buyers to be truthful with their interactions.

Glad this is “fun” for you, Mr. Jensen. But I’m not sure that your “dancing around specifics” about addressing a rollout to a half-baked solution meets your personal goal of always surprising and delighting customers.

I realize you are personally not responsible for the polices of the site and are just trying to manage an online community, but we aren’t nitwits. And to imply we, as sellers, weren’t already being truthful with our interactions is a little offensive. Fiverr already overwhelmingly favors buyers and I can assure you, each and every one of us has been held hostage by a bottom feeder at least once before this new blind review system. This just makes it even easier for them to take advantage of us.

I apologize for being harsh.

[cal5086]

How will I be able to justify myself now if a buyer leaves a negative review? Where does Fiverr even come up with these ideas

And NO, I will not be giving my buyers 1 star if they’re annoying to work with that’s dumb. My purpose is to work for you and make money - this isn’t a high school clique where I pick and choose who I like and don’t like.

It’s like Fiverr staff sits in a room and says… “What are ways we can stop sellers from making us money… are their any more arbitrary annoyances we can add to the process that wasn’t broke to begin with…”

UGH.

[psychicbunny]

It’s like Fiverr staff sits in a room and says… “What are ways we can stop sellers from making us money… are their any more arbitrary annoyances we can add to the process that wasn’t broke to begin with…”

UGH.

It’s like Fiverr staff sits in a room and says… “What are ways we can stop sellers from making us money… are their any more arbitrary annoyances we can add to the process that wasn’t broke to begin with…”

This made me laugh but also sad at the same time lol

[misscrystal]

Here is one “brutally honest” review I could currently leave for a certain buyer:

"Buyer made constant demands that I provide things that I don’t, and in spite of my repeated attempts to get him to not order from me he did anyway. Then while I was asleep for the night sent five messages saying “are you there?” and “why don’t you answer me?”

I don’t think it would serve any purpose and would make a difficult buyer furious and vindictive.

[cal5086]

I mean instead of inventing problems for this website, maybe give us graphic designers a proofing system we have been asking for, for the last like 5 years…

[socialhonor]

How will I be able to justify myself now if a buyer leaves a negative review? Where does Fiverr even come up with these ideas

And NO, I will not be giving my buyers 1 star if they’re annoying to work with that’s dumb. My purpose is to work for you and make money - this isn’t a high school clique where I pick and choose who I like and don’t like.

This is spot on… My goal is to gain a repeat customer with each and every client I work with. As a seller - looking for clients, who would want to hire me, if I left all my annoying/ difficult buyers - who I wished I could have cancelled with - but didn’t want to affect my completions ratio 😑…a 1 or 2 star review? My orders would likely come to a quick halt. Wouldn’t be a real smart business move – at all.

This is why this blind review business ends up being all about the buyer - Sellers can’t put their business on the line by making dumb decisions…

[cal5086]

Here is one “brutally honest” review I could currently leave for a certain buyer:

"Buyer made constant demands that I provide things that I don’t, and in spite of my repeated attempts to get him to not order from me he did anyway. Then while I was asleep for the night sent five messages saying “are you there?” and “why don’t you answer me?”

I don’t think it would serve any purpose and would make a difficult buyer furious and vindictive.

YES 100% There are so many times where if I would leave an honest review it would be like a 1-2 star review but then the buyer might leave a 5 star review… which is really dumb… at the end of the day if the buyer leaves a 5 star, I’m going to leave a 5 star…

Who does this help? Why does Fiverr make it so hard…? lol I mean they are inventing a underclass of Fiverr buyers who NOBODY will want to work with, this is to go along with their upper class of Fiverr “Pros” which is equally as dumb because why would anyone want to order anything from anyone who isn’t a professional, I mean I could become a Fiverr pro tomorrow if I wanted to but I refuse because I already consider my work professional…

I loved the days on this site when you could just make money, Fiverr got 20% and that was about it. Now there are so many hoops to jump through, it isn’t fun anymore, it doesn’t feel like a community… It feels like I work for Fiverr as this underpaid automaton who just clicks buttons to make sure his scores are above 90%.

I mean this site already has a sigma to it when it comes to is graphic designers, I have championed it to everyone I know, but sadly I’m starting to realize that having a job at a design firm might be better…

[cal5086]

Yep, I’d say not leaving a review except for people you already know is the way to go.

But they are definitely going to force you to make reviews as a part of their TRS system, it is 100% coming.

[esthernyambura]

G’morning everyone! This was a fun thread to read and a lot to unpack. This feature is not 100% and we are gradually releasing the full flow for this change. While dancing around specifics, I can say that issues and concerns raised here are addressed in the full solution - so stay tuned don’t be worried of providing a candid feedback on your experience with the buyer. We want both sellers and buyers to be truthful with their interactions.

Glad to read a response from a fiverr staff in regard to this matter

[cal5086]

On a blind review system i dont review the buyer unless im 10000% sure they are satisfied - if you do it like that, a blind system can actually be a benefit to you 🙂

Until they make reviews mandatory and count against your seller ranking, which is coming.

Forced reviews… that sounds wonderful doesn’t’ it?

[maitasun]

Until they make reviews mandatory and count against your seller ranking, which is coming.

Forced reviews… that sounds wonderful doesn’t’ it?

Until they make reviews mandatory and count against your seller ranking, which is coming.

Well, they already count, they come as stars 😏

[cyaxrex]

YES 100% There are so many times where if I would leave an honest review it would be like a 1-2 star review but then the buyer might leave a 5 star review… which is really dumb… at the end of the day if the buyer leaves a 5 star, I’m going to leave a 5 star…

Who does this help? Why does Fiverr make it so hard…? lol I mean they are inventing a underclass of Fiverr buyers who NOBODY will want to work with, this is to go along with their upper class of Fiverr “Pros” which is equally as dumb because why would anyone want to order anything from anyone who isn’t a professional, I mean I could become a Fiverr pro tomorrow if I wanted to but I refuse because I already consider my work professional…

I loved the days on this site when you could just make money, Fiverr got 20% and that was about it. Now there are so many hoops to jump through, it isn’t fun anymore, it doesn’t feel like a community… It feels like I work for Fiverr as this underpaid automaton who just clicks buttons to make sure his scores are above 90%.

I mean this site already has a sigma to it when it comes to is graphic designers, I have championed it to everyone I know, but sadly I’m starting to realize that having a job at a design firm might be better…

I mean this site already has a sigma to it when it comes to is graphic designers, I have championed it to everyone I know, but sadly I’m starting to realize that having a job at a design firm might be better…

Yes. I too have championed Fiverr to people. More recently, I’ve stopped. I was told by a Pro writer that I should apply for Pro but I really don’t understand why. As a freelancer, I like diversification and flexibility. More importantly, with all these changes right out of Fiverr Mordor, I simply wouldn’t even know if the platform I am selling on today would be here tomorrow.

What really riles me is that right now I can go into the Fiverr search and point out at least 20-people selling knock-off Envato studio video templates. Previously, I used to flag gigs and even go so far as to trace real copyright owners so that they could complain. However, no permanent solution was ever enacted by Fiverr.

All that ever seems to happen as Fiverr moves forward, is the further criminalization and maligning of legitimate sellers whom inhabit the the middle-ground between Pros and copyright infringing mek-sellers et al.

[alexmartinelli]

I mean this site already has a sigma to it when it comes to is graphic designers, I have championed it to everyone I know, but sadly I’m starting to realize that having a job at a design firm might be better…

Yes. I too have championed Fiverr to people. More recently, I’ve stopped. I was told by a Pro writer that I should apply for Pro but I really don’t understand why. As a freelancer, I like diversification and flexibility. More importantly, with all these changes right out of Fiverr Mordor, I simply wouldn’t even know if the platform I am selling on today would be here tomorrow.

What really riles me is that right now I can go into the Fiverr search and point out at least 20-people selling knock-off Envato studio video templates. Previously, I used to flag gigs and even go so far as to trace real copyright owners so that they could complain. However, no permanent solution was ever enacted by Fiverr.

All that ever seems to happen as Fiverr moves forward, is the further criminalization and maligning of legitimate sellers whom inhabit the the middle-ground between Pros and copyright infringing mek-sellers et al.

Yes. I too have championed Fiverr to people. More recently, I’ve stopped. I was told by a Pro writer that I should apply for Pro but I really don’t understand why. As a freelancer, I like diversification and flexibility. More importantly, with all these changes right out of Fiverr Mordor, I simply wouldn’t even know if the platform I am selling on today would be here tomorrow.

This is what scares me about the future. I already experienced a dramatic loss of orders after the recent “upgrades”. Until August, Fiverr was my primary income source, and now I’m spending my days hoping to receive an order and doing all my best to market my gig around… but also looking for new platforms where hopefully life is as simple as it was here before.

It’s a pity, because making things too difficult, everybody loses: also who earns from our 20% commission.

[hightlink]

Yes. I too have championed Fiverr to people. More recently, I’ve stopped. I was told by a Pro writer that I should apply for Pro but I really don’t understand why. As a freelancer, I like diversification and flexibility. More importantly, with all these changes right out of Fiverr Mordor, I simply wouldn’t even know if the platform I am selling on today would be here tomorrow.

This is what scares me about the future. I already experienced a dramatic loss of orders after the recent “upgrades”. Until August, Fiverr was my primary income source, and now I’m spending my days hoping to receive an order and doing all my best to market my gig around… but also looking for new platforms where hopefully life is as simple as it was here before.

It’s a pity, because making things too difficult, everybody loses: also who earns from our 20% commission.

If you don’t sell, other people will => fiverr gets the commission anyway => they don’t really care about old sellers or people who do their best as long as they keep on selling. The ugly truth it’s that it’s all a business, As an entrepreneur I found that it’s not ok to have only one source of income but we all know that working on Fiverr consumes a lot of time. I suggest having at least one backup in case things are going to get ugly. (I hope not)

[roots282]

If they really want honest reviews for buyers that help sellers, maybe they could come up with a review system similar to the one that buyers get when they rate sellers. So, it could be something like this:

Provided the necessary instructions - 1-5 stars
Understood the gig and service - 1-5 stars
Would work with again - 1-5 stars

In short, something that sellers actually find important. Then if a seller had to ask their buyer a hundred times for more detailed requirements, they could give them 4 stars on that and rate everything else with 5 starts, something like that. This should also be optional since it’s time-consuming.

Even if we can’t choose buyers, if we see on their profile that they usually don’t provide instructions or read gig descriptions, and if something seems fishy about them or their order, we can cancel, block them or simply ask the right questions straight away and hopefully save ourselves the headache.

[alexmartinelli]

If you don’t sell, other people will => fiverr gets the commission anyway => they don’t really care about old sellers or people who do their best as long as they keep on selling. The ugly truth it’s that it’s all a business, As an entrepreneur I found that it’s not ok to have only one source of income but we all know that working on Fiverr consumes a lot of time. I suggest having at least one backup in case things are going to get ugly. (I hope not)

Of course… you’re completely right.

I would hate having to start direct selling again, hoping to get my money. I loved the system that Fiverr built up…

[cyaxrex]

Yes. I too have championed Fiverr to people. More recently, I’ve stopped. I was told by a Pro writer that I should apply for Pro but I really don’t understand why. As a freelancer, I like diversification and flexibility. More importantly, with all these changes right out of Fiverr Mordor, I simply wouldn’t even know if the platform I am selling on today would be here tomorrow.

This is what scares me about the future. I already experienced a dramatic loss of orders after the recent “upgrades”. Until August, Fiverr was my primary income source, and now I’m spending my days hoping to receive an order and doing all my best to market my gig around… but also looking for new platforms where hopefully life is as simple as it was here before.

It’s a pity, because making things too difficult, everybody loses: also who earns from our 20% commission.

Until August, Fiverr was my primary income source, and now I’m spending my days hoping to receive an order and doing all my best to market my gig around… but also looking for new platforms where hopefully life is as simple as it was here before.

My cut off started in May. Do yourself a favor and if you need money, don’t waste time trying to re-establish yourself elsewhere. Find and apply for jobs with people who might need services like yours directly. If that doesn’t work, (or simultaneously) look for platforms where you can pay to feature the equivalent of gigs or job proposals.

Set a budget aside, make sure to spend a whole day if you have to creating the ultimate gig or bid, and if you get awarded a job, make sure to give clients an killer incentive to buy from you again.

Part of the art of surviving Fiverr downturns is knowing how to get out there when you need to and grab clients. I’m pretty much in the same boat you are, as I move countries in a few weeks and at present, most of my off-Fiverr clients are locally based. As it is, I’ve already got the realtor organizing my first apartment viewing interested in my real estate write up and video capabilities.

The key is confidence and crating a unique way to not just market yourself, but also learn how to sell yourself directly. Never lose faith. Get out there and kill it!

All the best!

[hightlink]

If they really want honest reviews for buyers that help sellers, maybe they could come up with a review system similar to the one that buyers get when they rate sellers. So, it could be something like this:

Provided the necessary instructions - 1-5 stars

Understood the gig and service - 1-5 stars

Would work with again - 1-5 stars

In short, something that sellers actually find important. Then if a seller had to ask their buyer a hundred times for more detailed requirements, they could give them 4 stars on that and rate everything else with 5 starts, something like that. This should also be optional since it’s time-consuming.

Even if we can’t choose buyers, if we see on their profile that they usually don’t provide instructions or read gig descriptions, and if something seems fishy about them or their order, we can cancel, block them or simply ask the right questions straight away and hopefully save ourselves the headache.

I think that would be super useful. I would get one step further and give the sellers an option where they can set their gig to not receive orders from buyers with less than 4 stars for example. But as for now, we can’t even see the buyer previous reviews. (as far as I know)

[awbalagna]

As soon as I saw I had to blindly review someone this morning, I was excited to come to the forum and see the countless people who were as annoyed as I was. I was not disappointed - glad that if nothing else, I’ve got plenty of company.

This is a horrible idea for so many reasons, most/all of which have been covered in this thread. This literally does nothing but hurt buyers and make them more powerless. The more I think about it, the more infuriated I become.

I wish so badly there was a way to convince Fiverr to reverse this. Horrible, horrible change. It does no good, and I’m sorry, but I’m never going to “honestly” review my buyers unless I decide I’d like to destroy my Fiverr career.