Blind Reviews & The Day I Started Censoring Myself

[intricateminds]

I guess they want sellers to pester their buyers after a sale with messages “Hey! Did you leave a good review? I need to know!” – I am sure this is already happening sad as that may be

[adsensewizard]

My reviews will look so odd now if I start to apologize in them for not being able to direct my review at their feedback, in case there’s any open issues remaining that other buyers might find helpful to know (Which happens rarely thankfully)

But at least there’s lots of freedom allowed when it comes to reviews. A buyer can talk about the weather outside or some other service they wanted to try in their review (Which is allowed by rules), so a seller can also babble about apologies and stuff! Makes you look more professional and caring.

[miiila]

Anyone knows if buyers see anything different on their end to before?

[chrisdata]

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.

This feature is not 100% and we are gradually releasing the full flow for this change.

That’s the point. Dear fiverr, if it’s not 100% please do not publish it and scare hell out of your sellers, why not wait 100% you only rolled out? Also, you’ll need to make an announcement (email?) to all the users on your platform at least 2 weeks before you prepared to rolled out something new, in these period of time you can get feedback.

We are not LAB mouse to test your system, we don’t get any benefit to participate into your BETA thing. Imagine all software tech company keep updating your current app into BETA without let you know or joined their beta program, what a chaos it will caused to the industry.

fiverr, your problem is not adding any features or bugs. It’s your simply roll out something new without really let your user know, you always giving surprise bomb. Nobody like that. We need preparation to get ready for new thing, we no need surprise. Thank You. @micha

[johandahlberg]

I woke up this morning experiencing this for the first time and immediately knew I wanted to write something about it. I see I wasn’t the only one 😛

I guess I understand why they’d want to make this change - to increase honest, unbiased feedback - but it totally misses the mark of review systems like these. As people have already said, buyers WANT to see how previous orders have worked out and the interaction between buyer and seller.

I’ve worked in hotels pretty much my whole adult life, and all booking sites have review systems where the reviews are open and the hotel (“seller”) can either thank the guest for their lovely comments and feedback, or personally respond to any criticism in a professional and friendly way. I have never in my life seen a site that uses blind reviews like Fiverr now does and there’s a reason for that.

I hope Fiverr listens to us and backtracks on this. I feel embarrassed reviewing my regular clients now that I don’t even know what they wrote as I can’t give a personal response.

Change it back, please 😦

[cyaxrex]

This feature is not 100% and we are gradually releasing the full flow for this change.

That’s the point. Dear fiverr, if it’s not 100% please do not publish it and scare hell out of your sellers, why not wait 100% you only rolled out? Also, you’ll need to make an announcement (email?) to all the users on your platform at least 2 weeks before you prepared to rolled out something new, in these period of time you can get feedback.

We are not LAB mouse to test your system, we don’t get any benefit to participate into your BETA thing. Imagine all software tech company keep updating your current app into BETA without let you know or joined their beta program, what a chaos it will caused to the industry.

fiverr, your problem is not adding any features or bugs. It’s your simply roll out something new without really let your user know, you always giving surprise bomb. Nobody like that. We need preparation to get ready for new thing, we no need surprise. Thank You. @micha

Also, you’ll need to make an annoucement (email?) to all the users on yoru platform at least 2 weeks before you prepared to rolled out something new, in these period of time you can get feedback.

This was announced on the forum a couple of weeks ago.

Being part of Fiverr means being part of one of the largest digital communities in the world. We want people we can trust, people we can communicate with (whether that means problem-solving or politely leaving some arguments alone), and people who look out for the good of the community as a whole. These basics of good communication, safety and trust are all part of the foundation of the marketplace we have created together, and improving on these things is part of gro…

You said:

FINALLY they listen! Applause guys.

In this case, you can’t really fault Fiverr for not giving anyone the heads up…

[chrisdata]

Also, you’ll need to make an annoucement (email?) to all the users on yoru platform at least 2 weeks before you prepared to rolled out something new, in these period of time you can get feedback.

This was announced on the forum a couple of weeks ago.

[FIV011_Social_v1-Blog-1]Being part of Fiverr means being part of one of the largest digital communities in the world. We want people we can trust, people we can communicate with (whether that means problem-solving or politely leaving some arguments alone), and people who look out for the good of the community as a whole. These basics of good communication, safety and trust are all part of the foundation of the marketplace we have created together, and improving on these things is part of gro…

You said:

FINALLY they listen! Applause guys.

In this case, you can’t really fault Fiverr for not giving anyone the heads up…

Oh my fault on the announcement of the new blind system thing. I totally missed that due to busy. Thanks for the heads up.

[narch_designs]

Exactly, i experienced it too. and it was literally a nightware. Very disappointed though.

[adsensewizard]

[eoinfinnegan]

Also, you’ll need to make an annoucement (email?) to all the users on yoru platform at least 2 weeks before you prepared to rolled out something new, in these period of time you can get feedback.

This was announced on the forum a couple of weeks ago.

[FIV011_Social_v1-Blog-1]Being part of Fiverr means being part of one of the largest digital communities in the world. We want people we can trust, people we can communicate with (whether that means problem-solving or politely leaving some arguments alone), and people who look out for the good of the community as a whole. These basics of good communication, safety and trust are all part of the foundation of the marketplace we have created together, and improving on these things is part of gro…

You said:

FINALLY they listen! Applause guys.

In this case, you can’t really fault Fiverr for not giving anyone the heads up…

I never really review buyers as I don’t see the point. As a buyer it doesnt affect me whether someone reviews me or not. However, if buyer reviews showed up on their profiles I would 100% review every buyer as it should help the buyer and sellers they talk to in future.

If buyer reviews are to count for something (and I assume this blind review system is a prelude to that) then I will happily review them all without any “blackmail” like the blind review system being necessary. I really think that this system is unnecessary and if the purpose is to encourage more sellers to review buyers then I really think that the “carrot” of buyer reviews being visible would be a much better incentive than the “stick” of this system.

FINALLY they listen! Applause guys.

In this case, you can’t really fault Fiverr for not giving anyone the heads up…

I too did the happy dance when I saw Matt’s post however I believed that the focus would be on Buyers getting reviews on their profile as the idea of “honest reviews” actually means nothing from the buyer’s side if they are not shown on their profile. The blind system is used elsewhere but only when reviews are important to both parties - outside the freelancing world, I believe Airbnb do the same (could be wrong) which ensures that future hosts of guests can refuse people that have a history of causing trouble. Basically the dream of most sellers here.

As it stands, I think I will continue to not review buyers unless Fiverr come out with an announcement about the reasons behind this move, and hopefully confirm what I am hoping for. So I won’t have any new reviews showing for around 10 days, oh well.

[miiila]

I never really review buyers as I don’t see the point. As a buyer it doesnt affect me whether someone reviews me or not. However, if buyer reviews showed up on their profiles I would 100% review every buyer as it should help the buyer and sellers they talk to in future.

If buyer reviews are to count for something (and I assume this blind review system is a prelude to that) then I will happily review them all without any “blackmail” like the blind review system being necessary. I really think that this system is unnecessary and if the purpose is to encourage more sellers to review buyers then I really think that the “carrot” of buyer reviews being visible would be a much better incentive than the “stick” of this system.

FINALLY they listen! Applause guys.

In this case, you can’t really fault Fiverr for not giving anyone the heads up…

I too did the happy dance when I saw Matt’s post however I believed that the focus would be on Buyers getting reviews on their profile as the idea of “honest reviews” actually means nothing from the buyer’s side if they are not shown on their profile. The blind system is used elsewhere but only when reviews are important to both parties - outside the freelancing world, I believe Airbnb do the same (could be wrong) which ensures that future hosts of guests can refuse people that have a history of causing trouble. Basically the dream of most sellers here.

As it stands, I think I will continue to not review buyers unless Fiverr come out with an announcement about the reasons behind this move, and hopefully confirm what I am hoping for. So I won’t have any new reviews showing for around 10 days, oh well.

I believe Airbnb do the same (could be wrong)

They do, but as you say, the reviews are important to both parties in this case.

Oh, also, you can see a private review if the other party left one for your eyes only.

---

A more entertaining take on reviews to watch while waiting for the 10 days to pass 😉

[skydesigner]

i actually love this update

[misscrystal]

In my description of who I am, I left the following message for potential buyers to see - if they actually read the description (many I find do) -

PLEASE NOTE: Due to Fiverr’s new blind review system, I will no longer leave responses to feedback (be it good or bad). If you see a negative review and wonder what happened, reach out to me. I’ll be happy to explain the issue. Thank you for your understanding and consideration.

I loved getting the message that so and so buyer left a (whatever star it was) feedback. Like MissC, it was a huge motivator. Sometimes, after a huge project I’ve been working on, it’s tough to feel motivated and get back into the swing of things. You put your heart and soul into it and get the star review you wanted and the desired feedback, and you think “Great, this feels so good. My hard work paid off.”

Fiverr’s forced my hand…

It’s sad that things are such that we have to put in our gigs that we can’t respond to reviews and people should message us for an explanation of any bad reviews.

This is a major stressful event now from what was once the most pleasant part of the fiverr experience to a good seller.

[carineb]

In my description of who I am, I left the following message for potential buyers to see - if they actually read the description (many I find do) -

PLEASE NOTE: Due to Fiverr’s new blind review system, I will no longer leave responses to feedback (be it good or bad). If you see a negative review and wonder what happened, reach out to me. I’ll be happy to explain the issue. Thank you for your understanding and consideration.

I loved getting the message that so and so buyer left a (whatever star it was) feedback. Like MissC, it was a huge motivator. Sometimes, after a huge project I’ve been working on, it’s tough to feel motivated and get back into the swing of things. You put your heart and soul into it and get the star review you wanted and the desired feedback, and you think “Great, this feels so good. My hard work paid off.”

Fiverr’s forced my hand…

I 100% agree that the old “review process” is better than the “blind review process”. But Fiverr has decided to change the process. I don’t know if they will change their mind…

I think that this new process won’t change anything for most of us.

PLEASE NOTE: Due to Fiverr’s new blind review system, I will no longer leave responses to feedback (be it good or bad). If you see a negative review and wonder what happened, reach out to me. I’ll be happy to explain the issue. Thank you for your understanding and consideration.

My opinion is that it’s a very bad idea to write such a sentence (but you can try…). That makes me think that there is a strange explanation and that if you don’t show the explanation to everyone the reason is that you want to hide something or you won’t tell me the truth or something is not clear.

Do you think that buyers will contact you to have your explanation? Have you already called a restaurant or a hotel to have explanations about bad reviews on tripadvisor or an Amazon seller if you read a bad review?

You have 3000 reviews, only 6 negative reviews. If you continue to work as well as you have always done, you’ll get your next negative review in 3 or 6 months! No need to create something “unclear” on your gig!

You have so many good reviews that I will never pay attention to a bad review and you write that you had a great experience with the buyer.

Some TRS never answer to buyers reviews or they copy paste the same answer to every buyer. Don’t worry if your review is not the “best” answer you could have done!

I am a bit curious and clicked on other members profiles who are complaining about this blind review process. I have noticed that some of them nearly never give reviews (or once every 20 or more buyer reviews…). So that’s not a big change for many sellers!

Those who are in trouble are those who have lots of negative reviews but they already kill themselves with their bad job… and Fiverr doesn’t have to take care of this kind of sellers.

[orcatek]

Considering this for my review

"Fiverr no longer allows me to see how the buyer felt about the order, hence I cannot give a valid review of the process. All buyers good or bad get 5 stars. "

[Guest merciavideo]

Considering this for my review

"Fiverr no longer allows me to see how the buyer felt about the order, hence I cannot give a valid review of the process. All buyers good or bad get 5 stars. "

All buyers good or bad get 5 stars.

As a buyer I’d be very unhappy about receiving that as a feedback. If I’ve paid my money, and ordered what you’re offering, I’ve done my bit.

I understand it’s Fiverr who’s caused this problem for sellers, but please don’t alienate all buyers with your feedback as a seller. To be honest, it might be better if you don’t leave any feedback as a seller?

[misscrystal]

These answers give a window into the anxiety sellers have to feel over this. No one has a good way to deal with this problem. There is no good solution aside from forgetting as much as possible about reviews altogether.

Hopefully this will be recognized as a major issue and reversed.

I liked seeing the feedback my efforts were generating and found it satisfying and motivating. And buyers did tell me they liked how I responded to bad reviews and it helped them decide to purchase my gigs.

[chrisdata]

Finally, it’s started happening on my completed order today and I’m lucky it’s my long-term great buyer so I’m sure he would leave a 5 stars review.

Obviously, the new blind system reduces the motivation and excitement of doing business on Fiverr as a seller because most of the time until we see it’s a 5 stars review then we only feel the order was 100% completed so we could move on the next.

We can’t let the buyer take advantages of us like receiving a great service but purposely rated 1 star, due we can’t see it so we rated back them 5 stars, as usual, then we only discovered they took advantages of us and we can’t change the review even we tried to contact CS end up we will get the warning.

If I encountered this one day and I rated that bad buyer 5 stars I will find a wall and hit my head on it because I feel BETRAYED. (and fiverr encourage me to do that no?)

fiverr who made us care too much about those review stars and we just can’t ignore that because of the monthly evaluate system. So fiverr if you can’t ‘fix’ your review system, how about completely eliminated it, just shown how many sales a seller have on a gig and that’s it. You also can try change the Good or Bad (thumbs up / down ) for an order rather than 1 - 5 stars ( despite the current “star number” icon look so weird and meaningless), so that’s simplify the good or bad of the gig.

[misscrystal]

Finally, it’s started happening on my completed order today and I’m lucky it’s my long-term great buyer so I’m sure he would leave a 5 stars review.

Obviously, the new blind system reduces the motivation and excitement of doing business on Fiverr as a seller because most of the time until we see it’s a 5 stars review then we only feel the order was 100% completed so we could move on the next.

We can’t let the buyer take advantages of us like receiving a great service but purposely rated 1 star, due we can’t see it so we rated back them 5 stars, as usual, then we only discovered they took advantages of us and we can’t change the review even we tried to contact CS end up we will get the warning.

If I encountered this one day and I rated that bad buyer 5 stars I will find a wall and hit my head on it because I feel BETRAYED. (and fiverr encourage me to do that no?)

fiverr who made us care too much about those review stars and we just can’t ignore that because of the monthly evaluate system. So fiverr if you can’t ‘fix’ your review system, how about completely eliminated it, just shown how many sales a seller have on a gig and that’s it. You also can try change the Good or Bad (thumbs up / down ) for an order rather than 1 - 5 stars ( despite the current “star number” icon look so weird and meaningless), so that’s simplify the good or bad of the gig.

Imagine the absolute horror of only finding out after ten days they have left several one star reviews while continuing to order more and more.

[juiceex1]

This concept works well for places like AirBnB, Uber or Turo because those people have to TRUST people with their physical space or property. As a “seller” on those platforms I would plan on researching the buyers a little bit before I gave my keys to someone.

But this has NO PLACE on Fiverr! This makes no sense. Fiverr is the McDonalds of digital marketing. McDonalds is not going to look at my personal reviews before selling a cheeseburger to me. I walk up to the counter, order, and they deliver. They certainly don’t have to give me a recommendation on LinkedIn to see my Yelp review.

We aren’t given a chance to research the buyer before an order is confirmed anyway (like on AirBnB, Turo, Uber)! If buyer reviews mattered, then we should be able to reject an order from people with bad reviews. But we don’t. They buy, they clock starts, we deliver… period. Buyer reviews should only be used for FIVERR’s internal use. Repeat bad buyers should be kicked out. That’s all.

[orcatek]

All buyers good or bad get 5 stars.

As a buyer I’d be very unhappy about receiving that as a feedback. If I’ve paid my money, and ordered what you’re offering, I’ve done my bit.

I understand it’s Fiverr who’s caused this problem for sellers, but please don’t alienate all buyers with your feedback as a seller. To be honest, it might be better if you don’t leave any feedback as a seller?

I understand merciavideo. But if your review has a comment that deserves a reply, then I can no longer reply, good or bad. Most buyers just place and order with no more messages. Not until I see a review do I know how they thought it went so I can possibly address the issue if there is one. For example had a buyer who had a problem using the video (too big). They used the review to tell me this. Since I saw the review, I resolved it in a few minutes. Now not seeing it, I may never resolve it, because the system doesn’t even tell me there is a review to see when I check my to do list.

[socialhonor]

All buyers good or bad get 5 stars.

As a buyer I’d be very unhappy about receiving that as a feedback. If I’ve paid my money, and ordered what you’re offering, I’ve done my bit.

I understand it’s Fiverr who’s caused this problem for sellers, but please don’t alienate all buyers with your feedback as a seller. To be honest, it might be better if you don’t leave any feedback as a seller?

The problem is - we don’t know where we stand with a buyer - so we could think our experience was great, and say that in our review and the buyer could think otherwise - then someone looks delusional and stupid (to be frank).

Fiverr’s decision to use a blind feedback method - alienates sellers - because we’re BLIND - and unable to defend ourselves - if we receive a negative review. This potentially interferes with our reputations, and potential future clients.

Ultimately buyers - have no worries at all with this system.

[jcmcbride]

I’ve been trying to come up with a sentence or two that informs buyers that I will no longer leave reviews - good or bad - on my profile (or in my gigs perhaps). Something that goes along with, if you see a negative review and are curious about it, I would be happy do discuss this with you in a Fiverr message.

Something to that effect!

Until this move by Fiverr is repealed, I won’t be leaving reviews for any buyer! Sad really … I rarely did it but they’re forcing my hands and I’m less than thrilled!

(If ya’ll see any mistakes in the writing here, just note that I’ve been up since 2:30 a.m. And, it’s getting to be 5:30 p.m. now.)

I’ve been trying to come up with a sentence or two that informs buyers that I will no longer leave reviews - good or bad - on my profile

I wonder how much most buyers even care about getting reviewed or seeing reviews of buyers in the first place. I buy here sometimes. If someone has 1,000 5-star reviews and a recent 1, 2, or 3-star review, I figure it is an anomaly.

[jcmcbride]

I 100% agree that the old “review process” is better than the “blind review process”. But Fiverr has decided to change the process. I don’t know if they will change their mind…

I think that this new process won’t change anything for most of us.

PLEASE NOTE: Due to Fiverr’s new blind review system, I will no longer leave responses to feedback (be it good or bad). If you see a negative review and wonder what happened, reach out to me. I’ll be happy to explain the issue. Thank you for your understanding and consideration.

My opinion is that it’s a very bad idea to write such a sentence (but you can try…). That makes me think that there is a strange explanation and that if you don’t show the explanation to everyone the reason is that you want to hide something or you won’t tell me the truth or something is not clear.

Do you think that buyers will contact you to have your explanation? Have you already called a restaurant or a hotel to have explanations about bad reviews on tripadvisor or an Amazon seller if you read a bad review?

You have 3000 reviews, only 6 negative reviews. If you continue to work as well as you have always done, you’ll get your next negative review in 3 or 6 months! No need to create something “unclear” on your gig!

You have so many good reviews that I will never pay attention to a bad review and you write that you had a great experience with the buyer.

Some TRS never answer to buyers reviews or they copy paste the same answer to every buyer. Don’t worry if your review is not the “best” answer you could have done!

I am a bit curious and clicked on other members profiles who are complaining about this blind review process. I have noticed that some of them nearly never give reviews (or once every 20 or more buyer reviews…). So that’s not a big change for many sellers!

Those who are in trouble are those who have lots of negative reviews but they already kill themselves with their bad job… and Fiverr doesn’t have to take care of this kind of sellers.

I think that this new process won’t change anything for most of us.

The blind reviews won’t change much for me because I am one of those people who rarely responds to reviews. But, I dislike not having the option of clarifying a review that presents false information. I also question the purpose of trying to incentivize sellers to rate buyers since we cannot control who places an order. It sounds like there is more coming from the developers. But, why choose to release only part of the system?

I also feel that part of the strong negative reaction to the blind review system is that Fiverr has made a habit of “fixing” problems that don’t exist while ignoring bugs and glaring issues that are frustrating for buyers and sellers.

But, it’s their sandbox. We all either have to adapt or take our toys and go home.

[simplybright]

i actually love this update

Interested in hearing your reasons why. I haven’t heard anyone happy with this update yet, so insight would be awesome.