Whitelist to prevent Random Orders or Incomplete Information

[miiila]

Then the system should be as simple as possible to use. My post had been edited awhile ago to show how simple it would be done. There is a one click to buy method already and then the seller can put tons of text fields and documents that need to be uploaded that you find out only after you buy and you are inputting your requirements. One click to buy (Well a couple) and then you have to go through a filling out process afterwards. Which helps but that can also be done before the purchase. I usually get all the information I need from my buyers before the gig starts.

So there is a problem with ‘trolls’ that would want to buy and have people go through work just to cancel. Unfortunately the system I have described would only help that issues a little and what I have suggested isn’t meant to fix that issue. That is an entirely different issue all together. I am talking about peeling apples with a tool and you also want that tool to crack a coconut…

How about Opt In experimental features! You opt in with the risk that the feature might just have a few bugs and that you should report any issues to the support team to be fixed! They are making their money, why not ask for features that people would use? And thankfully an opt in feature won’t hurt other people’s gigs. Some gigs might just have a contact me button instead of a buy button. The buyer wouldn’t be inconvenienced either.

I’m not sure what other feature I could imagine would be more important than the ability to force a buyer to contact me before being allow to purchase my gig. That seems like a pretty obvious and simple feature to have honestly.

There is a one click to buy method already and then the seller can put tons of text fields and documents that need to be uploaded that you find out only after you buy and you are inputting your requirements. One click to buy (Well a couple) and then you have to go through a filling out process afterwards. Which helps but that can also be done before the purchase.

Some time ago, probably after sellers had requested for the option of buyers seeing the requirements before they order, there actually was a short phase when one could see the order requirement page already in or below the gig description or somewhere, before buying. In any case, it disappeared soon enough, so I guess that test wasn’t successful.

I think making it as easy as possible for buyers to buy is a good principle (I’m pretty certain that some of my customers, think of those who are great customers but not so firm with the English language, too, would give up, being faced with even more steps like “Require Buyer White List”), and IMO, the solution should rather be not making it count against sellers (affect their order completion rate, etc.) when gigs need to be cancelled because of “buyer fault” than making buying itself generally more complex/time consuming.

If something like your suggestion isn’t too hard or costly to implement, and wouldn’t lead to additional bugs, and was completely optional (I would opt out because I’m pretty certain it would lead to less orders vs not much less trouble), I don’t see much wrong with it, though.

People who find they have issues often enough to use that “authorization feature”, could then use it, and in case they’ll experience a drop in their orders and lose their potential customers to the sellers who don’t use it, they could opt out again. If nobody would use/keep using the feature over some time, it could be turned off again.

However, I don’t think Fiverr would want to invest the resources to find out if such a feature would harm the bottom line or not, especially if it might lead to a higher number of potential leads leaving the site, once they clicked several such gigs in a row and get frustrated/impatient, only to never return.

[Guest cubittaudio]

Let us not devolve the conversation if it so quickly devolves into what you say it does, which hasn’t happened yet fortunately.

The feature is not an all or nothing feature. And still no, no one is asking anything to change a business model. Fiverr still gets their cut, buyers still buy. Nothing changes. People can still order up like a menu but hey some people need to talk with you to get clear defined details before you can press that little buy button.

And I think sellers ought to be able to ‘cancel’ the sell without taking a hit sure, before payment is even considered. Why put a band-aid over the issue when you could outright fix it?

And yes, this would be optional just like how everything else in the gig menu is optional. You don’t have to use three packages with extra services, that is an option just like all the other gig options.

Perhaps you ought to have read my top post. You don’t get any ‘Rejection’ email. You simply can’t purchase the gig before the process even starts. Please look at the picture I have outlining and detailing how this feature would work and reevaluate your arguments. (Nevermind I’ll just put it down here too)

Solution.png936×850 50.2 KB

Please look at the picture I have outlining and detailing how this feature would work and reevaluate your arguments.

I believe my arguments still stand. The only thing that would change is my mentioning of an email in your suggested process… So I’ll amend that bit to ‘the buyer goes to purchase your gig, but sees only a ‘Contact Me’ option instead’. Everything else in my original posts remains the same.

In the same way that I’ve not said anything to make you change your mind, you’ve not said anything that makes me change mine, so we’ll just have to accept we sit on opposite sides of the fence on this one. Ultimately, it’s down to Fiverr to decide if they want to implement this or not, and I honestly believe Fiverr will see the risks associated with implementing this as outweighing any potential benefit to sellers.

[ghostshade]

There is a one click to buy method already and then the seller can put tons of text fields and documents that need to be uploaded that you find out only after you buy and you are inputting your requirements. One click to buy (Well a couple) and then you have to go through a filling out process afterwards. Which helps but that can also be done before the purchase.

Some time ago, probably after sellers had requested for the option of buyers seeing the requirements before they order, there actually was a short phase when one could see the order requirement page already in or below the gig description or somewhere, before buying. In any case, it disappeared soon enough, so I guess that test wasn’t successful.

I think making it as easy as possible for buyers to buy is a good principle (I’m pretty certain that some of my customers, think of those who are great customers but not so firm with the English language, too, would give up, being faced with even more steps like “Require Buyer White List”), and IMO, the solution should rather be not making it count against sellers (affect their order completion rate, etc.) when gigs need to be cancelled because of “buyer fault” than making buying itself generally more complex/time consuming.

If something like your suggestion isn’t too hard or costly to implement, and wouldn’t lead to additional bugs, and was completely optional (I would opt out because I’m pretty certain it would lead to less orders vs not much less trouble), I don’t see much wrong with it, though.

People who find they have issues often enough to use that “authorization feature”, could then use it, and in case they’ll experience a drop in their orders and lose their potential customers to the sellers who don’t use it, they could opt out again. If nobody would use/keep using the feature over some time, it could be turned off again.

However, I don’t think Fiverr would want to invest the resources to find out if such a feature would harm the bottom line or not, especially if it might lead to a higher number of potential leads leaving the site, once they clicked several such gigs in a row and get frustrated/impatient, only to never return.

If I might ask, how often do people order before contacting you? I’m sure it determines on what kind of service you provide.

And the idea is to make this fairly invisible to buyers if this ‘barrier’ is an issue. Instead of seeing a Buy Button, you would instead just see a lit up ‘Contact Me’ button. I do imagine that seeing the requirements page before purchase might turn people off, information overload, and fiver might be banking on instinct purchases, which I hope isn’t the case. Certain gigs need a certain level of communication and these snap purchases, jeez I forge the term. Compulsion purchases maybe I’m not sure. Anyways it is the idea that you can make the buyer buy something without thinking about it, but if they started to analyze their purchase then it would lead to ‘let’s wait another day’ which leads to them not following through. This might hurt fiverr’s bottom line and is the only reason why I could think they wouldn’t add this optional feature because it would lose them maybe one in ten purchases.

Although, people that are here are expecting to spend money. So compulsion purchases don’t make up most of your revenue. That is something like desserts for food chains to take advantage of or companies slipping them extended warranties/membership cards ect. And it might effect some people’s gigs, if that is the case then it is wonderful that we have options for a gigs that this can be baked right into.

[ghostshade]

Please look at the picture I have outlining and detailing how this feature would work and reevaluate your arguments.

I believe my arguments still stand. The only thing that would change is my mentioning of an email in your suggested process… So I’ll amend that bit to ‘the buyer goes to purchase your gig, but sees only a ‘Contact Me’ option instead’. Everything else in my original posts remains the same.

In the same way that I’ve not said anything to make you change your mind, you’ve not said anything that makes me change mine, so we’ll just have to accept we sit on opposite sides of the fence on this one. Ultimately, it’s down to Fiverr to decide if they want to implement this or not, and I honestly believe Fiverr will see the risks associated with implementing this as outweighing any potential benefit to sellers.

I respect your opinion. And I don’t want to ever force a system upon anyone. But if it is ‘Optional’ in every sense of the word, then why not see where it takes those who opt in. If you are thinking that a buyer sees one gig that only has a contact me button and it would hurt your gig because they would see that and think that is how all the gigs are. That would be the only argument I see standing.

Perhaps there should be the ‘buy’ button, but those gigs that have that option enable would direct the buyer to their message page. A dialog box could come up that says something like “This Seller would like to discuss the details of the gig before purchase.” And then give the seller an option to have some custom texts explaining why this is required ect ect.

[Guest cubittaudio]

I respect your opinion. And I don’t want to ever force a system upon anyone. But if it is ‘Optional’ in every sense of the word, then why not see where it takes those who opt in. If you are thinking that a buyer sees one gig that only has a contact me button and it would hurt your gig because they would see that and think that is how all the gigs are. That would be the only argument I see standing.

Perhaps there should be the ‘buy’ button, but those gigs that have that option enable would direct the buyer to their message page. A dialog box could come up that says something like “This Seller would like to discuss the details of the gig before purchase.” And then give the seller an option to have some custom texts explaining why this is required ect ect.

If you are thinking that a buyer sees one gig that only has a contact me button and it would hurt your gig because they would see that and think that is how all the gigs are. That would be the only argument I see standing.

That is, essentially, my number one reason for why I wouldn’t want this. I’ve absolutely no objection to people having tools and features that help them… Heck, I can list a bunch of things in Fiverr that I think could be improved or fixed. I just wouldn’t want this one.

As I was writing this (and I swear I’m being 100% honest here!), a relatively large order for a Voice Over landed in our work queue from a buyer we’ve never spoken with or heard of before. The script was there, the requirements were a couple of lines about tone and pace, and that was that… No chit-chat, no “Hi, I wonder if you can help me” etc… , which I can only assume is how this buyer likes to work.

My worry is around those customers, because in VO we get a LOT of orders where people don’t talk to us first. My worry is exactly what you said… What if those customers have a negative experience with your feature, and assume every seller has it switched on, and so decide to go elsewhere?

Perhaps there should be the ‘buy’ button, but those gigs that have that option enable would direct the buyer to their message page. A dialog box could come up that says something like “This Seller would like to discuss the details of the gig before purchase.” And then give the seller an option to have some custom texts explaining why this is required ect ect.

I like this idea. This would be the only way I could ever see anything like this working, where it’s crystal clear to the buyers that some sellers are available for ‘Instant Order’ (or whatever you may want to call it), but others aren’t.

[ghostshade]

If you are thinking that a buyer sees one gig that only has a contact me button and it would hurt your gig because they would see that and think that is how all the gigs are. That would be the only argument I see standing.

That is, essentially, my number one reason for why I wouldn’t want this. I’ve absolutely no objection to people having tools and features that help them… Heck, I can list a bunch of things in Fiverr that I think could be improved or fixed. I just wouldn’t want this one.

As I was writing this (and I swear I’m being 100% honest here!), a relatively large order for a Voice Over landed in our work queue from a buyer we’ve never spoken with or heard of before. The script was there, the requirements were a couple of lines about tone and pace, and that was that… No chit-chat, no “Hi, I wonder if you can help me” etc… , which I can only assume is how this buyer likes to work.

My worry is around those customers, because in VO we get a LOT of orders where people don’t talk to us first. My worry is exactly what you said… What if those customers have a negative experience with your feature, and assume every seller has it switched on, and so decide to go elsewhere?

Perhaps there should be the ‘buy’ button, but those gigs that have that option enable would direct the buyer to their message page. A dialog box could come up that says something like “This Seller would like to discuss the details of the gig before purchase.” And then give the seller an option to have some custom texts explaining why this is required ect ect.

I like this idea. This would be the only way I could ever see anything like this working, where it’s crystal clear to the buyers that some sellers are available for ‘Instant Order’ (or whatever you may want to call it), but others aren’t.

I also noticed that VO, voice acting/voice over, right is that what you are talking about? Anyway, the contact me button as tons more to fill out. Is that an option you put yourself in the gig or does that contact me button just have more details that need to be filled out before it goes through. Or perhaps I’m mistaken.

[Guest cubittaudio]

I also noticed that VO, voice acting/voice over, right is that what you are talking about? Anyway, the contact me button as tons more to fill out. Is that an option you put yourself in the gig or does that contact me button just have more details that need to be filled out before it goes through. Or perhaps I’m mistaken.

Do you mean the Requirements for a Voice Over gig? If so, we choose those ourselves.

For example, our’s are;

1. Attach a copy of your script
2. Give us some direction (it’s a bit longer than that, but that’s essentially what we’re asking)
3. Are there any difficult pronunciations we need to know about?

Others may be more complicated, but that’s what we’ve gone with, because it’s essentially all we need. I guess other gigs where more creative license needs to be employed, may need a bit more.

[miiila]

If I might ask, how often do people order before contacting you? I’m sure it determines on what kind of service you provide.

And the idea is to make this fairly invisible to buyers if this ‘barrier’ is an issue. Instead of seeing a Buy Button, you would instead just see a lit up ‘Contact Me’ button. I do imagine that seeing the requirements page before purchase might turn people off, information overload, and fiver might be banking on instinct purchases, which I hope isn’t the case. Certain gigs need a certain level of communication and these snap purchases, jeez I forge the term. Compulsion purchases maybe I’m not sure. Anyways it is the idea that you can make the buyer buy something without thinking about it, but if they started to analyze their purchase then it would lead to ‘let’s wait another day’ which leads to them not following through. This might hurt fiverr’s bottom line and is the only reason why I could think they wouldn’t add this optional feature because it would lose them maybe one in ten purchases.

Although, people that are here are expecting to spend money. So compulsion purchases don’t make up most of your revenue. That is something like desserts for food chains to take advantage of or companies slipping them extended warranties/membership cards ect. And it might effect some people’s gigs, if that is the case then it is wonderful that we have options for a gigs that this can be baked right into.

If I might ask, how often do people order before contacting you? I’m sure it determines on what kind of service you provide.

I have a high percentage of return/regular customers, most of those contact me for a custom offer. If we talk only about new buyers, I don’t know, perhaps a third? With my service, people usually need a custom offer because the direct buy options are only for a certain amount of words, or they have unusual file types, or want something else custom.

Yes, I’m sure what kind of service one provides is a factor, too, that’s why I wrote all that about “people who find they have issues often enough, could use it”, etc.

Thing is, as I mentioned, Fiverr did display the requirements before buying for a while already, and it seems to not have been a good idea, and this is similar, and while this may help some sellers, it might well hurt Fiverr as a company (and by that, all sellers, in a way), so I don’t think they are keen on trying it out. I don’t mind them trying it out, however, or sellers who want to use it to use it, I had hoped that was clear from my post.

---

Instead of seeing a Buy Button, you would instead just see a lit up ‘Contact Me’ button.

That does sound much better than the “Require Buyer White List”.

Well, as I said, as long as it was optional, and we’d not have all the sellers complaining who don’t like being contacted all the time instead of buyers simply buying their gigs which perfectly meet the buyers’ requirements then instead, all fine by me, that was just my two cents about why I might not use it and think Fiverr might not want to implement it.

As it’s not a new suggestion, they probably did think it through already, and that phase with the visible requirements seems to show that, but no harm in suggesting, and if it would make life easier for many sellers and, by being optional, not harm many (or even get them more orders, if they keep offering the “buy right away” option), I’m all for it.

Buyers who don’t want to contact sellers but place their order right away, might simply click until they find a seller whose gigs can be ordered right away.

To make sure they won’t click away completely and go to a platform where direct purchases are possible, I guess it could be published somewhere prominently that there are sellers who offer the option of buying directly, while others prefer to be contacted first (just as there are buyers who prefer to contact a seller first, even if there isn’t really anything to talk about and they could just as well order, and others who apparently don’t want to “talk” at all and just order and take their delivery home), of course, it would be up to the PR department to word all that in the most positive way, as options, not restrictions.

---

---

All that said … it might indeed be mostly a matter of how it would be implemented. 🙂

[ghostshade]

Do you mean the Requirements for a Voice Over gig? If so, we choose those ourselves.

For example, our’s are;

1. Attach a copy of your script
2. Give us some direction (it’s a bit longer than that, but that’s essentially what we’re asking)
3. Are there any difficult pronunciations we need to know about?

Others may be more complicated, but that’s what we’ve gone with, because it’s essentially all we need. I guess other gigs where more creative license needs to be employed, may need a bit more.

So VO doesn’t even have the option to ‘contact me’ The ‘Get a Quote’ is there instead which somewhat serves the same purpose. The buyer then has to fill out a description, details and their budget too. Many more hoops than some other gigs. Is this optional for the VO gig or is this implemented through them all? I see the value of having that as it allows you to instantly vet the buyer’s budget range ect. But doesn’t that have the same effect as creating this even minor barrier between the buyer and seller even if it just a few more clicks and typing required.

[Guest cubittaudio]

So VO doesn’t even have the option to ‘contact me’ The ‘Get a Quote’ is there instead which somewhat serves the same purpose. The buyer then has to fill out a description, details and their budget too. Many more hoops than some other gigs. Is this optional for the VO gig or is this implemented through them all? I see the value of having that as it allows you to instantly vet the buyer’s budget range ect. But doesn’t that have the same effect as creating this even minor barrier between the buyer and seller even if it just a few more clicks and typing required.

On our Profile page, we have 2 options;

• Contact Me
• Get a Quote

And then on the actual gigs, you have;

• Continue (Buy Now effectively)
• Contact Seller

I thought this was the same for everyone? (I could be wrong?) We certainly haven’t switched anything on or off here, I just assumed it was across all of Fiverr.

[miiila]

On our Profile page, we have 2 options;

• Contact Me
• Get a Quote

And then on the actual gigs, you have;

• Continue (Buy Now effectively)
• Contact Seller

I thought this was the same for everyone? (I could be wrong?) We certainly haven’t switched anything on or off here, I just assumed it was across all of Fiverr.

It’s the same for everyone, as far as I’m aware. If the buyer chooses “Get a quote”, you get a message that looks different from when they choose “Contact Me”, they seem to fill out some form, with budget, etc., then but if they do, you’ll still have to make a custom offer out of that.

[ghostshade]

If I might ask, how often do people order before contacting you? I’m sure it determines on what kind of service you provide.

I have a high percentage of return/regular customers, most of those contact me for a custom offer. If we talk only about new buyers, I don’t know, perhaps a third? With my service, people usually need a custom offer because the direct buy options are only for a certain amount of words, or they have unusual file types, or want something else custom.

Yes, I’m sure what kind of service one provides is a factor, too, that’s why I wrote all that about “people who find they have issues often enough, could use it”, etc.

Thing is, as I mentioned, Fiverr did display the requirements before buying for a while already, and it seems to not have been a good idea, and this is similar, and while this may help some sellers, it might well hurt Fiverr as a company (and by that, all sellers, in a way), so I don’t think they are keen on trying it out. I don’t mind them trying it out, however, or sellers who want to use it to use it, I had hoped that was clear from my post.

---

Instead of seeing a Buy Button, you would instead just see a lit up ‘Contact Me’ button.

That does sound much better than the “Require Buyer White List”.

Well, as I said, as long as it was optional, and we’d not have all the sellers complaining who don’t like being contacted all the time instead of buyers simply buying their gigs which perfectly meet the buyers’ requirements then instead, all fine by me, that was just my two cents about why I might not use it and think Fiverr might not want to implement it.

As it’s not a new suggestion, they probably did think it through already, and that phase with the visible requirements seems to show that, but no harm in suggesting, and if it would make life easier for many sellers and, by being optional, not harm many (or even get them more orders, if they keep offering the “buy right away” option), I’m all for it.

Buyers who don’t want to contact sellers but place their order right away, might simply click until they find a seller whose gigs can be ordered right away.

To make sure they won’t click away completely and go to a platform where direct purchases are possible, I guess it could be published somewhere prominently that there are sellers who offer the option of buying directly, while others prefer to be contacted first (just as there are buyers who prefer to contact a seller first, even if there isn’t really anything to talk about and they could just as well order, and others who apparently don’t want to “talk” at all and just order and take their delivery home), of course, it would be up to the PR department to word all that in the most positive way, as options, not restrictions.

---

---

All that said … it might indeed be mostly a matter of how it would be implemented. 🙂

Perhaps there should be the ‘buy’ button, but those gigs that have that option enable would direct the buyer to their message page. A dialog box could come up that says something like “This Seller would like to discuss the details of the gig before purchase.” And then give the seller an option to have some custom texts explaining why this is required ect ect.

It was posted while you were replying I believe. Would that be something you wouldn’t mind seeing? It would be fairly clear that it was ‘this seller’ that requested this additional hoop and that other sellers might not have this option enable.

And yeah, if this has been requested before then there are reasons. Although, it must be implemented delicately as to not harm those who don’t want it. It would be up to the fiverr team to determine the execution and we can only provide suggestions as to make it work for everyone. But I do see there are ways to meet in the middle on both sides. Simply saying I am for/against features like these is too binary and requires these kinds of thoughtful disscussions before something like that happens. If it can be implemented with the least amount of impact then that is good.

You could even have that feature as an opt-in for certain level of sellers. Those that have been deemed good enough to reach that goal should be offered more freedoms of choice as to how they want to work with their buyers. At least that would be a reasoning.

[ghostshade]

It’s the same for everyone, as far as I’m aware. If the buyer chooses “Get a quote”, you get a message that looks different from when they choose “Contact Me”, they seem to fill out some form, with budget, etc., then but if they do, you’ll still have to make a custom offer out of that.

This is from a VO gig.

This is from an Illustration gig.

There doesn’t seem to be a contact seller option for VO but Illustrators go right to contact seller without the need to fill out a lengthy forum detailing their gig and budget size.

[miiila]

Perhaps there should be the ‘buy’ button, but those gigs that have that option enable would direct the buyer to their message page. A dialog box could come up that says something like “This Seller would like to discuss the details of the gig before purchase.” And then give the seller an option to have some custom texts explaining why this is required ect ect.

It was posted while you were replying I believe. Would that be something you wouldn’t mind seeing? It would be fairly clear that it was ‘this seller’ that requested this additional hoop and that other sellers might not have this option enable.

And yeah, if this has been requested before then there are reasons. Although, it must be implemented delicately as to not harm those who don’t want it. It would be up to the fiverr team to determine the execution and we can only provide suggestions as to make it work for everyone. But I do see there are ways to meet in the middle on both sides. Simply saying I am for/against features like these is too binary and requires these kinds of thoughtful disscussions before something like that happens. If it can be implemented with the least amount of impact then that is good.

You could even have that feature as an opt-in for certain level of sellers. Those that have been deemed good enough to reach that goal should be offered more freedoms of choice as to how they want to work with their buyers. At least that would be a reasoning.

It was posted while you were replying I believe.

Yes, see my addition in my last post. I think it’s very much a matter of the “how”.

---

It will be a bit different for different categories, I think mine, translation, will be similar to VO. I didn’t talk about lengthy forms, it’s just … let me check my inbox for an example …

ETA:

So, this is what you see instead of, or rather in addition to a “regular message”, if they use the “get a quote” button, just budget, delivery time, and the “criteria” is just the requested language pair (the displaying of that seems a bit buggy/weird) on top of the text they’d write anyway, and they always have the choice to simply not use that and write a “regular message”, I don’t get those “get a quote” messages often, by far most people just write:

Anyway, I should be working, good luck with your suggestion being considered and implemented!

[ghostshade]

It was posted while you were replying I believe.

Yes, see my addition in my last post. I think it’s very much a matter of the “how”.

---

It will be a bit different for different categories, I think mine, translation, will be similar to VO. I didn’t talk about lengthy forms, it’s just … let me check my inbox for an example …

ETA:

So, this is what you see instead of, or rather in addition to a “regular message”, if they use the “get a quote” button, just budget, delivery time, and the “criteria” is just the requested language pair (the displaying of that seems a bit buggy/weird) on top of the text they’d write anyway, and they always have the choice to simply not use that and write a “regular message”, I don’t get those “get a quote” messages often, by far most people just write:

custom order request.png856×692 33.7 KB

Anyway, I should be working, good luck with your suggestion being considered and implemented!

There are a total of 9 clicks required to start the discussion with a VO gig. Whereas it requires 2 clicks to finish the ‘contact seller’ in some other gigs.

This doesn’t seem to be optional either. Although having that level of detail would better help the seller determine if they can do that request or not. Why not have that as an option from the get go? Why can I just pay money right away to only find out that it wouldn’t have been something they could do if I had just asked for a quote. I would hate to think that Fiverr just wants to make it easy to put money into their system and then let the seller deal with any problems after the fact. That sounds like a bad practice. Sellers shouldn’t have to deal with that system and the system ought to be for the ease of both buyers and sellers. As it stand it only ‘seems’ like it favors the ease of purchase and let the seller take the fall opposed to having a system that cuts out kind of thing but I’d hate to think that is fiverr’s intended goal.