NEVER Trust the flag

[mws1955]

As is often the case the original topic strays a bit as more and more comments are added.



From my perspective as an American living in the U.S.A. – I often look for U.S - Canada and UK vendors. My reasons for doing this are unimportant - but I should have the freedom to choose and this site should offer a certain amount of confidence that people are who they say they are and where they say there from.



If they are deceptive on this - what else are they not telling the truth about?



The problem may be in the use of flags as the only means of identifying location. baw3134 makes a good point - which flag should he choose?



Today I was looking for custom logo design … I looked at 2 vendors who say they’re from the U.S. one joined 1 month ago and the other 4 months ago - both had the exact same information regarding what they do (Exact!) –



I’ve hired people off of Fiverr, Elance and Odesk who are from other countries and didn’t try to hide the fact.



The bottom line is - I agree - don’t trust the flag.

[miacmht]

The flag doesn’t mean anything, even if it’s correct. E.g: you want to work with a Canadian/American/…, not an Asian living in Canada.



It’s not the flag that is the issue, it’s the nation. If it’s important for you to only work with people from some certain countries, then why not just ask them?



It’s good to message sellers first to ask about the gig anyway, so just also ask about their nation. Then they would choose to tell the true or lie and you could choose to work with them or not. Probably you should ask for their pictures too, just to make sure.



What stops you? Afraid that it would be impolite/racist? Well, it is! My point is if you choose to be that guy, just be straight forward. It helps both parties.

[Guest nirudnj]

Reply to @armer: yes, I agree with you.

[schendra]

my flag is true flag 🙂

[Guest blasktraffic]

Your observation is great; flags do not determine the quality of a gig. Sellers can create their acount via proxy.

[kensweckard]

Reply to @stansev: yep I am in US and its stating Kerbati what in the world is this and why no easy explanation to correct it … I see all these people talking about vpns etc … I do not use vpn’s think the first time I visited was from Facebook link …

[pr_junction]

That’s the cheap way of doing things. If you’re confident about your Gig and your skills for the same, it doesn’t matter what country you’re from, as long as you’re capable of delivering what you are offering.

[article_best]

Always start discussion with the seller before you buy and make sure he is good at what he is doing.

[inspiredtony]

i think i could shed some light on this,when you open an account on fiverr, it automatically uses the ip you were on when registering thus you could be from UK and while on holiday in Brazil you opened an account on fiverr, it will display the Brazilian flag because of the location you opened the account from. I think communicating the buyer will give his nationality away if you are in doubt.

[inspiredtony]

Reply to @belgianwriter: nice one mate, you really got me reeling with laughter, in any case that was a jolly good observation.

[wordpressguru]

That’s crap. Seriously.

Reading through OP’s comments I realize that he is a bit racist.



Look my friend, I’m from Romania. And I have tens of returning customers. People from US, right. People who trust me to do all settings on servers. And I mean SERVERS not websites. Meaning, if I want to harm someone in any way, I can harm not only a website but hundreds of websites at once.



That flag has nothing to do when the seller know his things. What, US and UK sellers are more intelligent than others?



If you want to buy something on Fiverr, and that thing is provided only by… let’s say… someone from Ukraine, what would you do? Will you stay with your work undone because of your fear? Read reviews of his/her’s gigs, contact seller, make an opinion.



Case 2 scenario (thing that none here has thought about):

True story: sometimes, when I have to refresh a website for 10-15 times, my browser’s cache remember everything from that website (styles especially). If I want to see the modified version of that website, I have to clear browser’s cache. Or, to use an online anonymizer like anonymouse.

If I delete my browser’s cache, I will have to log in again in all websites where I was logged in. And that is time taking.

If I use the anonymizer, nothing above will happen. But of course, the IP used to browse that website will be different than mine.

Attention, I don’t speak about proxy/VPN’s here.



Have you asked the seller if he/she has used an anonymizer? I bet you haven’t.



BTW, sometimes I receive messages from US buyers. Messages that even google/bing find hard to translate. What then? Should I ignore those buyers because they don’t know how to write?

[telemaco]

I guess other people have mentioned it, but someone could be from the US and be living somewhere else. I’m a dual citizen (Spanish + Australian) and I often travel from one country to another.

Anyway, personally, I’m not too fuzzy about flags, or even about people who lie about their nationality. (world without borders kind of thing. Besides, you only have to go to your local supermarket and realize that a lot of stuff is made overseas and YOUR OWN countrymen are hiding that info from you. In fact, they collect the data (the stuff you buy) and use it against you!). So, big deal if they lie about their nationality because it’s the only way to scrap a living, or their country is governed by a dictator, or whatever.



I must admit I’m a bit biassed: I’d rather hire someone from a non-western country, as Europeans, US+Canadians + Australians get pretty high wages in their own countries, and I’d rather pay someone from a third world country. (it’s like a making a contribution towards equality in this world).

[tweetretweet]

I am facing a problem with the flag. My all services are bought by US, UK AND German people but my flag is Indian, seeing which most of the buyers think that the retweets which i sell are coming from India but i use only US proxies to deliver the retweets. Does anyone face the same ?

[bestinmarket]

well, I personally think there should not be any flags attached with fiverr buyers/sellers accounts.

[bestinmarket]

Reply to @kjblynx: Same feeling.

[accessgirl]

Reply to @bestinmarket: I somewhat agree. I think there should be something like it though, maybe a country knowledge category to show which countries the sellers have an understanding of or lived in or currently live in. I have yet to buy a fiverr by flags, but if I did I would be looking for someone with information regarding the country I was looking for. So if I needed for instance ( crappy example) Sri Lankan street addresses or something like that I would definitely be looking for someone who was in Sri Lanka. If I needed someone who spoke French, most likely I would look for someone from France. As stated though, can’t always trust the flags, but these flags allow me to narrow down my search if I need someone who is native to the country or has knowledge of the country.

[dawnmelanie]

I just had a very frustrating experience. I ordered a logo and she was very nice and delivered work on time. However, when I requested modification, she could not understand what I wanted because there was a language barrier. I told her that I loved the design but that I needed it in a brighter, fluorescent color. I really regretted asking because she had not a clue what I was asking and made the color lighter. After several modifications, I gave up and I’m sure she did as well. I felt sorry for her but I was not satisfied. She begged me not to leave a negative comment and I did not leave a negative comment but I wished she had understood what I was asking of her. Her English was also hard to read.

[nine_tails_fox]

no clue 😃

[rvadapuram]

hey everyone, I’m new in this site. Can anyone get me started by giving me some transcription, or proof reading works. I’m pretty good at those.

[wordpressguru]

Reply to @accessgirl: You are right on your point. But OP is talking about “some fixes on a website” where normal spoken English is not mandatory, then he said that he “doesn’t trust people outside US and UK” because these outsiders might " insert some hidden piece of code to collect all your user data including credit cards and/or personal information".



Well, don’t you think that he’s racist? Because I do.



Hey @dougm1966! You shouldn’t trust technology also. Almost all is made in the “3’rd world” by the vast majority of IT employees, also from the “3’rd world”. BTW, guess which country is “the best” in cybercrime? Exactly, is the country which you trust more.

[howdotheydoit]

I don’t really need to change my location (flag) because I am a buyer myself and as well as a seller with good track record.

[brooksrembert]

I can completely understand how this would give some Buyers pause, but it shouldn’t be a deal breaker.

Communicate with a Seller first and find out what the deal is.

For example, I am in the Army National Guard and currently deployed. I’m from the US, but currently using a computer in the Middle East.

If you are searching for a gig that requires good writing and communication skills, simply reach out through a message. If the Seller can’t string two words together in English, then obviously avoid them.

Just my 2 cents…