Appeal to Micha Kaufman (From Russian Seller)

[mjensen415]

Hi everyone. I appreciate your opinions and feedback. I will relay these messages along.

I want to remind everyone that I understand this is an emotional time with a lot of information changing quickly. If you choose to participate in conversations here in the forum, please follow to the Community Standards & Forum Rules.  This included personal attacks and racist or nationalistic remarks (including country). 

Violations of these rules could result in a 24 hour ban on posting, or removal from the forum all-together. 

I would love this to be a place for everyone to continue to discuss opinions.

[patrikseastar]

They said "dont be racist" but in same time suspend all who just born in russia...
Well okay, turns out this place is not for everyone

 

[sybervision_]

Hello! I'm russian and Im working on fiverr more than 1 year now and im truly happy that my long-time dream has come true! I'm a 3D artist and I create 3d arts for musicians. Im making all my money for living here. I don't think there's much point in writing that it's not really fair to the Russians to restrict our accounts. Its quite obvious why we are complaining. We all really want to be heard. Its not out fault that we were born in Russia.

[kholland65]

1 hour ago, mjensen415 said:

Hi everyone. I appreciate your opinions and feedback. I will relay these messages along.

I want to remind everyone that I understand this is an emotional time with a lot of information changing quickly. If you choose to participate in conversations here in the forum, please follow to the Community Standards & Forum Rules.  This included personal attacks and racist or nationalistic remarks (including country). 

Violations of these rules could result in a 24 hour ban on posting, or removal from the forum all-together. 

I would love this to be a place for everyone to continue to discuss opinions.

Hopefully @mjensen415it's already becoming abundantly clear that nobody supports this decision to ban russians. Not even people like myself who are from countries who don't have good relationships with russia. I truly hope this decision will be reversed quickly because I terrible for the russian people who make a living through this site, some of which have family in ukraine that they can't send money to. I can only image my own situation if fiver just cut me off tomorrow because they didn't like what my government did who I probably don't even support. So yes, please make sure pressure is put on management because this was one of the worst decisions fiverr has ever made and it's going to seriously hurt their reputation. No company should be boycotting russian citizens or discriminating against anyone because of the country they come from. 

[michaelpahalen]

Hey there, Friends. I've became a Fiverr Creator about two years ago and I'm very thankful for the opportuities that your platform has given to me. Fiverr became my main source of income and I am loyal to it til this day. When I found out about what's happening I was shocked. Please understand that many of us don't support actions of russian government and it's simply unfair to judge us for crimes we haven't comit. I've created a petition on Change.org in order to show my perspective on what's happening and how we can improve the situation. Please support it if you agree to the statement that I make.

https://chng.it/fyYm7HGF

Thanks a lot. Peace.

[Alex.M]

2 hours ago, patrikseastar said:

They said "dont be racist" but in same time suspend all who just born in russia...

This has nothing to do with racism 

[wp_kid]

My deepest condolence for my Fellow Sellers from Russia. Hope & Pray situation will  get back to normal soon. 😞 Anyway, once payment gateways/facilites are turned off , there isn't any option for FIverr that can send your earning. At that point FIvers's Restrictions doesn't make any difference.

 

[visualstudios]

2 hours ago, wp_kid said:

Anyway, once payment gateways/facilites are turned off , there isn't any option for FIverr that can send your earning. At that point FIvers's Restrictions doesn't make any difference.

Well, Fiverr could allow transfers in crypto. Not saying they should, just saying that's an obvious answer to avoid traditional payment gateways.

And of course none of this is the russian sellers' fault... but these measures are not against the russian people, they are just collateral damage. Russia must be strongly pushed against the wall so they back off Ukraine. Can't do it with weapons because... nukes. Cowards (they know they would be demolished in conventional war). So yeah, they have to be hit in the economy. And that unfortunately means russian professionals, in all fields. It's not fair, but neither is fair being bombed and invaded.

Edited March 11, 2022 by visualstudios

[antonkarma]

I am against this war. And I do my best to avoid it. I went to rallies whenever possible. I communicate with my friends who are confused and do not understand that war is evil. By closing access to fiverr, many people lose access to earnings.

Edited March 11, 2022 by antonkarma

[alex_bit]

Another big problem is that Fiverr states it is "allowing our Russian freelancers to withdraw their curent earnings to ensure we have fulfiled our obligations", but  Russian users can't actually do that — PayPal isn't working in our country anymore, as well as Payoneer. 

[milolikespurple]

9 minutes ago, alex_bit said:

Another big problem is that Fiverr states it is "allowing our Russian freelancers to withdraw their curent earnings to ensure we have fulfiled our obligations", but  Russian users can't actually do that — PayPal isn't working in our country anymore, as well as Payoneer. 

You can use payoneer through VPN

[alex_bit]

9 minutes ago, milolikespurple said:

You can use payoneer through VPN

It doesn't let you register you as a Russian resident, and if you try to register as an other country resident, it will ask you to confirm your adress, which you won't be able to do

[nadya_kim]

I completely agree with this topic. I come from Kazakhstan and came to Russia to study. I met a lot of freelancers, they are good, sociable and sincere people! And I'm sad that you just throw them to the mercy of fate. They don't deserve it, we don't deserve it!

[alex_bit]

8 hours ago, wp_kid said:

My deepest condolence for my Fellow Sellers from Russia. Hope & Pray situation will  get back to normal soon. 😞 Anyway, once payment gateways/facilites are turned off , there isn't any option for FIverr that can send your earning. At that point FIvers's Restrictions doesn't make any difference.

 

Well, they could've let the Russian sellers use their remaining funds to buy the other seller's services at Fiverr, that won't fix the problem, but it would be a little better than just completely locking them out, basically stealing their hard earned money.

[darya_zem]

Hello! I am an ordinary girl who works at fiverr and makes my dreams come true with the help of your platform.  This is my main source of income and now I will be unemployed like many people in my country.  Russian people just want to work, build their lives, and we want peace.  We ask you not to take our jobs and make our lives miserable.  Please look at us as people.  We do not run our country, we just live.  Please stop hating us, we are people just like you.  Thanks.

[nastyacollins]

Hi! I am a freelance illustrator from Russia. I want to continue working on Fiverr. I ask you to reconsider your decision. Many websites and exchanges have closed under the onslaught of sanctions. Freelancers also need to eat and pay for life. Please listen to the Russian community. Thank you!

[remmargorp]

Dear Micha Kaufman,

I am a russian seller. I do not understand how this particular sanction will help end the war. Those russians whose significant part (or all) of income came from fiverr were participating in the global economy. Apart from earning money for themselves they were also generating revenue for other countries, both directly and indirectly. Now they will be forced to work for russia exclusively, making russia stronger.

I do not know anyone who supports this war and the regime as a whole. I have to admit that I know someone who knows someone, but it would be too much to ask from a country without free speech to not have at least some amount of uninformed people. I know many people who signed petitions to end war and even tryed to donate money to support Ukraine (this is considered treason here, and may end VERY bad for the person). So, it is unfair to view only Ukrainians as heros here. While they are heros, no doubt, and they are in a much much worse situation at the moment, we are also fighting a war here (just to clarify, I mean the civilians trying to put an end to this regime). And for some, this war is as deadly. If anyone doubts it please see russian protests on youtube. And see what they are doing to us.

I understand that this decision was a hard one for Fiverr to make. I very much hope you will reconsider it.

Best regards,

Sergei

Edited March 11, 2022 by remmargorp

[irinaburtseva]

My name is Irina and I'm illustrator.

I have been working on Fiverr since 2016, and completed hundreds of orders, met here lots of wonderful persons. I'm very grateful for this chance to collaborate with people all around the world. For me, there were no borders, and no differences between nationalities, we are the same world. I have never seen difference between Ukraine and Russia, part of my family is ukrainian. And something what's happened is a great disaster. 

Due to the all sanctions and restrictions, I already lost my business and fiverr was my only job and source of income. Now my world is falling apart. Every morning when i wake up I'm checking news and inbox hoping to see something good, but it only getting worse and worse. 

Please, don't support this anti-russian hate.. We are already suffering. 

 

[annacherk]

I fully support!
I live in Russia, at the moment the fiverr is my only income. I really hoped that the site would save Russians. I am categorically against war. I am also sure that the people who work at this site are against the war. Please don't equate people who just want to survive this situation with our government.
Let's not forget that we are all inhabitants of the same planet earth. Everything that is happening now should not affect ordinary residents. Believe me, like many others, I am doing everything in my power now to make this war.
Please do not close our access to the site.

[alex_bit]

Well another problem appeared - Fiverr claimed they will cut Russians from Fiverr at March 14. It's still March 11, but they already cut the ability to buy gigs, way before their intended date, so I can't even spend my hard earned money on their own platform. 

[julgrnadpa]

Hello, Micha. 

What should I say. The time of free and united world is over. Аnd you just do what the modern discourse pushes you to do. I will just tell some words about russian reality. Ukrainians (who are, no doubt, heroically overcome the unfair war) tells us: if you are not protesting, if you are paying taxes, so you are involved in the crimes of the regime. But the world isn't black and white. The protests against the government are not just switching the tumbler that turns bad guys to good ones. Protests may be unsuccesful. We protested enough. I have lived through the 1991 Moscow august crisis (with the street combats and barricades), 1993 Russian constitutional crisis (when the Parliament was shot from tank guns), 2010 Manezh Square riot, 2011–2013 protests, 2014 anti-war protests, 2017–2018 anti-corruption and pension protests, 2019 election protest, 2021 election protest, and the list is not complete. Some of them were more hard, some were more peaceful, but all of them were used by the government security forces to reveal, the protest leaders, opposition politicians and even just a little active simple citizens to make their life harder (fines, dismissals, political boycott). Dozens of politicians, journalists and social activists are killed, thousands are in the jail. All these steps were made carefully inch by inch. Even Putin in the beginning was, as it seemed, truly democratic western-oriented politician. And now we have the state where the ordinary person can't say a word against the government on a public without serious risk to go to jail for up to 15 years. 

And now we - the ordinary people - are not clean enough for you to make a deal with us. Our country coming into the highest political and economical turbulence. Do you think that your back in sight will make us better?

[denaari]

Fiver, this is insane. The Russian people who don't support this war are suffering enough. You act as though the government is using fiver as a means to still secretly get funds from the west to fuel their war. That's not the case. I have bought  quite a few things from Russian sellers and they've been some of the best works, and totally people just like you and I who are against the war.

 

I have been working with someone very closely for a year now on the best music I've helped create in my life and with this ban, you've stunted my growth. We had 2 songs still to write and nownill have to delay my cd indefinitely because of this. Stop making the innocent people of Russia suffer. Put a review on all purchase from a Russian seller if you have to to analyze the data and make sure it's not going to anywhere that could support the government, but the ordinary Russian shouldn't have to pay for the actions of their fanatical leader.

[jonny77]

I've been working on Fiverr for 5 years and my entire creative team is based in Russia. The artists, animators, concept artists etc have proven to be my best experience since being on this platform. I don't believe we should penalize all of Russia's citizens because of one man. I understand the situation with the war is horrible, but the Russian people are going through something extremely horrible as well. Taking away their ability to work and provide for their families isn't going to make the war any better. This is one of the last platforms for Russians to make a living outside on Russia. Please do not take it away from them.

Jonathan B

[wrenaker]

Micha Kaufman, I join in the appeal and ask for some of your time.

I have been working on Fiverr since 2018, and I am sincerely grateful to you and all the employees of the company, including the attentive and responsible tech support team. Fiver has become my only livelihood and an opportunity to live and develop in spite of all the difficulties created by the government in my country. Thanks to the income in foreign currency I received for my work from wonderful customers, I was able to get out of poverty and get a chance to live a normal life and integrate into the civilized world.

Amidst the terrible wave of discrimination that the world community is now demonstrating, I sincerely hoped that Fiverr would help me out when the whole world has turned its back on the ordinary citizens of the Russian Federation, who have nothing to do with the terrible events that are taking place.

This global discrimination on the basis of territory does nothing to alleviate the crisis. On the contrary, it only increases losses and complicates the lives of ordinary people. Understand, you are simply depriving me and many of my compatriots of my last livelihood and hope for the future.

Such economic measures only strengthen the position of the current regime. I am extremely saddened by the events in Ukraine, because I, like many citizens of the Russian Federation, have friends and business partners there. None of us in our right mind would attack them. This madness is not the fault of ordinary citizens. We are held hostage by the regime here. It is already impossible for us to express our opinions openly (I can easily go to jail for 5-10 years and die there just for this my appeal), and without an outside source of income, most of the innocent citizens will be forced to submit to the dictatorship permanently. 

I ask you to listen to us and let us continue to work on Fiverr, because we are not asking the impossible. I have been faithfully giving 20% of my income from orders to the company, have never broken the rules and have been helpful to my customers. My customers still need my services and my family and I need food and medicine and I am willing to keep working even if the commission gets higher.

Dear Micha Kaufman, I believe that common sense will prevail and I am counting on you. Thank you.

Edited March 11, 2022 by wrenaker

[michaelpahalen]

Friends, I want to thank those of you who supported the petition. We've got 111 signatures already in less than a day without any ifrormational or commercial support. So thanks a lot!

https://chng.it/gKq8rTXbRp

Peace!