Iam leva two; but still single!

[poshlulla]

It's entirely within the realm of possibility that she had legitimate work and decided to throw the guy a bone.  Whether being active on the forum is beneficial or not, I've purchased from a forum member before just because they made a post. I clicked, checked out the profile, saw a gig that would cross something off my to-do list, and purchased it. 

We're a suspicious and cynical lot though and the reciprocal reviews sorta make me feel funny about the whole situation.

[newsmike]

5 hours ago, damooch916 said:

come to Damooch916 for all of your music needs

I see what you did there. 😀

[newsmike]

3 hours ago, frank_d said:

I want to know how the community perceives this.

The seller knew very much that making such a plea would result in a kind hearted person making a couple sales to get them over the hump.  Essentially, that's the same mechanics of every panhandler in the world. Appear pitiful, elicit sympathy, and hope to take advantage of someone else's momentary burst of guilt or kindness. And it worked. Buyer was trying to do a nice thing, but I believe the unintended consequence was that they just instructed a whole lot of shady sellers to write "Homeless, please help" on a piece of cardboard and stand in traffic here in the forum as to the latest "trick" to get sales.  Result, someone is looking at the seller's gig right now, thinking of buying, and believing that the seller truly is Level 2, when they are not.

Seller should be banned for obvious TOS violation involving fraudulent manipulation of sales. 

Edited June 16, 2022 by newsmike

[newsmike]

2 hours ago, damooch916 said:

inside the context of the original post, nothing that happened is punishable.

Beg to disagree Tommy. This is no different than you and I colluding to buy a gig from each other to manipulate the metrics. 

Agree there is not much actionable on the forum side, the action needs to be taken on the main site, where someone has a fraudulently attained L2 badge as we speak.  

[damooch916]

3 hours ago, newsmike said:

Beg to disagree Tommy

I think we do agree. Although, I’m on sort of a disagreement hot steak, so it wouldn’t surprise me. It’s a marketplace violation. The marketplace should stand by its policies. We agree.
 

But not a forum violation. If people can sell on the marketplace and be banned from the forum, then we have to honor it the other way around in terms of applying the rules. It was a cheap ploy but not one that blatantly asked people to game a situation in public. Maybe if they orchestrated the deal here on message, maybe I can see that. 

It’s the outcome and where it happened that matters. Their eyes have been pretty blackened for something that doesn’t technically violate forum rules. It will be even worse on the marketplace because it blatantly violates tos.

We’ve made it clear that it’s an undesired behavior whether that type of “pretend crisis, rant for hire” thread works or not. It’s not something we would do. That’s us utilizing the free market. 

[rabihumakhan]

I'm sorry for not responding even to my post.  I wasn't able to comment because I have had my share of comments completed or something like this as they told me. 

I DID NOT ask anyone to purchase from me in any of my posts,  neither did I text anyone. 

Almost all of my posts and even some of my gigs' descriptions are funny and I had posted that because I thought it would be fun. I even included the sentence in that post that  ''there's no advice in this situation'' but I'm just ranting. 

 

Look at the bigger picture, guys. I thought I have spent enough time amongst you that you wouldn't think that I'm 'just another manipulator'. 

The buyer tried 5 persons before me for her task and according to her I was the only one who fits her needs and we are currently working on another gig. If I had to game the system, why would I come and post this thread I'm right now commenting on? Also, I could have even purchased fake orders if I wanted too without letting anyone know. @frank_d, I dunno if you've an access to my texts. If yes, please have a look and you'll find that I and the buyer never talked about my orders or something, in fact we haven't talked in texts.  The orders were genuine and I swear to God that I found the fact that the buyer is a forum member after working with her. 

If you want to have an inquiry or something, please do. But lemme tell you that banning me would mean you guys are restricting my opportunities to earn my bread for no actual reason. 

Also, I can ask the buyer and if she allows, I can even show you the proofs that those were legitimate orders and she liked my work so much that she bought a gig of mine even today. 

 

Final words: all of my 56 orders are legitimate and nobody can object on them. I'm open for questions being asked or anything else but please, don't think that I'm a fraud or something. 

I swear to the God that those orders and all the other orders of mine are legitimate and I haven't requested anyone to purchase from me on the forum, main site, or even on social media. 

My previous post was just a fun and that's all. 

Thank-you. 

 

[frank_d]

7 minutes ago, rabihumakhan said:

I'm sorry for not responding even to my post.  I wasn't able to comment because I have had my share of comments completed or something like this as they told me. 

I DID NOT ask anyone to purchase from me in any of my posts,  neither did I text anyone. 

Almost all of my posts and even some of my gigs' descriptions are funny and I had posted that because I thought it would be fun. I even included the sentence in that post that  ''there's no advice in this situation'' but I'm just ranting. 

 

Look at the bigger picture, guys. I thought I have spent enough time amongst you that you wouldn't think that I'm 'just another manipulator'. 

The buyer tried 5 persons before me for her task and according to her I was the only one who fits her needs and we are currently working on another gig. If I had to game the system, why would I come and post this thread I'm right now commenting on? Also, I could have even purchased fake orders if I wanted too without letting anyone know. @frank_d, I dunno if you've an access to my texts. If yes, please have a look and you'll find that I and the buyer never talked about my orders or something, in fact we haven't talked in texts.  The orders were genuine and I swear to God that I found the fact that the buyer is a forum member after working with her. 

If you want to have an inquiry or something, please do. But lemme tell you that banning me would mean you guys are restricting my opportunities to earn my bread for no actual reason. 

Also, I can ask the buyer and if she allows, I can even show you the proofs that those were legitimate orders and she liked my work so much that she bought a gig of mine even today. 

 

Final words: all of my 56 orders are legitimate and nobody can object on them. I'm open for questions being asked or anything else but please, don't think that I'm a fraud or something. 

I swear to the God that those orders and all the other orders of mine are legitimate and I haven't requested anyone to purchase from me on the forum, main site, or even on social media. 

My previous post was just a fun and that's all. 

Thank-you. 

 

I mentioned in one of my previous comments how this could also have been your buyer, being a forum member, just jumping in to buy your services.

I didn’t accuse you that you messaged anyone or asked directly.

I don’t have access to anyone’s messages nor is it my job to police interactions.

I didn’t report this to anyone nor was this escalated on my end. No action will be taken.

I didn’t say anything about a ban at any point. All I did was try to see if I was reading too much into this and what the optics were.

My questions in all my previous comments are clear, about where the line is and what crosses it.

If you say this was a coincidence, then I for one have no reason to not believe you.

 

[rabihumakhan]

7 minutes ago, frank_d said:

My questions in all my previous comments are clear, about where the line is and what crosses

I agree and believe you me, after reading your first comment on this thread, I was like oh gal, yer gone. 

I agree and accept that reading my two posts together may  misconstrue that I tried something fishy. 

However, instead of risking myself, if I had to do something wrong, I could have easily done that in silence. 

I would request everyone on this post, please read my previous posts and you'll see that all of my posts are like rants and fun. 

 

[frank_d]

I think this was mentioned earlier by a fellow member: these interactions will happen and there will be overlap between here and the marketplace.

Heck I’ve bought from at least 10 forum members in the past, people I talk to on the forum almost every day.

I read too much into this apparently, but you have to agree this was a weird looking sequence of events all within a tight window.

 

[newsmike]

1 hour ago, rabihumakhan said:

My previous post was just a fun and that's all. 

That is good to hear. It was the appearance that you were asking for orders in a subtle way that made this feel very suspicious.  I suppose it's why people at the airport, who joke about having a bomb get taken to the back room, even though they had no actual bad intentions. It just delays their trip by a few hours.  

Edited June 16, 2022 by newsmike

[imagination7413]

I remember reading at least the first post on the other thread. I get that it was in jest, and I have seen your posts around the forums, but that honestly made me disappointed that you were supposedly joining the throngs of the 'almost' posts.

(I'll admit I almost reported it, but for a completely different reason, because rants belong in the Ranting Pot. I left it unflagged because it read more as an 'I'm almost X' post, and those definitely don't go in Ranting Pot.)

---

I'm thrilled to hear that those orders were legit, but I am also concerned by the precedent they potentially set, even if it was incidental. 

I already think 'I-got-arbitrary-number-order' posts are unconstructive time-and-space-and-bandwidth wasters, but they're too prevalent now to stop, without a lot of manpower on the back end to clean them up, and I'd rather the volunteers be able to focus on the critical categories like Tips. (Thank you forum staff and volunteers (mostly Frank, I'm bais) for keeping those in some semblance of order.)

Before the forum migration, when I was a Regular, I use to move all zero-content celebration posts* to My Fiverr Gigs, because they felt too close to a form of the "wink-wink-nudge-nudge" type of advertising. 

(* The major milestone stories, especially the ones with advice, got moved to 'Stories' or 'Experiences'.)

---

Edit: I miss these options when flagging.

Edited June 16, 2022 by imagination7413

[rabihumakhan]

3 minutes ago, imagination7413 said:

'm thrilled to hear that those orders were legit, but I am also concerned by the precedent they potentially set, even if it was incidental. 

I understand and I'm sorry for that. However, I didn't know that my 'just another joke' would cause such havoc. Even this post is funny and I have never bothered myself to think about things that I don't see on the surface. 

P.S, as I have written in the above comment, if this house asks me and my buyer permits, I will show your the proofs of how those orders were legit. I'm currently working on another gig with that same buyer. 

[rabihumakhan]

9 minutes ago, newsmike said:

That is good to hear. It was the appearance that you were asking for orders in a subtle way that made this feel very suspicious.  I suppose it's why people at the airport, who joke about having a bomb get taken to the back room, even though they had no actual bad intentions. It just delays their trip by a

I unfortunately haven't visited an airport so far.

BTW, do they get beaten as well?  😂

[imagination7413]

7 minutes ago, rabihumakhan said:

beaten

...

I'm very concerned by this. Either you've watched too many drama shows and movies and are again joking, or this is an actual concern where you're from.

I can say that there might be rough treatment, especially if the security feel urgency is needed for safety, but beatings due to a joke? No. But that's why you don't mess with people in positions who's job it is to take every threat seriously. 

Edited June 16, 2022 by imagination7413

[vickieito]

I'll be honest. I have been on "buyer mode" since this Saturday. This was when my Success Manager came back from vacation. She recommended that I form a team to expand my business. I immediately went onto Fiverr to search out how to find a freelancer and found this page, entitled "How to Find a Freelancer."

https://www.fiverr.com/pages/howtofindafreelancer?cms=lunar

However this download button did not work:

So I submitted a ticket to Fiverr CS to get the guide. I was hoping it would have more information on how I could form a team of freelancers. I still have not heard back from Fiverr CS. In the meantime, I did Google how to form a freelancing team as well as what team members I should put together. I decided I would have to find 2-3 freelancers (just to be safe!) of each: technical writers/researchers, content writers, bio writers, graphic designers, logo designers, video editors, voice over artists, and virtual assistants. I also decided I wanted a business coach to help me form the team (in addition to my Success Manager). I did search on the marketplace and also looked on the forum for possible leads.

I got a bit distracted from that goal. From my forum post "I got my first order from a buyer's brief today!" - I noticed there were several responses of "Alhamdulilah" and decided to learn a little Arabic. So I purchased a gig to learn Arabic. I thought it would be nice if I could respond to that phrase. So Sunday night, instead of building my freelance team, I decided to learn some Arabic.

On Monday, I decided to comb through the forum topic "Tips for Buyers." There weren't very many good tips, but I did find a good post by @gina_riley2 that told me I should give my buyers small test orders to see if they can do the job. So I started to create several small test orders to test different skills. I found my first lead in the post "Fiverr - Getting Greedy Aren't You?" and directed a message to the OP ( I liked her writing). However, she didn't have a writing gig, so I could only vet her as a data entry specialist:

 

I also tried out my newly learned Arabic phrases:

On Tuesday, I decided to look for logo designers. I found a post that had three logo designers talking about a "modern minimalist logo" design. I checked out all three of their gigs. They didn't match the design concept of my buyer. So I didn't reach out to any of them. I did find an interested logo designer to respond to on the forum, but not one that I wanted to work with:

 

I also found out about the "Contacts" tab under "More." It gave me good insights into my buying habits (and reminded me that I needed to get a coach to help me form my team)!

On Wednesday,  I thought I might get to schedule in a session with a business coach (it was unsuccessful). I didn't want to inbox this person if there was a chance I might not place an order for a business coaching session:

While on the forum, I got an alert "Jeez! Ain't got no chill." I follow this member because of her interesting titles. And sometimes, I like to respond to her content. This was one I wanted to respond to because the post poised this as a "unique situation." But it had also happened to me. So I didn't think it was unique.

After posting, I wondered about the OP's gigs and if she had a skill that I could use on my team. It was worth checking out. She had communicated she was looking for orders, so if she had a relevant service, my contact would not be unsolicited. It would most likely turn into an order. After checking out the gigs and reviews, I thought it was worth it to try out her services. There were several things that caught my eye. This seller could do legal documents, bios, and sales copy, so I could try out several of my tests orders on her:

First Test. The Business Writing Test that I created was a tough one. It contained medical terminology for a Oncology Sales Liaison position. It was full of bullet points that contained technical terms, such as "Hematology Oncology medications: Empliciti (elotuzumab), sprycel (dasatinib), Opdivo (nivolumab), eliquis (apixaban)." I knew it would be stressful but I made it that way to see how she would handle content she was unsure of and if she could create cohesive sentences out of the text. I really wasn't expecting much because this text was challenging for me. It was also to be written using UK English. I was really blown away with how well she did on this. She handled this rewrite effortlessly. It is really hard to find a technical writer, so I was really pleased.

Second Test. The Web Copy Test was to be rewritten in US English. The text was lengthy and boring (long sentences, repeating sentence structures, and a lot of redundant words) and I wanted it to be written in a more dynamic and exciting way.  We got into a great discussion about how to create the right "voice" and how to use varying sentence structures and different word choices to make the text fun and more exciting. From this test, I knew I could work in a collaborative way with this seller.

Third Test. We thought there would be time for a third test, but it was very late by the time we got done with the two. So we continued the next day. Since I have several different types of writing that I deal with (and I knew I would love to use her for technical writing), I asked if she could create a generic writing gig to cover the range of writing projects that I have. She did. Instead of doing the Content Writing test, I asked her if she wanted to do the Beta Read test instead. She declined because she didn't feel comfortable with that type of work. But she had experience writing resumes so she wanted to take my Resume and Cover Letter Test. So we are currently in the middle of that order (it has a two-day turnaround).

Is the OP the only seller I'm vetting?

No. I'm working with several sellers (on the forum and off). Working with smaller test orders that build on each other has been helpful for me so far. 

For this week, I spent $70 vetting the sellers in the initial round. I'm currently working with sellers who made it to the second round of testing. The second round cost me $210. I'll know the results for the second round of testing in 4-7 days. I can share more details if there are other questions.

I was feeling pretty pleased with the results of the tests until I saw the comments on this thread. Actually only @newsmike and @frank_d's comments. I've been busy catching up on orders since vetting has been taking up the last two days. But from their comments, obviously my thinking has been way off.

Concluding thoughts?

One of the reason why I'm on the forum is a personal one - I want to see if I can connect with others in ways I have been unable to in the past. I am quite possibly on the spectrum and have a hard time getting things that most people will normally pick up. Especially when emotions are involved or if I'm super focused on things. So this thread is a little confusing for me and I need to step back and assess what I'm doing. I do apologize for the ruckus I've caused.

I'll read through this entire thread thoroughly to get a better idea of what just happened so that I can understand where I went wrong and fix it moving forward. Please keep posting on this thread and if I run into any questions directed towards me, I'll address it here. Thanks for all your help.

[imagination7413]

44 minutes ago, vickieito said:

I do apologize for the ruckus I've caused.

It's the internet. Where almost everything must be communicated in writing, and looses the nuance of body language.

(If I were in the position to accept, I'd be saying 'apology accepted', but I'm not, so I can't, but I hope the sentiment is there.)

44 minutes ago, vickieito said:

I run into any questions directed towards me, I'll address it here.

[removed]

Edited June 16, 2022 by imagination7413

[wp_kid]

Post is loosing it's cause, better we remove the post ? @rabihumakhan 

[newsmike]

1 hour ago, rabihumakhan said:

BTW, do they get beaten as well?  😂

Not sure, but I think they have latex gloves. 🤨 

[rabihumakhan]

22 hours ago, wp_kid said:

Post is loosing it's cause, better we remove the post ? @rabihumakhan

It has already lost its cause, and sheen because I'M STILL SINGLE! 😥..

on top upon that, someone just out of nowhere dragged a correlation and accused for 'begging for work'.

 

 

[lalitsdmittal]

Congratulations and you are not single. You are in a relationship with Fiverr, Hope you don't ever breakup with fiverr or vice versa. 😜

[vickieito]

Life's ready to teach you lessons if you're willing to accept it. 😊

I definitely believe the forum was right in questioning this and they had a right to know what was going on.

One of the mistakes that I've been making on the forum is burning through all five of my posts very quickly. So I have no posts to use when a reply is needed. A lot can happen in 24 hours and I believe things definitely escalated due to this error. So I'm going to try never to be post-limited again. This means I should only post 2-3 times a day (4 times maximum) and leave a couple of posts in my back pocket so that I can provide clarifications when needed. This is easier said than done - I'm on my 4th post of the day right now. 😉

So I'll catch up with you all tomorrow!!!

[miiila]

7 hours ago, vickieito said:

burning through all five of my posts very quickly. So I have no posts to use when a reply is needed. A lot can happen in 24 hours

I was wondering if it might not be possible, and a good idea to restrict users to posting in 5 topics per day instead of to 5 posts? @frank_d, maybe something to discuss with the forum shepherds? If it's technically possible, that is, but this forum software seems so "mighty" that it might be 

Imagine you post a topic, or in a topic, people accuse you of whatever, maybe something really bad, and you can't reply and defend yourself because of that arbitrary posting limit.

Maybe I'm mistaken, but I'm guessing that the reason for the limit is that new(er) users don't mass-open new topics, or post their "thanks for the awesome tips" in a hundred topics per day.

I don't see much reason for restricting people from keeping up with a maybe lively discussion, a fun thread, a forum game topic, etc. (which may have run its course 24 hours later) in up to 5 topics per day, either, apart from the "ability to defend/speak for themselves" cases.

 

[rabihumakhan]

34 minutes ago, miiila said:

Imagine you post a topic, or in a topic, people accuse you of whatever, maybe something really bad, and you can't reply and defend yourself because of that arbitrary posting limit.

Maybe I'm mistaken, but I'm guessing that the reason for the limit is that new(er) users don't mass-open new topics, or post their "thanks for the awesome tips" in a hundred topics per day

Exactly. I have been accused of cheat and fraud. I have been accused of not being a level two seller in reality. In fact, some disgruntled members here said that I should be  banned for doing dubious activities and all that, and I had no post/comment left to defend myself. Now as the buyer herself posted her full story and nobody has can accuse me, imagine I got banned because neither I nor the buyer had any post/comment left? 

 

On 6/17/2022 at 2:01 AM, imagination7413 said:

very concerned by this. Either you've watched too many drama shows and movies and are again joking, or this is an actual concern where you're from.

I was just jesting! 

It is true that unfortunately violence is prevalent in my culture due to several reasons but I shouldn't run into another problem now by discussing it, xD. 

However, I'm from the same town where Malala lived. 

 

 

On a complete side note: I'm unable to start a new thread for reasons unknown to me.  Could anybody please look into this matter? 

Edited June 18, 2022 by rabihumakhan

[frank_d]

I can ask the admin @miiila as I am not sure exactly how that limit works.

[vickieito]

1 hour ago, miiila said:

I was wondering if it might not be possible, and a good idea to restrict users to posting in 5 topics per day instead of to 5 posts? @frank_d, maybe something to discuss with the forum shepherds? 

I'm going to use my 5th post to disagree with you @miiila. I think this overlooks one important point: posting on the forum is a privilege, not a right. I would be in favor of only allowing new forum users the ability to react to content for a period of time. They would learn how to use the "thanks" and "congratulations" buttons and how to follow people who know what they're doing. Then, they could earn the right to post.

Having 5 posts right off the bat gives new forum users the impression that they have a right to post whatever they want. I'm guilty of believing this - that I was somehow entitled to my 5 posts. However, this isn't the case. What I've learned in the last few days is what we post and how we act (even if it's just for fun and jest, or in my case, a selfish business reason) has greater implications and affects more people than just the OP and those commenting on the thread. We are sending messages to the forum as a whole. That's why alarm bells were going off for the shepherds of the forum. I believe the forum would benefit greatly if everyone were more mindful of what they post. And that is accomplished by having a post limit.

One solution for those who are post-limited and can't respond would be a reaction button to let people know you are post-limited. Another one that I've already mentioned is to only post 2-3 times, leaving a few posts to respond when needed.

Because posting is a privilege, it can be taken away if not used wisely. I have gained a better appreciation for the 5 posts that I have and intend on using them more wisely. I do want to earn the right to post more because it is wonderful interacting with others on this forum. 😊