Fiverr 4.0 - Some thoughts on the current state of things

[visualstudios]

Just got a response from my SM. This is beyond ridiculous. Other people who got the e-mail - contact your SM's. @newsmike @leannelrivers @williambryan392 @katakatica

(Also - I f***ing knew it couldn't be accurate).

 

Edited April 2, 2023 by visualstudios

[leannelrivers]

5 minutes ago, visualstudios said:

Other people who got the e-mail - contact your SM's

I've contacted my SM about it to ask for clarification on whether there has been a drop in my BSR or not. 

[katakatica]

14 minutes ago, visualstudios said:

Just got a response from my SM. This is beyond ridiculous. Other people who got the e-mail - contact your SM's. @newsmike @leannelrivers @williambryan392 @katakatica

(Also - I f***ing knew it couldn't be accurate).

 

I reached out in my usual rambly/scared style (the email gave me a minor panic attack so), but we'll see I guess? If it's just a mistake, that's a bit of a wild one, especially if they didn't realise it was sent out as a mistake... 

(could have been real for me I guess? I don't know anymore.) 

[visualstudios]

Apparently it was sent by mistake... so everyone who got an e-mail the same day I did (31st), probably is in the same boat.

That is, if I can trust what my SM says. I don't know anymore.

[visualstudios]

Just now, katakatica said:

I reached out in my usual rambly/scared style (the email gave me a minor panic attack so), but we'll see I guess?

Don't do that. I found what works best is being assertive and showing no fear. These SM's job is to keep you in the platform. I made it very clear that if I wasn't well treated here, I would go elsewhere. They make me fear my job, I'll make them fear theirs. It's the only language they understand.

[markp]

 if there is a metric and they don't want to tell you how to address it, they might as well change the name from the buyer satisfaction rate to the Fiverr satisfaction rate.  There is a difference between protecting the algorithm and having everyone working in the dark. I don't see how anyone is going to benefit from this. Sellers are getting upset, and some are already voting with their feet. Fiver staff will be upset with sellers attacking them for this, and the customers who are supposed to benefit from this arent because sellers don't know what they are supposed to do. What will happen when sellers stop accepting orders from first-time buyers under any pretext they can find? Are first-time buyers going to have to deal only with mek sells? This is really going to result in unsatisfied buyers but this is the direction sellers are being pushed in for fear of getting on the wrong side of hidden metrics. Instead of sellers focusing on their business and their gigs and their customers, they are going to be focusing on picking and choosing who they work with to avoid getting on the wrong side of any metrics. Hidden or otherwise. There really needs to be some transparency here.

[visualstudios]

@markp Exactly what I've been saying. In this case, apparently the e-mail I got was "a mistake", which just confuses me even more. Bizarre situation all around.

[leannelrivers]

13 minutes ago, visualstudios said:

Apparently it was sent by mistake...

I just got confirmation that the email was sent out in error. to me or to everyone I don't know.

[Alex.M]

Another clear sign that something is messed up with Fiverr at the moment ....

[williambryan392]

Yep it was a mistake for me too, and sorry all, I got a reply on this 24 hours ago from my SM and didn't see it. Amateur hour all around 😆

I hope they send an email out telling people it was a mistake.

This reminds me of a time when suddenly all promotable gigs became un-promotable.

I'm guessing that the trigger for sending it was wrong, so not everyone would have got it, but a lot did.

So, it kinda negates a lot of the above conversation re first-time buyers.

But it also reinforces our thought s that something is weird with the algo, impressions all over the place, inconsistent sales.

Something does seem strange- this is just a breakage we're seeing, makes me wonder about the ones we aren't.

 

[miiila]

1 hour ago, leannelrivers said:

And not telling us why our buyers aren't completely happy doesn't help. Kafka comes to mind. 

I didn't get any mail (I think, at least didn't notice any ... if people who shouldn't have gotten that mail, got it, does that mean that those who didn't get it, should have? Kind of makes you worry lol) but, yes!

---

"this instance of this email was sent out in error" ... but still they tell you "know that..."? 

So, there are other instances of this email and/or ones that have not been sent out in error, too, but they took the opportunity of telling you that you didn't get that mail on purpose to tell you to know what that mail was supposed to tell you if it had not been sent out in error, like, preveniently, in case you didn't know and, perhaps, would need to be told that they are, in order to not receive that or another instance of that mail someday? That's nice, very suave.

But, again, Kafka comes to mind, yes. 😂

Edited April 2, 2023 by miiila

[visualstudios]

12 minutes ago, leannelrivers said:

I just got confirmation that the email was sent out in error. to me or to everyone I don't know.

Yep. Now, will there be consequences? Errors have people responsible for them. If I make an error, specially with a first time buyer, I'm screwed. 

Maybe my SM should receive an e-mail saying "Hey, we noticed a drop in your seller's satisfaction. We won't tell you exactly why, but be prepared to receive a pay cut in the next few months. You better start taking their feedback seriously. Have a good day!".

See how they would like that.

[danno1950]

19 minutes ago, williambryan392 said:

But it also reinforces our thought s that something is weird with the algo, impressions all over the place, inconsistent sales.

Something does seem strange- this is just a breakage we're seeing, makes me wonder about the ones we aren't.

Yes, this is definitely another sign that something odd is going on! 

[danno1950]

1 hour ago, visualstudios said:

Just got a response from my SM. This is beyond ridiculous. Other people who got the e-mail - contact your SM's. @newsmike @leannelrivers @williambryan392 @katakatica

(Also - I f***ing knew it couldn't be accurate).

 

I just contacted my SM about the email. I want to see if they have an actual company statement about it.

Now that I think about it - if Fiverr knew it was a mistake, where was the retraction? Why did we all go through this anguish and upset unnecessarily? Why are we finding out only because @visualstudios was smart enough to ask his SM about it? We should have been informed!

Oh, and a "sorry" would be greatly appreciated!

Edited April 2, 2023 by danno1950

[uk1000]

1 hour ago, leannelrivers said:

and not telling us why our buyers aren't completely happy doesn't help. Kafka comes to mind. 

Kafka is actually one of the things used at Fiverr.

See: https://www.fiverr.com/jobs/MTIuQzEy

the qualifications for the job are..."Experience with event streaming and messaging platforms such as Kafka and RabbitMQ".

Quote

Fiverr’s Tool Box: AWS, RDS-Aurora MySql and Postgres, MongoDB-Atlas, Cassandra, BigQuery, ElasticSearch, Kafka...

and in Fiverr's data drive meet-up 3 years ago they seemed to be saying that it could be used for finding out in real time whether each active user intended to make a purchase or not, run A-B tests with repeat buyers etc.

Edited April 2, 2023 by uk1000

[leannelrivers]

1 minute ago, uk1000 said:

Kafka is actually one of the things used at Fiverr.

Haha! I had no idea Kafka was a tool. I was referring to the author The Trial. 

[newsmike]

45 minutes ago, visualstudios said:

Yep. Now, will there be consequences? Errors have people responsible for them. If I make an error, specially with a first time buyer, I'm screwed. 

If the email went out in error, we need to ask if we are all being erased from impressions by error as well. Obviously the system flagged all of us, and we are all feeling the same drop in sales. Wanna bet we're all getting punished for an "error"?

[filipdevaere]

3 minutes ago, swapnilsoni12 said:

i want order can you give me order.

You have been reported as spammer. 

[newsmike]

1 hour ago, leannelrivers said:

I've contacted my SM about it to ask for clarification on whether there has been a drop in my BSR or not. 

Waiting to hear from mine.  I'm amazed that some SM's have not dropped into this thread of dissatisfied successful sellers to provide guidance or even reassurance that they are aware of what is happening.  

[visualstudios]

Just now, newsmike said:

Waiting to hear from mine.  I'm amazed that some SM's have not dropped into this thread of dissatisfied successful sellers to provide guidance or even reassurance that they are aware of what is happening.  

I'm more amazed I had to send them a message to know it was a mistake. If they know it's a mistake, how come they don't send an e-mail clarifying that to everyone? We need to go and ask? This keeps getting worse and worse.

[danno1950]

10 minutes ago, newsmike said:

If the email went out in error, we need to ask if we are all being erased from impressions by error as well. Obviously the system flagged all of us, and we are all feeling the same drop in sales. Wanna bet we're all getting punished for an "error"?

Yes, that makes sense too. A messup on their end, that is causing us problems. You know, I have released IT types who made a screwup this big before. Who is supervising the group in charge of this mess? Or maybe the better question is - is anyone supervising this dev group?

[newsmike]

Just now, visualstudios said:

I'm more amazed I had to send them a message to know it was a mistake. If they know it's a mistake, how come they don't send an e-mail clarifying that to everyone? We need to go and ask? This keeps getting worse and worse.

Yep. You would think that a group that has literally sold millions of dollars of services for Fiverr, who are also paying for premium advice and guidance to manage their success, have been smacked into a sales nose dive and now sent an email confirming that, because some automated process flagged us, would deserve some quick action.  

[danno1950]

4 minutes ago, newsmike said:

I'm amazed that some SM's have not dropped into this thread of dissatisfied successful sellers to provide guidance or even reassurance that they are aware of what is happening.

There was a Fiverr supervisor type with "success' on his handle on the read list for this thread a few minutes ago. Now he's gone. Hopefully he's alerting the troops, but maybe he just didn't want to fall into the middle of this.

[newsmike]

3 minutes ago, danno1950 said:

Who is supervising the group in charge of this mess?

An "expart" in a certain location for $5. 

Edited April 2, 2023 by newsmike

[visualstudios]

Just now, newsmike said:

An "expart" in a certaain location for $5. 

I linked this thread to my SM. They know. But they are very good at avoiding things, apparently. 

As for the supervisor... that may have been the case a few years ago. Wanna bet now it's an AI bot doing it for free?