Improve “request a service” feature

[followthefundev]

This is a minor issue as it probably doesn’t align with the site’s vision. However I thought I’d just mention it anyway as this is one of the rare things upwork does better.

Whenever I use the “request a service” feature, I usually get about 3-4 responses over the next few days, and they’re almost exclusively from people who’s price range is far above what I am looking to pay.

I have a project that needs about 50 people working on it, and the only way I’ve been able to reliably recruit people for it has been to contact sellers directly, which I guess is how you’re supposed to use the site. 
 

But if this is the case then why have the feature in the first place?

On upwork, this is the only method of contacting sellers. When I put a request there, within an hour I had over 50 responses and had to close the listing because I had more than enough people for the project. 

What do you think? Have you ever used this feature before?

[uk1000]

2 hours ago, followthefundev said:

Whenever I use the “request a service” feature, I usually get about 3-4 responses over the next few days, and they’re almost exclusively from people who’s price range is far above what I am looking to pay.

I have a project that needs about 50 people working on it,

With the old buyer request option you'd have been more likely to get at least 50 offers. With the new "request a service"/buyer briefs you'll likely get much fewer. They probably should have something similar if you need a lot more replies (either something like buyer requests or an option for the buyer briefs to get sent to more sellers, even if that means the settings it checks for are lowered - eg. it might only normally send to higher levelled sellers so it could also send it to unlevelled sellers when the buyer needs a lot of responses.

Though if they're all working on one project it might be better if the system could be more set up for that (ie. how it handles the orders).

Edited April 5, 2023 by uk1000

[followthefundev]

3 hours ago, uk1000 said:

Though if they're all working on one project it might be better if the system could be more set up for that (ie. how it handles the orders).

I agree, I also have a post about how large projects could be handled here: 

 

But as it happens, this project is quite compartmentalised - all 50 people don't need to talk to each other. The reason I ask for groupchats is so I can have someone else do my job (and I would just oversee).