Official feedback thread re: the new leveling system

[katakatica]

Just now, donnovan86 said:

They still haven't fixed that problem with cancellations, have they? If the order doesn't have any requirements and it's inactive, canceling it still affects your score? WHY? I have 15 of those in queue right now, and they will most likely be canceled by Fiverr in a year or two. Hopefully they solve this by then.. if it's canceled due to not sharing guidelines or being inactive, it shouldn't affect the seller's success score. That's unjust and completely unfair.

 

So according to CS (whom I asked for help), they are 'aware of the issue and working on it'. This order was a bit different - the client started the order, sent me what they wanted but asked me to wait a bit for a bit more for a bit more info. Their project changed (for a couple of reasons, not really their fault) and now they just don't need me for the next, who knows 3-5 months? It was a tiny order, so waiting for a total of 5-7 months (the two I already waited plus more) and constantly extending (...which also goes against us.) just didn't really seem feasible. If the client were to come back in, say, a few months, I'd love to work with them again, of course, but... 

I agree with you, some things should NOT affect us whatsoever. I did see that many articles (about changing requirements/etc. seem even more biased towards buyers now as well.) It used to be OK to just say they changed their mind to CS, but it seems like that's changed, too. 

Eh, oh well.. I'm just a bit confused at the score jumping around, I guess. 

[donnovan86]

4 minutes ago, katakatica said:

Eh, oh well.. I'm just a bit confused at the score jumping around, I guess. 

If the order was initiated and it was canceled after that, I get the reason why your score dropped. Still, I really hope they solve this problem because it's very annoying to be told by CS that your score is not affected, yet all of a sudden the score drops. Hopefully a fix is coming with the rollout in 2 weeks.

[cucinavivace]

9 minutes ago, katakatica said:

At least we know the score moves?

Their original FAQ on this said it was meant to be "relatively stable" and shouldn't "fluctuate too often." But, I've had three different support reps tell me the Success Score evaluations are daily. My Success Score fell two points without even having any additional input after I paused my gigs. So, yes, expect more to it than was originally presented. Also they're still working in various areas of the algorithms themselves, for scoring and for your resulting gig visibility. They're tweaking it while it's live, so anything could change at any time.

[katakatica]

9 minutes ago, donnovan86 said:

If the order was initiated and it was canceled after that, I get the reason why your score dropped. Still, I really hope they solve this problem because it's very annoying to be told by CS that your score is not affected, yet all of a sudden the score drops. Hopefully a fix is coming with the rollout in 2 weeks.

CS basically said that it doesn't affect our 'completion' rate, but affects the score still based on, well... I guess just like how revisions/etc. effect us as well? So basically, the score has more to it than just 'don't cancel orders'/etc.

I can sort of see why it could affect me, but... I can't magically make the buyer need me again. I think in some cases, a cancellation is the best choice for everyone. 

9 minutes ago, cucinavivace said:

Their original FAQ on this said it was meant to be "relatively stable" and shouldn't "fluctuate too often." But, I've had three different support reps tell me the Success Score evaluations are daily. My Success Score fell two points without even having any additional input after I paused my gigs. So, yes, expect more to it than was originally presented. Also they're still working in various areas of the algorithms themselves, for scoring and for your resulting gig visibility. They're tweaking it while it's live, so anything could change at any time.

I'm almost sure it's just the tweaking/etc. but it's still pretty strange that we don't exactly know what's going on. Stable and changes daily just around things you can use for the same thing in my book. Of course, if it's like the other scores used to be in the past (e.g. only, say, 100 days count or whatever) I can see that causing the number to fluctuate, but... even then the jumping up and down (that many people are seeing) before it's even fully out is a little concerning. Maybe it'll get better though! 

[ebturner]

Did you know that Fiverr has anonymous reviews which we CANNOT view?
We are being rated on something we cannot view or have any idea on how to improve if there is a problem.

I'm a level 2 seller for years, (1,971) 5-Star reviews and (8) 4-star reviews. NOTHING lower than that!  However they claim there are anonymous reviews which is keeping me at a lower level.   I find this very hard to believe.

[allstral]

4 hours ago, ebturner said:

Did you know that Fiverr has anonymous reviews which we CANNOT view?
We are being rated on something we cannot view or have any idea on how to improve if there is a problem.

I'm a level 2 seller for years, (1,971) 5-Star reviews and (8) 4-star reviews. NOTHING lower than that!  However they claim there are anonymous reviews which is keeping me at a lower level.   I find this very hard to believe.

It's been around for a while

[sagor_expart]

Can anyone tell me if anyone attended today's webinar what questions did they ask today?

[zerlina84]

I don’t know if this has been talked about, but yesterday I searched my subcategory in incognito mode and all my competitors had dropped from 5.

I clicked on some of them and there were a lot of visible new metrics like the value of delivery, etc.

Today I did it again and it’s back to normal, but I’m sure what I saw was a glimpse of what’s coming on the 15th…

[cucinavivace]

3 hours ago, zerlina84 said:

I don’t know if this has been talked about, but yesterday I searched my subcategory in incognito mode and all my competitors had dropped from 5.

I clicked on some of them and there were a lot of visible new metrics like the value of delivery, etc.

Today I did it again and it’s back to normal, but I’m sure what I saw was a glimpse of what’s coming on the 15th…

My biggest competitor dropped from 5 to 4.9. His best selling gig had 443 5 star ratings and most of them have been knocked down to 4.7. This is my newer gig that competes with his. They added "Quality of delivery" and "Value of delivery." I guess I do a little better than him on those two things, but somehow still have a SS of 4. Anyway, yes, this is what the new breakdown looks like. Someone posted something similar yesterday. There was an announcement from Fiverr before that and these are supposed to permanently be the new rating categories. This is what I've seen for a few days now, although it seems to only shows on gigs where you've gotten ratings under the new system. Maybe that's why you're seeing it some places and not others.
 

Edited March 2 by cucinavivace

[mandyzines]

On 2/22/2024 at 6:39 AM, smartdezigns said:

Thank you for this!

@priyank_mod Here you go. Another statement on Pausing/Deleting Poor Selling Gigs. 

I deleted my oldest gig with a success score of 4 on the 16th of last month and it didn't impact anything. I'm contemplating another that I haven't had an order through since my only cancelation in May of last year.

[smartdezigns]

40 minutes ago, mandyzines said:

I deleted my oldest gig with a success score of 4 on the 16th of last month and it didn't impact anything. I'm contemplating another that I haven't had an order through since my only cancelation in May of last year.

I have a gig with 6 success score and thought to delete that one but decided not to.

Also, I have noticed that after the launching of new level system, I am getting the less new inquiries. I am fine with the repeat buyers but it looks like that this new system has affected a lot of other things too 

Don't know about others that are they having the same case like me (less new inquiries)?

[cucinavivace]

1 hour ago, smartdezigns said:

Also, I have noticed that after the launching of new level system, I am getting the less new inquiries.

Your score affects where you show up in searches too, even if it doesn't change your level.

I have over 30 years of tax consulting experience. My nearest competitor is a tax attorney. We both mostly deal with tax compliance and planning issues, domestically and internationally. Under the new system, there are tax preparers from all over the world who are not US tax code experts, but just fill in the blanks in free software for as little as $25 per tax return, who bury us in the search results. We don't even do the same thing. I paused my gigs, but he hasn't had an order in almost two weeks either and used to have a couple per day. And this is in the middle of tax season. We were both 5.0 Level 2s previously.

This is what people have been complaining about. It's not just the levels. If your score goes down, it doesn't matter how good or specialized you are. You might just disappear. There was one person earlier in this thread who disappeared from search results and he showed us support's response telling him to bring business in from outside Fiverr if he wanted to increase his score. They're giving him nothing now and this was most of how he made his living.

Edited March 3 by cucinavivace

[smartdezigns]

3 hours ago, cucinavivace said:

If your score goes down, it doesn't matter how good or specialized you are. You might just disappear. There was one 

What if the success score is 10? Does not make sense to me. Hopefully things will be fine soon.

[cucinavivace]

2 minutes ago, smartdezigns said:

What if the success score is 10? Does not make sense to me. Hopefully things will be fine soon.

Well if your score is 10 then it hasn't gone down. 🙂 

But I'm not guessing about the score affecting placement. It's in Fiverr's announcements.

Edited March 3 by cucinavivace

[kingpirux]

GAME OVER cynicism has a new synonymous: FIVERR transparency

not only they are not going to do absoloutly nothing, they are ready to launch this crrrrap machine. They didnt even care about the big freelancers private meetings, they didnt even care about the complete failure of their previous webinars... 

 

 

Edited March 4 by kingpirux
misspeled

[katherinasim]

Fiverr continues ATTACKING me and KICKING me out the platform. They just deactivated my bestselling gig with 400 completed orders and 5 star rating for using not original image to showcase my work. WTF, I have no other words... I have sent a CS request but I am hopeless at this point

[phanduy]

seem everyone are too tired with this amazing level system, and dont want to say anything more about it =((

[Alex.M]

On 3/2/2024 at 12:41 PM, cucinavivace said:

My biggest competitor dropped from 5 to 4.9. His best selling gig had 443 5 star ratings and most of them have been knocked down to 4.7. This is my newer gig that competes with his. They added "Quality of delivery" and "Value of delivery." I guess I do a little better than him on those two things, but somehow still have a SS of 4. Anyway, yes, this is what the new breakdown looks like. Someone posted something similar yesterday. There was an announcement from Fiverr before that and these are supposed to permanently be the new rating categories. This is what I've seen for a few days now, although it seems to only shows on gigs where you've gotten ratings under the new system. Maybe that's why you're seeing it some places and not others.
 

there are too many things here ... the quality of delivery, the value of delivery .. might as well add,  ''the buyer's mood for today'' as a metric, not sure who has the time to rate all that 

[cucinavivace]

9 minutes ago, Alex.M said:

there are too many things here ... the quality of delivery, the value of delivery .. might as well add, the buyer's mood for today, not sure who has the time to rate all that 

Not to mention Fiverr still has input into the Value part based on your competitors' performance, so that's always up for grabs no matter how much extra time you put in for the same money compared to them, and there are still private ratings that can tank you while you maintain 100% in all categories publicly.

It's all BS to make it look like Fiverr isn't handing out 5s across the board (even if you earned them). Remember, no matter how much of our side they take in a transaction, the money comes from the buyers. That's all they care about, buyer impression. We're just inventory to them.



 

Edited March 5 by cucinavivace

[cucinavivace]

Just an update. My success score has now been lowered from 6, to 5, to 4, to 3 since this started because my gigs are paused. So, I've gone from a 5.0 star rating with 5.0 stars on all subcategory ratings and 100% on all performance metrics at Level 2 pending TRS under the old system ... to a Level 0, with no hope of reversal.

Level 0. Because I didn't make Fiverr my top priority for a couple weeks.

I am definitely out. No sense throwing in more good time after years of time and low rates put in to build this up for nothing.

 

Edited March 6 by cucinavivace

[zerlina84]

14 minutes ago, cucinavivace said:

My success score has now been lowered from 6, to 5, to 4, to 3 since this started because my gigs are paused.

I'm sorry 😞

I'm a voiceover artist and I'm currently sick and hoarse; I should pause my gig, right? NOPE, NEVER DOING THAT AGAIN. I made my delivery dates longer (or begged my poor clients for extensions) and removed the same day delivery thing.

Now the orders are pilling up and I'm super stressed about it wondering if I will be 100% better by the time the deadlines end. Thanks Fiverr for looking up for us.

[cucinavivace]

4 minutes ago, zerlina84 said:

I'm sorry 😞

I'm a voiceover artist and I'm currently sick and hoarse; I should pause my gig, right? NOPE, NEVER DOING THAT AGAIN. I made my delivery dates longer (or begged my poor clients for extensions) and removed the same day delivery thing.

Now the orders are pilling up and I'm super stressed about it wondering if I will be 100% better by the time the deadlines end. Thanks Fiverr for looking up for us.

Yuck. You could try vacation mode instead of pausing them. Maybe that sends a different signal for their algorithm, though at this point probably not.

There were a couple posts earlier about the stress of Fiverr where I replied. Now you can't take any time off at all without losing your level? Ridiculous.

[zerlina84]

3 minutes ago, cucinavivace said:

You could try vacation mode instead of pausing them. Maybe that sends a different signal for their algorithm, though at this point probably not.

Yeah, I'm not going to risk it 😞 I'm already an 8 because of Effective Communication and I have no idea what to do about it... But thanks for your suggestion.

6 minutes ago, cucinavivace said:

Now you can't take any time off at all without losing your level? Ridiculous.

It really is...

[texvox]

3 hours ago, cucinavivace said:

Yuck. You could try vacation mode instead of pausing them. Maybe that sends a different signal for their algorithm, though at this point probably not.

There were a couple posts earlier about the stress of Fiverr where I replied. Now you can't take any time off at all without losing your level? Ridiculous.

Unfortunately the Vacation Mode feature is pure garbage if you're going to use it for more than a few days at a time. When I've used it in the past for 2 or 3 days it has had very little effect on my gig. You come back, turn it off and it's back to business. But if you use it for longer than that you're very much putting your gig/account's life on the line with the algorithm.

I took 10 days off back in November to go to eastern Ukraine and help rebuild some villages, bring some humanitarian aid and so forth. When I expressed my concerns about the Vacation Mode feature to my seller plus manager she assured me that it was the way to go. "It's there for your benefit! You shouldn't fear using it."

When I returned to the US my business outside of Fiverr bounced back immediately. On Fiverr...very different story. I went from averaging about $14k net per month for the prior 2 years on the platform and an average of about 2k daily impressions to just $2k earnings in November with under 1k daily impressions, $5.5k in December with under 1k impressions and about $6k in January with 1.1k in daily impressions. Only now in March - 4 months later - am I almost "back on track." Thank God my business is diversified enough to not have to rely solely on Fiverr.

The explanation is "Well, other people are doing business on the platform while you're out," but the reality is a little more robust than that. It's not just that you're out of the office, but because Vacation Mode takes you completely out of the system while you use it you're going to risk crashing and burning. I don't know why they don't just allow you to stay in the system while using Vacation Mode and give you a pass on the 24-hr response time instead. This would more accurately reflect the reality of running a business.

If you rely heavily on Fiverr for your business I'd advise against using it unless you absolutely have no other choice.

Edited March 6 by texvox

[cucinavivace]

4 minutes ago, texvox said:

The explanation is "Well, other people are doing business on the platform while you're out," but the way in which the feature impacts your gig would suggest it's not so simple. 

I have always assumed all Vacation Mode really does is pause your gigs and display a message. Now we see just how badly paused gigs will affect us in the algorithms, not just for marketplace availability, but also your score. So, as I said in a previous post, you can pretty much forget about being successful on Fiverr if you don't want to make it your full time life. I feel that's exactly what they're aiming for.