Listen to your sellers...you're missing the mark

[purpledog32]

PLEASE RETHINK YOUR NEW LEVELS! You're penalizing sellers that have been with Fiverr for years! I'm assuming Fiverr's goal is to make EVERYTHING automated so they can rake in the profits with very little effort. What was wrong with your original system? Were you not making enough money? It seems your mission now is to weed out sellers with lower profits by lowering levels and overall ratings in the blink of an eye. You're making it impossible for many sellers to maintain a successful rating! You're splitting hairs with your insane stats. JUST MAKE IT SIMPLE!!!!! 

I've got a few more orders to fill...then, after a 10yrs as a successful freelancer on Fiverr, it will be time to say goodbye. Sad.

[andywarburton]

I think I understand what they are trying to do... buyers get confused and can't pick between sellers when *everyone* has perfect five stars across the board. They're trying to create a broader distribution of scores that truely represents the variety of quality that is available. The way Fiverr has implimented it isn't perfect and will take some tweaking (and adjustment from our side) before it works out properly, but the old system where everyone had five stars was deeply flawed as well.

[larrydrums]

46 minutes ago, andywarburton said:

I think I understand what they are trying to do... buyers get confused and can't pick between sellers when *everyone* has perfect five stars across the board. They're trying to create a broader distribution of scores that truely represents the variety of quality that is available. The way Fiverr has implimented it isn't perfect and will take some tweaking (and adjustment from our side) before it works out properly, but the old system where everyone had five stars was deeply flawed as well.

Hmmm, so whats going to happen when the 4.7, 4.8 star etc sellers profiles appear next to 5.0 star sellers? Who would you pick as a service provider? If you needed a new roof on your house and you consulted Yelp, and found numerous roofers with 4.7 etc reviews that were amongst roofers with 5.0 star reviews, you would hire the 4.7 roofer because ? 

[newsmike]

43 minutes ago, larrydrums said:

Hmmm, so whats going to happen when the 4.7, 4.8 star etc sellers profiles appear next to 5.0 star sellers? Who would you pick as a service provider? If you needed a new roof on your house and you consulted Yelp, and found numerous roofers with 4.7 etc reviews that were amongst roofers with 5.0 star reviews, you would hire the 4.7 roofer because ? 

 

There is far more to that decision than just the overall rating. Example, side by side on Amazon, nearly identical products. 

You gonna buy the 5 star, or the 4.5 star product?  Value, price and yes even the psychology of popularity all matter in addition to the silly stars.

 

 

Think about it. The $39 product has 137 5 star reviews, while the $29 product has 14,393 5 star reviews.

Who's the winner?

Edited March 8 by newsmike

[larrydrums]

20 minutes ago, newsmike said:

 

There is far more to that decision than just the overall rating. Example, side by side on Amazon, nearly identical products. 

You gonna buy the 5 star, or the 4.5 star product?  Value, price and yes even the psychology of popularity all matter in addition to the silly stars.

 

 

Think about it. The $39 product has 137 5 star reviews, while the $29 product has 14,393 5 star reviews.

Who's the winner?

Last time I checked, a huge majority of Fiverr sellers don't sell a physical product. 

[newsmike]

Just now, larrydrums said:

Last time I checked, a huge majority of Fiverr sellers don't sell a physical product. 

Which has absolutely nothing to do with my argument.

Edited March 8 by newsmike

[larrydrums]

Just now, newsmike said:

Which has absolutely nothing to do with my argument.

Your response is as confusing as the new rating system. And I'm not going to get dragged into an argument on here which I notice you seem to relish in 

[newsmike]

1 minute ago, larrydrums said:

Your response is as confusing as the new rating system. And I'm not going to get dragged into an argument on here which I notice you seem to relish in 

I am sorry that you are confused. I cannot help you with that. Not looking for an argument, I just offered a polite conversation, but hey, it's been fun. 

Edited March 8 by newsmike

[nadiappp]

2 hours ago, newsmike said:

Think about it. The $39 product has 137 5 star reviews, while the $29 product has 14,393 5 star reviews.

Well, on Amazon, from personal experience, half a star difference means a BIG difference in quality. So, unless the product has a suspiciously low number of sales, I'll go for 5 stars. Price is also important to analyze on Amazon. If it has a low price and a huge number of reviews, I'll know those reviews do not reflect high quality, but rather a quality corresponding to the low price. Again, since I'm looking for high quality, I'll go for 5 stars, even (or maybe: because) it costs more.

[smashradio]

20 hours ago, newsmike said:

Who's the winner?

Long time, no see! 

I hope you're doing well! 

Personally, I don't have a big problem with a level system that accurately reflects the differences in quality. My issue is with Fiverr's "transparency" and how they chose to launch this without proper feedback and testing. 

[nicks_voice]

On 3/7/2024 at 7:02 PM, newsmike said:

Think about it. The $39 product has 137 5 star reviews, while the $29 product has 14,393 5 star reviews.

Who's the winner?

A big issue Fiverr still has is not displaying our actual total review count on search pages, it caps at 1k+ and won't show anymore. Someone with a long history and over 20,000 reviews gives buyers a lot more insight into their experience, and why their review star average may be lower than the person next to them with only 1001 reviews.

I can see how it'd be more fair to keep things this way as everyone would just go with the person who has the higher review count, but these insights would speak volumes to buyers.

Edited March 11 by nicks_voice

[newsmike]

32 minutes ago, nicks_voice said:

A big issue Fiverr still has is not displaying our actual total review count on search pages, it caps at 1k+ and won't show anymore. Someone with a long history and over 20,000 reviews gives buyers a lot more insight into their experience, and why their review star average may be lower than the person next to them with only 1001 reviews.

I can see how it'd be more fair to keep things this way as everyone would just go with the person who has the higher review count, but these insights would speak volumes to buyers.

 

Yes, capping at 1K+ is either poor marketing or lazy coding.  Excellent observation and clearly relevant in the comparison.

 

[meldawn9]

On 3/7/2024 at 12:19 PM, purpledog32 said:

PLEASE RETHINK YOUR NEW LEVELS! You're penalizing sellers that have been with Fiverr for years! I'm assuming Fiverr's goal is to make EVERYTHING automated so they can rake in the profits with very little effort. What was wrong with your original system? Were you not making enough money? It seems your mission now is to weed out sellers with lower profits by lowering levels and overall ratings in the blink of an eye. You're making it impossible for many sellers to maintain a successful rating! You're splitting hairs with your insane stats. JUST MAKE IT SIMPLE!!!!! 

I've got a few more orders to fill...then, after a 10yrs as a successful freelancer on Fiverr, it will be time to say goodbye. Sad.

Same here. I'm just waiting for funds to clear. I have been here officially for ten years now, and made massive profits for Fiverr. But they don't care and don't provide any support to us at all. Scammers reign free, and our gigs are downgraded. I'm off to make another CEO rich. 

[donnovan86]

On 3/11/2024 at 4:31 PM, nicks_voice said:

20,000 reviews gives buyers a lot more insight into their experience, and why their review star average may be lower than the person next to them with only 1001 reviews.

Well I am in that boat, I have over 11k reviews on my main gig and 17k on my profile, yet it's still 1k+ for Fiverr. Of course, people see the difference when they open that gig's page, but most people don't click.. Clearly newer services have a major advantage.

On 3/11/2024 at 5:07 PM, newsmike said:

Yes, capping at 1K+ is either poor marketing or lazy coding.  Excellent observation and clearly relevant in the comparison.

 

I don't think it's either of those. It's just encouraging sellers to create new gigs all the time, at least in my opinion. Do you think they will ever change that? I don't think so. I think they are doing this in an effort to help everyone have a fair shot. But if you already have 1000+ orders/reviews, do you really need help? 🙂

[newsmike]

 

3 hours ago, donnovan86 said:

I think they are doing this in an effort to help everyone have a fair shot.

In a convoluted way maybe so, but they are not giving the buyer a fair shot by masking the fact that 2 sellers side by side may have completed 1001, and 22,000 orders respectively. Whenever you try to engineer "fairness," you absolutely must suppress some bit of truth. Let the stats be the stats. Like Amazon, who clearly knows better. To me, this is hugely significant:

Imagine if those both said 1K+ in an effort to demonstrate that they are both equally popular?  That's manipulative and misleading. Clearly Amazon recognizes the importance of displaying the more popular and more frequently purchased product, because it demonstrates trust and quality. And we can all agree that Amazon knows a zillion times more about online selling than Fiverr ever will. 

If your theory is correct, that is concerning, as Fiverr should not be trying to pick winners and losers. They should provide an equal opportunity, and stay the hell out of the way.  But I'm not convinced that they put that much thought in. I am favoring the lazy coding theory. 

Edited March 14 by newsmike

[melanielm]

What bugs me (well, one of the things) is that buyers browsing won't know that the whole system was just changed or how it was changed purposefully so we don't look as good anymore. I have years of five stars and suddenly more 4.8s or whatever in the last month. They'll think I'm slipping and not doing my work as well as I used to.

But, I guess the idea is that buyers will think everyone's slipping, so they'll just have to deal with it? How is making everyone look worse than a couple months ago make Fiverr look like a good option? 

Discussion is moot at this point. None of it makes verifiable sense.

[mandyzines]

On 3/13/2024 at 5:14 PM, newsmike said:

 

In a convoluted way maybe so, but they are not giving the buyer a fair shot by masking the fact that 2 sellers side by side may have completed 1001, and 22,000 orders respectively. Whenever you try to engineer "fairness," you absolutely must suppress some bit of truth. Let the stats be the stats. Like Amazon, who clearly knows better. To me, this is hugely significant:

Imagine if those both said 1K+ in an effort to demonstrate that they are both equally popular?  That's manipulative and misleading. Clearly Amazon recognizes the importance of displaying the more popular and more frequently purchased product, because it demonstrates trust and quality. And we can all agree that Amazon knows a zillion times more about online selling than Fiverr ever will. 

If your theory is correct, that is concerning, as Fiverr should not be trying to pick winners and losers. They should provide an equal opportunity, and stay the hell out of the way.  But I'm not convinced that they put that much thought in. I am favoring the lazy coding theory. 

It looks like they are tweaking the display of that, too.

[newsmike]

5 minutes ago, mandyzines said:

It looks like they are tweaking the display of that, too.

Interesting. That seems a good move, but it is not consistent. Depends where you look:

 

Edited March 15 by newsmike

[smashradio]

1 hour ago, newsmike said:

Interesting. That seems a good move, but it is not consistent. Depends where you look:

 

I think they're A/B testing to see what works best. But you never know. But like you said: there's a huge difference and the number of reviews clearly will have an effect on buyers. 

Edited March 15 by smashradio

[effeggi89]

On 3/7/2024 at 9:19 PM, purpledog32 said:

PLEASE RETHINK YOUR NEW LEVELS! You're penalizing sellers that have been with Fiverr for years! I'm assuming Fiverr's goal is to make EVERYTHING automated so they can rake in the profits with very little effort. What was wrong with your original system? Were you not making enough money? It seems your mission now is to weed out sellers with lower profits by lowering levels and overall ratings in the blink of an eye. You're making it impossible for many sellers to maintain a successful rating! You're splitting hairs with your insane stats. JUST MAKE IT SIMPLE!!!!! 

I've got a few more orders to fill...then, after a 10yrs as a successful freelancer on Fiverr, it will be time to say goodbye. Sad.

 

Wise words, soon we will find ourselves with extremely low feedback just for the wicked management of a portal. What a waste.

 

Was this change necessary? NO

Did they solve the problems that existed? NO

Have they simplified the interaction exchange between client and freelancer? NO

[fixxapp]

On 3/7/2024 at 11:48 PM, andywarburton said:

I think I understand what they are trying to do... buyers get confused and can't pick between sellers when *everyone* has perfect five stars across the board. They're trying to create a broader distribution of scores that truely represents the variety of quality that is available. The way Fiverr has implimented it isn't perfect and will take some tweaking (and adjustment from our side) before it works out properly, but the old system where everyone had five stars was deeply flawed as well.

I partially agree with you, but as a UX designer I think it's crazy they changed the level system but part of their users (the sellers) have no clue about the login behind the score...I have a conversion rate of 16%, I have 250 5 stars reviews and I was a level 2 seller, my gig is the third best selling in my category and now I'm level 0??? how is this new level system supposed to work?