Fiverr just updated the rating system, how do you feel about it?

[donnovan86]

So I just received an email from Fiverr, I assume everyone will get it sooner rather than later. There are some interesting changes to the review system, what do you think about it?

In short:

• They are reverting from emojis back to stars, which definitely makes the platform feel and appear more professional. I was not a fan of emojis myself, either.
• Public scores for our gigs will only reflect the average score for the past 2 years. So even if you have 5000 reviews that on average had 5.0 stars (for a gig that has been around since 2015), the public score for that gig will only take into account your average review score for the past 2 years. Not sure how I feel about this, because that means all those old reviews are neglected, even if they were very accurate. Fiverr says they want to show the average, recent quality of the seller. I guess it's yet another way for them to eliminate meksells that tried to curate reviews in the past few years. 
•  The rating breakdown also seems to be updated. Which means there are new/updated questions. 
• And this is another big one. Buyers now have the option to edit reviews for up to 14 days after they leave a review. However, it's either 14 days or until the seller leaves their own review. That means, if you don't want your buyer to randomly change their review, you may want to share your own review and not wait. 

Personally, I think these changes are fine. Showing just the average score for the past 2 years instead of the lifetime gig score is a bummer, but it also allows you to improve your general gig score if you had better performance in the past 2 years. Allowing buyers to edit reviews is a double-edged sword in my book, but the fact that you can stop any edits by sharing your review as a seller seems great. I am just thinking about certain abusive buyers that might try to manipulate the system, however it's fine if you can share your own review and not have the review editable. Some buyers make a mistake, they add the wrong number of stars, they might also have grammar errors in their review, so having a way to modify that does come in handy. I assume it's due to people leaving the wrong number of emoji/stars. 

What do you guys think about these changes? 

[pamdemic]

I was just about to start a thread on this, but you’re quick haha!

I have to say, I'm not too fussed about the changes overall. I do think the editable reviews could be a little easier for buyers to exploit your services, though. Just a thought! 

I've had a few experiences with buyers who were a little impatient. If you're sleeping and they ask you some questions after leaving a review and you don't respond quick enough, they might think you're ignoring them on purpose and threaten you by changing the review with the help of Fiverr support. 

Luckily, Fiverr doesn't help with these things, but now that we have this feature, I feel like it'll be easier for these buyers to exploit your services. 

But the great thing is that you can stop them from editing the review by simply leaving your feedback. What do you think? 

[priyank_mod]

Besides this update - I hope they make the process of leaving private reviews more convenient and intuitive for the buyers.

And in some manner, they should inform the buyers that private review is more critical or has more weightage than the glowing public review they left yesterday!! <just my wishful thinking😂>

[donnovan86]

8 minutes ago, pamdemic said:

I do think the editable reviews could be a little easier for buyers to exploit your services, though. Just a thought! 

I mean.. they can't change once you leave your own review. So it's less manipulative. I can see some manipulative buyers stating "hey I left you a bad review, but if you do X amount of extra work, I will change the review". But I think that's a negligible amount. 

[visualstudios]

27 minutes ago, donnovan86 said:

They are reverting from emojis back to stars, which definitely makes the platform feel and appear more professional. I was not a fan of emojis myself, either.

This is obviously great, and should have always been the case. The emojis were a total fail.

28 minutes ago, donnovan86 said:

Public scores for our gigs will only reflect the average score for the past 2 years. So even if you have 5000 reviews that on average had 5.0 stars (for a gig that has been around since 2015), the public score for that gig will only take into account your average review score for the past 2 years. Not sure how I feel about this, because that means all those old reviews are neglected, even if they were very accurate. Fiverr says they want to show the average, recent quality of the seller. I guess it's yet another way for them to eliminate meksells that tried to curate reviews in the past few years. 

This is a double edged sword. On one hand, it's good that you're no longer penalized for a 1 star review you got 10 years ago. On the other hand, you still have the number of reviews on display, so picture this:

If you have 100 reviews in your gig, but only 10 in the past 2 years, and the 90 older reviews are all 5*, and the 10 new ones are all 4... will it show as a 4 star average gig with 100 reviews? That's weird and kinda misleading.

30 minutes ago, donnovan86 said:

The rating breakdown also seems to be updated. Which means there are new/updated questions. 

This can be good or bad, depending on how the new system works.

31 minutes ago, donnovan86 said:

And this is another big one. Buyers now have the option to edit reviews for up to 14 days after they leave a review. However, it's either 14 days or until the seller leaves their own review. That means, if you don't want your buyer to randomly change their review, you may want to share your own review and not wait. 

That's also weird. Doesn't make any difference for me personally, as I always rate buyers, but it will force sellers to rate every buyer 5 star (fear of private feedback) even when they don't want to. 

[uk1000]

If each review score displayed is only based on the last 2 years then that probably means quite a lot of gigs that haven't had a review in 2 years will now not show an average rating, so it might be harder for buyers to get a rough idea of what the buyers thought of it (unless they check each separate rating).

Edited May 20 by uk1000

[visualstudios]

2 minutes ago, uk1000 said:

If it's review average scores are only based on the last 2 years then that probably means quite a lot of gigs that haven't had a review in 2 years will now not show an average rating, so it might be harder for buyers to get a rough idea of what the buyers thought of it (unless they check each separate rating).

Gigs with no reviews in the past 2 years, will show as their score their lifetime score.

What that means though is if you have a gig with 100 reviews older than 2 years, if it gets a single new review... that new review will be the entire score. If that review is 4 stars, It will show as a 101 reviews gig, with a 4 star average. Which is misleading, I'd say.

Edited May 20 by visualstudios

[donnovan86]

2 minutes ago, visualstudios said:

Which is misleading, I'd say.

Very misleading and also unfair. Then again, it also forces you to subscribe to Seller Plus, so you can have access to that Request To Order feature.. 

 

[pamdemic]

11 minutes ago, donnovan86 said:

I mean.. they can't change once you leave your own review. So it's less manipulative. I can see some manipulative buyers stating "hey I left you a bad review, but if you do X amount of extra work, I will change the review". But I think that's a negligible amount. 

Yep, guess we just gotta be quick to leave a feedback once the buyer has submitted their review and it shouldn’t cause any issues. 
 

And this 2 years public scores thing is also messed up and unfair. 

[rawque_gulia]

25 minutes ago, pamdemic said:

threaten you by changing the review with the help of Fiverr support......luckily, Fiverr doesn't help with these things

Nah! Fiverr was always there to back buyers earlier. Buyers could easily contact customer support and change their reviews. This has happened to me when I declined to work with a buyer on future orders due to hiccups and bad communication from the buyer. Just because I declined to work with that buyer, he approached customer support and changed his review to 1 star, lied about our interaction, and manipulated the review.

But at least, buyers now won't be able to do this (as stated in the current update that even customer support won't be able to change reviews).

[visualstudios]

3 minutes ago, rawque_gulia said:

But at least, buyers now won't be able to do this (as stated in the current update that even customer support won't be able to change reviews).

You're putting too much trust on that, I feel. Sure, they say that, but there's always exception this and exception that, and I've seen Fiverr not abide by its own terms too many times before. I need to see a buyer hellbent on changing their review be denied, and then I'll believe.

[arafatcoco]

After changing the rating system If everybody tells that is good then it's okay.

[premiumedit]

I'd say these updates sound fair enough to me.

p.s. did anyone else noticed 0 impressions in gig metrics on all their gigs today or is it just me? 

[filipdevaere]

1 minute ago, premiumedit said:

p.s. did anyone else noticed 0 impressions in gig metrics on all their gigs today or is it just me? 

Several people are currently having this.

[premiumedit]

17 minutes ago, visualstudios said:

You're putting too much trust on that, I feel. Sure, they say that, but there's always exception this and exception that, and I've seen Fiverr not abide by its own terms too many times before. I need to see a buyer hellbent on changing their review be denied, and then I'll believe.

You're thinking too much about it, I feel. Toxic buyers are rare. No one is so evil to just manipulate some one every time. I feel you feel scared because you encounter such buyers and behaviors too often. Maybe increase the price to filter out such buyers and possibilities. It doesn't make sense that a buyer will "under-rate" someone who just over-delivered. For me, this update is just like any other update where it makes me provide excellent service. 

[premiumedit]

11 minutes ago, filipdevaere said:

Several people are currently having this.

[Sigh of relief]

[pamdemic]

28 minutes ago, rawque_gulia said:

Nah! Fiverr was always there to back buyers earlier. Buyers could easily contact customer support and change their reviews. This has happened to me when I declined to work with a buyer on future orders due to hiccups and bad communication from the buyer. Just because I declined to work with that buyer, he approached customer support and changed his review to 1 star, lied about our interaction, and manipulated the review.

But at least, buyers now won't be able to do this (as stated in the current update that even customer support won't be able to change reviews).

That’s messed up. I don’t understand why Fiverr didn’t check the situation on your order and changed the review based on what the client said. 

Luckily this has never happened to me. Some buyers tried to get their review changed by contacting support, but they were unsuccessful. 

[lalitsdmittal]

My mind stopped working after all these updates, why they are doing this?

[imarketyousell]

They are just blaming their poor decisions on us, thinking that getting rid of the old sellers will solve the problem with new PRO sellers who have a 4.4 rating and only 5 reviews. It doesn't really matter what they do; this update is just a bone they threw at us so we shut up.

[zerlina84]

No emojis - good

2 years ratings - stupid but whatever

Buyers being able to edit reviews - absolutely pointless. I always leave a review the second I get a new rating but what exactly could they possible want with this? The only thing it will achieve is every buyer getting 5 stars out of fear.

 

who. decides. these. things?!

[smashradio]

1 hour ago, donnovan86 said:

They are reverting from emojis back to stars, which definitely makes the platform feel and appear more professional. I was not a fan of emojis myself, either.

About time. Some gen alpha intern must have come up with that idea in the first place. 

1 hour ago, donnovan86 said:

Public scores for our gigs will only reflect the average score for the past 2 years. So even if you have 5000 reviews that on average had 5.0 stars (for a gig that has been around since 2015), the public score for that gig will only take into account your average review score for the past 2 years. Not sure how I feel about this, because that means all those old reviews are neglected, even if they were very accurate. Fiverr says they want to show the average, recent quality of the seller. I guess it's yet another way for them to eliminate meksells that tried to curate reviews in the past few years. 

I don't know what to think of this, honestly. 

1 hour ago, donnovan86 said:

And this is another big one. Buyers now have the option to edit reviews for up to 14 days after they leave a review. However, it's either 14 days or until the seller leaves their own review. That means, if you don't want your buyer to randomly change their review, you may want to share your own review and not wait. 

 

This will make our support after the order is completed more important as well. If they buyer has a question or want something changed after the order is technically complete, and you say "no", they can fry you in an updated review. Just something to think about for sellers who are very strict on their revision policy. This change would only be "fair" if sellers also could edit their review. But that won't happen. 

[zerlina84]

1 minute ago, smashradio said:

If they buyer has a question or want something changed after the order is technically complete, and you say "no", they can fry you in an updated review.

Apparently, no, they can’t.

As soon as you leave your review, they can’t edit it anymore (and thank God for that).

It’s just a pointless “update”.

[premiumedit]

Just now, zerlina84 said:

Apparently, no, they can’t.

As soon as you leave your review, they can’t edit it anymore (and thank God for that).

It’s just a pointless “update”.

It isn't a pointless "update". Just notice the difference in your rankings and success score in the next few days. Were you this sane 5 years ago? No, right? We evolve and so do our skills. Taking into account our performance in the last 2 years is more transparent and relevant than evaluating your performance based on who and how you performed in "2013".

[rawque_gulia]

2 minutes ago, zerlina84 said:

It’s just a pointless “update”.

6 minutes ago, zerlina84 said:

Buyers being able to edit reviews - absolutely pointless.

There were some bug reports on the forum about buyers complaining that they wanted to leave a 5-star rating, but the system automatically changed it to 4 stars (despite selecting the correct stars). With this update, Fiverr probably wants to give buyers a second option to re-edit their reviews if they are changed by any bug. Maybe Fiverr was unsuccessful in fixing that bug, so they launched this alternative. Can't say for certain, but probably this was the overall reason for this update.

[zerlina84]

Just now, premiumedit said:

It isn't a pointless "update". Just notice the difference in your rankings and success score in the next few days. Were you this sane 5 years ago? No, right?

First of all, what I called “pointless” was the editing of reviews.

Second of all, I don’t know about “sane”, but I was just as professional as I am today. Weren’t you?

This is just a way to penalize people who have been here longer.