themarineiguana

🎉🎉🎉🥳🥳🥳 Awesome news! God bless you! Hitting "Level 1" is an exciting achievement!

I think people who haven't had the experience of actively trying to communicate in a different language (other than their native tongue) don't quite understand how helpful generative AI has been recently for being able to get one's thoughts across clearly... ... or how unhelpful rules that paint its usage with a broad brush 🎨 might be. Those of us born in the US I think are particularly vulnerable to thinking that blindly enforcing this rule (without any exceptions) makes even a modicum of sense, especially since we live in a pretty isolated part of the world where almost everyone we encounter has a proficient command of the English language and native speakers are generally not expected to become fluent in any other languages. If you ask me, a change to the rules to allow for exceptions to generative AI usage in the case of translating one's forum posts (for non-malicious purposes) would probably be helpful... especially for sellers not offering writing/translation services for any of said languages (as in the case of OP).

What I often say is this... "Please see the attachment for delivery. If everything looks okay, please accept delivery on the order screen and we can tie up any loose ends with this order." This subtly reminds a buyer that there is more to the process (because many buyers — especially new buyers — don't realize this). It also subtly hints that they should keep their eyes open 👀 for any subsequent prompts from Fiverr during said process (e.g. when Fiverr prompts a buyer to review a seller).

Listen, I think it's worth giving credit to the first three potentially positive new features (although I can see how the idea of partial refunds might get abused by less-than-stellar buyers, it still has a lot of potential and has been on my wish list)... but the fact is that these three promising policy shifts taste like the brownie that Fiverr is using to mask the taste of year-old 🥦 broccoli... ... that is to say... the stinky inky fourth change... Reviews on Cancelled Orders are a big silly idea that tries to solves a non-problem (seriously, I would argue that reviews left for buyers chronically "oversell" a buyer far more than reviews for sellers, which I think many would agree more often skew a touch too severe). It also potentially opens up new doors for savvy scammers (posing as buyers) to wheedle their way into — shall we say — free gigs with a new toolkit 🧰 of not-so-subtle leverage at their disposal? In the past, the advantage of cancellations was mutual: Buyers didn't have to pay. Sellers could avoid negative feedback. That was transactional, both sides could walk away from a suboptimal situation with their dignity in tact, and it was already a situation where the seller arguably got a bit of the short end of the stick (as the buyer was only out time, whereas the seller was out time, labor, and potentially cancellation rate). At any rate, the first three changes do sound promising, but the fourth sounds like a quixotic dud that risks alienating a lot of sellers.

Oh wow! This actually appears to be quite a positive change 😅 To be honest, I've long thought a 10,000 USD minimum for the TRS rank would be a lot more reasonable, and could theoretically help those sellers experiencing a sudden ☄️ meteoric rise attain (and retain) a more stable foothold quicker. (At least, in theory...) I've been more than a bit confrontational regarding recent policy decisions as of late, but I think I can get behind this one at least.

☝ This one looks the most interesting, and I can see a lot of potential here. But... Major challenges as I see it: How well will the AI "understand" subtle nuances? For example, if someone is looking for video background removal services for a scene where no greenscreen was used, will it accidentally recommend a chroma key service that does require greenscreen? How well will it mitigate Zipf's law in recommending sellers? One of the biggest issues on the platform (and many platforms) is how to recommend equitably. Does the chatbot ask the buyer if they're willing to consider new sellers? Does the chatbot ask what the buyer's review score range is... for those buyers willing to take a chance on sellers with suboptimal scores? Is the chatbot sophisticated enough to be able to recognize the 🥳 enthusiasm gap between written reviews (for buyers who do absolutely want the highest rated sellers)? And in those cases, is the chatbot able to prevent itself from overly recommending sellers who are swamped with work as opposed to those who are currently experiencing dry spells 🌵? I think this feature has enormous potential... ... people who have seen my posts know I've been pretty acerbic in my assessment of some of Fiverr policies, but part of the reason I haven't taken my toys and gone home is that I do see a lot of potential in this platform. This looks like it could be a step in the right direction... but this is probably going to require active and watchful maintenance to make sure it's equitable.

Sometimes sellers do make mistakes, but I've also found that (some) buyers can be hypercritical. The fact that OP did correct on the subsequent delivery sounds like that probably should've warranted a 5 star review ⭐ for his efforts. If you'll look at buyer's profile, he actually gave the last seller a 4.7 on their first order too, but he also seems to have subsequently provided 5 star reviews to that same seller. Unfortunately though, you can see that said seller hasn't received any orders from anyone else. So, this does pose a considerable concern. Did the suboptimal initial review either (a) reduce that seller's presence on the search results -and/or- (b) make it so his profile looked less optimal to prospective buyers? At this point, your best bet might be to try your hand at 📱 social media promotion in an attempt to mitigate either of the above concerns, or perhaps to think of some special deals/offers that might entice people to give your service a try. Although I realize that's suddenly a lot of new work to put on your plate, it might be a good way to dig out of this unfortunate situation.

One of the interesting paradoxes ‍💫 of the highest rated sellers is the fact that when you get big, sometimes you become extremely swamped with work. So, this can lead to some issues... I remember there were times (when I was at my busiest a couple years back) when I had to turn away buyers just because I didn't think I'd be able to do their projects in a timely manner, or I would instead try to give them realistic lead times (considering the number of orders already in the queue) which were unfortunately longer than what they would've otherwise preferred. Though I'm sure some sellers actually are secretly multi-person studios, I suspect the majority of us (myself included) are just individual freelancers. And there are only so many hours in the day. ⏰ But I think this ostensible limitation can sometimes be a good incentive to try and find newer sellers with a only a few orders under their belt, because people at that stage are often a lot more "hungry" to get ahead. You can take a risk on a brand new seller, or — if a project is too important and you want to mitigate the risk — find someone with just a few orders under their belt (who still have some really enthusiastic feedback). The point is this: the highest rated sellers (especially those whose profiles tend to say "last delivery: 3 picoseconds ago") are sometimes just in too high demand.

But what's to stop a cancellation that the seller requests from still counting against said seller's metrics (in the same way the buyer's cancellation request seems to have in sahhart's case)? What we've seen lately is both Fiverr's algorithms and customer service seemingly taking a more unconventionally draconian approach 🐉 to sellers than ever before... not to mention that many sellers are probably soon going to have to weigh — going forward — whether or not even simply requesting cancellation might yield negative feedback....... or if even simply posting the wrong request to customer service might yield an instant (and ostensibly unappealable) account deletion. And even if you can navigate all the rules and exceptions and determine that your request is sufficiently innocuous to risk contact CS... remember the words of someone we both know well: So, even if everything looks perfectly aligned with TOS 📚, that doesn't mean we won't see some inconvenient exceptions made down the road (and probably to the detriment of sellers) if Fiverr keeps up this ill-conceived sellers-are-cannon-fodder policy shift.

No, Fiverr did wrong. I'm afraid your "hot take" 🔥 here is incredibly ridiculous, smartdezigns. Simply requesting a review change should not be grounds for dismissal, nor should the TOS be treated like some sacred text 📜 where any slight deviation is treated like blasphemy. I can understand a warning or temporary suspension if a seller were to keep asking and asking and trying to finagle an alteration out of customer service, but to completely eradicate an account as well-established as nexartdesign — which had dozens and dozens of five-star reviews — simply because the seller asked (and had an arguably legitimate reason for asking, by the way)... That... is... ludicrous. It also penalizes any of this seller's "repeat buyers", who can now no longer place an order from a seller with whom they enjoy working — so this is essentially a one-two punch of terrible customer service on Fiverr's part. So no, whether Fiverr technically has a right to do this or not or whether the strictest letter of the TOS goes one way or another, this was an ill-conceived move on Fiverr's part and an absolutely chilling glimpse into what blind legalism looks like. Make sure you look into withdrawing any outstanding funds, btw.

What you're describing is actually similar to something I think Fiverr was secretly implementing in its algorithm... 👩‍🏫 Theory time! For a while, especially after the pandemic when there was a sudden influx of new sellers, it seemed like Fiverr would shuffle around search results every once in a while to try to even things out. Do I have proof? No, not really XD But my evidence comes from the way orders would come in. There would seem to be — once every month or two (after a dry spell 🌵) — a number of prospective buyers who would contact me in a short period of time. If I was able to handle their requests, it seemed to boost my conversion rate and that would seemingly — in turn — get me even more exposure and brand new buyers. 🥳🎉 If I was correctly interpreting what was going on — and that's a big if — because I'm not R2-D2 and I can't just ask the algorithm 🤖 ... it was actually a pretty clever strategy... ... until the 419 problem got worse. 🤦 Oh my gosh. I would have one prospective seller who would contact me with a legit project, and then an ostensible 419 seller who would basically knock the ball out of my hands (as it were) and cause a downtick in my conversion rate (which is why one of my first posts on this forum was to argue that conversion rate should be geoweighted 🌎 to tackle the 419 issue). But over the past year, the algorithm seems to have abandoned this shuffle-and-see strategy (if it ever was the strategy to begin with), and now I'm half convinced it's relying too much on 📢 Gig Promotion. At any rate, I see that your services are primarily language based. The only time I have thus far purchased something on Fiverr was from an amazing young lady in Indonesia (shabrinaaarifah) who translated an old Japanese short film 🎬 for me. She went above and beyond, and I would expect Japanese translation to be in especially high demand... and yet after three years, I remain her only order to date. 😔 And that's why my suggestion would be to diversify your offerings, especially now that generative AI is getting so sophisticated. My writing services, for example, have had far less interest since ChatGPT came into play, with only my legacy customers holding on thus far. My only new customers this whole year have been for my lightsaber rotoscoping gigs (something that AI probably still has difficulty accomplishing if it's trying to track a poorly lit plastic blade 😅). Perhaps it might require learning some brand new skills, but diversifying your offerings might be key. I did that a few years ago when I learned 3D animation, something I'd long wanted to do, and that did arguably "pay dividends" not only on Fiverr but seems to be continuing to do so elsewhere as well.

📢Promoted Gigs and 💵 Seller Plus are Fiverr's MLM•like services that should probably be ignored unless you're a Top Rated Seller (or swiftly honing in on TRS status). I realize I'm being even more blunt than usual, but 💵 Seller Plus is essentially an arbitrary paywall around analytics services that should probably come standard considering how much Fiverr already skims off a seller's order revenue and tip revenue — not to mention — the fees they already levy on buyers for both orders and tips. But, if you can tolerate this level of ostensible corporate shenaniganry -and- you are eligible to join, you should probably only sign up for this if you already have a steady stream of buyers and a lot of cashflow through your gigs (again... being TRS or a Level-2-rapidly-approaching-TRS). 📢Promoted Gigs are even rougher, because it's less obvious how much bang you're getting for a less obvious minimum monetary investment. Both of these services are potentially self-defeating for Fiverr... because they artificially widen the gap between the haves/have-nots by either (potentially) giving a competitive advantage to those who are already doing well or they (potentially) play on the desperation of people who might've been doing well at one point but aren't doing so well at present (it doesn't take too much of a leap in imagination to realize a platform with less-than-stellar motives could potentially exploit this kind of situation in a not-so-great way... i.e. "tighten the faucet" on certain sellers until they elect to promote their gigs). (Hopefully Fiverr is not like that... but we've seen confidence eroded on at least one other platform that introduced a promote your content feature while growth curves appeared to simultaneously artificially plateau for those who didn't; so whether it was a coincidence or not, sometimes it might be helpful to at least avoid the appearance that it could be manipulated thusly.) Not to mention that 📢Promoted Gigs cheapen reviews by potentially offering priority to sellers who can pay the opt-in-fees over those who might otherwise struggle to do so yet are arguably putting out a better product... Note: I didn't say cheapens the review score, because there is a minimum score requirement on Gig Promotions. I said it cheapens the reviews themselves... because when a seller provides a knockout service for their buyer, said buyer often sings about their seller's exploits from the tops of the hills — figuratively, via reviews of course — and therein lies one of the weaknesses of a hypothetical gig with a simple minimum numeric score saddled with reviews from somewhat less enthusiastic buyers that keeps — nevertheless — bubbling to the top of the search results due to monetary-based promotions.) Whatever success Fiverr's experimentation with 📢Promoted Gigs and 💵 Seller Plus has been (both being relatively recent additions to the site)... I reckon it might arguably equate to a bubble. I have a feeling Fiverr initially benefitted from the revenue uptick off these "pseudo-subscription" streams, but they may face a less upwardly-mobile seller-base in the long-term as more and more frustrated new sellers potentially turn their gaze off-platform. It's all fun and games when your stock of sellers is in relative abundance. Anyway, I digress... like a lot... Promoting gigs is kinda sorta the point of Fiverr in the first place. Why wouldn't somebody just download a payment app and go to a subreddit that promotes freelancers for free if that weren't the case? When you put paywalls around basic functionality, you risk alienating (or at least eroding the resolve of) your seller-base and seeing a resultant downtick in buyer interest, since those who opted into these services can't necessarily handle 100% of the demand for their categories. ⭐⭐⭐ If you ask me, both 📢Promoted Gigs and 💵 Seller Plus should probably be tossed in favor of making the extremely important (yet woefully underdiscussed) "search feature" more intuitive, equitable, and friendly toward upwardly-mobility. ⭐⭐⭐ *gets off soapbox and stores it in a bigger soapbox for safekeeping 📦*

I remember the first time someone ordered without messaging me first. Oh, that was a situation that crawled up and down my spine 😅 In most of the situations where this has happened, I simply requested cancellation... but I'm not sure that's as viable an option now (although this instance would seem to be one of those exceptions they listed in that terrible new buyer-can-leave-a-review-on-cancelled-orders rule). Anyway, it didn't take long to realize I needed to absolutely plaster "Pls msg first 🙂" over all my gig packages and in my description. So for future reference, I've found that when you write "Pls msg first 🙂 " just about EVERYWHERE on your gig (in the package titles, etc), people seem to notice 🔎 it better.

When I first started on Fiverr, I think manual "background removal" 🖼️ was actually one of my very first gigs. It was an extremely competitive field back in 2019, and I never got a single legit customer (only scammers). 😅 I quickly abandoned that gig back then and concentrated more on my animation gigs. But now, new technologies are making it even more difficult to carve out a niche in background removal, unless perhaps you can offer a spin on your services that AI apparently can't do very well: Like, you could advertise the isolation of multiple, complicated foreground subjects -or- the isolation of foreground subjects that look very similar to the background. Bottom line, it might help to advertise yourself as the "background removal solution" for when AI fails 🤖

Did that message appear as a notification? That's pretty cool if that's the case! 😁 God bless you! Congrats on your accomplishment! (From your profile, it looks like you're doing WAAAAAAAY better than I was when my account was only that old 😅)