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oDesk to merge with Elance

odesk.com

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Re: oDesk to merge with Elance

#31

Post by benhebert »

lingben wrote: post #3

As long as oDesk does not change at all, I'm happy. The only reason I hire on oDesk is because it is NOT elance - have had horrible experience with elance both with providers and the company itself and how it conducts business (or what it calls business). Although this is called a merger, it is only that in name. It seems elance's CEO will call the shots. https://www.odesk.com/blog/2013/12/mergerfaq/ "Who will lead t…

I too hate elance and have been using oDesk for years. The experience at oDesk was just phenomenally better than elance.

You're right about ripe for disruption too. I wonder who will move into the space.

Re: oDesk to merge with Elance

#32

Post by sampk »

lingben wrote: post #22
loceng wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I imagine oDesk is fine as long as you don't have any problems. They don't see blackmail as breaking their rules though, e.g. a contractor blackmailing you for a good rating. That contractor gets to stay on the platform. I have had this experience.

out of curiosity, how exactly does the blackmailing on oDesk work?

Not directly related but shit like this really scares me away from these sites and make me lose some faith in humanity (look at the client's history): https://www.odesk.com/o/jobs/job/Artist-Needed-for-Home-Page...

He's basically selling ratings. 147 jobs — which would usually cost you at least $200+ each — done for $829 total!

Re: oDesk to merge with Elance

#33

Post by uladzislau »

Just recently when Freelancer.com acquired vWorker I expected the overall quality improvement at Freelancer. However despite any logic it became worse.

I have the same expectations for this merger/acquisition. Elance won't become any better and Odesk will cease to exist very soon after transferring all users to Elance.

Sadly this merger is dictated by nothing else but increasing market share of Freelancer.com.

Re: oDesk to merge with Elance

#34

Post by lingben »

sixspeed wrote: post #26
lingben wrote: post #3

As long as oDesk does not change at all, I'm happy. The only reason I hire on oDesk is because it is NOT elance - have had horrible experience with elance both with providers and the company itself and how it conducts business (or what it calls business). Although this is called a merger, it is only that in name. It seems elance's CEO will call the shots. https://www.odesk.com/blog/2013/12/mergerfaq/ "Who will lead t…

Would you mind elaborating on your experiences with elance? I had a family member who does freelance marketing/writing called me a few years ago and mentioned he was planning to sign up there and asking what I knew about it. I could only tell him about a comment I'd browsed on HN that referred to it as a "ghetto" of poor paying assignments. He went ahead with it and now seems to be doing quite well as one of the top…

My experience is with hiring technical freelancers: design, network, security, development, etc.

It is entirely possible that elance is great for non-technical jobs.

The issues I ran into were providers who have great ratings but who can't do the job! Later I found out that elance has a loophole where buyers who disputed or cancelled projects are not able to leave feedback. So you're not getting the full story when you look at a provider's history.

elance doesn't really care about this. So you have a huge portion of freelancers on elance who cosmetically pump up their ratings to get more jobs and then either farm them out to others or do a shoddy job themselves. when/if the job goes into dispute or is cancelled it disappears from their history. if the client is dumb enough to be happy with the crap work, they get a nice rating in exchange for turning over the final code.

Re: oDesk to merge with Elance

#35

Post by k-mcgrady »

leknarf wrote: post #19
davidjgraph wrote: post #7

With vworker first being absorbed by freelancer and now this, there's a decided lack of competition developing in this market. I think these guys know that a startup will struggle to compete, getting the critical mass of devs and employers is the same problem as starting a social network. I share the view that ODesk quality is an order of magnitude better than elance, I think only those using elance will being thinki…

Our startup Lambda ( http://getlambda.com ) competes with both, but we're not the least bit concerned. I already thought of elance/odesk as being effectively the same, in the sense that they're both known as places to find cheap, off-shore labor. I don't know any devs in NYC who've seriously considered working through either site and don't expect that to change. Likewise, I don't know many hiring companies that have…

I've been working through Freelancer/Elance for about 5 years now. I'm quite an experienced iOS dev and typically only apply to the higher priced jobs which then tend to lead on to repeat work. I just took a look at your site. Although I would consider myself quite experienced I'm not a 'rockstar'. What kind of devs do you accept to join Lambda? What do you consider an 'exceptional developer'?

Re: oDesk to merge with Elance

#36

Post by tempestn »

Iftheshoefits wrote: post #24
tejay wrote: post #14

That's surprising. I feel bad for talented freelancers =/.

Talented freelancers do themselves a disservice by using either of these "services". The only reason for a talented freelancer to use them is out of a desperate need for even abysmal compensation. This merger will likely make things worse for them (freelancers), not better. Yes, I know there are some freelancers working on these sites who earn a "decent" living. They're anomalies. The vast majority of workers earn re…

So where would you go to find a talented freelancer then? (Assuming you don't have any good word of mouth recommendations.) Not sarcasm - I'm generally interested if you have a better way of finding them that's more reliable that google searches or trolling stackoverflow.

Re: oDesk to merge with Elance

#38

Post by goostavos »

benhebert wrote: post #31
lingben wrote: post #3

As long as oDesk does not change at all, I'm happy. The only reason I hire on oDesk is because it is NOT elance - have had horrible experience with elance both with providers and the company itself and how it conducts business (or what it calls business). Although this is called a merger, it is only that in name. It seems elance's CEO will call the shots. https://www.odesk.com/blog/2013/12/mergerfaq/ "Who will lead t…

I too hate elance and have been using oDesk for years. The experience at oDesk was just phenomenally better than elance. You're right about ripe for disruption too. I wonder who will move into the space.

Out of curiosity, are you using oDesk to hire contractors, or are you freelancing on oDesk? I ask because I recently started freelancing on the sight an it feels like fighting for scraps. I mean, half the posts I see have "Contact goes to the lowest bidder" at the top of the listing.

Does it get better once you "establish" yourself on the site? Right now it feels pretty futile outside of making some pocket change.

Re: oDesk to merge with Elance

#39

Post by corin_ »

sampk wrote: post #32
lingben wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

out of curiosity, how exactly does the blackmailing on oDesk work?

Not directly related but shit like this really scares me away from these sites and make me lose some faith in humanity (look at the client's history): https://www.odesk.com/o/jobs/job/Artist-Needed-for-Home-Page... He's basically selling ratings. 147 jobs — which would usually cost you at least $200+ each — done for $829 total!

Surely that guy isn't selling ratings, as he's the client so he's the guy paying the low fees - presumably to get work (just cheap work), otherwise why would he spend $829 just to give contractors ratings. (Unless there's more going on than meets the eye, for example behind the scenes he's selling the chance to get a positive rating for more than he pays on the site.)
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