Projects that are similar "simple reports". Who are these people?
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I'm curious about all of these projects in the writing and editing category that seem very similar. The employer asks for someone to write a "simple 50 page report" on topic X and then goes into detail about the set up and table of contents, etc. Several have been posted by the same person (someone from Taiwan), but others use the exact same format for requesting a topic and a "simple report" of MANY pages (listing a different place of origin. Anyone know what these are all about? I initially thought they were some kind of operation set up to write term papers for students too stupid or lazy to write their own. But the topics are rarely of the type a proper instructor would actually assign. I can't figure out the market for this kind of thing. I also wonder why anyone thinks 30, 40, or 50 pages constitute a "simple report"....and why any professional writer would want to do all of the research, writing, and editing on that number of pages for the listed budget of "less than $250". But, my main question is whether there is a way on http://Guru.com screen out this kind of stuff when I do a search for relevant projects. The search page lists all of the entries in the category and there is no way to simply delete the project from the search page. One can usually tell by the title of the project that it's another one of these "simple reports." (On the other hand, there IS a way to delete it from the "project matches" page....so why not on the search results page?)
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Carol, I believe that employers have templates available to them, just as freelancers do. I also have an employer account on guru, but I do not use templates for anything. "Simple" is a red flag. So, too, are "easy," "short," "more work in the future," "should take you 30 minutes," and similar. It takes me 30 minutes to post a job on either guru or elance. Why would I hire someone to do something that takes the same amount of time? If I know how much it will take I know enough to do it myself in the 30 minutes I spent posting the job. Some employers take less time to post a job and it shows. My most recent guru hire was done the smart way. I needed someone for a non-existent category, so I did a key word search and found about 60 people. Sent short messages to four describing what I think I need and asking for input. I told them I would only contract and pay through guru. Three messages later I posted invitation only to the one who took the time to respond. She is a pro and deserves more than I'm paying. I'm astounded that I haven't done this before, and that it isn't done more frequently. Guru makes this very easy to do. Sure, the unscrupulous ones will try to go off-guru for the work, but what freelancer wants to work for someone who (a) has already demonstrated lack of honesty, and (b) is harming the service on which freelancers depend?
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Hi Carol, If your gut instinct is that there is something wrong, then you're probably correct. There isn't anything "simple" about what they're asking for, but it might make them feel that the cost will be lower if they label the work that way, with "simple" meaning "easy" and therefore, "cheap." It's true -- a lot of effort goes into composition, but only those who actually do it would know that. Another factor is that the U.S. dollar goes quite a bit further for those in other nations. With that in mind, $250 is thought of as a tidy sum. What would make me curious is the number of projects that employer has posted, and how many (if any) they have actually completed through to the payment and feedback. The statistics on their account will likely tell you more about them and how they operate. Sad to say, and this doesn't apply to the majority I'm sure, but there are some who might simply use the project to obtain contact info so they can take the work off-site. Unless there have been changes to policy that I'm not aware of (which is entirely possible), the employer will have names, addresses, phone numbers, and email addresses of all who place bids. Also, if they are posting the same project over and over, and multiple times in the same day, Guru should perhaps look into it. A single project listing is enough to garner significant bids if the content of the description and the budget are suitable. Multiples aren't really necessary. :)
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Hi Carol, As far as I know there isn't a way to tailor the results we receive. I had wanted to avoid projects containing particular details some time ago, but didn't find a way to do that in my research. But on thinking about it, I figured it might not be a bad idea to have all the results show up, even if they're not of interest. Just the time I'd block something, there could be a really good project on the list with an unfortunate title, location, or fee attached.
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Hello, Carol. There's not currently a way to filter search results by excluding projects with certain keywords. That's certainly a suggestion we will keep in mind for the next generation of the Search pages. In the meantime, if you believe an Employer is up to no good or you find a project to be of a suspicious nature, please report the project. We'll take a closer look and take action as needed.
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They're not the same topic. They're all different. So, it's not - as you suggest - a case of someone posting the same thing again and again. I'm just wondering what they're up to with this. Obviously, I've no desire to bid...but if I could find a way to not have them show up in the searches for reasonable projects, that would be terrific. I suppose there's no way to do that, though.
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