Does Guru have an answer as to why there are so many design/illustrator proposals that even after 50, 60, 80+ days are not awarded?

I don't know if there's any way Guru (or anyone) can know if jobs are being completed off site. The only thing we can do, is, if somehow we find out a freelancer and/or employer are conducting business off site is to report them to Guru.

Also, there are many other reasons why jobs go unfulled. The employer may have posted it and awarded it on another site. The employer may have changed their minds. The employer may have not secured the budget. The contractor who submitted bids may not have been qualified enough in the clients opinion. And as you say, a client may be testing the waters to see the proposal amount range.

I also wish the DELETE button on the proposal page could be brought back.

All those reasons are valid..but we re all grownups here. This a business. It doesn't take a lot of time to close a proposal.,..for whatever reason... instead of having all of us hanging onto see where it goes. It used to be WHEN WE HAD A DELETE BUTTON...after 35 days I could delete the bad boys...now we are stuck with them ad nauseum

Good morning.

Kathleen raises some valid points regarding unawarded projects. It's not uncommon for Employers to source their projects through multiple-channels. The Employer may have posted the same opportunity on a competing site, or on another job platform. Likewise, they may have found a local solution for their need. In some cases, project funding falls through, or the need for the service evaporates altogether. While we do ask our Employers to provide reasons why a project is not awarded, their response is not mandatory.

The question then becomes how to manage the 'tire-kickers', and the resulting proposal clutter that comes as a byproduct of their actions?

Concerning the practice of quote-shopping, we do display Employer summary statistics along with the details of any posted project. In the event that you notice that an Employer has posted 25 projects, with none resulting in payment, then you may want to consider steering clear of this 'opportunity'. The associated stigma of unpaid projects is the best indicator to warn prospective freelancers to avoid insincere Employers. Why don't we close the account? Well, in some cases the Employer would simply attempt to establish a fresh account with a clean slate. While we do take steps to prevent the return of suspended Employers, some will inevitably slip past our watchdogs and return to the market with a fresh history, making it difficult to identify them.

Several folks in this thread have also mentioned the return of the 'Delete' button to make house-cleaning easier. The question of restoring this function has been forwarded to our design and development team for further review.

We'll be sure to post an update to the Answers forum as soon as any updated information becomes available. Thanks!