

Ask HN: Don't you think we need to redo the way freelancing websites work? - arash_milani

Hi guys,<p>I'm Arash Milani, a web developer from Iran that has been doing freelancing once in while since 2004 and never been happy with freelancing websites. The idea of improving this area has been bugging me for a while so I thought to share it with you to see if you feel the same or not.<p>I've been a user of scriptlance, never could get used to freelancer.com (formerly GAF). Then we had odesk; the interface was great, the process seemed to be promising... but...<p><i>IMHO</i> they all got the whole process of getting things done WRONG.<p>1) I think the most important part of a freelancing website should be "ease of communication" between buyers and freelancers. In this aspect freelancer.com is the worst of all. the site is a big mess. May be we should bring in some simple things like "conversations", "to do"s per project. (the same as is in basecamp)<p>2) Some of them like freelancer.com are offering experience points to freelancers. pay $5 and you can take a test and have "Intermediate English badge" or "ASP.NET Expert badge" or blah blah... Hey guys I'm not here to prove myself to buyers, I'm here to help them; and to help somebody you don't need these stuff. All you need is to listen and provide a great solution. (Again Communication)<p>3) Their (freelancer.com) support turnaround is the worst of all. after at least 3 days you get a half answer of what you've asked and to get you full answer you will need to reply and wait another 3 days for them to get back to you! in a perfect world I will get a response the same day.<p>4) They are trying to be everything to everyone. They want to have programmers, designers, accountants &#38; copywriters all together!<p>You may also have other experiences / pains that I would be happy to hear them.<p>Thank you for reading so far :-)
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timjahn
I agree that the online resources for freelance developers can be improved.
That's exactly why I'm building matchist (<http://matchist.com/talent> \- for
US based developers only at the moment).

In our experience, communication is huge. Clients like developers who
communicate well and don't take forever to do so. Also being able to explain
things in laymans terms is big.

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arash_milani
I love the idea of the _human_ matching. Great work guys :-)

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pestaa
I personally know of a great out of the ordinary freelancing site that is in
the works -- can't disclose any specifics though.

But the thing is, it will have a niche audience. It is not where the big money
is.

On the other hand, I'd hire programmers from Odesk and freelancer.com only for
throwaway projects. Each to their own, I guess.

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arash_milani
You mean there is no _serious_ projects going on on those websites?

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pestaa
I mean I wouldn't hire people for serious projects from a surprise packet.

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arash_milani
good point! "a surprise packet". In those websites no one is allowed to reveal
his/her identity... And how can you trust someone you can't see real past
works as freelancers are only allowed to upload some pictures and text for
their portfolio.

IMHO The review and star rating system in that websites seems to be failed as
almost anyone has 10/10 rating and reviews are copy/pasted copies. So these
things can not act as a mean of trust between two parties.

It seems to me transparency is the way to go.

