My naive bayesian classifier says: suspect.

Further: many of the account names look like they are generated by the same process. Two words, camel-cased, plus a number. All the ones I randomly clicked are 3-4 days old and have a single post to their history (i.e. the one from this thread).

EDIT the bots just keep on coming! Every few mins. I suppose at the pace if ChatGPT generation pace.

Maybe it’s someone testing HN cloning

Very weird!

If I was trying to grow a portfolio of human looking accounts, I’d have them participate in this kind of threads.

They did something wrong so in response you do something bad yourself to a third party community?

Flooding HN with spam just for the feeling of settling your personal vendetta?

Cmon man. Don’t be an ass.

For me, I got my clients through my personal blog about programming where some people contacted me and asked to hire me. You can also just start being very active on the relevant communities in your niche and build up a reputation.

All of this takes time, but I believe it to be the most reliable long term strategy to get work from high quality clients on your own terms.

I have no idea what would have happened, if I had taken them up; maybe just a religious sermon, but I wasn’t taking any chances.

Most of the other contacts, were offers for me to participate in scams, like being an “American face,” of an offshore coding shop.

I suspect many were not exactly illegal, but were probably dodgy as hell. I like to think I have some personal Integrity (which folks around here, consider “quaint,” or just “stupid”).

I never had one single legitimate approach.

Not one.

Bid quick, often and always go hourly so you do get paid. Clients expect the world for nothing (typical project is google for $125) so learning how to deliver within the requirements is an artform..always go hourly so you get paid something when these projects don't live up to unreasonable expectations. Be prepared for someone to scam you, try to go off platform, etc. Stay on the site.

and the guidance on rates is completely out of line. custom usb driver for $80? $12/hr for development work?

Don’t underestimate the value of a well-worded, signature required snail mail, either. That usually resolves these matters since it usually escalates to the right people.

In which case, take them to arbitration! It’s pretty easy for you but costs them money.

If that doesn't work though, and the amount isn't worth a legal fight, I don't know if there's much you can do, sorry :/

Eat the loss, write about it (like here, thank you!) and don’t beat yourself up over it.

The way the clause is being used to quiet individuals is pretty awful, and while I'm not a lawyer, I suggest that indeed if you have a binding arbitration clause- exercise it.

You can always retract your claim. In fact, arbitration bodies love settlements.

If you don't, then indeed, go after them in small claims court.

Upwork will have two choices: to fight you or not. They'll do the same calculation as you- the cost of the process will be expensive, and likely cost them more in legal fees then is in dispute, so they're likely to pay you to make it go away.

If you think they're going to fight, then withdraw your arbitration claim, but I suggest before even doing that, explain your situation in a letter sent by email (or registered mail) to Upwork:

https://www.upwork.com/about/contact

And explain you'd like to resolve the matter amicably, but if that's not possible, you're prepared to exercise the arbitration clause (or take them to small claims court).

This will alert their legal team, who will now explain to someone else that the matter doesn't make sense to fight, etc.

Once again I Am Not A Lawyer, but I think this is your best bet in getting the money back. But of course if you do this, you won't be working with Upwork anymore.

You have to have a lot of persistence and a lot of money (or a hungry lawyer who will work for the reward only) to fight like this, in many cases.

Now there might be some small court which has a low filing fee where you can make a case which requires them to respond, and that effort on their part may be deemed not worth the cost of just paying you to go away. So perhaps there's still something you could do practically.

I doubt they have a $20,000 upwork balance.

Full disclosure, I am part of the software engineering team at Contra. I was an independent freelancer for years and was drawn to Contra’s mission of building a better platform for independents to thrive and be successful. Core to that mission is not charging a commission on someone’s hard work.

An interesting fact, nearly everyone in the company has been an independent freelancer. We design and build from a place of experience, understanding and empathy. We also recognize that the needs of independent freelancers evolves so we talk with independents and clients daily to make sure we’re sure continuing to build something they will love to use.

Then I did some research on him and it turns out he is a convicted felon for distributing child ____. His case was covered extensively in international news. I alerted Upwork to this and also showed them proof of his dishonest behavior with me (all communication with him was within the Upwork messaging system). Yet as far as I can see nothing changed and he is still very prominently featured on their platform. (Also he has changed his name now.)

He left me a quite vengeful review & rating (turns out he does this with many of his clients). He was working on a sensitive area of my business. Feels stressful to have a conflict with someone like him. I felt nervous even reporting him.

https://www.fastcompany.com/90847879/exclusive-upwork-is-rev...

I think part of the issue was just that the website didn't look cool enough. It looked fine to me but I think that people judge things in a very shallow way.

Were they wrong? If there were not many posts, it wasn't popular.