Freelancer.com recently announced major changes which are being made to their Reputation System. Changes include:

Getting detailed feedback

Previously all users scored either 10/10 or 0/10 Freelancer.com have now moved to a 5 star system with detailed feedback in five performance indicators.

• -- For Freelancers: Quality, Communication, Expertise, Professionalism and “Would you hire them again?”
• -- For Employers: Clarity in specification, communication, promptness in payment, professionalism and “would you work for them again?”

Freelancer.com envision by providing detailed feedback everyone will be able to identify their strengths and weaknesses and where they may need to improve to win more projects or receive better quality work.

Ability to increase a user’s reputation significantly

Freelancer.com will be introducing a dollar weighting function to their system where a user’s reputation will be “dollar weighted”. The aim of the dollar weighting function is the more valuable a project is the greater the increase in your reputation will be once the project is successfully completed.

A user’s strongest category is their best asset

Under the new system, users will be ranked in accordance to their rating, not the amount of feedback they have received.

Reputation will be determined on a category by category basis

The goal of implementing this ranking system is to ensure there’s a fairer way to ensure freelancers specialising in niche areas or those working in core areas of expertise rank higher than those who may specialise in other fields. This will ensure those with the reputation in a particular category will be ranked higher than those that do not and will also mean Freelancers will be ranked higher for the project categories they complete work for more often on and the higher quality work produced.

Calculating Reputation

Freelancer.com reported work already completed under the 10 star system will be taken into account under the new 5 star system.

Under the new system, for each project completed the 5 performance indicators will be averaged to give an overall rating out of 5 stars. Rating will also be dollar weighted and will increase a user’s reputation across all categories the project is listed under.

For projects already completed under the 10 star system, Freelancer.com advised they’ll be converting these rating by dividing them by 2 (giving a rating out of 5), they will then apply a dollar weighted value to each category the project is listed under.

Relevant Earnings to be displayed in bids

The project volume completed in terms of earnings will now be displayed in any bids made that are similar to the project a freelancer is bidding on. Relevant earnings will now be displayed by a number of green bars between 0 and 10. A high project volume will have a major factor in determining a user’s overall ranking in the bid list.

Understanding Bid Rankings

Freelancer.com reported bids will be ranked by reputation from highest to lowest and will be determined by a user’s average Reputation across all the categories the project is posted in. Freelancers who rank the highest will have completed the most work, with the highest value and ratings, relevant to the project being bid on.

Choosing the right freelancer now easier

A new function being introduced will allow employers to hover over a Freelancer’s username and will be able to view a snap shot of the freelancer’s reputation and work history. Employers will also be able to compare how they’ve performed recently and view freelancers reputation based on specific job categories, enabling employers to match Freelancers with specific skills needed to complete the project.

Freelancer.com reported the new system will benefit all users because it will be able to match the best freelancers to each job and will allow the best freelancers in an area to win more work easily. Freelancer.com also believe it will provide a way for freelancers to be able to carve out niche areas on their site in which they can specialise in, without fear of someone will more feedback in a different area to outbid them.

Users can preview what their new reputation will look like by hovering over the 10 star rating in the bid list.