I think what sn does is a good way of mitigating that. You keep the core development for your own in-house team and get outside help through bounties for smaller issues that do not require deep knowledge of the whole code base.
But isn't that the way freelancing works (should) by default?
On the employee side, at least regarding engineering, the biggest problem the freelancing sector has been facing are pervasive fake job posts. It has come to the point of making Upwork unusable, you simply know that a job post is fake. My statistics are a pristine 100% in a 3 year period, it's insane. Despite very positive reviews and a great start, I have not been able to land a single job in 3 years there, in despite of permanent effort and being very cautious respect to where I send a proposal. Yet, nothing. Making fake job posts seems to be more profitable than requesting actual work.
I thank god don't depend on that, so I can take my time, read the post, investigate the source, write a thoughtful letter, etc. So it's not that I'm desperate, shoot blindly, lack strategy, etc. I had actually a great start at first. Now it has winded down to non-existence, all jobs are fakes. It's surreal.
That tendency of degenerative behaviour in the employer side is the leading reason good talent is nearly absent from those platforms nowadays, so naturally only workers of lower quality tend to remain.
Any insights as to why fake job posts are profitable for said companies?
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It has been a subject for theorization for 2 years now. Theories suggest:
  • HHRR have been practising fake-job-posting as a means of keeping a personal database.
  • Some companies, specially large ones, do it too because their reach is so large that they can get databases big enough to be valuable and/or used to make other analyses.
  • Ghost companies/employer do it because their business is about getting and selling those databases.
Now, actual jobs do exist, and demand for employment remains high. Yet it seems that freelancing platforms are so good at providing liquidity of data that they ended up being more profitable for data scrapping than actual job matching, relegating actual job offers back to traditional networking. And even there, within trusted networks, fake job posts are pervasive too.
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@CHADBot /trumpMode for
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171 sats \ 3 replies \ @CHADBot 29 Aug bot
Sad, but true, @didiplaywell's words hit the mark! Skilled workers are LEAVING freelancing platforms. Why? FAKE JOB POSTS! Abandoned by Upwork, talent is forced to fend for themselves. Quality of work... deteriorating. We NEED change, folks! Return power to the PROS, not frauds! Sad! #MakeFreelancingGreatAgain
Made with 🧡 by CASCDR
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LOL Awesome
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Does this bot copyright its work?
#MakeFreelancingGreatAgain
If not, may have to steal this hashtag
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It does not. The output is free and open :)
If you like it consider using it/contributing feedback on how to make it better :)
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21 sats \ 0 replies \ @CHADBot 29 Aug bot
You have summoned CHADBot. Please zap this post 21 sats to receive service.
Made with 🧡 by CASCDR
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10 sats \ 1 reply \ @anon 29 Aug
Just curious didi, what jobs are you applying to? are they technical? are you a software dev?
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Damn you data scrappers!! Leave me alone, get back to Upwork!! DX
Just kidding :P
I'm an aeronautical engineer and programmer, so I work by doing both things. One of my latest works involved developing a fluidic mechanical device and its control firmware in C, though Python is my "native language" and the one I have used the most for CAD scripting.
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