Weblancer.net Freelance Exchange Tighter Regulation

One of the largest freelance exchanges among the CIS countries has published planned innovations. In general, they are aimed at tightening the rules of working with the exchange, and freelancers, not employers, are limited in their rights. Now you need to confirm your passport data and pay a subscription fee for access to the service.

1. Requirement for the mandatory provision of personal data

Mandatory provision of full name, date of birth and location.
This restriction was introduced in the service more than 10 days ago, but users who completed the profile earlier will need to make the appropriate adjustments.

The correspondence of the user's IP address and the specified location will be checked in test mode using specialized services.

As an option:

To confirm the accuracy of the name and birth dates, freelancers will need to provide a scanned image of the first page of the passport.
The series and passport number must be hidden before shipping. The image is not saved and is deleted immediately after verification.

2. Subscription fee for freelancers

All categories used in the service are divided into “main” and “subordinate”.

For example:
Main category: Design / Graphics / Photo
Sub-categories: Website Design, Logos, Banners, etc.

The opportunity to apply for projects and vacancies will be available only after paying a monthly fee, taking into account the specialization of a freelancer. The monthly fee will be 5 cu / 30 days for each “main” category.

For example:
To submit applications within 30 days for projects whose “main” category is “Design / Graphics / Photo”, a freelancer will need to pay 5 cu
To apply within 30 days for projects whose “main” categories are “Design / Graphics / Photo” and “Programming”, a freelancer will need to pay 10 cu

3. Improving security.

Updated user session and cookie control algorithm. The inability to completely disable the scan.
Using SMS to recover passwords, as well as create temporary payment passwords.

Original post on the weblancer.net forum .

The reaction of freelancers is interesting - basically this, of course, is a disturbance. A discussion with freelance friends showed that no one is going to pay a subscription fee for access to the service, and instead they simply go to related resources on this topic. My first impression was essentially the same.

However, if you think about it, it will become clear that these innovations transfer the resource to a new level of development, a more professional one. Why? Because all the dampers, novice freelancers and students will be eliminated by this very monthly fee and passportization. Customers, professional freelancers and the service itself benefit.

The named innovations are scheduled for January 2010.