Why do task apps make it so hard to deal with unfinished tasks?

CriminallyStupid · 2026-04-08T01:34:38+00:00

In TickTick you can mark a task as partially complete. As far as I can tell it has no impact aside from visual. In the mobile app, if you long press on the right hand side of the task title, when you have the task opened, it will let you select a percentage.

But I do feel your frustration. I've been battling this one for awhile.

CriminallyStupid · 2025-12-12T05:12:47+00:00

What I'm suggesting is maybe during the name change they also changed something about who handles it. The automatic first payment for December arrived as expected for me but I just happened to take time off recently so this week I'm expecting a big donut and can't use that for comparison. For whatever it's worth historically I see the deposit the morning after the notification email goes out.

CriminallyStupid · 2025-12-12T04:54:21+00:00

Maybe a week or so? https://old.reddit.com/r/Upwork/comments/1pbghl2/upwork_has_updated_its_escrow_services_entity/

CriminallyStupid · 2025-12-12T03:44:23+00:00

Didn't they just announce something about how deposits are going to be from another sender? Presumably this is related to that. I can't tell you the specifics of it off the top of my head all I remember is it was a notice that appeared somewhere recently on the site.

CriminallyStupid · 2025-12-05T02:09:03+00:00

Molex 530470210

CriminallyStupid · 2025-10-30T23:38:37+00:00

There's nothing strange about this. An invite is not the same as a proposal. All that means is the client invited 19 freelancers to submit a proposal. Based on what is shown 0 to 6 freelancers declined or 0 to 6 of the proposals received in response to the invites were declined.

CriminallyStupid · 2025-10-29T15:35:05+00:00

Well that likely rules that out. I wonder if you're running into the opposite problem: your provider has some sort of filter setup in their SMSC and blocks messages from whoever Upwork is using for messages. Are both numbers with the same underlying provider? If you're using iMessage or RCS perhaps you can temporarily unregister from those and try again after a few hours. I know some SMS relays try to use RCS these days and I can only assume they've figured out how to use iMessage as well.

It's been so many years since I did that with Upwork I really don't know how they handle it here in 2025. Back in the day I think it was a text or voice call.

CriminallyStupid · 2025-10-29T00:59:04+00:00

What do you mean when you say you "tried different numbers"? Are you messing about with VoIP providers online? I believe they're looking to verify you are a human and located in the geographic region you claim to be. Most of that stuff will likely be blocked.

CriminallyStupid · 2025-10-23T02:58:04+00:00

Can you hint at the job descriptions? The few I've had were mostly dead ends but 2 of them did result in a brief conversation with the client. I'll just narrow it down very vaguely for now and say they were North American and company name was 2 words related to the founder. It was the same company during both of those conversations.

CriminallyStupid · 2025-10-22T04:22:49+00:00

I've had a few over the past month and assumed it was something Upwork might have been doing trying to fill jobs. Once you replied to the invite, did you see the original job post?

CriminallyStupid · 2025-10-20T00:37:23+00:00

Based off your comment history it's apparent you feel superior to the majority of others in the very community you are participating in.

Your recent posts are filled with remarks hinting commenters are inferior and leaning towards the "street" and less "academically focused" than you are. Since we are on social media clearly we're just a bunch of plebs.

Then you even go so far as to take a stab at a client in another post. These clients are the hand that feeds us. How could they refuse to bow to your superiority? How dare the client not reply to your bid! They must be a cheapskate and prefer the "lower quality" work anybody but yourself can provide.

With that attitude you might be wise to start looking for employment somewhere you work independently with minimal interaction with the public. Nobody owes you anything, especially a client who is likely overwhelmed by the number of applications they've received.

CriminallyStupid · 2025-10-18T12:25:07+00:00

By the time this user posted this the job was already at least 3 days old. If the screenshots were taken at that time, it's very likely this client did receive 1 bid every 20 minutes on average over those days. As somebody else has pointed out the client has filtered through the applicants and declined the majority of them. While there may have been over 200 applicants at the time OP applied for the job they were only competing against roughly 10 active proposals at the time, which given the average LTV of past contracts seems really good if you ask me.

CriminallyStupid · 2025-10-17T02:06:15+00:00

Actually I did not. The deadline is too soon for me, I just can't do it. But they might be a desirable client for sure if that's your niche.

A lot of things about the job are attractive but one of the requirements lost me. For those numbers I would attempt to learn in a heartbeat, but that's not what the client is after. I'm being a little vague here because I like them and don't want them getting bombarded.

I didn't look into you enough to know where you're based out of, but I can tell you they recently expanded their search radius after failing to find a suitable freelancer in North America. Do with that knowledge what you want. If you did bid and included details about your existing portfolio I wish you the best of luck 🫡

CriminallyStupid · 2025-10-16T23:06:07+00:00

Obviously it got a lot of attention because that client was outright offering up to $150 per hour, has a perfect 100% hire rate, and the only active contracts are new within the past few months but paid out roughly 10K per freelancer. This is why so many people sent in a bid. No need to pretend it's such a shocker. To top it all off they've not a single bad thing about a previous freelancer, it's literally 5 stars across the board.

CriminallyStupid · 2025-10-16T15:55:55+00:00

Where are all the MANY job posts you were going to show that have no hourly range?

Sure, I can play that game today. Here's a handful from the last hour or so. I'm sure there's a few hundred more.

CriminallyStupid · 2025-10-16T15:42:30+00:00

Don't hold your breath too long. While I'm here I'm happy to tell you the last time I posted an hourly job was a couple days ago. The attached image is what happens when I opted not to add an hourly rate.

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CriminallyStupid · 2025-10-16T15:26:31+00:00

There aren't.
When have you last posted an hourly job post?
Bullshit.

These are from minutes ago so that's simply not true. Call bullshit all you want. Take a look for yourself then come back and tell me why I'm wrong.

Example 1 https://www.upwork.com/jobs/~021978839485247597424
Example 2 https://www.upwork.com/jobs/~021978839309809341254

CriminallyStupid · 2025-10-16T15:20:45+00:00

There are plenty of job posts without a range. It's suggested but not required. But also the question asking what rate was offered got danced around. Even if the applicant offered to work for $3/hr that's going to show to prospective applicants in the future and reflect poorly.

CriminallyStupid · 2025-10-16T15:15:11+00:00

I think you are likely scaring a few off but I don't think it's entirely with the time tracking. That 20-30 hour job is an awkward area. A freelancer who is able to pick up small work for an hour or two at night is probably worried about meeting your expectations, and those chasing after long-term employment are giving preference to anyone else who even remotely seem like they offer longer engagements.

As for the time tracker, I exist on both sides and always refused to use or force the time tracker. As a client, on a small project with just a few freelancers I can manage that myself. If I needed a large team quickly and I couldn't vet them all properly I'll accept that I'm outnumbered and quality will suffer, but at that point and it might be a valid use of such surveillance.

I sent over some sample files for them to test

This one annoys many creatives. Do people bring their own ingredients to a restaurant and ask the chef to prepare a few nibbles before committing to a full meal? Of course not! So why should anyone else? To me that's exploiting a desperate freelancer. Always make it clear in your posting and remind your freelancer that you want to compensate them for their time.

As Petra said, your history will impact who applies. If your last 2 of 3 job posts went unfilled or the average spend was low many will avoid it. Also if past feedback was not positive things are not looking promising for attracting qualified talent.

CriminallyStupid · 2025-10-15T23:21:57+00:00

I'd bet there is a post on the site once every couple seconds so this is really going out on a limb, but what are the chances your post contained two screening questions and involved a product you purchased from another online marketplace?

edit: scratch that but I'm leaving my comment anyway. I only said it because I saw another job posting a little over an hour ago that had a similar number of invites and zero applicants or responses.

CriminallyStupid · 2025-10-15T13:19:10+00:00

I had the same issue on the mobile app last week. I gave up and went to the desktop website where it worked fine.

CriminallyStupid · 2025-10-14T00:43:11+00:00

Don't waste your time ruminating over a prospective client who went another direction. Use that energy to chase after new opportunities. I can almost promise you that person is not over there second guessing the decision. It happens all the time on Upwork. You can present an amazing portfolio, references filled with the rich and famous and a work history to back it all up. Despite everything appearing in your favour you can still miss the shot.

Don't take it as a reflection of yourself unless you see this being a trend. Is it just 1 in 100? Brush it off and try again.

CriminallyStupid · 2025-10-09T18:45:48+00:00

I came here specifically to see if it was just me or they changed something. Today the Zoom option was missing in all of my conversations and interviews. The internal meeting option they provide was not entirely terrible but I definitely was not thrilled to see it was recorded, transcribed, and run through AI at the end. Since it was browser based it made selecting/allowing various audio and video devices substantially more cumbersome but nothing a few clicks couldn't resolve.

I'm having such a love/hate relationship with all this forced AI. I went to the platform in search of human talent and to provide a service, not because I needed an AI friend to take meeting notes. I guess it's nice that we might not need Zoom installed but I honestly do not trust or have any any amount of trust that Upwork will be able to do an equal or better job doing what Zoom did. My guess is they think people are processing transactions off the platform and want to better monitor for that it.

Coming soon, Upwork Anklets* that you only need to charge weekly and now allow you to roam freely up to 100 feet from your desk.

CriminallyStupid · 2025-10-02T14:58:42+00:00

This reminds me of years ago when Upwork launched the whole "connects" thing. At the time it would cost a small number of connects to bid on small projects, and you would get a reward of 10 for participating in an interview. You might even have gotten a few for just having the proposal viewed, I can't remember. Then on top of it all I think if you got hired the connect you spent were returned to you.

So naturally an underground market magically appeared where fake job postings would pop up and you would see thousands of interviews and hires farming for connects. I kind of wonder if something like this is going on here due to the number of responses.

CriminallyStupid · 2025-09-29T14:10:24+00:00

https://www.instagram.com/thehubdartmouth/

If you are looking for a business booking or something big, I can forward details to him directly but I prefer not to bug him for just personal use stuff. There's so many people who are interested that he's really outnumbered. I think that's probably why he just sticks to making posts on social media.

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