My 2017 Upwork experience in a nutshell

Disclosure: haven't used account in a year because the site's been trending towards general uselessness and none of my existing clients were pleased and future clients simply wanted to avoid the site due to the rising expenses.

> don't use site for a year because existing clients are pissed off at it, future clients are just like LOL no
> get email in Q1 saying that my account is "needs" video call verification.
> had billed over 300k in the 3-4 years i was super-active there, haven't used site since 2016, need to video chat for what exactly??
> get three more emails like this, ignore them all
> get a fourth and open it because i'm not paying attention to what i'm doing
> inside is implication they "may" reverse the last payment transaction they made **over a year ago** if i don't comply
> seriously think about letting them do it (the last transaction was a pittance) and making a fight out of it
> too lazy, succumb to video call
> suddenly dogs
> holy shit dogs
> person on other end must be working in the back office of a vet there's so many dogs barking
> can't hear most of conversation
> suddenly random programming question about a technology i haven't used in like 3 years
> ??
> give quasi-correct answer that i would have normally googled first for complete correctness.
> call end
> goodbye dogs
> you were good dogs

Upwork is so fucking weird.

I do miss oDesk as a platform. They were pretty focused on connecting me with clients and then getting out of the way. Upwork is just trying to sell me membership plans and their bizarre interview currency and all this other random garbage that looks like its been pulled from the playbook of a mobile game.

After taking a quick glance at the current marketplace, I get the feeling that whatever new-age fuckery Upwork has been up to has had a negative impact on solo high-level freelancers.

Not sure I'd sign up for a new account in 2017, but your mileage may vary.