Constant Content

One day I received notice that I was added to a bunch of new writers' pools, which is rather exciting - but the next day I was offline for a few hours and managed to miss out on 90 new assignments!

watch my excitement deflate...

these pools must work with huge numbers of writers! or a few writers who are extremely quick on the draw!
Anyone else keep having this experience?

yeah, you gotta be quick.

I rarely claim anything, but sometimes I like to see just how fast others are and click the email and it's gone after like 5 seconds in my inbox. lol

I find it funnier to be online about two hours before the deadline time is up on all those big requests.... they all suddenly appear as writers flake out and dump them back into the queue.

I'm often asleep when those orders are originally issued, so I never get the chance to grab them (Australian time zone), but I sure pick up plenty right as the deadline is drawing near and people realize they've picked up more than they can handle.

The sad part about that is that the writers who flaked out and dumped those orders at the last minute never seem to get penalized. I pick them up at the last minute and if I go over deadline by a little bit, I manage to get emails from account managers and access levels dropped, because I'm obviously so terrible about missing a deadline that someone else flaked on in the first place. LOL. Whatever.

ha I never thought about that... flakey writers. Writers are some of the flakiest freelancers too. lol Only people in history to have sicknesses and dead relatives every week.

LMasterson wrote:I find it funnier to be online about two hours before the deadline time is up on all those big requests.... they all suddenly appear as writers flake out and dump them back into the queue.

I'm often asleep when those orders are originally issued, so I never get the chance to grab them (Australian time zone), but I sure pick up plenty right as the deadline is drawing near and people realize they've picked up more than they can handle.

The sad part about that is that the writers who flaked out and dumped those orders at the last minute never seem to get penalized. I pick them up at the last minute and if I go over deadline by a little bit, I manage to get emails from account managers and access levels dropped, because I'm obviously so terrible about missing a deadline that someone else flaked on in the first place. LOL. Whatever.

Yeah, me too! I'm also in a different time zone and often miss the big orders - but I've been grabbing them in the final countdown hours! So now I know who my competition is when it comes to picking up orders from the flakes!

escturtle wrote:
Yeah, me too! I'm also in a different time zone and often miss the big orders - but I've been grabbing them in the final countdown hours! So now I know who my competition is when it comes to picking up orders from the flakes!

...and I did it again. I missed them all - and it's not even 7.30am here! I even woke up early on a Saturday to try and grab at least a couple of the last big batch. They're all gone.

Oh well, I'll note the deadline in my schedule and keep an eye out for the flaky drop outs LOL.

Is this related to the level they assign? For example, I have an assigned level of 2. Don't the writers with a level of 1 get first access? Does anybody know if we ever get our accounts reviewed to increase our level? I'm just asking because I also think the only time I ever catch good pool articles is after they have been dropped. The way they come up with writer level isn't very transparent, IMO.

If you are part of a writer pool, your access level doesn't make a difference for those requests. You will still have access to any requests attached to the pool at the same time as writers with access levels 1, 2, and 3. The access level only comes into play when "public requests" become available. Your level is determined by part of a formula that includes several factors. WG~

That may be so, WG, but I don't think 'Your level is determined by part of a formula that includes several factors' is exactly transparent!

> transparent

I hear you and agree, but I've stopped worrying about exactly how they assign a level. It seems to me that all I can do is concentrate on the things I have control over - the quality, frequency and timeliness of submissions - and let the rest work itself out for better or worse.

Isabelnewth wrote:That may be so, WG, but I don't think 'Your level is determined by part of a formula that includes several factors' is exactly transparent!

I'd like to give you more, but that is the info that I received when I asked! Doesn't help much, does it?

MKatz wrote:Is this related to the level they assign? For example, I have an assigned level of 2. Don't the writers with a level of 1 get first access? Does anybody know if we ever get our accounts reviewed to increase our level? I'm just asking because I also think the only time I ever catch good pool articles is after they have been dropped. The way they come up with writer level isn't very transparent, IMO.

In my case, it wasn't a matter of what level they assigned. I was snoring soundly here in an Australian time-zone when those orders were issued during the US working day and woke up too late to catch any. I'm currently at an Access Level 1, but last month I was dropped back to a 2 because I ran over a deadline on something I picked up an hour before deadline was due after someone else dumped it at the last minute. I guess the fact that I'm back at a level 1 again means they do review those things from time to time.

LMasterson wrote:

MKatz wrote:I'm currently at an Access Level 1, but last month I was dropped back to a 2 because I ran over a deadline on something I picked up an hour before deadline was due after someone else dumped it at the last minute.

Is it true that picking up jobs that other writers failed to complete by the deadline will impact our access level? I've been diligently working on a large job as part of a Writer Pool, and have completed all of the articles I initially claimed in a timely manner (usually several days before the deadline). However, I've seen other writers throw jobs back into the pool after they're due, and have done my best to pick up and finish those jobs as quickly as possible (usually within six hours, certainly never in more than twenty-four hours!). Since starting this job my access level has dropped from 1 to 2, and I'm shocked to learn that could be why!