WTH? Request not Listed

[deniseg]

This is strange, I sent a support ticket four or five hours ago but haven't heard back. I got an email with a new request. But when I checked the request was not listed in the drop down menu for Public request, nor is it private, nor standing. I don't know how to submit the two articles. This customer has requested several articles, got four emails with different request, and was paying good money, wanted the articles asap. Weird.

[ProlificScribe]

I thought something was wrong with my CC. I also received those emails and when I went to check, the last one I see is the article on recycling.

Weird indeed.

And they're all from the same person. It should be about 6 from that person today. I can however access the last two requests from clicking the link in my email. But I didn't receive the last two requests to my CC inbox.

[deniseg]

Did you write any articles for this request?

It is weird that when I sent a message to support they immediately answered back asking which request I was talking about, but here it is five hours later and they never answered my question about how to submit the articles.

Oh, well. I guess I'll try selling them in the marketplace here. But I sure was looking forward to $250 for 1000 words!

[ProlificScribe]

No, I didn't write them. I am tempted to though, but I wrote an article last week for a request that disappeared almost as soon as I saw the request. I figured it must be a glitch or something. LOL these never even showed up in the request queue so I figured I'd just chalk them up for a loss. The last two requests are rather tempting as well.

These were the specs for the last request from this client:

Number of Articles Needed: 5
Price per Article: $150-250
Length of Article: 400

Sounds good to me! But I don't want to get burned again and write for an article that may or may not be a valid request. It sorta sucks, but oh well. The good thing about CC is that requests usually pay nicely so I'm sure something else equally as "too good to be true" will come along in due time.

[deniseg]

Well, I sent an email to the customer when I began writing the articles and told them I was working on them. Last night I got a reply that the articles had been purchased, but that they would be adding more request later on. So the articles never entered the system. Does this mean this client found a way of subverting the system and got articles from writers through PM?

I sure wish the admin would solve this mystery.

[ProlificScribe]

Honestly, I have no clue. Because I don't see how they could have been requested then subsequently written, reviewed and purchased (in a matter of moments) all without ever showing up in the request queue. They must have initially been submitted as public requests because I received 4 of them in my inbox at CC as public requests. My only thought is that perhaps they decided to do them as private requests after initially posting them as public requests?

I still see one up in the request queue from the same client, but now I'm not sure if it's already been written for or not.

Seeing how I'm not usually in the habit of wasting my time, I probably won't write for any of these until IF or when we hear something from CC's editors.

Have a great weekend!

-Tara

[Celeste Stewart]

I noticed that the one I saw had a super short expiration date so the customer may have chosen a short range. If you have an article ready and approved, use the CC messaging system's "reply" feature to contact the customer and provide a link as a workaround ( do this with the understanding that the customer may have already filled his needs so try not to be pushy about it).

[ProlificScribe]

Hi Celeste,

Speaking purely for myself, what confused me most was the fact that I happened to be logged into CC when the requests came into my inbox. I immediately went to go look at them on the request queue and they weren't there-- in fact, none of the requests showed up in the queue until the very last request that is still up there now.

That's what I meant by not understanding if they were taken off by the client or not, because they couldn't have been filled in literally a matter of seconds... even with the short timeframe needs of the client taken into consideration. But perhaps the client decided to take them down.. I'm not entirely sure.

What I also found odd was that the first 4 requests went to my inbox at CC, but not my personal email and did not show up in the public request queue. However, the last two requests went to my personal email, but did not show up in my CC inbox. Out of the 6 requests I saw in either my CC inbox or the two that I received to my personal email, only one actually showed up in the public request queue where it still is.

It sounded like a CC glitch or something to me, so I didn't even bother writing for them.

[Celeste Stewart]

Yeah, CC's messaging system has a few delays sometimes. Sometimes I notice a request on the site or via Twitter before I get the email. Sounds like the email took the roundabout way to your inbox.

[deniseg]

I noticed that the one I saw had a super short expiration date so the customer may have chosen a short range. If you have an article ready and approved, use the CC messaging system's "reply" feature to contact the customer and provide a link as a workaround ( do this with the understanding that the customer may have already filled his needs so try not to be pushy about it).

I will probably do that, thanks Celeste, but what do you mean by "a short range?" My first thought when I read that in your post was that the customer submitted the request and then removed them, finding the articles from some other source. That is the only thing that could explain how the articles never made it to the requested articles system, I think.

[Celeste Stewart]

I think the customers can set how long a request remains open such as one day, two weeks, etc... I'm pretty sure they enter a specific expiration date when they create the request. Also, with so many time zones, I wonder if requests "expire" based on local time or at a set time regardless of time zone. Just wondering out loud.

[ProlificScribe]

I often wonder if a request is filled before the expiry, does the request drop out of the queue or does the client have to manually close the case? I ask this because sometimes I'll see older requests for one article that are still there and between all of the writers here, I would assume that they have been filled. Sometimes that keeps me from writing for an older article with only one article needed because I just assume that it's already filled.

It would be nice if there was a way somehow for the request to automatically close itself after the required number of articles for said request are purchased. That way people would know if a request has been met because it would drop off automatically rather than relying for the client to close the case or for it to expire. I know it would save a lot of frustration from writing an article, only to find out the request has been filled, but is still in the request queue.

[deniseg]

I'll give that idea a big fat second!

[Celeste Stewart]

Back in the day, they never expired and many requesters never bothered to close the requests. So that was a problem solved by the expiration dates. I'm not sure automatically about closing a request once a set number of articles is purchased though as that could be prematurely closing a request. Even if a customer says he wants ten articles, he might be willing to buy quite a few more if he likes what he sees. A hit counter linked to the number of articles purchased for that specific request might be kind of cool.

[ProlificScribe]

A hit counter to show how many have already been purchased would be a good idea too. Or anything that gives some sort of idea as to how close the request is to being filled. Writers here have such stringent guidelines to follow, I feel it should be mandatory for clients to close their cases if they've received sufficient content to fill the request.

It's only fair because in all reality, some of these requests are rather specific and may be hard to sell otherwise. At the same time, I definitely can see how a client may want to purchase more articles than previously specified. If it were mandatory for them to be diligent about closing a cases or if they closed automatically after the number of requests were filled, even if before the expiry, it would just make things easier.

Also, if a client wanted to extend a request beyond the expiration date or after the number of articles needed were purchased, then they could just extend it.

However, for already filled, but not yet closed or expired requests to remain in the queue is somewhat a waste of an author's time in my opinion.