My Name Is [X] and I Endorse This Message April 14, 2014 3:47 PM Subscribe
I wonder if you folks would consider adding (perhaps the option to allow) comments in posts to MeFi Jobs Members Available posts.
I recently got a couple of small freelance design/coding gigs though my years-old post to MeFi Jobs, which was great.
Because both jobs came through MeFi and were for other MeFi members, I was thinking it would be nice if there were some way for those members to endorse the professional interaction and work done in some public way, in the form of leaving a comment on the original availability post, because I (at least) don't really advertise myself as open to freelance work anywhere else.
I understand this would probably apply mostly (or only) to the kind of freelance-availability for piecework that my post was advertising, but enabling it were a user option on our availability posts or if it were just a thing that was there, that would be pretty cool.
It would also allow for updates and amendments by the original poster, which would conceivably (it would be for my post) a useful thing, short of removing the post entirely, which is an option now.
I recently got a couple of small freelance design/coding gigs though my years-old post to MeFi Jobs, which was great.
Because both jobs came through MeFi and were for other MeFi members, I was thinking it would be nice if there were some way for those members to endorse the professional interaction and work done in some public way, in the form of leaving a comment on the original availability post, because I (at least) don't really advertise myself as open to freelance work anywhere else.
I understand this would probably apply mostly (or only) to the kind of freelance-availability for piecework that my post was advertising, but enabling it were a user option on our availability posts or if it were just a thing that was there, that would be pretty cool.
It would also allow for updates and amendments by the original poster, which would conceivably (it would be for my post) a useful thing, short of removing the post entirely, which is an option now.
Maybe it could be more like "Votes" in Projects? "Endorsements" or "References" or something. The poster would be able to remove ones they didn't want.
posted by Rock Steady at 4:39 PM on April 14, 2014
posted by Rock Steady at 4:39 PM on April 14, 2014
Rock Steady: "Maybe it could be more like "Votes" in Projects? "Endorsements" or "References" or something. The poster would be able to remove ones they didn't want."
Votes on projects have a very small negative consequence; if I click on a link that had a lot of votes but I don't think it's as interesting as others did, that's a very small loss compared with the potential loss from a poor employment experience (on either side). If you introduce an endorsement/reference feature with the ability to remove negative feedback, isn't that then just a colossal waste of time on everybody's behalf? I mean, Gigli has an 8.1 average rating on IMDB if you remove the votes of everyone who gave it 5 stars or lower.
posted by Homeboy Trouble at 5:04 PM on April 14, 2014
Votes on projects have a very small negative consequence; if I click on a link that had a lot of votes but I don't think it's as interesting as others did, that's a very small loss compared with the potential loss from a poor employment experience (on either side). If you introduce an endorsement/reference feature with the ability to remove negative feedback, isn't that then just a colossal waste of time on everybody's behalf? I mean, Gigli has an 8.1 average rating on IMDB if you remove the votes of everyone who gave it 5 stars or lower.
posted by Homeboy Trouble at 5:04 PM on April 14, 2014
That would be a good happy medium, yeah, and could leverage existing functionality in Projects...
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 5:04 PM on April 14, 2014
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 5:04 PM on April 14, 2014
I think MeFi's standard upvote-only on the public-facing side would work well here.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 5:07 PM on April 14, 2014
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 5:07 PM on April 14, 2014
I FOUND THE CHICKEN MUNDANE AND QUOTIDIAN NOT AT ALL FILLED WITH WONDER
posted by klangklangston at 6:05 PM on April 14, 2014 [12 favorites]
posted by klangklangston at 6:05 PM on April 14, 2014 [12 favorites]
Them's fightin' drinkin' words!
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 6:24 PM on April 14, 2014 [2 favorites]
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 6:24 PM on April 14, 2014 [2 favorites]
Jobs are for one person only. I disapprove.
posted by oceanjesse at 8:20 PM on April 14, 2014
posted by oceanjesse at 8:20 PM on April 14, 2014
I don't understand what that means.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 8:28 PM on April 14, 2014
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 8:28 PM on April 14, 2014
you people are just messing with me now
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 9:17 PM on April 14, 2014
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 9:17 PM on April 14, 2014
Jobs is dead - he can neither approve nor disapprove.
posted by the man of twists and turns at 9:24 PM on April 14, 2014 [5 favorites]
posted by the man of twists and turns at 9:24 PM on April 14, 2014 [5 favorites]
Twenty years ago we had Steve Jobs, Johnny Music and Bob Projects...
posted by Rock Steady at 2:51 AM on April 15, 2014 [7 favorites]
posted by Rock Steady at 2:51 AM on April 15, 2014 [7 favorites]
You're a peon Job, you didn't even create crocodiles. Here, have some more blight.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 3:07 AM on April 15, 2014 [2 favorites]
posted by Potomac Avenue at 3:07 AM on April 15, 2014 [2 favorites]
What's to stop someone signing up fake extra accounts just to upvote themselves?
posted by EndsOfInvention at 3:14 AM on April 15, 2014
posted by EndsOfInvention at 3:14 AM on April 15, 2014
Hopefully. Failing that, it's still surprisingly difficult to have that sort of thing slip under the radar on MeFi. Perhaps at an order of magnitude or so larger it would be a different story, but in a community of this size that particular kind of shenanigans is just hard to pull off without it being noticed.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane (staff) at 5:23 AM on April 15, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane (staff) at 5:23 AM on April 15, 2014 [1 favorite]
I was thinking the other day that it would be nice to see if jobs had actually been filled. A resolution box, a resolved tag, perhaps? Oh god, I should probably go look to see if there is a resolved tag.
posted by SLC Mom at 6:23 AM on April 15, 2014 [2 favorites]
posted by SLC Mom at 6:23 AM on April 15, 2014 [2 favorites]
Not a tag as such, but the poster can come back and indicate that the job has been filled. A little message shows up at the bottom of the posting. Example.
posted by nickmark at 7:33 AM on April 15, 2014
posted by nickmark at 7:33 AM on April 15, 2014
Stav, what about soliciting feedback from people you do jobs for and then posting them as quotes, under a heading, on your profile page. Anyone thinking of hiring anyone who posts to jobs, is invariably going to check out the prospective employee's profile as a first step.
posted by peacay at 7:45 AM on April 15, 2014 [5 favorites]
posted by peacay at 7:45 AM on April 15, 2014 [5 favorites]
I just made an "Available" post for the first time! Very fun and cool.
Couple things to piggyback on here, if I may?
1. Ability to edit the post? I am not a smart person and I frequently notice stupid things I've done once I've already submitted; it'd be nice to fix 'em without bothering anyone.
2. Ability to file the post under more than one category? I make music and I filed it under "Film/TV/Radio" but it could really go under "Art/Media/Design' also.
Thanks!
posted by chococat at 8:09 AM on April 15, 2014
Couple things to piggyback on here, if I may?
1. Ability to edit the post? I am not a smart person and I frequently notice stupid things I've done once I've already submitted; it'd be nice to fix 'em without bothering anyone.
2. Ability to file the post under more than one category? I make music and I filed it under "Film/TV/Radio" but it could really go under "Art/Media/Design' also.
Thanks!
posted by chococat at 8:09 AM on April 15, 2014
what about soliciting feedback from people you do jobs for and then posting them as quotes, under a heading, on your profile page. Anyone thinking of hiring anyone who posts to jobs, is invariably going to check out the prospective employee's profile as a first step.
That was sort of what I was thinking. An upvote-only "Endorsed" thing would be good, it would have to be linked to a specific job so everyone didn't upvote themselves/friends/whatever and then people could inquire in the usual ways.
chococat: I don't think you guys can edit, same as posts everywhere else. You are welcome (I think) to post a different "available" thing in a different category but we wanted to avoid the "I am available for anything!" sort of approach.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 8:32 AM on April 15, 2014
That was sort of what I was thinking. An upvote-only "Endorsed" thing would be good, it would have to be linked to a specific job so everyone didn't upvote themselves/friends/whatever and then people could inquire in the usual ways.
chococat: I don't think you guys can edit, same as posts everywhere else. You are welcome (I think) to post a different "available" thing in a different category but we wanted to avoid the "I am available for anything!" sort of approach.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 8:32 AM on April 15, 2014
we wanted to avoid the "I am available for anything!" sort of approach
Gotcha, thanks. I figured as much, but my thinking was that Film/TV/Art/Media boundaries are a bit fluid where music is concerned. Totally not an issue though.
posted by chococat at 11:05 AM on April 15, 2014
Gotcha, thanks. I figured as much, but my thinking was that Film/TV/Art/Media boundaries are a bit fluid where music is concerned. Totally not an issue though.
posted by chococat at 11:05 AM on April 15, 2014
Maybe if the comments/ upvotes/ whatnot were only visible to MeFites, then the concern for heavy shilling would be reduced.
posted by filthy light thief at 2:38 PM on April 15, 2014
posted by filthy light thief at 2:38 PM on April 15, 2014
I don't think you guys can edit, same as posts everywhere else.
The person who makes an IRL post can edit it, until the event date.
posted by the man of twists and turns at 3:05 PM on April 15, 2014
The person who makes an IRL post can edit it, until the event date.
posted by the man of twists and turns at 3:05 PM on April 15, 2014
Maybe someone will come up with a DTMFInterview or something.
I also don't understand what that means.
I just see it as a place for trolls to congregate.
How would you envision that coming to pass and being a real issue, even leaving aside that there are currently only 57 posts of that type, total? Someone posts that they're looking for work of a certain kind, and our notional resident population of trolls leaps on board to abuse them... how?
Whatever, though. The questions are rhetorical. I'm thinking now that comments wouldn't be as good a solution to what I was thinking of than other less-freeform ideas people have suggested upthread.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 1:51 AM on April 16, 2014
I also don't understand what that means.
I just see it as a place for trolls to congregate.
How would you envision that coming to pass and being a real issue, even leaving aside that there are currently only 57 posts of that type, total? Someone posts that they're looking for work of a certain kind, and our notional resident population of trolls leaps on board to abuse them... how?
Whatever, though. The questions are rhetorical. I'm thinking now that comments wouldn't be as good a solution to what I was thinking of than other less-freeform ideas people have suggested upthread.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 1:51 AM on April 16, 2014
I was filled with wonder and enjoyed the chicken. 5 stars and a gazillion favourites.
posted by infini at 1:30 AM on April 18, 2014 [2 favorites]
posted by infini at 1:30 AM on April 18, 2014 [2 favorites]
tl;dr - satisfied customer of wonderchickenIndustries
I like peacay's suggestion. Then it'd be like LinkedIn references rather than a free for all comment thread.
posted by infini at 1:31 AM on April 18, 2014
I like peacay's suggestion. Then it'd be like LinkedIn references rather than a free for all comment thread.
posted by infini at 1:31 AM on April 18, 2014
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I think this would be a fairly big shift for Jobs so it's something we'll need to consider carefully. There's currently no expectation of conversation at Jobs. And what you're asking for ins't a conversation space necessarily, but it would turn into one. That's how comments work everywhere else. And people would inevitably post things that the OP wasn't happy with. People would add things the OP wouldn't want associated with their listing. That doesn't mean we can't come up with guidelines and set expectations for posters accordingly, but I think it could be more than we want to put into Jobs.
Job availability listings are frequently more personal and closely tied to a real-world professional identity than posting something to MeFi or even Projects. Most reviews would probably be positive, but there's the potential for some extremely hard feelings on all sides with open conversations there.
posted by pb (staff) at 4:21 PM on April 14, 2014 [6 favorites]