In the last few months Freelancer changed their modus operandi by trying to screw their coders in more than way:
* They bumped up the price for the standard membership from about $25 to $50 without a serious reason. They simply take advantage of the fact that the coders can't retaliate/protest in any way.
* They hide the buyers history (a freelancer can see the history of a buyer only after he bids and the buyer sends him a message). Given the fact that you have a limited number of bids per type of membership this is a really nasty move.
* The entire site is a huge money making machine with no concern whatsoever about coder's experience. All they care about is to make more money no matter how crappy the experience is for the coders. For e.g. they ask you money for cheating their own system (if you pay $2 your bid will be better placed than a bid of a coder with a better rating/history).
* They silently tolerate spam projects where buyers ask basically for free work (or they give no information about what they actually need until you place your bid). The idea is that Freelancer will get their cut no matter how a project ends (they charge both the buyer and the coder some fees). They don't actually care if a project is finished or not as long as they get their cut.
* Last but not least, they offer no financial protection for both buyers/coders.
* They bumped up the price for the standard membership from about $25 to $50 without a serious reason. They simply take advantage of the fact that the coders can't retaliate/protest in any way.
* They hide the buyers history (a freelancer can see the history of a buyer only after he bids and the buyer sends him a message). Given the fact that you have a limited number of bids per type of membership this is a really nasty move.
* The entire site is a huge money making machine with no concern whatsoever about coder's experience. All they care about is to make more money no matter how crappy the experience is for the coders. For e.g. they ask you money for cheating their own system (if you pay $2 your bid will be better placed than a bid of a coder with a better rating/history).
* They silently tolerate spam projects where buyers ask basically for free work (or they give no information about what they actually need until you place your bid). The idea is that Freelancer will get their cut no matter how a project ends (they charge both the buyer and the coder some fees). They don't actually care if a project is finished or not as long as they get their cut.
* Last but not least, they offer no financial protection for both buyers/coders.