When conducting online business transactions, the freelance service provider has the right to freedom of choice, void of all manipulation toward paid promotions or conflict of interest on the part of competition.
Upon account termination, eLance erased every evidence of my existence on their site for the past 1.5 years, many believe because of journalists and other media figures who might be roaming the site looking for more dirt on eLance's illustrious founder and general manager, Srinivas Anumolu, indicted by the SEC for fraud two days before my account termination. The weekend their founder was arrested, eLance redesigned their Water Cooler in an attempt to gain control of it away from Select opposition. They have since planted people there to spread propaganda and persuasion toward the Select program, people eLance reportedly refers to in-house as "cooler bitches" to steer cooler visitor talk away from, among other topics, my sympathizers and CHOICE. Though not always CBs, some CBs are often easy to find because they are quick to discredit my being there.
My name is Steve Thompson. I'm the principal at W8R.COM | webdev studios, and I operated as a freelance Internet designer and developer on eLance from around 11.5.99 until 3.26.01. As a member of eLance, I was successfully awarded nearly $50,000 in web design and development projects from a host of international buyers under my W8R.COM nick. My reputation was excellent, as was my rapport with most of my peers, many of whom looked to me for guidance and direction in developing their own online presences in the eLance marketplace.
On 3.26.01, eLance terminated my account because I was commenting in their Water Cooler (now linked to as the Discussion Board since the CNET article on Select) on the integrity of their recently launched Select Program (see below), and posting the URL for this website for those persons not in agreement with Select.
Advocates of the ideology behind this website began loading CHOICE pins into their eLance portfolios in advance to Select's 3.15.01 launch. On 3.24, eLance immediately changed their policy and banned third-party images in an effort to shut down Select opposition. Then eLance terminated my account without warning under the pretense that I was linking people here to get their email addresses, when in reality there is no email link on the homepage directly to me, and nobody has posted contact info anywhere on this site apart from their own volition.
Conferencing With The CEO
I actually was sought out by eLance the first week of March to participate in a conference call with the company's CEO and other corp execs. The company was grilling successful service providers about Select. In that meeting, I was told that Select was about to be revealed, and I was questioned regarding my interest in the program. I told them I was totally opposed to the naming of this program Select, implying that some service providers were preselected over others, as well as some other red flags I mentioned I was getting regarding other elements of the program as well. I then received a thank you letter from them that also said, sorry, but it was too late to change the program's name from Select.
As you can tell from this site I am known for being outspoken. While it is their site, and they can do as they wish with it, they have chosen to make me an example to those who oppose their Select Program. But their actions to terminate the account of an innocent member of their community have backfired, and support for CHOICE has grown stronger, as well as the number of disgruntled service providers who, as myself, dedicated immeasurable time and talent toward making the eLance workplace a success, and sought to make it the best website of its kind in the world.
While a member of the eLance community, I was known for whistleblowing at the Water Cooler in regard to any unfairness or bias put forth by eLance toward its service provider members. Their offenses were recorded for all the world to see, and were mainly inherent in a program called the Quality Service Provider Program, which had nothing to do with quality, but was a system that preselected some service providers over others, thereby coloring the marketplace, and rendering those who did not participate as inferior before prospective buyers and peers. I never participated because of the program's poorly established ethics, though had been invited to do so by eLance.
I found the QSP program grossly unfair, and was even more shocked when it turned into the Select Program. It was because of the biased nature of the QSP that I found my way to the Water Cooler one day, which would lead to a six month hiatus there resulting in my eventual banishment and erasure. Where at one time, you could not visit the eLance site without discovering who I was there, I have been made a non-entity, no doubt in the hopes that my comments, ideas and suggestions would disappear. But they haven't. They're now here....
For some strange reason known only to eLance and God, my profile was resurrected in May of 2001 and is now available on an eLance site search. Click the photo above to see it, should it still be available.
CAUTION: They now prohibit the use of CHOICE images on the eLance website. In an attempted shutdown of the CHOICE program and its advocacy throughout the eLance website, on 3.23.01, eLance announced that it will not tolerate display of third-party logos on its site and demanded removal by 3.28.01. Consequently, we are expecting use of these pins however or wherever else you might find them appropriate to express the group ideology behind them.*In addition to the forced removal of CHOICE pins, eLance has tightened the screws on public opposition to Select. Service providers who choose to publicly criticize Select or any other eLance policies in the eLance marketplace in an attempt to alert buyers to the truth behind eLance programs or policies will reportedly have their accounts terminated.
By your use of any of these pins or icons, you verify that you are not an eLance Select Service Provider. Select Service Providers may not take part in CHOICE advocacy or use any of these emblems for any purposes. Those who are not Select members may download any image on this site and use it for the express purpose of sharing their advocacy for a CHOICE stand on, primarily, the issue of payment and hollow promises received for eLance-supported promotion and selection status as eLance reportedly heads toward becoming a subscription-based entity.
To download an image, hold the right mouse button over it and click. Choose to save the image. The border box on images below will not be saved, just the contents inside.Copy the following anchor tag into your HTML document to link this image back to us:
<a href="choice"><img src="choice.gif" width=210 height=70 alt="CHOICE Pin 1" border="0"></a>Copy the following anchor tag into your HTML document to link this image back to us:
<a href="choice"><img src="choice-beyond.gif" width=210 height=70 alt="CHOICE Pin 2" border="0"></a>This icon is 50x50 pixels and has no border.
Participation results in advocacy, not membership. When explaining your pin or emblem to others, keep that in mind.
* Disclaimer: Neither W8R.COM, nor 2KUL.COM, nor any affiliated domain is liable for any action, legal or otherwise, taken against anyone as a result of using CHOICE pins. You agree to this disclaimer with your use of a CHOICE pin. Persons who use CHOICE advocacy for anything other than its intended purposes by aligning it with any personal or business enterprise that could be considered in conflict with the expressed ideology behind CHOICE may be prosecuted by law and cannot hold CHOICE or its abiding adherents responsible.
CHOICE is a statement. It is a knee-jerk reaction to the eLance Select program which is being aggressively forced on the service providers and buyers who use the eLance website to help conduct their online business. CHOICE started as a spoof of the eLance program, but has grown in numbers to the point where its advocacy now is a main challenge to the eLance Select program and its deficiencies. The expectancy was that service providers would have to go along with the Select manipulation in order to save their online businesses, but CHOICE has risen to the occasion to resist that manipulation, at the obviously stated risk.
In order to maintain low rates while maintaining industry standards, CHOICE advocates have declined the invitation to participate in the eLance Select program. Advocates feel that it would be unfair to charge present or future customers an entrance fee for this service which has no benefit beyond promotion of service providers against their eLance competitors, and they have therefore chosen not to be included.
Select providers have simply paid a fee for prominent placement above their competition throughout the eLance Marketplace. Because this placement in no way denotes a higher level of quality, service, or professionalism on the part of the service provider, CHOICE advocates believe the program is simply a means of increasing eLance revenues through forced membership, and they therefore reject Select.
The Select membership is forced partly because eLance is reportedly cutting off the oxygen to the Basic sector (newly created by eLance as a result of Select) in order to drive membership up in Select. And eLance is also reportedly posting its own corporate projects in Select to give the impression that the Select market is alive and kicking. We do believe it is kicking, as well, but kicking up a storm of doom for service providers who will not participate in the Select facade. CHOICE is here to help prevent such action, and protect the many quality service providers and buyers who are otherwise at the mercy of this seemingly biased, blatantly unfair manipulation.
Furthermore, it is our belief that Select limits the marketplace for buyers, forces them to accept accelerated rates and gives them the impression that only Select service providers are worth their consideration. Some CHOICE advocates also resent the naming of this program 'Select' which is a psychological push for the buyer to do just that, blindly select a service provider who is no better for the job than anyone else, but simply pays a fee to eLance to be given the privilege of being referred to as Select. That is wrong.
CHOICE advocates may or may not agree with the above reasons why they share advocacy, but these reasons are why the CHOICE advocacy exists. The above listing of grievances is not comprehensive but does contain the main reasons why CHOICE must stay in existence and Select should go. Keep in mind CHOICE is not a replacement for the flawed Select program. That is not its intent, now or ever.
Suggestions and comments about this site are welcome.
