Feature Suggestion - Lock Changed Rates for 24 Hours + Allow us to Show/Hide "Price-Blocked" Projects (DETAILS INSIDE)

SHORT VERSION: Please allow Voicebunny Talent to Enable/Disable the ability to view posted projects that they are not able to accept yet, based on their existing rates (projects that currently do not show up on their Dashboard). Details on how to prevent active sniping as a result of this feature are in the LONG VERSION.

LONG VERSION:

As both VB Staff and Talent are well aware, setting your prices is a MAJOR component of using Voicebunny's website. Besides it being an opportunity for the Talent to set their desired rates, it also affects what projects we are allowed to see (based on how the project's Reward offer aligns with our set Rates).

However, this can cause worries and problems on a constant scale. For some of us, a 200 word script paying "only" $20 is not worth our time. But for others, a 200 word script that takes only about 15 minutes to complete is well worth the $20 when that time wouldn't have been spent on other productive work anyway.

Using a personal anecdote, I was once a frequent recorder for the Bunnycast news articles that frequented the Dashboard. But as of the last few months, I have never seen a single one posted. Is this because VB simply stopped doing it? Or is it because my existing rates (which have barely changed) now prevent the projects from ever showing up before someone takes them at their current/lower offer? I wish I had any way of knowing.

In the same way that many websites allow you to view, BUT NOT AUDITION, for posted projects that did not match one of your listed Expertise/Skills keywords, it would be great if VB Talent had an option to view, BUT NOT ACCEPT, projects that were posted but not shown on their Dashboards because of the discrepancy in rates vs. offered Reward.

In order to prevent sniping of these projects, the feature could be implemented in a way where projects that are currently "Price-Blocked" cannot be accepted by the talent unless their Rates are changed to reflect the competitive pricing. The "Set Your Rates" page could also be tweaked so that Rates can be changed only once per 24 hours, and are then 'locked in' for that period of time, to prevent constant changing by Talents who are hoping to snipe projects and then re-raise their rates for potential Bookings.

This works for BOTH Voicebunny and the Talent.

On the Talent side, it is still completely up to us whether we want to change our rates and/or work these projects with Rewards we might consider too low.; in addition, we accept the risk that if we do change our rates to something much lower than we normally accept (to work these projects), we are opening ourselves up to being Booked for much lower than we want as well, as a 'tradeoff' for giving ourselves more opportunities. Active users can track the 'average price' of a project, and decide for themselves how they want to place their own pricing in accordance.

On Voicebunny's side, more visibility means a higher likelihood of projects being completed sooner (as more Talent will effectively be looking at the same project). The anti-sniping measures listed above also mean that savvy clients aware of this "lock period" will have reason to check Voicebunny every day to see if their desired Talent has lowered their rates. Repeated visits mean more exposure, a higher chance of using VB's services, and also build up the 'routine' of using Voicebunny into the clients' minds.

Voiceover is an ever-changing industry rife with opportunity as well as competition. Maintaining that need for speediness ("be ready at any time") without hindering a Talent's sense of control or range of options is a great way to keep them 'actively hunting' while also benefiting Voicebunny's mantra of competitive, fast-response project completion.