Search placement and Samples

Hi. I would like Bunny to consider making changes to the way Pros are placed in a search, as well as giving Pros control of choosing a default Sample that plays when our profile is displayed in that search.

No human is going to understand Bunny's algorithm. Let's just get that out of the way right off the bat. I've been here for 2 years, I've written countless emails to support and received countless responses. One month I receive tons of speedys and make a lot of money. Two months later I can't accept a speedy to save my life, no matter what I set my prices at, because they're all being sent to others faster. Etc. Etc. Etc. The algorithm is by design impossible to figure out, predict, and to be completely honest, I don't even think Bunny managers understand it fully. That's fine. Like a world-class Casino, the algorithm has been designed by engineers who have never, not even for a day, lived or worked in the world of VO or the entertainment industry. It's designed to work against us individually - to the betterment of the whole. To create, in Bunny's opinion, a level playing field. 

But...

Bunny has gone out of its way to reward Pros with badges on our profiles. Those badges do not play into the algorithm in terms of where we appear in a search. Yet, on all other VO websites that also use their versions of badges and an algorithm, a Golden Pro would be placed higher than a Silver, and a Silver placed higher than someone without a badge... etc. Not so with Bunny. On other sites, a 4.9 or 5.0 rating of reviews would place higher. Not here. On other sites, a "Quick Responder" would definitely place higher... but not here... you get the point. Supposedly, Bunny has a program of Elite Pros that we had to be chosen for. Supposedly I am in that group. Yet, I have never received ONE job from it. Not one in over a year. I doubt anyone else has either. 

If Bunny is going to "reward" us with these acknowledgments of our work ethic, then make them mean something. Right now they are simply window dressing. Build your algorithm in a truly fair manner that rewards us who walk through fire at 1 AM to do a revision for a client who pays us 12.00 for work we should be making 150.00 for, who isn't even going to take the time to give us a feedback score. If you're going to give us badges, make them actually mean something. I have experimented with your search feature for many months on different computers, different web browsers, and on different IP addresses. It isn't really random. It isn't fluid. It's fairly predictable. I can tell you with about 70% accuracy exactly what page I'm going to appear on based on the parameters I put in to the search. And I can always tell you who appears first. Because it is the same each and every time. 

That should change. Placement should be based on our actual work - and work ethic out here. 

To that end, the algorithm also controls what sample is played by default. Yes, on our profiles we're allowed to choose 6 featured samples, but that's not what I’m talking about. I'm talking the sample Bunny chooses when our name first appears in a search. This is THE most important sample we have on the platform. It's our business card. It's the first opportunity a client (who's looking to book) has to hear our voice. And right now, a nameless, faceless, unemotional computer picks that - and it is the same each and every time. That's wrong. Give Pros TOTAL control over choosing that default sample. If we pick a bad one, let it be on OUR heads. We deserve the right to pick and choose this. As you already know, sometimes that’s the ONLY sample that client is ever going to hear of us. That needs to be our choice and our choice alone. And not to sound redundant, but EVERY other VO site in the world lets the talent choose this default sample. But not Bunny. You let an algorithm pick it for us, with no option to change it. 

I read the FAQs. I listen to Bunny managers when they respond. I try and play by the rules. I experiment with prices, upload new samples weekly, and most important deliver quality VO work at all hours of the day and night for pay that is less than fast food restaurants. I deliver revisions to clients who have no idea what they're doing, give horrific conflicting direction notes, or offer NO direction at all, often don't even speak or write English well, and put up with an algorithm designed to work against me. Last year and earlier this year, I beat the odds. I did over 1300 spots for you just in the last 365 days. You've rewarded me with Golden status, I'm in your Elite program, I'm designated a fast responder, my stats are all green and excellent, and you've sent me two very nice T-shirts (the orange one I'm wearing now) as a way to mollify me I guess. Yet when people search for me and find me, you play a default sample I recorded 2 years ago for a IVR job that has nothing to do with commercial work. (The bulk of Bunny's jobs). I've uploaded HUNDREDS of new samples. Your algorithm only loves the old one. Which I recorded when I was less experienced in VO and on less expensive equipment and in a make shift studio, as opposed to the 21K industry standard whisper room I have now. And there's NOTHING I can do to change that. There should be.

This new platform you've built gives you almost total control over everything out here. Stats are no longer transparent, we can no longer see/hear who books a speedy if we don't, we can't hear the last few projects the client has accepted and rejected etc etc etc. You control everything and that's the way you guys want it.

I'd like you actually consider giving us control over our default sample. And making the algorithm take into account the badge rewards you have chosen to give us. It's the least you can do for us while we work for rates 80% less than just about every other VO client/site/platform in the universe. It’s the least you can do for your top speedy client who doesn’t value us in any way shape or form. It’s the least you can do, period.

Thank you.