If you want to take a break from losing your mind, and arguably your soul, while going through the Epstein files, then I have a story for you. Upwork just created a new OFFICIAL sub on Reddit. You’re probably rolling your eyes, asking, so what? What’s the big deal? Well, for millions of my fellow freelancers, this is important. For the future of work and remote work (let’s play with catchy keywords), this can easily turn out to be one of those “break or make” moments. The big troubles have a tendency to give us a heads up with small things, which we usually take for granted. Upwork Upwork Official vs Upwork Unofficial Upwork Official vs Upwork Unofficial It’s been two years since Upwork shut down its Community. Officially, the reason was “restructuring.” Unofficially, it was too expensive. So, Upwork users had to rely on an unofficial sub on Reddit for useful tips and life-saving advice from the veterans in the industry. Now, all of a sudden, Upwork has decided that Reddit is worth time and money. They’re officially creating an official sub, and that’s where things are interesting and worth discussing. Upwork is swinging big time with the seven mods!!. To put things into the right perspective, the well-known and trustworthy unofficial sub with more than 50K followers and more than ten years under its Reddit belt has ONLY two mods (!!). These guys, as you will see for yourself, are handling all posts and comments on this hyper-active sub just fine. As soon as I saw a “glamorous” announcement on X about this new sub on Reddit, I had some questions. https://x.com/Upwork/status/2019844074241491040?s=20&embedable=true https://x.com/Upwork/status/2019844074241491040?s=20&embedable=true What do you know, there was a post about it. The most obvious and problematic question: what is the difference between these two subs? That’s a little bit too much, if you’re asking me. First, you kill a nice Community. Then, you want to twist arms, DMs - to be a bit more precise, on Reddit. And, there’s more. So much more. From freelance HERO to the censorship ZERO. Upwork has come a long way, forcing its favorite play. So, what’s the point of having TWO Upwork subs on Reddit? I know that we need the unofficial one. It has helped me so many times, not only me, and it continues to do so every single minute. On the other hand, the official one is going to do exactly what? I got this very unpleasant corporate “there can be only one” vibe. I dare to say that the official sub would be very happy if the unofficial one is less active, but the hearts and minds of my fellow freelancers aren’t for grabs. What’s even more interesting and worth admiring is that the mods of the unofficial sub are super respectful and down to earth. Here’s a link to the Reddit post that helped me draw these conclusions. Reddit post And while the unofficial sub mods tried to keep it cool officially, some Redditors just couldn’t hold it back: The Winners and The Losers of The Great Forum War The Winners and The Losers of The Great Forum War So, what’s going to be, my busy little Upwork bee? On the one official side, we have the “magnificent seven” mods with the full corporate support of the freelance world and a list of rules that’s longer than all of their posts and comments combined. On the other unofficial side, we have two believers who have managed a fragile peace and order in a Reddit jungle of posts and comments for more than ten years. One of these two guys came out honestly and openly with this post: “This sub is unofficial, and will remain so.” This sub is unofficial, and will remain so Now, I have said for years that there was no reason to believe Upwork paid any attention to anyone on reddit, at least officially. That might have been true once but was clearly not now. Now, I have said for years that there was no reason to believe Upwork paid any attention to anyone on reddit, at least officially. That might have been true once but was clearly not now. There, right there, is the very heart of corporate darkness. The big corporate eyes don’t pay attention until the small guys start casting a large shadow. I borrowed this one from the GoT. First, they try to buy you. It usually works. If it doesn’t, then they take it away from you, for free. For some, this is going to be a fun forum war to watch. You know popcorn and stuff. For me, it’s going to be another test for uncensored free Internet voices. My heart goes out to the two unofficial mods with the officially big cohones for saying NO to the corporate “indecent proposal,” which I can neither confirm nor deny, both officially and unofficially.
