blackbear Platform Update — What's Changing for Solvers?

Introduction

Below are a few of the major changes that have a bigger impact on your day-to-day activity as a blackbear Solver and require your acknowledgement. We will provide a complete overview of all changes following the release of the new blackbear version. 

New Terminology

We have made important terminology changes. Here are the main updates:

• The term ‘Challenge’ will now be referred to as ‘Assignment’
• The term ‘Solution’ will now be referred to as ‘Deliverable’
• The term ‘Motivation’ will now be referred to as ‘Proposal’
• ‘Spots’ are no longer in use. To increase clarity on assignment participation options, the concept of ‘open spots’ has been replaced with two new statuses:
  • Open for proposals: refers to all assignments where participation is still possible and we are still accepting proposals.
  • Closed for proposals: refers to all assignments where participation is no longer possible and no further proposals will be accepted.

Critical process changes for Solvers

Here are several major process changes that Solvers should be aware of.

1) Take on an assignment alone or as a team? It's up to you, we no longer decide this.

We trust our Solvers to be subject matter experts and believe they are best positioned to determine whether they can handle an assignment alone or prefer to work on it as a team. Going forward, the blackbear team will no longer enforce any specific way of working on an assignment. It is completely up to you how and with whom you wish to work on Assignments!

2) Reward (payout) system changes 

Moving forward, the reward listed for an assignment will represent either the maximum reward that a solver can earn when working alone, or the total reward that a team of solvers can receive for the final deliverable (solution) when working together. When working as a team, the listed reward will be divided equally among all team members.

3) Blackbear approval on rating to support fair ratings

We take pride in ensuring a fair rating process that benefits both our solvers and clients. To ensure a fair rating and payment and to support our clients provide constructive and relevant feedback, all ratings are reviewed by the blackbear team before being visible on your profile and before triggering the payment of the reward.

4) Blind rating system to facilitate fair rating

The blind rating system is a feature that we introduced to facilitate fair rating in our process. The reviews only show up when both parties submit their feedback. This means that you will only be able to view your rating and feedback if you have rated back.

5) New rating criteria for clearer context

We introduced a new rating criteria for when you rate and when you get rated. This is in an effort to facilitate a fair rating system that provides clear context and considers the most relevant aspects when completing an assignment. Below is a snapshot of the new criteria.

6) Submit a draft deliverable to get feedback early on

This feature allows a Solver or team to obtain client feedback early in the process by submitting a draft of their work halfway through. This helps ensure that the work being done is aligned with the client's expectations. We hope that this will pave your path to a 5-star rating.

7) Ask for a deadline extension

We are all humans and we might need a bit of extra time at times to get that 5-star quality in our work. If you need a bit more time to work on your deliverable, you can ask for an extension by contacting your Project Consultant in advance and they can extend the deadline for you in agreement with the client.

8) We now allow late deliverables

Some of you might have experienced being completely kicked out of the assignment if you were late. Moving forward, you can still submit your deliverable even if late. However, we encourage you to avoid this situation at all costs and ask for a deadline extension to ensure your rating is not affected.

What do we need from you?

Action required for all Solvers — reselect your preferred payout method

As part of this update, we have reintegrated Stripe, our payment provider. To ensure uninterrupted payment processing, once the new version is released, you will have to reselect your payout method via Stripe. After we transition to the new platform, any expected or pending payout on completed assignments can only be processed after your Stripe payout method is selected. 

Payments towards Non-EU countries are no longer supported.

We have some sad news for existing Solvers that operate out of non-EU countries. We regret to inform you that we are currently unable to operate in your country due to local requirements and Stripe payment restrictions. As a result, you will no longer be able to participate in assignments for the time being. We are working hard to resolve this issue and hope to be back soon. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.