Fiverr’s emoji reviews lasted just 96 days in the end. After an intense backlash, Fiverr has walked back on a rating system that users panned as broken even before it launched.
Rejoice, for the emoji review is now dead. Introduced on Feburary 14th, there was no love lost between the broken emoji reviews and the selling community. It has been retired after a brief – and tumultuous – 96 days.
Fiverr’s recent changes to the levels and ratings system have been controversial to the point that it led to two millionaire sellers, Levi Newman and Alex Fasulo, quitting the platform.
The furious backlash from the selling community might have made Fiverr reconsider – or perhaps its months-long testing revealed what the community knew all along; emoji reviews were a terrible idea. Even if the community had liked emoji reviews, the Fiverr app lowering ratings due to a bug would have been the nail in its coffin.
So what’s new? Not much. Fiverr’s revamped star rating system is very much a case of out with the old, and in with the older!
Fiverr’s New All-Star Review System
The new changes are not exciting, but they are a roll-back to a more familiar style of rating system with some additional tweaks:
- Fiverr has gone back to a star rating system
- Public ratings only reflect the last 2 years of performance
- Buyers can edit their reviews again
- Review questions have been updated
This change brings back a more familiar and straightforward star rating system. Otherwise, the new Fiverr reviews and ratings form has not changed that much. It is still a three-page special with additional questions for buyers to check before finalizing their review.
Fiverr’s Public Ratings Only Reflect the Past 2 Years
Many sellers were dismayed by Fiverr’s previous lifetime scoring, where reviews from as long ago as 2010 would be counted. Fiverr has now changed its public ratings so they only reflect the past two years of performance.
This is a good move in general, although sellers who have not been very active for the past two years may be unhappy. Fiverr stated that this change was made to better reflect seller’s present capabilities rather than historical performance.
Gigs that have not been reviewed for the past two years will keep their existing score – it will update when fresh feedback is added.
Buyers Can Now Edit Fiverr Reviews
From today, buyers now have 14 days to edit their review after submission, unless the seller responses, which cuts that period short.
This seems like a wise move; when the emoji system was introduced, a bug that caused the app to lower review scoring was introduced. Buyers were unable to edit without Customer Support intervening, which may have caused slow response times in the past few months.
While this is a positive change, it may also bring back an old problem with Fiverr reviews: feedback manipulation. Fiverr clearly tried to address this with the review cut-off, but whether this strategy is successful remains to be seen.
Fiverr Doubles Down on Review Standards
Fiverr also took pains to emphasize its position against the unethical review practices that continue to plague the platform.
These rules haven’t changed:
- Users should not solicit positive feedback in exchange for refunds, discounts, upgrades, or other benefits
- Users should not manipulate or pressure others to remove a review or give a more positive review
Community Reaction to New Review System
The Fiverr selling community is largely neutral about Fiverr’s latest feedback changes. There was no love lost for the emoji reviews, but this feels like a rollback for something that should never have happened.
Some sellers also believe that the reason for this change wasn’t to reintroduce the classic star rating system, but to address a bug that was preventing buyers from leaving the review they wanted on the Fiverr app. If true, this can only be a good thing; the reviews were always lowered, causing sellers to complain about the impact on their success score.
Personally, I think this theory is part of the reason for this rollback – Fiverr’s Customer Support has been overloaded lately. While we don’t know why, it’s not hard to imagine that many tickets were from buyers who just wanted to change their feedback.
On r/Fiverr, the reaction to Fiverr’s rollback of the emoji feedback system was a lot more negative, with people frustrated at the return of buyers’ ability to edit their feedback. The critical reaction and skepticism about Fiverr’s recent decision-making is harsher than the forum.
Between the two main communities, apathy and negativity is the main sentiment – and one that is increasingly driving experienced sellers away from Fiverr.
Farewell, Emoji Reviews. You Won’t Be Missed
Fiverr’s Emoji reviews lasted less than 100 days. As one of the core features of the first Fiverr product release in 2024, it – and the success score – were reviled for the terrible design and lack of transparency in how it worked.
It’s good to see that Fiverr has finally seen the light – even if it took just over 3 months to understand what Fiverr sellers had told them all along.
A little more worrying is how quick Fiverr was to roll out a feature that the community universally loathed, only to withdraw when the data (and presumably, Customer Support overload) forced a rollback. It calls into question Fiverr’s promise to roll out two product releases a year.
Innovation isn’t a bad thing, and there are plenty of things on Fiverr that need improving. However, those changes should reflect what the community wants and asks for. If anyone knows Fiverr better than Fiverr, it is its buyers and sellers.
The problem, increasingly, is that Fiverr appears to be more interested in what its investors think. As a short-term strategy, it might work. As a long-term strategy, it is inviting disaster.
But for today, we can all celebrate the death of the ? review.
