Minor Annoyance when hiring: "Please provide me the project and I will..."
I recently posted a very quick job ( 1-2 hours ) for a consult. I feel I expressed exactly what I needed, how long it would take, and what was expected. I asked 5 very specific questions, starting with "Can you meet via screenshare to work on this together" ( Some freelancers won't )
5 responses in the first hour, which is nice. A few were from random freelancers I invited that looked promising. However, they are clearly all automatic, and all of them ask for project details before they can provide a bid. I get why it happens - they don't have the luxury of reviewing the project carefully as they rush to get to the top of the reply list.
I think it rubs me the wrong way because I've had freelancers use this as a delay tactic when either behind on projects, or just busy with something else. You send back questions to delay taking action. It always irritates me. So now, even though I full appreciate the reason, it still pisses me off.
I guess I reply "What part of the project do you need clarification on" x5. But yeah. just venting a bit. At least one of them, their reply indicated it was after hours for them - so there wasn't the illusion I was communicating with something vs their AI answering service or whatever.
Posted May 12, 2026, 6:25 AM UTC