First thing to check: was it actually a numeric drop, or a state transition? Profiles move between display states (live, pending, setup, and so on) and what looks like a drop is sometimes the profile shifting from live to pending. The number you had before is still there in the algorithm — it's just not on display right now.
If it's a genuine numeric move (live → live), the common causes are:
- Recency decay — Recency is 25% of your score. Work from 18+ months ago contributes less, so if you haven't synced or added recent work the factor naturally fades.
- Platform rating change — your underlying rating on Upwork / Fiverr / etc. dropped. We re-scrape every 60 days on Free and every 14 on Pro.
- You just claimed — claiming temporarily hides the platform reputation until you sync via the Chrome extension. The score restores the moment you sync.
- A review was disputed — flagged or removed reviews leave the score.
We cap any single live → live drop at 15 points so an algorithm change or a one-off rating dip never trashes your reputation overnight. State transitions (live → pending, etc.) don't use this cap because they're visibility changes, not algorithm changes.
Pro members get an email alert when the score drops 4+ points so they hear about it from us, not from a client.
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