Messages, files and keeping the record

Messaging is where engagements are actually agreed. It is worth using deliberately, because the conversation is also the record.

How conversations are organised

A conversation belongs to something: a job you are discussing, a proposal, an offer, or a contract. It is not a general chat list.

The useful consequence is that one engagement is one thread from first contact to completion. A conversation that began when a freelancer applied continues through the offer, the contract and the delivery. Everything about that engagement is in one place, in order, rather than scattered.

Messages are delivered live while both of you are online, and you are notified when you are not.

Why keeping it on the platform matters

The obvious reason is that moving off-platform breaches the terms. The practical reason is better.

Everything a mediator can look at is here. If a contract is ever disputed, the decision rests on what was agreed and what was delivered. Scope agreed in the platform's messages is visible. Scope agreed in a private channel does not exist as far as the process is concerned.

This is not a technicality — it is routinely the difference between winning and losing a dispute. The person who agreed a change in a private message and delivered against it has no way to demonstrate that the change was agreed.

So even if you get on well and would rather chat elsewhere, put anything that touches scope, money, deadlines or approvals in the platform messages. A one-line summary after a call is enough: "Confirming what we agreed: adding the two extra pages, delivery moves to Friday."

Sharing contact details

You can share information you need to do the work — an email for a calendar invitation, access to a system, a link to a repository.

What is not allowed is using the platform to arrange an engagement that then happens outside it, so nobody pays fees and nobody has protection. The distinction is about intent rather than any specific piece of information.

If you are unsure, ask yourself whether the arrangement still runs through Open Lance. If yes, share what the work needs. If the point is to move the whole thing off, that is the thing not to do — and it costs you the escrow protection as much as it costs us the fee.

Files

Attach files directly to a conversation. Images preview inline; documents and PDFs open in a viewer; anything else downloads.

Deliverables belong on the contract, not only in a message. Submitting a milestone with the work attached puts it in the formal record. Sending it as a chat message and marking the milestone complete separately leaves the delivery in a less obvious place if it is ever queried.

Large files. There is a size limit. For very large deliverables, use appropriate storage and share access, but note in the platform what was delivered and when so the record exists.

Uploads are scanned. A file that fails a check is quarantined and does not reach the other person. If a legitimate file is blocked, contact support rather than trying to work around it by renaming it.

Do not send credentials in plain text. Use a proper secrets tool and grant the narrowest access that works. A password in a message is a password in a record that several systems have touched.

Writing messages that work

Confirm decisions in writing. After any call, summarise. This single habit prevents most disputes.

Ask one question at a time when it matters. A list of six questions typically gets two answered.

Be specific about deadlines. "End of the week" means Thursday to some people and Sunday to others, especially across timezones.

Reply, even briefly. "Got this, will look properly tomorrow" costs five seconds and prevents the other side wondering whether you have disappeared. Responsiveness is measured and it feeds into your standing.

If someone behaves badly

Abuse, harassment or threats. Report it. There is a report action available in conversations, and you can also open a support ticket. Reports are read by a person and acted on.

Pressure to move off-platform, or to pay outside escrow. Report it. This is one of the clearest warning signs there is. See Staying safe on Open Lance.

Spam or an obviously fake approach. Report it and do not engage.

A disagreement about the work is not a safety matter. Try to resolve it, and if you cannot, use the dispute process rather than the report button. See Disputes and mediation.

If you are in an active contract with someone you have reported, do not simply abandon it. Say so in the report, and if money is involved raise a dispute so escrow is frozen while it is looked at.

The conversation as evidence

It is worth restating in one place, because it is the practical reason to keep everything here rather than a compliance one.

If a contract is ever disputed, the mediator reads what was agreed and compares it against what was delivered. The messages on the platform are the record of what was agreed. Nothing else is available to them.

So the habits that protect you are small and specific:

Summarise calls in writing. One short message after a call, listing what was decided. This single habit prevents more disputes than anything else in this help centre.

Get scope changes in writing before doing them. "Confirming: adding the newsletter integration, which moves delivery to the 14th" takes fifteen seconds and is worth its weight when somebody later remembers it differently.

Ask for approval in writing at the points that matter.

None of this requires distrust. Most people remember things differently in good faith, and a written record is as much protection for the person you are working with as it is for you.

Notifications about messages

You are notified of new messages in the app and, depending on your settings, by email or push. If you are missing messages, check your notification preferences — it is far more often a settings issue than a delivery failure. See Notifications and what you can turn off.

Responsiveness is measured and feeds into your standing on the platform, so a habit of replying briefly and quickly is worth more than replying thoroughly and late. "Got this, will look properly tomorrow" costs five seconds.

Conversations after a contract ends

A conversation does not disappear when a contract completes. The thread remains, which means you can go back to it months later to check what was agreed, find a file, or pick up the relationship for new work.

This is one of the quieter arguments for keeping the work here: a private channel gets deleted, archived, or lost when somebody changes phone. The record here stays.

File limits and what to do about them

There is a size limit per attachment, which is generous for documents and images and not generous for video or large archives.

For anything that exceeds it, the pattern that works is: put the file in appropriate storage, share access through the platform, and note in the message exactly what was delivered and when. The record then exists even though the bytes live elsewhere.

Do not compress a large deliverable into a password-protected archive to slip it past a scan. Files are scanned for good reasons, and a deliberately obscured file is treated as what it looks like.

If an upload fails

Check the size first. It is the cause more often than anything else.

Check the file type. Executables and some archive formats are refused, because a marketplace is exactly the kind of place they get sent to people.

Try a different browser if it fails at zero per cent, which usually points at an extension or a network filter rather than the platform.

If a legitimate file is being blocked, contact support with the file name and type rather than repeatedly retrying, and certainly rather than renaming it to disguise it.

Blocking and stepping away

If somebody is being a nuisance rather than dangerous, you do not have to engage. You are not obliged to reply to an approach you are not interested in, and declining a job or an invitation needs no explanation.

If it goes beyond nuisance — repeated contact after you have said no, abuse, or anything threatening — report it rather than simply ignoring it. Ignoring protects you and does nothing for the next person, and reports are how patterns become visible.

Meetings and calls

Where scheduling is available, you can arrange a call from within a contract conversation, and it keeps the arrangement attached to the engagement.

Whatever tool you use, the rule from earlier applies: summarise the outcome in a message afterwards. A call is not a record. A three-line summary of what was decided is, and it takes less time than the call did to arrange.

Related

• Staying safe on Open Lance
• Disputes and mediation
• Contacting support