has anyone joined elance??

Completely awful. Elance was worth using years ago at its inception, before it charged outrageous subscription fees and took unreasonable cuts from any of the projects you managed to win. When they realized they were really the only site out there like it with a growing base of freelancers, they took advantage of this and began charging monthly fees. Then they began charging a project percentage in addition to the subscription, which went from unreasonable to ridiculous, given the lack of quality control in the marketplace. They additionally placed a limit on number of bids allotted. Elance tailored itself from the get go to lowballers willing to design logos and websites for under $100. Elance has favored its buyers over its providers from the get go in order to woo businesses in to post their projects, most of which went unawarded. The feedback system is unfair and unbalanced, leaving professionals wide open to feedback extortion. Elance consistently disregards legally binding contracts and does not protect its providers--the very ones who generate income for the site. I jumped shipped over a year ago and abandoned that mess of a site for getafreelancer.com, which is far superior to Elance in quality. I would advise any true professional to steer clear from Elance if they value their livelihood and their sanity.