When Buyer put the money in Escrow SL support need to check it immediately for security of all the sides and not wait until the project is closed and buyer obtain the job. Some times in that moment SL discover a fraud and the programmer receipt nothing for his job.

This can be achieved by either replacing the EST time, or by displaying local time on mouseover, or by displaying one below the other.

When placing a bid, freelancers could provide a list of items to detail exactly what they are bidding for (optionally). This list can then be shown to buyers to clarify what they are getting when they select that winning bid.

Example:

Bid of $500 in 7 days for:

• Logo creation
• Graphics
• Website design of 5 pages
• Contact form
• Setup site on client server
  

If buyer is allowed to escrow with poor rating it will be in high risk to get transferred once released. So, Scriptlance should ensure a risk free payment

Forcing NEW buyers to post projects limited to verified and certified freelancers will decrease the chance of failure for the buyer's first project.

This could apply to buyers who signup up within X days, or only for their first Y projects posted.

Display the Project Cancellation Ratio in anywhere in front page so that a Programmer can get an idea before he cancel any project . 

Display how many concurrent projects has the coder in hands. Its frustating to select someone and then realize that he is working in another 3-4 projects at the same time.

It happend to me many times, and I'm sure that other buyers should have the same bad experiance, to select a programmer and later on, to find him working on other projects too. Result? Getting emails from the programmer asking for something that is not on my project, or big delays on delivery. Worst than all (that's why I'm asking to not allow bids in other projects), when you face the problem to have the coder disappeared or delaying in replies, because after eg my cheap project of $100, he awarded a new one of $1,000.