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Freelance Programming Sites?
CarrotLord asks: "I have some small, fairly well-defined programming projects that I need done, but I don't have time to do them myself. So, I've been looking into sites like Get a Freelancer and ScriptLance. Does anybody have any experience of these types of sites? Specifically, I'd like to hear your recommendations and advice, as well as your experiences. My concerns include: getting very poor quality work; communication and language barriers and also losing control over the work that I've paid for -- if I'm paying for some work, I want it licensed on my own terms."
I've used RentACoder in the past. Only small stuff, but it was dirt cheap to have some guy out in Colorado implement some fixes for an amount comprable to the time I burned defining the scope of the job and communicating with him.
Didn't have any problems, so I can't speak to their dispute resolution system. Got what I paid for first time around, perfectly smooth, etc.
Hi, Chris!
Quantum materiae materietur marmota monax si marmota monax materiam possit materiari?
I've done some work for people through sitepoint. Basically, it involves a lot of trust on both parties, which in a lot of cases, will leave somebody screwed. I've almost always done the work in advance and trusted that the party involved would pay me when the work was completed. So far this has worked out well for me, but in time, I'm sure I'll get burned. Generally speaking, searching the history of that user in the forums will give me some idea of my likelihood of getting paid. For larger jobs, there are a variety of escrow services out there.
I recommend looking for programmers at Elance. The programmers that subscribe to Elance are typically of better quality.
/shouldn't/ be looking for a bargain. You may already know, but you're going to get what you're paying for. Just a heads-up.
One thing to keep in mind is that you
"It was hell!" recalls former child.
I hired someone on scriptlance a year or so ago to improve a web based game I had written. Was a nightmare. First the guy did a horrible job, then he demanded more money to do it correctly, after I gave in and paid him more to fix it he ended up selling/giving away the code which completely ruined the market for my sites. ...
Never agian
I forgot to mention in my last comment... post an ad on craigslist. It's a great place to find programmers for a project, in my experience.
"It was hell!" recalls former child.
Rentacoder has pretty good environment for negotiating such projects - bidders have a chance to ask you questions, you can specify the ballpark of what you're willing to pay, and then you can exactly outline your requirements.
The only drawback of the site was a whole bunch of bids from places like Romania and India, which did not even bother to read the project description (e.g. project required a specific PHP module, and the letter said "If you're looking for a great ASP/ASP.NET team, you've found one!")
But those are easy to ignore.
I use rentacoder.com. The "buyer" gets all rights to the software that the "coder" developed, since the work is work-for-hire.
They have a safe escrow system in place for the projects, and their arbitration system is good (I actually had to use it once when a coder didn't do the work I paid for). I got my money back, and all was well.
Don't think that a small group of dedicated individuals can't change the world. It's the only thing that ever has.
A few months ago I took a good look around to see what was available for this sort of thing, and the best I found was "IT Moonlighter", which has changed its name to http://www.guru.com/
The thing that struck me most was that it was well thought out; the way you can register a profile, search for work packages, and the escrow service to get paid - particularly valuable to me as I am in the UK and the things I was looking for were mainly in the USA.
Having said all that, my day job suddenly got better and I only ended up applying for a few very interested jobs but they picked people who were clearly happy with a very low wage!
I would not be surprised if these business-2-programmer direct sites attract a lot of freelance Indian programmers.
lots of good programmers don't have enough $ [who does?] or enough interesting work to keep them from reading slashdot. But they are NOT all unemployed. When you are in touch with a coder, be clear that you are NOT interested in tangling with the legal department of any other employer with whom that coder may have signed non-compete and assignment of copyrights and patents agreements. Require signed releases to this effect.
SLASHDOT: news for people who can't concentrate on work or have no life at all and got tired of yelling back at the TV.