RE: [PHP] Crowd-sourcing woes - Was: [Semi-OT] Tonns of jobs available

> -----Original Message----- > From: TG [mailto:tg-php@gryffyndevelopment.com] > Sent: Friday, October 10, 2008 10:47 AM > To: php-general@lists.php.net > Subject: RE: [PHP] [Semi-OT] Tonns of jobs available > > I had a free Guru.com account when I was working freelance and job > hunting > and all that, and I didn't bother submitting a single proposal because > I > could see how all the jobs went. People would submit a reasonable > proposal > and eventually it would get to the point where someone was bidding $1 > to do > the job. That was $1 plus $5,000 or something in "additional work" or > some > stupidity. > > I wasn't about to jump into a pit of idiots and compete in an obviously > losing battle with unscrupulous bidders. Regardless of whether they > were > overseas or not, it's still a losing proposition for someone like me. > Not > only do you have to compete with unfair bidding practices and predatory > sales people, but you have to fight the stigma of the innevitable crap > jobs > all these other guys may be doing and have to prove yourself above and > beyond what you'd have to. > > Not to mention, if you DO get a proposal from someone who's been burnt > before, there's a higher likelihood that they're going to put > unreasonable > demands on you, hoping to control the 'burn' the second time around. > Blarg. Screw it. Hah Heh.. my first job was to create an HTML template for this guy's product e-mails. I set it up to where all he had to do was copy + paste and change the images/description. It looked good, and it worked just fine. Well.. that wasn't good enough. His template request turned into a "Well, that's great... but what I want now is a mass e-mailing utility and for you to teach me how to use Outlook Express!" I had bid low on the job on purpose, as I just wanted to get at least ONE under my belt. I was taken advantage of. Apparently he thought I was desperate, and would be willing to shoulder one new appended request after another. Needless to say, I had to take it into arbitration after a few mind-blowing exercises in client arrogance and stupidity. The whole project probably took two weeks--but the product was in its finished form after the first day I was given the job. Rrgh. <?= $people == $stupid & $arrogant & $impolite ?> TRUE I later bid $75 on a project that I ethically could have charged $150 for. It was "done" by an individual from Pakistan who charged only $10 ($65 difference! WTF?!). No doubt he took months to do it, and it was far short of the client's par for expected results. I guess the crowd-sourcing sites can be decent money makers if you are predominantly involved with either fixing sloppy code (from previous errs in the seller's judgment re: picking a worthwhile coder) or the enterprise-level jobs that never dip below $5,000 a bid. I don't have time for the enterprise-level projects, and fixing broken code that was jumbled together by a million monkeys sitting at a million typewriters in someone's basement would probably cause my brain to leak out of my ears. Todd Boyd Web Programmer