Need Advice: Freelancer wants access to admin and ftp files...?

[Verionia]

I am currently dealing with a freelancer online to help complete a mod for me. He says he needs access to my admin and ftp files for testing, yet I told him that this is a live site and he needs to test with his own vbulletin test site. Am I dealing with a scam or this is how modifications are usually done? Thanks.

[vijayninel]

Tell him to test it elsewhere and give the final product / installation instructions to you. He could mess up your live forums big time if something goes wrong.

It is also highly unlikely that he has any malicious intent, but if he has then you could be in a big soup.

Ultimately its your site and you have to take care of its safety. If anything goes wrong then he will just throw his hands up and absolve himself of all responsibility. But you and your site will suffer.

[kall]

Tell him to test it elsewhere and give the final product / installation instructions to you. He could mess up your live forums big time if something goes wrong.

It is also highly unlikely that he has any malicious intent, but if he has then you could be in a big soup.

Ultimately its your site and you have to take care of its safety. If anything goes wrong then he will just throw his hands up and absolve himself of all responsibility. But you and your site will suffer.
Depending on the value of the contract, I'd probably tell someone with that attitude to find another Freelancer.

If he spends the time making the mod, without any access to the site it is going to live on, then provides it, and it doesn't work (and possibly the client refuses to pay), what's he supposed to do?

[borbole]

Depending on the value of the contract, I'd probably tell someone with that attitude to find another Freelancer.

If he spends the time making the mod, without any access to the site it is going to live on, then provides it, and it doesn't work (and possibly the client refuses to pay), what's he supposed to do?

Why should the mod be tested per se in a live forum? The mod can be created and tested very well at the coder''s test forum and if it works there fine it will work on a live forum as well. The coder can ask for ex, the person who requested the mod, as to what other mods he/she has so it won''t create a conflict with the custom mod. He doesn''t need ftp access for it. And certainly not if the mods contains only a xml file.

I have made several custom mods for some members here and I never needed ftp access to their sites. I always created and tested them at my own test site where they tested it as well before hand before they bought it.

[Verionia]

His reason is he doesn't have a copy of vb 4.0 but vb3.8... so I gave him access for this reason and because he has many mods he created here for 3.8...

[Sarcoth]

Personally, I would have made a duplicate of my forums for testing purposes. As long as the area is password protected, you could do that. I have a copy of my forums that I am constantly using for testing new mods or for updating my own mod. Once it works on the test site, it can then be installed on the live forums.