That has wondered me as well.

And? If I was Managing Director, then I would stick with my own country. That's not to say I wouldn't have US, or any other currency, I just don't believe they should be default.

That's why James Edward Limm is a millionaire, and forgive me if i'm incorrect, you are not ;)

Really ? I'd like the chance to test that theory :)

Being said that, consider this thread closed :D
before ends in something bloody

We can talk economics and service charges till the cows come home, but it's not going to change anything.

Do you think anything can be done with our service request forum to make it easier for both clients to make their requests as detailed as possible and for coders to easily search constraints for requests to pull up services that they would be interested in....these constraints could be:

Skills required, Deadline, Budget, etc...etc....?

I am just throwing out ideas. :)

Ill pay White Mike $50 Per Hour When ever i need custom coding ,

He did a very extensive Product for me , it works great !! And his Support was Awesome .

I refuse to give log in credentials to anyone , If i have to ill pay them $50 per hour not to hijack my site :)

my complaint is that you can never get the same person to do something more than once. i dont know how many times ive tried to contact people who have done projects for me in the past and gotten no reply. its a two way street, the coders need to respond to the people who do pay what your time is worth. i know from my own experience with people here that the rates vary by coder from cheap to way over priced, you just have to take bids from people and pick the one that best fits you needs.

The other problem of hiring a $15/h coder is that some of them are coding really poor. It's like a time-bomb.
I had some bad experience when fixing someone's code might cost more than creating it.

Price is one thing, but good quality (guarantee, support, etc) is another thing. You choose what do you want depending on your budget.

Someone in Pennsylvania:

I will take it :)

Let me say that working in community based websites is sometimes also a very rewarding experience. Much more than working on business websites.

The reason is simple - you get to know people that are incredibly dedicated to a subject, and you get to know about things, sometimes about whole worlds you would have never imagined existed. One of our best long time clients is a huge vB community about sports cards. It was a world I completely ignored, but there you see a gigantic team of moderators and administrator handling thousands of posts per day, moderating trades between users, and thousands of users discussing about things you are forced to know a bit more in order to do a good work. And the same happened with Gt40 cars, forex cards, and occasionally even in "realms" one should not mention in websites accessed by young ones. ;) Yeah, there is something to learn also in those places.

Sometimes being hired by a guy really dedicated to his community is like entering a new world. And trust me, MySpace is popular, Facebook is popular, YouTube is popular, but if you put together all the communities created through vBulletin you have such an endless and REALLY diverse universe that none of the big networks can compare to.

Interesting thread.
I needed a mod done and it took a couple attempts to line up someone.

The first attempt I was not clear enough on the specs I think.
I was more thorough the second time around.

Someone from vB.org contacted me. We discussed what the mod needed to do.
I agreed to his flat price of I think $300US.
It took a few go arounds to fix some minor things.
End result, the mod has been working since 3.5 and I am very happy with it.

There is no way I could have accepted an hourly offer from someone.
If I budgeted $500 and it still isn't done in say 10 hours ($50/hr), what do I do?

So. . . .
I think to get someone to look at a project, you need to spec it out as carefully as possible.
Have you notifications of PMs ON and accept emails.
If you have a budget, state it.

I think we are getting wee bit off topic - eh?

Yes, I think were are Danny hehe. Maybe split the last few posts into a new thread?

Here's the reality of the current forums.

For myself, a person who is a pure community user. A guy who sets up Vbulletin sites to build communities. I do not code. I am not a graphic designer. I know only basic HTML. I come to these forums to find Vbulletin professionals. So far what I've noticed is a few things.

There needs to be some basic lithnis tests. Some sort of rating system, for people who actually have had work done by coders.

I've noticed that many coders are too booked up with jobs to do your work, heck in several cases, I've posted something with fairly clear instructions and recieved zero responses.

Personally I think the paid work section needs some serious paid work in order for it to really be a resource for community individuals like myself.

Regarding pricing, honestly, I've never found the pricing to be an issue except for once.

If you want my honest opinion I'm truly shocked as to how highly developed this communities Modifications section is, with custom profile fields for every possible variable in dealing with a new mod or template add on etc. That on the flip side your Request for Paid Services section is the complete opposite, and practically underdeveloped.

Like I said in another thread, look at how the pro systems work, guru, rent a coder, etc. Probably even look at things like Amazon, Ebay. Massive sites that do great work for both clients and "coders" in the case of the former.

The problem overall we may have here is that this is a forum and "how do we get this to work on a forum format".

If we don't make a custom section perhaps even external of the forum but on this site, to have full display/don't display options of hiding information from coders, and comments done. Then we really need to allow for posting in the Paid Requests Section. I mean, allow coders to ask questions on specifications of the job, allow for customization so that when someone does a template/format request:

https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=177574

Like mine, formatted. But instead all you'd have to do is alter your mods you've done for Mods/Styles releases, to allow for people to enter in specific information.

Name of Project

Checkbox List showing all types of coding/platforms required, hit all that apply

When Would You Like To Complete Project: Have ranges of time dropdown menu or check box list

Range you'd like to spend: again, range of expenses

ETC.

As said in another thread, I'm a Sales Exec. so when I get leads from an automated system they look like this, which is the format I thought about, but didn't copy exactly when making my post:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...6/requesto.jpg

Don't worry, no sensitive information there, except you people now know I live in Colorado obviously.

Make a New Button related to that forum, stating Respond To Job Offer, sending a direct pm to the poster.

The key thing we don't want is coders seeing each others bids. OR, maybe we do, where coders can just respond in the threads and continue to bid like an auction if someone REALLY wants the job. Most coders on guru gave a fair price, and I'm not sure whether they could see other responses or not, but the one's we dealt with did NOT alter there costs if they could see the others. The last bid we got was the highest of them all and we were like...hmm...maybe they can't see the other bids. BUT maybe they could and they stand by there price whether high, low, or inbetween somewhere, as we got 4 estimates on a job at guru. Which if they stand by there price, I honestly respect that more as a patron.

Key thing is Danny, if you make your system more user friendly for both Coders and Users, you're going to have more happy VB Users and Coders getting more jobs and perhaps more interest at using the system. Which in turn is positive for all of us.

The feedback system for Coders should work like an additional REP system. Where all those who have the usergroup of Designer, Coder, or Coder/Designer have a rating in there profile or post bit showing what ratings customers have given them. < Don't know how to implement but entirely necessary for Coders and Designers alike getting the rep they deserve whether good or bad for there work.

I mean, 10 Star Rating System or something, put it on there User Profile Pages, I don't know. http://www.masugadesign.com/the-lab/...ar-rating-bar/

You probably don't need that and have access to vb's rating system, but still we used that for our site.

Whether any of this is used or not, thanks for reading, and SOMETHING has to be done IMO.

PS. Should work just like a poll, a request for service is up for X amount of days allowed to be bid on, then the thread is closed or job closed.

PS. 2 > The Profile Rating System with it's own set of comments like User Notes, or the 3.7 comment system for vbulletin would work really well for this if the comments could be split in either General, or Rating/Customer Comments.

Why?
If I got Zoints, ibProArcade, Casino, Radio & TV, GoldBrick, vBClubs, ShoutBox, etc for FREE?

That's a very good point. The main reason for this is because there is a big gap between programmers and the average webmaster. Throughout that gap lay the difficulty and complexity of programing and code that the average webmaster may be ignorant towards. Things such as "i want every corner of my forum rounded and faded" may sound simple to the average webmaster. However, they have no idea the amount of code it takes to format and program a proper div or table to do so.

I often get contacted via my website (the one in my signature) by folks looking to hire me to design a theme for them. Many seem appalled that I won't create a custom theme similar to the one at my site for less than, say, $100. I had one guy who thought anything more than $20 was a complete ripoff. I could easily make more money mowing lawns in my spare time than what some of these people expect me to work for.

Some folks are simply looking to fleece the designer/coder. Others are genuinely ignorant of the amount of work involved. Still others seem to believe that highly customized one-off skin should cost the same as an off the shelf premade skin.

I also realize that the opposite happens all too often as well: coders who are looking to fleece unknowledgeable clients by exaggerating the difficulty of the job, or who simply take the money and run without doing anything.

Ah...for that Utopian world where everyone was honest and trustworthy.

And then there are those coders that agree to a price and a job, but never deliver anything but promises. Although no money gets exchanged, it still leaves a bad taste in the mouth.

I don't understand that one, and it apparently happens a lot. I mean, if someone is trying to screw another out of work or money that's one thing, but just wasting each other's time with no apparent gain for either is just plain ol' stupid.

I agree. How's the header coming. ;)

Ah...eh? Oh man! PM on the way. Color me embarrassed.

lolol ^^

Yea, that happens to me all the time as well. Because of that, I try and be a bit careful as to what requests i answer. For example, usually if the title includes the word "simple" in it, i probably won't do it. Reason being, if it was simple.. they'd do it themselves :p

in all fairness its really expensive to hire a coder esp from here and even if u do get to hire one there is no gurantee you are going to get your work done.You can pay for it and be ripped off like i was and there is not a thing u can do about it except put it down to experience.I know this works both ways and coders get stuck with code they coded and people not paying for it but seeing as i got stuffed for $250 with nothing to show for it - im refusing to hire any more coders from vb.org till they get their house in order and install some sort of feedback system.Everyone is crying out for a decent feedback system all except vb.org that is.

I'm sure they'll introduce one soon. There definitely needs to be one.

As you say, it can work both ways. However, just because one person ripped you off, doesn't mean everyone here is the same. I don't do many as I'd like to now, due to working on HelpCenter -- but I sometimes try and fit a few in.

There goes my new computer money. :(

LOL very funnie :)

Just seen your post in the paid requests, lasto. Hmm, I suggest you email James Limm. Because vb really need to do something about this misterpopularity.

There is nothing Mr. Limm can or will do about it as he had nothing to do with hiring any coder. Is it Henry Ford's fault if you hire a shady mechanic that doesn't fulfill the job?

Yes, but he can have something to do in banning the user. If he has ripped someone off, then bragging about it that's not right to me. I think it will just stop users coming here, in fact. I've heard a lot of complaints on other sites, too.

I think the org can handle things fine in that area. ;)

And someone who has to brag is covering up more than you know.