[steven s]

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.