[ozzy47]

Just some info for a FYI.

Before Selecting a User
Once you are contacted by a member offering to fulfill the request, do the following:

1. Search this forum along with http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/ for posts by that user and with that user's name. If the posts are generally helpful, then you are usually in good shape. If there are no posts in the sites or there are a significant number of unhelpful or negative posts, be wary.

2. If appropriate, ask the user for past work examples (a "portfolio"). Note, however, that many service requests are very unique and cannot support a portfolio. Also, there is always an honest user who simply has not had enough jobs yet to build a portfolio.

When you find a member willing to work on your project, he will likely need some access to your forums that a normal user cannot have. Some items he may need and their risks are below.

• Admin CP Login: For many service requests, this is required due to their nature. However, you should create an account for that developer and then demote or delete it when he is done. That is, you should not divulge your password for your account.
• FTP access: If the developer needs to upload or download files from your site, he will need FTP access. If possible, you should create a separate account for him, just as above. Requests such as template modifications do not require FTP access unless some files need to be uploaded such as images or style sheets.
• SSH access: This is needed by some developers to fully back up your forums' database as well as run some complex queries. Template modifications and most other requests do not require this and you should not divulge it unless absolutely necessary, especially because most users cannot create separate SSH accounts; they only have access to one: their own.
• vBulletin Customer Number and Password: There is no need to ever give out both customer number and password. Your license agreement explicitly forbid sharing of your details. In case of an install or upgrade, only the customer number might be needed.