Scammers break vB coders reputation...

[legionofangels]

For coding things I'm definitely thankful and appreciative for the work and the time spent. When we ran into our first code that we needed to get made that was beyond our knowledge, we tried here out of curiosity.

I got one interested person, and they didn't have time to do it, or didn't seem interested too much. No strike against the coders here, but I think we had something pretty complicated and we needed someone with a fair amount of experience, perhaps multi types of code or years of experience. Not knowing how to create the code ourselves, obviously we have no gauge for really how complicated it was.

We spent $700 on the code we purchased. But again, I think the price was reflective of the complexity and the code pretty much came out as we wanted.

With all the add-ons here it's amazing that I don't think of this place as a coders place. I think of it as a modification community only, my thought process doesn't extend to coding experts. Even though it probably does have some great coders here, and obviously since there are many great add ons and code changes. I guess mentality what I think when dealing with coding is, "go to a coding website" lolz.

If I use a coder I'll probably stick with guru.com or rentacoder looks good to but have not used.

Our experience on guru was great, I got 4 estimates from 300 to 1000, we didn't take the lowest price or the highest obviously. They use escrow so we basically put all the money in the pot and the deal was to release it in 4 increments at checkpoints of completion that we predetermined. I think it took a total of 2 weeks to complete the code, but we used a company that houses several employees so they probably weren't only working on our project. We did have 30 of them helping at one point for a completion test, but that took 10 minutes or so.

I dunno, I felt really comfortable with escrow, I think it's the best way to go. I like half down and half on completion but references of work done is huge. If you haven't done anything it's better to wait for payment until it's complete.

As far as the issue of scamming, I only post requests that I really want. So I'm certainly not a scammer. At the same time if you've done a bunch of work in the past I don't know if I agree with the concept of not doing half down and half on delivery as that ensures the coder that the buyer is serious and that you will get paid.

Paypal can work with disputes and guru can as well.

Upon completion we gave feedback ratings based upon our experience with the coder. It was generally good, but the timeline took longer than it should so we gave like a 4/5 stars. As some days of that 2 weeks they didn't even work on it.

Yeah, that's all I have to say.

[Jase2]

Yes, that would be good Lynne. But, as Danny said earlier, the client can easily scam a coder -- which is very annoying after all the work you've put in.

To solve that, what about having some kind of escrow account here, that way (with the feedback system) both the client and the coder are protected. What do you think?

Regards Jason

Originally Posted by legionofangels

Paypal can work with disputes and guru can as well.

sorry but this is a false statement... Guru is not dealing with disputes, Escrow is.. that is a service provider that deal with the entire process of buy/sell...

Paypal is not dealing with Coders disputes at all, and never will because it is never a "tangible object"... all the persons who had to face a scammer here and there with paypal were devaluated because Paypal does not support that kind of complaints...

[Lynne]

Originally Posted by Jase2

Yes, that would be good Lynne. But, as Danny said earlier, the client can easily scam a coder -- which is very annoying after all the work you've put in.

To solve that, what about having some kind of escrow account here, that way (with the feedback system) both the client and the coder are protected. What do you think?

Regards Jason

It's a good idea, however it would take quite a bit to implement.

It sounds like some of you are in touch with some coders who don't want to come to this site any longer because of the scammers. So, I guess I would wonder about whether putting all the work into redoing the forum is going to pay off by getting users to come back. If done right, it could be a tremendous asset to the community.

I'm a big fan of vb.com and vb.org. I have gone off and visited other vb sites, but to me vb.com and vb.org are kinda a community and I like the community. I feel like I'm going outside the community when I go to other sites. I know if I wanted to get something coded, I would feel most comfortable getting it done here. Although, after reading this thread, I must say I'd be a bit nervous!

The point being though, I think having a successful paid request forum would be a big asset to these two sites. If it has a bad reputation at the moment, then even if it isn't intending to, it does reflect on the whole community. So, I think if it's reflecting negatively, which it sounds like it is, then something should be done about it.

Originally Posted by Lynne

Although, after reading this thread, I must say I'd be a bit nervous!

imagine the impact, you just read a thread among a lot of threads... on my side, i work on parenting forums all the time, and on other kind of sites too, and most of the admins i know are knot in rings or communities, and when one of them is scammed by "Scammer Not Polite", the information is spread largely... jut one event can be multiplied by 100 if the person post in public groups... and that's something i have seen a lot... i also seen a lot of the opposite, found my name and some others in these rings as a good person which we can discuss with a lot...

everything is possible... but changing the format here was debated so much times... each time we hear from a scammer or a coder who try to advertise his work, we start a new run... and it close as soon as a concensus is made...

[christian8a]

Good point about all this.
I do think is important at least to have like a iTrader type of reference.

If this is not safe for both, coders and clients, then this site can get really bad reputation.
In my site I allow sales, but they are all based on the iTrader, most of them wont buy if the other person doesnt have at least 1 good point.

Just my opinion

[legionofangels]

Paypal does work with disputes. Whether they work with code disputes or not I would not know, as I've never used a coder through paypal.

I said guru as in the overall site, whether they or the escrow department specifically or service that is external, I meant that it can be done through the guru service or an experience. Meaning I could hire a coder from guru, like I did, and if I had a problem the escrow service is right there to deal with problems. It's not like I have to search out a different company to dispute the issue.

Whether a new community or here is irrelevant, just use a similar setup like guru or rentacoder has for coders for hire and projects. We don't need to reinvent the wheel for something that works.

To clarify further on my previous statement, I would use a vB coder if it's specifically and ONLY vB related. But the full vBulletin product is made up of CSS, HTML, Javascript, and PHP. So if you list those as the requirements...assuming I'm not missing any, coders with experience in all those fields should be able to help you. Plus, most custom codes will use a few of those types of code, not all of them. The vBulletin forum and installation of a code is the part where a vB coder specifically would be handy.

[briansol]

Why doesn't this site run itrader or something similar???

[Dismounted]

Because it is not the focus of this site. vBulletin.org's primary objective is to encourage the sharing of modifications and ideas.

[Jase2]

It would only be good for the "Request for paid services" forum... Anywhere else and it's pretty much useless.

Regards Jason