Topic: PLEASE READ BEFORE POSTING HERE

[Crayon Violent]

GENERAL RULES AND GUIDELINES FOR POSTING

This forum is not meant to be a formal freelance service system.  It is available for those who wish to seek out services or work from other people, as a courtesy to the members of the phpfreaks community.  If you have any questions regarding the freelance forum, feel free to ask them here.

RULES:

• DO NOT make more than one thread offering your services. You can edit your single thread or add new posts to it, to reflect additions/changes.
• DO NOT make more than one thread for a specific job.  You may make a new thread if it's a different job, but if you are just wanting to tweak the job specifications, edit your original post.
• DO NOT post replies in other people's threads.  You must directly contact the person you wish to reply to.  Forum settings do not permit you to do this, but it is being stated so that people understand it is a rule, not a bug.
• DO NOT post advertisements to other sites offering freelance system services.  For example, rentacoder.com, odesk.com, etc.. we have no partiality for or against those sites, but posts such as those are regarded as advertisement, which is against our main site rules.  We fully acknowledge that this freelance system is limited, but we aren't here to provide free advertising for other places.  If you prefer to do actual business through one of those sites, please specify in direct contacts with the person.  You are allowed, as a freelancer or freelance company, to post a link to your personal portfolio/company site that you own.  "Profiles" on said freelance sites are not allowed.

GUIDELINES:

There is always work to be done on the internet, and there are always people willing to pay others to do it, and there are always people willing to be paid to do it.  Most people, be it client or coder, are not in this business to try and outright scam others.  All the time I read complaints from clients about coders and complaints from coders about clients being sneaky, shady, not holding up their end of the bargain, coders not being at the level of proficiency they advertised, jobs not being what the client described, etc blahblah blah list goes on forever and ever. 

It is my experience that most of these issues are a matter of miscommunication.  One or both sides tend to assume certain thing(s) go without saying, or the other person is psychic, etc.. so those things end up not being said.  These things without fail result in problems.  Every time.  Some coders/clients handle the situation professionally.  But more than likely that is not the case; otherwise, there probably wouldn't have been things left up in the air in the first place.

This guideline is not meant to scare off people from trying to get work done or offer services.  It is meant to serve as advice for both coders and clients to avoid the situations that lead to bad experiences, because as said, most people (clients and coders alike) are not out to scam.

Contacting a Client or Coder: If people cannot contact you, then you wont get work or get work done.

• When posting in the freelancing forum it's important that you provide a way for users to contact you. They will not be able to reply to your topics so they need a way to contact you privately. This can be using PMs, emails, any type of instant messaging service (MSN, Gtalk, AIM, Jabber, etc.) or however you see fit.
• You can toggle the visibility of your email here and add additional contact information to your profile here. Furthermore you can just add the information directly in your post in this forum.

Coders: If you want serious clients, be serious about yourself.

• The more specific you are about your skills, previous experience(s), availability, rates, etc.. the better your chances of getting serious inquiries.  Posting vague "I'm available for anything and everything" might get more inquiries on average, but there's a good chance that it will come to nothing, based on any number of things that you could have posted here in the first place.  Better to receive 10 emails from people who have some idea of your qualifications/terms, than 100 emails that don't.
• Be honest about your skills.  All day long we see people posting about how they jumped on a job and bit off more than they could chew.  They tell the client they can do everything they need and more, promise them the moon, and then promptly crap their pants about 5 minutes into it.  Don't be that person!  Some people get lucky and figure it out.  Some people get lucky and get help that figures it out.  Most people end up having to give up the project.  Which leads us to....
• Wasting people's time and money.  You waste the client's time.  You waste your own time.  That bad rep will more than likely come back to haunt you.  All day long we get people trying to get us to delete their posts because they don't want their skeletons to come out of the closet (no we won't hide them for you).  So be smart!  Do the simplest easiest thing to avoid all this headache: be truthful about your skills. If you feel that being truthful will limit your potential clients, then get off your bum and hit the books.  You can't seriously be in the business of trying to con people, are you?
• Be very clear about what you are doing.  Some clients know your job, and are just looking for extra set of hands.  Most do not, and therefore seek someone who does.  Therefore, if you want to avoid headaches, it is your responsibility to be very clear about what it is you're going to do.  What you're willing to do.  What kind of support you offer after the fact, etc... on that note..
• Be up front and thorough about your prices.  Take a look at the situation.  Quote a price for it.  Quote prices for things that might come up later.  The more you have to go back later saying that xyz was unforseen or xyz wasn't part of the deal, regardless of whether or not you are in the right, the more you are going to come off as shady, to the client.  It's like when you take your car to a mechanic and that funny noise goes from being one little $50 thing to a $2000 rebuild because the mechanic kept coming back to you saying something else is wrong.  That stuff may indeed be needed, but the fact that you didn't think about it and let them know ahead of time speaks volumes about your skills as a coder.  Some things just aren't foreseeable.  Most things are.

Clients: If you want a serious response, be serious about your project goals, compensation, etc...

• Unless you're an experienced coder and are looking for an extra set of hands, don't assume the job you want done is something "quick" or "easy" or "shouldn't take too long" etc... maybe it is, maybe it isn't. That's like going to a mechanic and telling him you expect him to be done in 2 hours when you have no idea how to fix a car.  The best way to get a feel for how long something should take, is to get multiple quotes.
• Don't expect to get a response from coders if you're offering like $20 for someone to build you xyz site.  Do some research and find out what the going rate for sites, particular aspects of sites, scripts, hourly rates, etc.. whatever fits your needs.  You may indeed find people willing to do something super cheap, but as with everything else in life, you get what you pay for. The moral of the story is this: Just because one person quotes $20 to build xyz.com from the ground up, or charges $2.15/hr, doesn't mean everybody else is way overcharging. You get what you pay for.
• Don't expect feedback from posting "You'll get x% of profits once income starts pouring in" deals.  Use some common sense: if the coder has to wait until you start making money off his work, what does he need you for?
• Don't expect feedback from posting jobs as 'non-paid' or 'for free'.  Would you expect someone to build you a house or fix your car for free?  You might get lucky and find some altruistic coder, but more than likely, you won't.
• Even if you do get responses from posts like the above ones mentioned, more than likely the quality is going to be cheap.  Cheap as in not a good deal, messy and poor coding, lack of communication, shady dealings, etc..
  
• Make sure you know what you want, before looking for someone.  Don't assume any part of your project or need, no matter how big or small, goes without saying.  Because it doesn't.  And I guarantee you you'll end up fighting with the coder about it.
• Though details vary from coder to coder, yes, it is normal to have to pay some kind of % up front for work you want done.  It may sometimes be hard, but it is possible to recover or minimize monetary losses, should a deal go awry. It is not possible to recover work done. That is why the burden of payment is on the client.  There are lots of sites/systems you can go through to protect yourself from potential fallouts.  And on that note...
• As mentioned, phpfreaks.com does not specialize in freelance services.  This forum is an informal mechanism, as a courtesy to the community.  We have no formal mechanism in place (like escrow) to guarantee payment, refund, work done, etc...if you feel uncomfortable about it, ask the coder if he has an account at a site that specializes in that sort of thing, or ask the coder if he'd be willing to sign up at a site you're comfortable doing business through.
• One thing you can do is search through the user's posts here.  Just click on their name and at the bottom of their profile click the "show last posts of this person" link.  This can be a useful research tool for getting a feel for the person's skill level.  For instance, if you see their post claiming to have 10 years of php experience doing everything under the sun, but check their post history and see that they recently asked a bunch of really simple questions, chances are they are lying about their skills.