[wp-pro] Need someone to upgrade multiple WP sites

[Robert Deaton]

I swore I wasn't going to get into this mess, but a few things said
here I really feel the need to correct.

1) People will _not_ always charge what they are worth, especially in
an area like this. If I were to charge what I am worth for developing
WordPress related things, I would not be able to get any work because
a cheaper, stupider, and more entrepreneurial developer would swipe
jobs from underneath me. I also don't charge as much as I could simply
because this work is not as difficult as work which I would charge
what I am worth for. On top of all of that, I don't need to charge
what I am worth to make myself happy and live more than comfortably,
so why should I?

2) Someone said ask about age. As someone who gets hit with silly age
discrimination occasionally, I must say that its simply the wrong
thing to ask. If I may, I'll use myself as a perfect example. Visit
http://wordpress.org/about/ quickly and notice that I am listed as a
contributing developer of WordPress. Now note that I haven't been
active in their community in over a year, but yet still managed to
rack up about 3 years of time as an active member of the community.
I'd say that's a good bit of experience, and without going into other
things that would make me further qualified, let me just say that that
amount of experience and those kind of references should trump age any
day. So don't judge based on age, its a silly thing to do.

3) Don't ask about fixed rates. Really, I wish some of the assholes on
this list would stop spitting out fixed rates to peoples job requests,
and I hope it comes back to bite them in the asses when they come to
find out that the person was not 100% clear in their original request
and the job ends up taking much, much longer than expected, with a
continuing nagging about how it isn't exactly how they wanted and they
already paid so you owe them. Wrong. Ask for and quote hourly rates,
it saves headache from both ends, as both ends know what to expect. If
you feel that you can't trust whoever the developer is to give you a
truthful value for the number of hours they worked, then don't hire
them. Check people's references, see what they've been involved in,
try to get a feel for whether they're an honest person, and let them
charge by the hour. Its fair to ask for an estimate of the number of
hours if the project is well-defined, but understand that a person may
go over that time and if its outside of your budget just ask. Some
developers will be happy to negotiate the hourly rate to help fit your
budget if it is a project they are truly interested in working on.

4) Find a good friend who knows some code. Ask potential developers
for code samples, and verify that their coding is neat, efficient, and
up to the standards for the project you'd like to have them work on.
If its not, then don't hire them. Its that simple.


For the developers on this list, though some of the above was targeted
at you, most of it was for people hiring. This is my request of you:
Stop being childish when a job request comes to the list that you
don't agree with. Nobody said you have to do it or even give a bid for
the project, you are free to pick and choose, and you are free to let
the person who is asking for all the wrong things find a developer who
is probably less capable and will not work out as desired. I'm tired
of these stupid threads popping up where someone bites a person's head
off over a request for a bid on a job. You don't go down to McDonalds
and yell at the manager in public over the fact that they want to hire
people at minimum wage and you think you're better qualified. If the
job is below you, then don't do it, delete the mail, mark it as spam,
do whatever you will, but leave that crap off the public mailing
lists. The rest of us don't care.

-- 
--Robert Deaton