Has anyone contracted for help with their board?

[jrj84105]

For the technically challenged, have you ever considered or actually contracted for some technical help? If so, what kind of work have you had done, how did you find the person/group, and was it worth it? Specifically interested to know if anyone has contracted to have a plugin built.
Thanks

[Former Member]

There are many great plugin developers here on proboards, If your looking to get some work done, head over to the plugin library and see how plugin(s) are rating.

You can also click on the plugin developers name and see how well their previous plugins have performed, which should give you a decent insight.

Hope that help, all the best

[Kami]

Honestly, I don't know how many people would actually have done this. When V6 was announced and it was stated that developers would have the option to charge for their work (an option many of them said they would not use excepting very large projects), the very idea set a huge chunk of the ProBoards community abuzz with how it was a ridiculous and unfair option.

Being a creator myself, I disagree with that sentiment, obviously. But far too many people in that thread reacted negatively to the idea of plugin creators being able to be paid for their work (several people flat out said they should leave ProBoards if they wanted to charge for their time and efforts) for me to think that anyone here would have likely contracted a plugin creator.

All that being said: I think, if you were able to find a plugin creator taking commissions using @synthtec's tips, you would wind up being happy with the the results of a paid venture. Every creator is different, but as a general rule paid projects get priority over personal / free projects (within reason) and you'll wind up with a pretty great work experience so long as you remember to treat them like people (I make a specific mention of this because a lot of people... well, don't, quite frankly, and wind up treating us like automatons). For the most part, the developers who I know do take requests (regardless of whether or not it's for money) are all kind and hardworking people who create excellent scripts and the opportunity to be paid for such efforts would likely yield excellent results.

That said remember: it may get expensive depending on what you need + the person in question's qualifications & experience. Coding and debugging takes a lot of manhours even for seemingly "simple" scripts and payments tend to be in direct relation to that.

[jrj84105]

Thanks.

The only similar plugin to what I had in mind was created by Wormopolis, and he's apparently taking a breather. I'm new to Proboards and the general vibe I get is that sort of "cold calling" any of the creators might be offensive to the general ethos of the community, if not expressly prohibited in a rule I missed. I had noted Kami's sig line of "unsolicited coding help request PMs will be ignored" and was specifically hoping for a Kami response (thanks!) as that line contributed to my hesitance to initiate any direct requests. I also have no clue what "expensive" means in this context but was hoping a simple plugin might be achieved for ~250 and a somewhat more complex one for ~1000. That may be way off base and wishful thinking though. I also wondered if developers got some sort of commission if their plugins were widely used, such that a broad appeal plugin might be more worth their time than a one off deal.

[Kami]

For clarification, the comment in my signature is not specifically related to your inquiry; what frequently happens (to myself and other helpers) is that once people see us helping is we will get PMs from people who want us to be dedicated coders for them with no consideration of time(or compensation). I have received several PMs for example, after I helped someone in their thread, supposedly meant to thank me then the text of the message is actually a half dozen more coding issues they want my help with.

I don't think anyone here would be offended or annoyed if you contacted them with an employment opportunity. I don't write javascript myself (yet) but your budget sounds reasonable depending on what you're after and I think at least some folks would be happy to at least look into whether or not they would have time to take on paid work.

At the very least, you can PM people asking if it would be OK to speak with them about paying for work: don't assume it's okay. For example:

"I was wondering if you'd be up for writing a plugin for me--"

Probably not a good opener.

"Hi (name), I was wondering if you were available for a coding commission? My budget is (amount) and I am looking for (functionality or number of plugins). Thank you for your time"

Better; short and sweet and gets the fact that this is a job, not a request for free, across quickly.

As far as "simple" versus "complex" it really depends; without knowing specifically what function you're looking to have i wouldn't be able to tell, and neither would anyone else. But i think if you approach plugin authors like the above they'd be willing to hear out the details for your ideas.

I hope that helps (: