I don't do a whole lot of freelance work, but when I do I always talk to the person over the phone (or face to face if local) before starting. You can pretty much read a person after a minute of conversation and know, but with IM or email you just can't (unless the guy goes crazy on you like this one).
I Almost Got a Job on 37Signals Job Board
51–60 of 72 posts
Re: I Almost Got a Job on 37Signals Job Board
#52Earlier quoted context omitted.
They were the days! The oddest thing is I've Googled about 10 names from the late 90s Web design days and haven't found a single person. I can't imagine what they're all up to now but it doesn't seem to be the modern Web development industry, that's for sure. Were the late 90's "new media" bunch really a wackier, more diverse lot than we are now?
Not a personal contact, but Jeffrey Zeldman, who I used to read about when I was finishing high school, is still around 15 years later.
I worked with Jeffrey in the late 90s, 'new media' days. Nice guy. Not sure if he was wacky as I'm apparently wacky myself.
Re: I Almost Got a Job on 37Signals Job Board
#53Earlier quoted context omitted.
At my first web job, the week I started there was an empty desk alongside mine. The other employees spoke of its absent occupant as though he was a bit of a curiosity (like they could talk - you could write a sitcom about that place). He eventually returned from leave and I found out why he was the strange one even in comparison to them: he was over 60 years old, still lived with his mother, had some penchant for buy…
They were the days! The oddest thing is I've Googled about 10 names from the late 90s Web design days and haven't found a single person. I can't imagine what they're all up to now but it doesn't seem to be the modern Web development industry, that's for sure. Were the late 90's "new media" bunch really a wackier, more diverse lot than we are now?
My weirdest disappearing story...
A work mate (not web, Linux/Unix/3D programmer) was made superfluous ten years ago.
He was cool and we others missed him when he totally disappeared. (We also missed his incredible music collection with technical death metal, weird folk and improvised jazz.)
Then, years later, I Googled his name among the credits of a game.
When people disappear, they might not have died -- it might be worse... they might be developing games. :-)
I met him last year when I traveled to where he is living now; like most everyone else he had burned out doing games.
Hmm, I'll send an email and see if he's collected himself and is back doing weird hacking...
I guess people I know might be telling disappearing stories about me, since when I got ill a bunch of years ago.
Re: I Almost Got a Job on 37Signals Job Board
#54We've seen this guy a number of times under different guises over at 99designs.com. Our anti-fraud systems mostly pick him up now, he's not particularly bright. Does anyone have a contact at 37Signals that I could provide with details?
We emailed this guy and are waiting back to hear his side of the story. I can't imagine how he'll defend himself, but we'll give him 24 more hours before we pull his jobs off the site.
Re: I Almost Got a Job on 37Signals Job Board
#55How the brief was written scared me a little, but 37Signals charges a pretty decent amount to post a listing so I figured it was all going to be kosher. So, the question here is: why didn't you trust your gut feeling? Why did you value your (simplistic) rationalization more?
> So, the question here is: why didn't you trust your gut feeling? Why did you value your (simplistic) rationalization more?
Why trust instinct when you can trust fact?
Re: I Almost Got a Job on 37Signals Job Board
#56I wonder how likely that guy would have been to respond that way in a face-to-face meeting? I mean, I suspect he would have been somewhat likely, but on some order of magnitude less so than for internet communication.
Why do people treat internet based communication differently than other, older forms? I've never had a misunderstanding in person, over the phone, or over snail mail devolve into such a vile display of human worthlessness.
Does the mode change people or does the mode bring us into contact with more people who would be likely to respond in this manner? I know I have gotten into more arguments online than in person, but I also know that most of the people I know in person are fairly reasonable people. The relative anonymity of the internet tends to hide details that would lead me to avoid certain types of people long before such an argument appeared.
Maybe in 20 years, when everyone can no longer remember a time before the internet, we will have figured out "etiquette" properly. Ha, that reminds me, I haven't seen a "'netiquette" posting in so long; they used to be so popular 10 years ago. Do we just assume (wrongly) that every gets it?
Re: I Almost Got a Job on 37Signals Job Board
#57This reminded me of something the other way around. Back in 1998, I was on summer break before going to college. My parents said I had to get a summer job, so I got an entry level PR job at a Web design agency (new media, baby!) in London. Somehow, within a few weeks I was attending recruitment interviews. One totally normal looking guy came in, sat down, and after a quick introduction the CEO asked him what his back…
At my first web job, the week I started there was an empty desk alongside mine. The other employees spoke of its absent occupant as though he was a bit of a curiosity (like they could talk - you could write a sitcom about that place). He eventually returned from leave and I found out why he was the strange one even in comparison to them: he was over 60 years old, still lived with his mother, had some penchant for buy…
> some penchant for buying any food
> set himself on fire in bed
> uncontrollable giggle
I wonder, what could possibly lead to such things?
Re: I Almost Got a Job on 37Signals Job Board
#58I wonder how likely that guy would have been to respond that way in a face-to-face meeting? I mean, I suspect he would have been somewhat likely, but on some order of magnitude less so than for internet communication. Why do people treat internet based communication differently than other, older forms? I've never had a misunderstanding in person, over the phone, or over snail mail devolve into such a vile display of…
I think it really comes from the ease of the exit and the disconnect from anything human. Even when you come down to it on a snail-mail level there is still a human element to that communication. Whether it be the signature at the end, or hosting a physical object in your hand, I think something makes it more real.
When you are online everything fits into the same type of frame: Words in a font on a screen. It looks just the same just about everywhere. I think it may be that these people believe they are yelling more at a screen and some text than a real human being on the other side.
Re: I Almost Got a Job on 37Signals Job Board
#59http://is.gd/d7eBI it looks like this guy posts job ads under different names. all of them have red flags so it shouldn't be hard to avoid scumbags like this.
This is just out of curiosity, why shorten that URL?
I'm not saying this as a joke at the previous poster's expense, but I think it really is likely a result of too much time spent on Twitter (and perhaps an addiction to the is.gd clickthrough analytics?).
Re: I Almost Got a Job on 37Signals Job Board
#60This reminded me of something the other way around. Back in 1998, I was on summer break before going to college. My parents said I had to get a summer job, so I got an entry level PR job at a Web design agency (new media, baby!) in London. Somehow, within a few weeks I was attending recruitment interviews. One totally normal looking guy came in, sat down, and after a quick introduction the CEO asked him what his back…
In a previous job there was a system similar to JIRA that sent out e-mail notifications on new bugs and so on. Each employee was also represented by a ticket with contact information and so on.
Less than a week into starting this job, I received an automated message saying that "Ticket 1234 Fred Bloggs has been deleted". At the same time, the guy got up, left and never returned...