Is rentacoder still around? I had good experiences there.
It rebranded as vWorker, and was acquired by Freelancer.
I was quite surprised when I was checking out Freelancer, and it said I had been a member since 2001. (from rentacoder)
ODesk vs Elance vs Freelancer vs Guru
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Re: ODesk vs Elance vs Freelancer vs Guru
#12Is rentacoder still around? I had good experiences there.
Vworker bought it, and added gamification such as achievements and XP.
Re: ODesk vs Elance vs Freelancer vs Guru
#13I've done some work on these in the past, dating back to 2000. They've always been challenging if you're not in a market where you can lowball, so I presume most "senior" developers in premium markets avoid these sites.
I'd love to hear thoughts about using these marketplaces to build up experience in languages you're not yet using in production.
Re: ODesk vs Elance vs Freelancer vs Guru
#14On that article they suggest it costs $10 to post a job on elance, however I've never paid to post a job!
Re: ODesk vs Elance vs Freelancer vs Guru
#15Bad side is that there are alot of scams and poor programmers, looking to snipe the job and squeeze money from employer in any way possible. From my personal opinion, atleast 80% of bidders do this (I'm working over Freelancer).
Good side is that with little hassle, employers can find really great freelancers that know to do their job. Personally, as a programmer from 3rd world country, these sites provide alternative, and a great way of earning money. Here where I live, starting salaries for programmers are around 500$, and peak at 1800$, if you get job in Microsoft, both 8-10h/day fulltime jobs. The IT market here is practically non-existant, except few high profile companies that offer decent working conditions. With these sites, I have freedom to apply my working conditions, rules and price.
Re: ODesk vs Elance vs Freelancer vs Guru
#16Speaking as an employer: All of these sites have good workers, and all of them have workers who will turn in shoddy work, hoping you won't notice. I've hired for more than a dozen projects and in no case did the contractor do the job right the first time - because they didn't care enough, not because they were incompetent. I've hired workers in the US, in India, in the UK, and elsewhere. Same sorts of issues crop up.…
As a remote freelancer:
Communication and cost are the main problems.
Usually clients have a hard time explaining exactly what they want and our visions might differ. When I turn in results, they are often different than what the client first imagined they'd be, but through iteration and conversation I can help the client clarify what they want or realise something else 90% of the time.
Time is another big problem. When you want something done in X time, I will do my best to catch that time. Sometimes this means discussing with the client until the feature list is cut down to a deliverable size. Other times it means sacrificing future flexibility of the code. I always try to get the best balance between "speed - quality - price" for what the client needs, but it's easy to miss.
Almost always, clients have an unreasonable expectation of what is possible.
I'd say at least 70% of my job is helping the client decide what they even want me to build for them.
Disclaimer: I have never worked through any of the sites listed in OP. My main source of clients are HN, my blog, twitter, and past clients.
Re: ODesk vs Elance vs Freelancer vs Guru
#17Is rentacoder still around? I had good experiences there.
Vworker bought it, and added gamification such as achievements and XP.
Nope, read the other comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6350600
Re: ODesk vs Elance vs Freelancer vs Guru
#18I've done some work on these in the past, dating back to 2000. They've always been challenging if you're not in a market where you can lowball, so I presume most "senior" developers in premium markets avoid these sites. I'd love to hear thoughts about using these marketplaces to build up experience in languages you're not yet using in production.
It isn't worth the time or effort to do so. I tried it out (elance) a couple of years ago as a worker.
My impression of it is that basically it's a place for two kinds of employer: 1) the "I have this idea, code it up for me for equity in my 'company'" employers who either don't actually have an idea of what they want (and will needle you to flesh out their idea more fully) or have a generic "let's build the next X" (where "X" is usually "Facebook") idea; 2) the lowballer who wants to pay $500 for a job that would take a proficient team weeks or months to do.
As a "senior" level developer, I absolutely avoid these places. And I absolutely do not recommend anybody use them for work. There are far better ways to 'practice' with new languages that involve better compensation and better actual experience.
Re: ODesk vs Elance vs Freelancer vs Guru
#19I am a long time contractor on oDesk and owe a great deal to this site.I wanted to talk a little about the hate the hourly model with screenshots is getting. Here's the primary reason the video thing won't work. Most of the providers are from third world countries where internet while decent is rarely good enough to support uploads in such massive volume. I have a 4 Mbps DSL connection and while i get great downstream, the upstream maxes out at 20 KB/s. So yeah, that's out of the window. However, screenshots work extremely effectively. I have close to 5000 hours logged on oDesk and barring a one off incident where i forgot to shut the logging software down and ended up logging extra hours( I refunded the client) i have never had a buyer dispute my hours. Here's the thing, as an employer you have to be smart about it. When you post a job, only interview candidates with a good oDesk history,look at their past jobs, the buyer's feedback, their portfolio etc. Then talk to them over Skype, ask for code samples etc. If you reach out for the bottom of the pool ofcourse you will get burned, but a contractor with a good history (who might be charging higher)will never ever endanger his feedback history in such a cut throat marketplace where even a single 4.99 out of 5 can knock you off the first page of search results and costing you big time, all for a few extra bucks. This alone will weed out 99% of the dishonest providers. But you can still go and initially, for a week or so, monitor the contractor's work logs closely, you will know instantly if they are padding their hours since oDesk uploads around 5 to 6 screenshots per hour, along with mouse and keyboard activity reports. Just monitor them closely initially and then semi regularly afterwards and you will know what type of contractor you are dealing with. Once you have built trust and seen the contractor's work you can ease up. Finally,set tight milestones and demand regular daily updates and you will know what's going on.
So yeah, don' be lazy, be a little more vigilant and you can find some really good contractors at great prices .All the top contractors i know only work hourly and IMHO Its a great model for the employer and for the contractor, a simple win win.
Re: ODesk vs Elance vs Freelancer vs Guru
#20I've done some work on these in the past, dating back to 2000. They've always been challenging if you're not in a market where you can lowball, so I presume most "senior" developers in premium markets avoid these sites. I'd love to hear thoughts about using these marketplaces to build up experience in languages you're not yet using in production.
These sites have always been a race to the bottom. If you're not in a market where you can lowball you're definitely losing money.