21–30 of 118 posts
In summary, my $2500 project was closed by the developer at his will, with no money returned and no way to even leave a feedback! Multiple attempts asking the company to allow me to even leave a feedback came to nothing.
Freelancer is not to be trusted.
I'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"…
I used both Odesk and Freelancer to hire developers, and I urge everyone to look at my previous submission ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5177951 ) about deplorable protections at Freelancer.com. In summary, my $2500 project was closed by the developer at his will, with no money returned and no way to even leave a feedback! Multiple attempts asking the company to allow me to even leave a feedback came to noth…
I used both Odesk and Freelancer to hire developers, and I urge everyone to look at my previous submission ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5177951 ) about deplorable protections at Freelancer.com. In summary, my $2500 project was closed by the developer at his will, with no money returned and no way to even leave a feedback! Multiple attempts asking the company to allow me to even leave a feedback came to noth…
I 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 downstrea…
All of the services have good workers, but they've also all been participating in a race to the bottom. As a developer, it's hard to ask for more than $100/hr on a site where you're listed alongside those asking for $10/hr. Even if you are 10 times more productive, it's simply hard to explain why or how that's possible in a marketplace setting.
After spending some time working as a consultant, I just launched a new marketplace for high-end contract work: http://getlambda.com/. We have a clear minimum ($100/hr) and personally interview everyone looking to participate (both clients and consultants).
Re: ODesk - Screenshots count as video? That is completely irrational.My most recent experience was a contractor on there who was padding his hours hugely. Literally a 5 minute job he tried to spread across 5 hours.
I thought this was a great comparison of the popular talent marketplaces, but it skipped over the most important trait: the typical hourly or project rate. All of the services have good workers, but they've also all been participating in a race to the bottom. As a developer, it's hard to ask for more than $100/hr on a site where you're listed alongside those asking for $10/hr. Even if you are 10 times more productive…
I'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"…
A few years ago I contracted a developer from the largest agency on oDesk at the time, based in India.
This developer had a masters degree, tons of experience, and had a daily rate significantly higher than the average. Things worked out so well that I increased the team to 7 people total from this same company.
After about 8 months, the quality of work fell dramatically.
I ended up cancelling the contracts a few months after that, and found out something shocking from the ex project manager:
The developers I had hired had been switched out for junior level devs. Some of the developers I hired didn't even work for that company anymore. I had none of my original hires, and didn't know it.
They had been communicating with me under the previous names and email addresses. I had wondered why they so often "forgot" things that I had told them 6 months ago.
I was told this was a common practice in large agencies.
The problem: Inadequate accountability, even with screenshots or videos.
Is this problem specific to oDesk? No, not at all. But it's turned me off "per-hour" contracts altogether, and now I only outsource very small, highly scoped, pay-on-delivery projects.