.josh Posted January 23, 2009 Share Posted January 23, 2009 GENERAL RULES AND GUIDELINES FOR POSTING This forum is not meant to be a formal freelance service system. It is available for those who wish to seek out services or work from other people, as a courtesy to the members of the phpfreaks community. phpfreaks.com does not specialize in freelance services. This forum is an informal mechanism, as a courtesy to the community. We have no formal mechanism in place (like escrow) to guarantee payment, refund, work done, etc... phpfreaks.com shall not be held responsible for any losses you incur. we have never and continue to not act as any kind of mediator or verification/compensation source for people/organizations who use those forums. We will not be held responsible/liable for any damages, loss, etc. that occur from use of those forums. If you hire someone and they rip you off, don't come crying to us. If someone hires you and they rip you off, don't come crying to us. Those forums are a convenience. If you want something more official that offers guarantees, go to a real freelance site! If you have any questions regarding the freelance forum, feel free to ask them here. RULES: WHERE TO POST:If you want to offer your services, post in the Service Offerings sub-forum.If you want to offer a job or position of employment, post in the Job Offerings sub-forum. DO NOT post your 'resume' in job posting threads. You must directly contact the person you wish to reply to. The only reason replies are allowed is to ask for clarification/details about the job. Failure to adhere to this rule will result in all kinds of things, like you getting banned, or us disallowing replies. DO NOT make more than one thread offering your services. You can edit/reply to your thread to reflect additions/changes. DO NOT post advertisements to other sites offering freelance system services. For example, rentacoder.com, odesk.com, etc.. we have no partiality for or against those sites, but posts such as those are regarded as advertisement, which is against our main site rules. We fully acknowledge that this freelance system is limited, but we aren't here to provide free advertising for other places. If you prefer to do actual business through one of those sites, please specify in direct contacts with the person. You are allowed, as a freelancer or freelance company, to post a link to your personal portfolio/company to those sites, or a site that you own. But general promotions to those other sites are not allowed. GUIDELINES: When posting in the freelancing forum it's important that you provide a way for users to contact you. They will not be able to reply to your topics so they need a way to contact you privately. This can be using PMs, emails, any type of instant messaging service (MSN, Gtalk, AIM, Jabber, etc.) or however you see fit.The more specific you are about your skills, previous experience(s), availability, rates, etc.. the better your chances of getting serious inquiries. Posting vague "I'm available for anything and everything" might get more inquiries on average, but there's a good chance that it will come to nothing, based on any number of things that you could have posted here in the first place. Better to receive 10 emails from people who have some idea of your qualifications/terms, than 100 emails that don't.Be honest about your skills. All day long we see people posting about how they jumped on a job and bit off more than they could chew. They tell the client they can do everything they need and more, promise them the moon, and then promptly crap their pants about 5 minutes into it. Don't be that person! Some people get lucky and figure it out. Some people get lucky and get help that figures it out. Most people end up having to give up the project. Which leads us to....Wasting people's time and money. You waste the client's time. You waste your own time. That bad rep will more than likely come back to haunt you. All day long we get people trying to get us to delete their posts because they don't want their skeletons to come out of the closet (no we won't hide them for you). So be smart! Do the simplest easiest thing to avoid all this headache: be truthful about your skills. If you feel that being truthful will limit your potential clients, then get off your bum and hit the books. You can't seriously be in the business of trying to con people, are you?Be very clear about what you are doing. Some clients know your job, and are just looking for extra set of hands. Most do not, and therefore seek someone who does. Therefore, if you want to avoid headaches, it is your responsibility to be very clear about what it is you're going to do. What you're willing to do. What kind of support you offer after the fact, etc... on that note..Be up front and thorough about your prices. Take a look at the situation. Quote a price for it. Quote prices for things that might come up later. The more you have to go back later saying that xyz was unforseen or xyz wasn't part of the deal, regardless of whether or not you are in the right, the more you are going to come off as shady, to the client. It's like when you take your car to a mechanic and that funny noise goes from being one little $50 thing to a $2000 rebuild because the mechanic kept coming back to you saying something else is wrong. That stuff may indeed be needed, but the fact that you didn't think about it and let them know ahead of time speaks volumes about your skills as a coder. Some things just aren't foreseeable. Most things are. 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