Thoughts on an idea? PHP Help site where helpers get paid $$$ ...

[Jax2]

Okay, now if this is a good idea and someone beats me to it, so be it, but I would like some feedback on the idea as I've been playing around with it for a while.

 

You've seen sites like scriptlance and such where a customer adds money (or credits) to their account and then pays someone to do their job for them ...

 

You've also seen (and are currently on) those sites where people come and ask for help with something they're doing.

 

What about combining the two to meet in the middle? I'll explain:

 

It's great that there are places like phpfreaks.com where people can ask for help and usually get it, but what if there as another site that would do the same thing, only those doing the helping would get paid?

 

I'm not talking about $5 or $10.00 for answering a question, I'm talking like maybe 25 cents. Here is why I think it would work, how it would work, and then I'll get to my reasons for not having done something like this yet ...

 

1) While there are free places, I believe that by paying a small fee, even if it is small, it will illicit better answers from the helpers.

2) I believe if people go there, find the answer they need and it works, they WILL come back for more help, again, even if they have to pay a small amount.

3) Offering money will garner many more people willing to help versus a help for free based board such as this.

 

Here is how I envision it working:

 

Customer creates an account and using their credit card/paypal, they purchase "credits". Credits cost $0.50 each. You can buy any amount you like.

 

They ask a question which costs them 1 credit.

 

Helpers can then answer the question. The answer that the customer chooses gets $0.25 added to their account. (The other 25 cents goes to pay for the operating costs, advertising ...etc)

 

If, after a certain point, the customer has not chosen the "Best Answer", well, that's one part I haven't figured out and would like some feedback on. How could you assign an answer as the best? Pick one random answer out of all of them after say, 1 week of the customer not having picked one? They've already spent their credit by asking the question, so I figure other than being lazy, there's no reason why they wouldn't pick the answer.

 

Anyhow, I realize that many people will probably say well, why would someone go pay somewhere when they can simply go to any of the other "free boards" like this one?

 

That's something I've thought about quite a bit, and again, one reason would be that because the people helping are getting paid to do so, they would be much more inclined to answer correctly and get it right the first time in order to get paid for it. That would almost guarantee a correct and timely response for the customer who would appreciate it and come back...

 

What say you?

 

Is this a crap idea, a plausible idea, or a great idea, and would you participate in something like this if it were available?

 

 

[ignace]

I can't find the topic right now but this has been discussed before. The main question that comes up is how do you decide who gets paid? Because what if multiple people give a correct answer? Or what if a user elaborates on a solution and gets chosen as correct answer which would mean he actually stole 0.25 because he would not be able to elaborate if that user did not give that answer.

 

As you can see this becomes really complex

[Jax2]

I agree it would be complex ... that is why I asked for opinions and ideas

 

That is the single point I'm having the most problems with.

 

For example:

 

If it were to show the answers only to the person who asked, and therefore people couldn't "add on" to other answers and steal the credit ... no one would know what was already said and if it was correct or not...

 

Perhaps by marking the question as solved, or answered, that would be the indication that you shouldn't add another answer to it.

 

That in itself would lead to a problem if the user doesn't mark it as solved, which is the case here on a majority of questions ...

 

I guess you could just enact a "so be it, that's tough" mindset where whoever the asker picks as the best answerer, that's it, no questions asked, don't complain, and then explain in very explicit details, just how important it is to choose the person to select rather than favoring a certain person.

 

Maybe even set it up so that if someone feels they've been cheated out of their quarter, they can report it and a mod / staff member can manually review the answers and make a decision as to whether or not the correct person got credit when they should have.

 

There's got to be a way around it, and I think it could, potentially, draw in a ton of people answering, and if the price is cheap as I said, and it's known they'll get good answers, a lot of people with questions.

 

BTW, this would be something I'd be willing to work with someone on, if anyone is interested in helping figure everything out and helps create the site.

 

I figure if that would get the same amount of questions/answers as a site like this, whoever runs something like it could potentially make a lot of money with it, and pay out just as much (as it's 50/50) to everyone that is involved in it.

 

[ignace]

If it were to show the answers only to the person who asked, and therefore people couldn't "add on" to other answers and steal the credit ... no one would know what was already said and if it was correct or not...

 

This only partly solves the problem. For example, what if 2 persons give a correct solution? Different maybe but correct either way, and how will the client know which one is better? Plus, if you can't see the answers someone else gave, you also don't know if he already got an answer or not. Answering an already answered question will make you lose money.

 

Perhaps by marking the question as solved, or answered, that would be the indication that you shouldn't add another answer to it.

 

The client is not online 24/7. Which leads to the next problem, not all clients live in the same timezone as you do which means that if most clients live in a different timezone you are already excluded as by the time you will be able to respond to any problem they are already solved.

 

I guess you could just enact a "so be it, that's tough" mindset where whoever the asker picks as the best answerer, that's it, no questions asked, don't complain, and then explain in very explicit details, just how important it is to choose the person to select rather than favoring a certain person.

 

Which will give your client a feeling of guilt because what if he selected the wrong one as the correct answer? For example, someone answers the question you mark it as solved but just before this act another user posted his answer which after reading is the better answer? Oeps and no way to take back those .25 the client has the best answer but pays the wrong one.

 

Maybe even set it up so that if someone feels they've been cheated out of their quarter, they can report it and a mod / staff member can manually review the answers and make a decision as to whether or not the correct person got credit when they should have.

 

And what should be the procedure when the wrong one was credited? Take back those .25?

 

 

You are not only dealing with a complex idea but also an idea that involves moral feelings. Some may believe they gave the correct answer even if a mod disapproved leading to an angry customer. Yes, even for such small amount of money.

[thewooleymammoth]

i dont have time to read whats already been discussed, sorry if these ideas have bbeen suggested, but here is one way i see it working.

 

give the thread a time limit. and registered users vote on acceptable answers and the best answer. best answer after say a week get the cash. That would encourage some really insiteful answers. you could also allow people to chip in some of thier own points to make the answer reward bigger so the more people want to know the answer the more it attracts better programmers.

 

However i dont think this will work out too well because people running php tend to like free. so they come to places like here. You could have like a pay per tutorial or something to that effect. where people chip in and the first person to create and acceptable (as voted on by users) gets the pot.

[thewooleymammoth]

also, i wouldnt limit it too just php, make it open, help on anything.

 

you could also pay people based on how many members view the page. if you can find advertising thats ppv

[Jax2]

To touch on a few things here ...

 

My wife and I agreed on the same point about why limit it to PHP? You could have any number of categories, programming --> php could be one of hundreds. Consider answers.yahoo.com, without the stupid "Am I pregnant" questions, as people PAY to ask a question they want a real answer to.

 

As for picking an answer, this is how I see it going, and if I do this, how I will work it... thought about this a LOT today and it seems fair to everyone.

 

We'll use PHP as the example still.

 

Forget hiding the answers, any of that stuff...

 

Someone asks, how can I rewrite this query to work, as it's not connecting...

 

Person A writes ... do this ... person B writes ... do this, which is different.

 

The person tries both, finds one works and gives the credit to that person.

 

If the answers are basically the same and both work, well, the person would simply decide themselves who to give the credit to and it's the final choice. Once they hit submit on the pass the credit button, their question will no longer be allowed to receive new answers. They'll only do this once they've decided to close it.

 

As wooley said, after a certain time period (I.e., 3 days maybe ... haven't decided), yes, open it up to the public to vote on the best answer, saving the votes along with the IP to prevent multiple votes ... (Or, I suppose just prevent one computer / ip from signing up more than one account) ... that way it's completely fair.

 

I really think the "Customers choice is final" route is the best, and only way to go.

 

As for time differences, it wouldn't matter what time zone you're in. When the question is created, simply do a timestamp and create an end date 72 hours in the future from that time. So even if they post it at 2am my time (EST), it will still end at 2am my time 3 days from then.

 

I would have to assume that would solve most of the problems. Forget the reporting button, forget even giving people the chance to complain about not getting the credit, and simply leave it up to the person asking, after they've found a good answer.

 

As to questions that DO NOT receive an answer, those are something that would have to be dealt with.... either returning the credit after a set number of days, or keep it and tell the person that by asking a question, they're not guaranteed an answer, but I think the 2nd option there would scare away a lot of people, so probably stick with "Credit refunded after one week of no answers..."

 

The same could be said for questions that do receive answers but none of them are correct, in which case, just like when a question goes to voting on who's answer was best, there would be a "No answer fits" button, and if the majority select that, the asker would get their credit back.

 

I think with a good domain name, some advertising cash, and a good programmer to work with to do an automated paypal transaction module to pay out the answerers, this could be huge.

 

I figured set up a minimum of $10.00 worth of credits to be allowed to cash out into paypal. That means you'd have to be picked as the best answer 40 times and you'd get a payout. Doesn't sound like much either, I mean really, what's $10.00, but when you're already answering questions for FREE other places, well, it's 10 more than 0, so that's pretty good.

 

 

 

[thewooleymammoth]

yea, i think that allowing the customer to have the end all decision is going to discourage people who answer. I think that if they got outvoted by a community then they are likely to accept that thier answer was inferior. Giving one person that power (even if its the person who pays) is likely to start fueds between members who feel they are being screwed out of money. they could feel that their answer was better and they may often be right.  The person asking the question is probably not the person who would know what the best answer was. they probably dont even know if either answer is correct.

 

example:

how do i connect to my database?

 

person a clearly explains how to do this, but in a terribly inefficient and insecure way.

 

person b gives a much more efficient and secure way but its harder.

 

the question asker may give the credit to person a only to realize later that person b was actually correct.  if a community were voting they would most likely go with person b. then the question asker can also have more confidence in the answer. you should also allow comments on each answer. so the question asker can get other  peoples inputs on the answers.

[thewooleymammoth]

continuation:

 

wether the person asking the question chooses who gets paid or not they still get both answers so they are satisfied. Person a cant complain much when hundreds of people out vote him and person b is happy because he got paid for his correct answer. every when is relativly happy and no 1 person is to blame for anyone losing money.

 

IMO this is the only way it would work. but if you guys get it going be sure to post it on here so we can see how it turns out! I think its a pretty good idea and there could be a huge market for it. 25 cents can add up pretty quickly as well. especially if people can add more to the pot if the question goes un answered.

[Adam]

People would rather spend their time trying to answer questions for the cash than read through possibly a large thread and vote on the best answer. If you help people on here, think about when you look at a forum, nobody really goes for the threads with 8 replies or something unless the title sounds intriguing. Even reading this thread I skimmed most of it so apologies if this has been mentioned, but people simply don't want or don't have the time to read through large threads. If they discovered it through Google or something they won't bother to register just so they can vote once they have the answer to their problem. So again you have the problem of how you'd decide the "best answer", but relying on the OP isn't at all reliable as they're the ones asking for help, the least knowledgeable on the subject, and so not qualified to pick the best answer. Someone could provide an efficient, clever solution, whilst someone else could give them some quick hack. To the OP the hack seems like the best answer as it solved their problem the quickest / easiest.

 

Your idea sounds a bit like experts-exchange, in that people pay for help (though I'm not sure if the "experts" get paid). Problem being though they have millions of answers and perhaps millions of members already, and so can charge for their help because it's trusted and reputable. Even having a few thousand posts these days makes a forum look empty / unused, and you don't really hang around.

 

Also this has probably been mentioned, but people in general want everything for free!

[ignace]

Also this has probably been mentioned, but people in general want everything for free!

 

Exactly, why pay if you already have great FREE sources like phpfreaks.com and stackoverflow.com which both share a good deal of experts providing advice for FREE so basically people would use your service for an extra buck but I doubt someone would be willing to pay because both phpfreaks.com and stackoverflow.com have a very high response rate. Basically everyone here just screws your plan

 

Your market would then exist out of the people that do not get an answer here and these commonly are:

 

"I have a website and I now want people be able to register & login, could you please show me how and write some code? I'm a newbie THANX SO MUCH"

[thewooleymammoth]

Look how many people register and vote on things like yahoo answers. Besides you wouldnt even necissarily need to register to vote, perhaps onlly register to answer and ask... I think the idea is that you would draw away the people who like to answer questions from other sites like stackoverfllow, yahoo answers, maybe even phpfreaks, by paying the person who answers.

 

While its true alot of people do like things for free. Alot of people like to get paid for thier work. so alot of question answerers might be really attracted. Unlike experts exchange you should the general public to view questions and answers as well.

 

Also as i previously mentioned: Its true, php users like free stuff, programmers and artists in general like free stuff... but people who have questions about things like: should i put this performance part in my Lamborghini? generally want to pay for answers. they feel more secure if they've paid for it. Which i why i would highly reccomend not limiting it to php.

[Jax2]

Well, like I said, I'm going to go for it ... The only thing I'll really need help with is creating an automatic paypal function to take care of payments (Yeah, right, the only thing... lol) ... okay, also it'll have to have the best security available for sure to prevent hackers from increasing their credits, or credit's owed to them ... Other than that, I have quite a few things in mind. I think the entire concept about being able to ask ANY questions is the main key, not just programming.

 

Like others said, why would someone be willing to pay for an answer when they can get it free? Because if they know the people answering have money at stake, they can be pretty sure they'll get the right answer.

 

I'm pretty excited about this

 

[ignace]

Because if they know the people answering have money at stake, they can be pretty sure they'll get the right answer.

 

More likely the "right" answer as mentioned by MrAdam:

 

but relying on the OP isn't at all reliable as they're the ones asking for help, the least knowledgeable on the subject, and so not qualified to pick the best answer.