Would you mind elaborating on your experiences with elance? I had a family member who does freelance marketing/writing called me a few years ago and mentioned he was planning to sign up there and asking what I knew about it.
I could only tell him about a comment I'd browsed on HN that referred to it as a "ghetto" of poor paying assignments. He went ahead with it and now seems to be doing quite well as one of the top 5 providers of marketing and writing services.
My experience is with hiring technical freelancers: design, network, security, development, etc.
It is entirely possible that elance is great for non-technical jobs.
The issues I ran into were providers who have great ratings but who can't do the job! Later I found out that elance has a loophole where buyers who disputed or cancelled projects are not able to leave feedback. So you're not getting the full story when you look at a provider's history.
elance doesn't really care about this. So you have a huge portion of freelancers on elance who cosmetically pump up their ratings to get more jobs and then either farm them out to others or do a shoddy job themselves. when/if the job goes into dispute or is cancelled it disappears from their history. if the client is dumb enough to be happy with the crap work, they get a nice rating in exchange for turning over the final code.
> Later I found out that elance has a loophole where buyers who disputed or cancelled projects are not able to leave feedback.
That is not correct.
You can dispute a project and as long as the freelancer received a single dollar for any work, you can leave feedback. Why should you be allowed to leave feedback if there hasn't been any payment made?
There are just as many clowns on the client side, as there are on the freelancer side. Many projects never get off the ground because the client has no money or is just an idiot. People like that should be allowed to leave feedback?
If you're having trouble finding quality help on Elance, try creating a private project and invite only those in your geographic region. So if you're in the US, that means US freelancers.
In the end, you get what you pay for. Don't expect miracles from India.
Yes, it is absolutely correct. A provider can waste my time, lock me into dispute resolution and even if I "win" and get a full refund, I can't leave public feedback so that the next buyer knows how shitty they are.
> Later I found out that elance has a loophole where buyers who disputed or cancelled projects are not able to leave feedback.
The mistake many clients make is to request "cancellation". You should request a refund instead (and in the common case where a contractor goes silent, you will get back 100%.) Then mark the job as "complete" and leave feedback, which will be visible in their history (though it will not affect their average star rating.)
Requesting a refund and getting a refund closes the job as not completed, without the ability to leave feedback. The only way to leave feedback is to pay them either full amount or at least for 1 milestone.
Your point is well taken. But tech discussions can also lead to flame wars and HN seems to handle those rather well. I for one am interested in what this community thinks about many subjects. Including politics.
The guideline I'm referring to here is not stupid.
The "don't comment about flagging" guideline is. It's meant to eliminate pointless arguments about what is or isn't germane to the site, much like how you're asked not to comment about being downvoted. But flags are invisible, and the number of people flagging is dwarfed by the number of people upvoting threads about Ron Paul's newsletters, so that the only way for it to leave the front page of the site (precipitously, if you didn't notice) is admin intervention.
Commenting on this post in the first place was stupid, since the story already got buried. I just felt bad for 'davidw, and I'm a nerd, so when someone says "I think HN is in fact a great place to talk about politics", it's hard for me to resist commenting that it's by charter not a place to talk about politics.
I'm answering in detail because you seem to follow my comments, and I don't want you to think I'm blowing you off. I'm not. I don't know you or have any problem with you personally.
I don't think he seriously views Second Life as a real competitor - he was just using it to draw an analogy.
As for the community, I believe the "fakeness" he's getting at is the ability of the user to carefully cultivate their likeness and project a version of themselves that may or may not be truly reflective of "reality".
Of course, one could argue that we are always cultivating a "desired image" of ourselves. However, Facebook and similar platforms provide visual and textual clues that allow users to more concretely realize social relationships. This in turn may allow them to go above and beyond the normative level of image moderation. Whether that is "good" or "bad" is another question altogether.
Dvorak hates facebook because it allows people like Dvorak a soap box to stand on.
In reality, my friends, on facebook and in life, are not Dvoraks. They are normal people with jobs, with hobbies, etc... People (usually) too busy to worry about online image or rant about popular internet culture. That's why I like facebook. If I had a bunch of Dvoraks for friends, I'd probably hate it too.
Chewing gum stimulates the production of saliva which temporarily eases your thirst. This can buy you time to find drinkable water, and to help you to wait for water to be treated - you DO NOT want to risk diarrhea in a survival situation.
I'm 54 and come here first for the tech articles. But after lurking around for many months I've come to respect many HNers a great deal. So I also appreciate reading their thoughts and opinions on topics of the day. (healthcare reform, net neutrality etc.)
While considering what I could add - all I could think of was an old Neighborhood comic that pictured a guy in a suit and tie slumped against a building holding a tin cup in his hand. Around his neck is a sign that reads "My mind is a hodge-podge of half-baked ideas."
My biorhythm must be off today. Yeah, that must be it.
When I was laid off a few months ago, I was told to call a Plan Administrator if I wanted to continue my health insurance plan out of my own pocket. Of course I wanted to - I've a family with 3 kids. When I called the woman she said she would send me the forms. The cost, she said, was around $600 per month for my Family Plan. "And let me give you some advice", she added. "If you are even one day late with a payment, your insurance will be canceled." "Don't be late with a payment."
That $600 is right around my total Unemployment Compensation. So yeah, I've little interest in debates on ideologies. I doubt any of the windbags above would be interested either if they had to decide between providing healthcare insurance for their family or paying their mortgage.
Well don't lose hope. Look into a high deductible catastrophic policy that will cover you for the god forbid large events. That deduction requires you pay out of pocket for wellness care, visits for shots, strep throat, etc., but if you can buy one for a year out of savings it may be a cheaper option.
Never underestimate the kindness of strangers and don't be ashamed to let your doctors know your situation. Offer to trade services, presumably your reading HN so you can work with computers. I know a good number of doctors who get a lot of severely discounted home maintenance services from folks who got free or reduced payments for care.
But above all don't ever hesitate to sacrifice the mortgage payment for the sake of your children. They come first. You can swallow your pride and keep the mortgage and bank wolves away from the door for a good period of months by knowing a bit about the law.
I agree with you about ideology. This "healthcare" debate is really about a lot of issues boiling over in our society and it's not really a debate or discussion. There seems to be no common sense left.
Thanks man. Things are looking up considerably now. I was quite hesitant to comment on what had become a rather emotional issue for me. At any rate, I really appreciated your thoughtful response.
I could only tell him about a comment I'd browsed on HN that referred to it as a "ghetto" of poor paying assignments. He went ahead with it and now seems to be doing quite well as one of the top 5 providers of marketing and writing services.