I think there is a lot of scope into taking the "Friends of Xoops" a stage further, and perhaps having an officially adopted "scriptlance" type project... for things such as this...

Can we have Friends of XOOPS brain storm.

Also what are the inputs from core developers, these guys are the hero.

Can we all exchange ideas and then formulate it

I like the idea of having a scriptlance setup, but with some limitations. I've visited several bid-for-work sites and I can tell you, it gets ridiculous. You get grossly under qualified people bidding ridiculously low rates that do half-ass work. This cannot be allowed to happen here, IMHO. If a scriptlance-like setup were to be implemented, I firmly believe is should not be a part of the XOOPS family of sites, or the XOOPS foundation. I just see way too many opportunities for bad things to happen.

Here's what I propose:
An independent site be developed by a non-core team member where qualified developers can sign up to offer their services for a reasonable fee.

The manager of the site would not be a programmer who is available for hire from the site.

Every programmer who wishes to join the site must goes through a verification process where their identity, portfolio, and skills are assessed. This will foster trust in the developers by the clients and will, most likely, result in more satisfied clients.

As far as bidding for jobs goes, that's touchy, real touchy. I have not thought of a better way yet, but the gerbils in my head are hard at work on it. Any suggestions?

Since the primary audience/clientele is XOOPS users, and since the clientele wouldn't exist if XOOPS wasn't here, I believe a reasonable percentage from every job should automatically be donated to XOOPS.

In all fairness to the maintainer(s) of the "xoopslance" site, I also believe a reasonable percentage from every job should also go back into the "xoopslance" site to help cover hosting expenses and to make it worth the maintainer's time to keep the site running smoothly and to provide support.

I believe that there should be an election to decide who will be the maintainer(s) of the xoopslance site. No ego trips belong here. This should be about trust and offering a valuable service to the community, not lining your pockets, running the show, or obtaining bragging rights. Perhaps even a small board of maintainers. That way if one member fails to perform their duties adequately, they can be voted off the board in favor of a better candidate. This would further enhance trust in the "xoopslance" project from the community.

These are just a few suggestions off the top of my head. I firmly believe there is a place for paid development in XOOPS ONLY IF IT TRULY WILL BENEFIT XOOPS.

Does anyone have any comments/suggestions/opinions/etc. they would like to add to this discussion?

Best Regards,

James

BTW... Yes, I am aware that this is not a new discussion and that xoopslance.com/.net/.org is already registered. However, there has been no discussion of this in quite some time, and the xoopslance sites return "Page not found" errors which indicates that their is no active xoopslance site.

If I am mistaken, please correct me.

Best Regards,

James

Some good points there again...

As a note.

I purchased the scriptlance code "freelancers" a couple months back and am in the process of setting up a site running XOOPS 2.2 and was planning to concentrate on the CMS market.

In essence offering a place for the different CMSs out there to find the coders. And the coders to offer their services.

I like the ideas exposed already.

Cheers.

I strongly agree.
I believe this group should work as nonprofit group and under GPL licensing
I also strongly believe that 2 members from core developers should be on the board with veto power ( this is important to keep this group ALWAYS as part of XOOPS community and in line with founders/developers strategic vision) we don’t need Microsoft java vs. Sun java and ……….

It will be nice that core developer to have their voice in this. Again this should not be look at as split or any other nonsense. It is just help the core developers and time to market. I could provide infrastructure and seed money and initial admin till it takes a shape and committee finds suitable person to handle the job.


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Very good point. Could not agree more

Hmmmm... Sounds like there's a foundation for this project beginning to form.

Freelancers Script on a XOOPS site.... Check
Financial Backing.... Check
Willing Admin... Check

Any Core Team members wish to comment?

JM - can u bump this post tomorrow in case anyone misses it? I've got to get some kip now

I think this could be a start of a good project if its thought out right.

I suggest you folks open a new thread on this topic. The ideas are great but many may not be reading a thread titled "xoops vs mambo"

Just a thought. :)