Hey George,<br><br>If you're not technical and not experienced with whatever software you want somone technical to help you out with, it's not always easy to find someone worth the money vs. one of the bozos. Some of what you look for is what you'd do when looking for anyone to help you out with something you don't know about (like remodeling your house, a trade I know nothing about but of which have heard lots of horror stories): ask around, see what your friends/colleagues recommend, see if there's anything out on the web, do they have examples of their work, do they have former clients who speak well of them, that sort of thing. I also like looking for someone who's willing to admit
weaknesses. For example. when I used to
interview for employees at a former job, I'd always ask at least one question for
which they couldn't know the answer to test their upfrontness/honesty. Not necessarily a killer if they admit they don't know, but flags would
be raised and I might try it again. But this is all general advice you probably already know.<br><br>In terms of drupal specifically, I will add a few more things. Drupal.org is a great resource. You can see what sort of things a person has contributed and how involved someone is in the community. When I'm evaluating a 3rd party module, I look for a few things so I don't end up with some code some random person contributed as a lark that I then have to maintain myself and some of that criteria applies when looking for a consultant. For example, what modules (if any) has the person contributed? Are any high profile? Are other people using and liking it? Are the projects well maintained if they're maintainer? (speaking personally as a not so fantastic maintainer) Are there lots of bugs in the modules? Is the person fairly active? Does the person seem to have a good rep? It's not necessarily a killer if the person doesn't meet all or even any of these things, but it'd definitely make me a little wary.<br>
<br>Also, if you just want to cut to the chase and can afford their rates, consider Acquia or Lullabot. These people are working on core, so if anyone's going to know how to do your project and do it well, it's going to be them. More than most, these folks are going to have a better idea of where things are and where they're headed so it's probably very likely that you're going to get a good product fairly quickly that should be relatively easy to maintain. But I suspect you'll probably have to pay a premium--I have no idea what either charges so don't quote me on that. From your situation, sounds like that might be more cost effective than trying out more bozos. And getting a quote's free, so why not, right?<br>
<br>Anyhow, I hope this helps!<br><br>gwen<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Sun, Mar 15, 2009 at 1:14 AM, George Por <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:George@community-intelligence.com">George@community-intelligence.com</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
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<font color="#800000"><font size="4"><font face="Verdana, Helvetica, Arial"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">hi Sammy,<br>
<br>
</span></font></font></font><font size="4"><font face="Verdana, Helvetica, Arial"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><div class="im"><font color="#0000ff">> they wonder why on earth should they give me such a rate when some other bozo is only asking for $30 an hour and he also claims to know how to program.<br>
</font></div><font color="#800000"><br>
I empatize with your issue, <i>and </i>on the receiving end of Drupal services, I have a similar one. I’ve been paying up to €50/hour to folks who claimed to be Drupal experts, who couldn’t do the job and when I hired them I had no idea what they really are capable to do. A couple of months and lot of wasted money later, I learned form the next programmer that the previous guy had no clue of what he was doing. That cycle has repeated 4 times, the next one always blaming the previous one of the messy state of our sites.<br>
<br>
I grew so desperate over this situation that I am considering abandoning the Drupal platform, where I am totally dependent on programmers and look for an alternative platform that I could maintain without technical knowledge. However, I have many Drupal-based sites and that would not be an easy to choice, neither. So I want to give it one more try. Given that I don’t know you, how can I get a sense that you are not one of the “other bozos” that you talked about?<br>
<br>
</font><div class="im"><font color="#0000ff">> I am looking for more work, but, as usual, not entirely sure how to find it.<br>
</font></div><font color="#800000"> <br>
Well, maybe you’ve just one found one if you can answer my question above and if I can afford your fee. What I’m looking for is ongoing site maintenance, upgrades, customization, and light programming. If you, or anybody else is interested to explore that possibility, drop me a line.<br>
<font color="#888888">
<br>
George</font></font> </span></font></font>
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