
TinyProj Shuts Down, Users Sent To TechStars GroupTalent - FluidDjango
http://techcrunch.com/2012/01/16/tinyproj-shuts-down-users-sent-to-techstars-grad-grouptalent-instead/
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typicalrunt
_Only 20% of all applicants get in, as determined by a filtering process done
through manual review in combination with algorithms that rank the applicants
based on open source contributions._

Applicants are ranked based on their open source contributions? Jeez, I'd
never get in. All of my clients require me to work on closed source code, and
I've worked on the smallest of the small projects, to large $700 million
dollar projects.

I realize that choosing the right candidate for a project can lead someone to
a certain set of paranoia, but isn't there more we can use to rank people
other than their open source contributions?

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whather
Open source contributions is one of many things we look at to decide
acceptance. You don't need to have any open source contributions but it does
help us gauge you as a developer. It mostly comes down to what you've built in
the past (open source or not).

~~~
typicalrunt
Thank you for following up.

What other criteria do you judge candidates by? Do you only look at publicly
accessible work? A lot of work that I do is in back-end services...stuff that
the public never sees. That has always made it difficult to show in a
portfolio.

~~~
whather
Yeah, currently we look at publicly accessible work a developer has done.
Agreed that front-end and design heavy work shows much better in a portfolio
(and is usually an easier sell for the project owner) but we're working on
ways to bubble back-end work to the top so it shows nicely. We get a number of
back-end only type projects come through, so definitely still request an
invite.

~~~
caw
Does "transition" mean you have to apply if you were on TinyProj or are you
automatically in?

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whather
Yeah you still have to apply if you were an existing TinyProj user.

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Mizza
Interesting! I started a service with a similar idea in mind, but still have a
smaller userbase (~>2000 members and growing every day!). Nice to see there is
a real demand for it though. Congratulations to Kyle!

(If anybody is interested, check it out at <http://gun.io> /shameless.)

~~~
kylebragger
Thanks a bunch. Love what you're doing with Gun.io. For me, just came down to
not having the time to really devote to Tinyproj. Glad it's found a good home
though.

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stalkninja
A friend pointed this thread to me & I found this to be interesting.

I am running stalkninja.com since Dec 2010 & noticed that grouptalent.com
started 15 days later. Glad to see similar initiative around the world.

I agree with Kyle that such an initiative is pretty time consuming. Even I
need to spend considerable time hand-holding the first time project creators
as I am very particular about the quality of the work that comes. The only
hope being - this is one time & if they come back again, they should be able
to do it all by themselves.

Lot of people pointed out that it is a non-scalable way but I still think of
taking my chances :).

P.S. cum shameless plug :-

stalk ninja is more of college hacker from India centric initiative. The idea
is to expose raw but amazing talent to guys who can not afford to offer them a
job (salary skew is pretty high in India).

We never got covered on any of the major tech journals as I chose to spend
time listening to my clients, helping them refine projects & spreading the
word to college audience. Not sure, if this is right - but again - I decided
to take my chances & do things my way :).

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llambda
Ah what sad news! I really enjoyed using this service and although I never
found a project through it this was almost certainly due to the fact I wasn't
able to take on new projects during the time I was subscribed to it. However
there were many projects that looked interesting and worthwhile. I'm sorry to
see it go.

~~~
kylebragger
Appreciate that! I couldn't think of a better service to take the wheel than
these guys. It just came down to not having enough time/momentum to really
make sure that great projects were coming in consistently. I'm happy to report
that that won't be an issue any longer.

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agscala
TinyProj was cool. Unfortunately the only jobs I applied to had a ton of other
people also apply, and as time went on, the quality of the jobs severely
degraded. Some of them smelled like a scam to me.

Either way, it was a valiant effort and I really appreciate the amount of work
that went into it.

~~~
shaggyfrog
I won't miss reading the "$500 for 14 days of work" emails in my inbox, that's
for sure.

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keeran
Just scanned the ToS - seems like GroupTalent own the relationship between
dev/client for 3 years subject to the client buying them out.

Careful what you agree to if you move over!

<https://grouptalent.com/legal/tos>

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superkinz
I think it's worth mentioning that Kyle's consideration of his user base's
interests was a top priority, and ultimately the reason we decided to
collaborate. He's a class act all the way, and I hope some of you fellas will
take him out to drinks. Dibbs on the first round!

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sgdesign
I also started a similar service, although geared towards designers:

<http://folyo.me>

It's an interesting space to be sure, but running that kind of site does
require a lot of work (if only to find good projects).

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ed209
ooo, I'm on folyo and have to say there are nice projects coming through
there. good job!

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PedroCandeias
Sorry to see it go. Though I never applied to a job with tinyproj, I liked the
way it worked. It was simplicity itself. We'll see how GroupTalent goes, but
I'm not thrilled at the way their filter works.

Anyway, good effort Kyle!

# Edit: By the way, how exactly do we get "transitioned" to GroupTalent?
Should I expect some instructions, an email or something? Or is it better to
just go ahead and apply for an invitation like everyone else?

~~~
kylebragger
Much appreciated. Email is queued up, so expect it shortly. FWIW noone is
automatically moved over; it's your choice to opt-in, but we are providing a
"skip the line" feature for all Tinyproj users who do want to transition.

