

Hire HN: Looking for a developer to help with dead simple dating site - kyro

Hey all,<p>I have an idea, and a couple sketches, for a site I'd like to get help on developing. I think it's a relatively simple idea to actualize, along the lines of a twitter/craigslist mashup. The idea's imagined success is found in its simplicity, so I'm not looking to pack it with features.<p>Anyway, I noticed several recent posts about hackers here finding work, so I thought I'd come here to tell you that I need work done! This will be a paid gig.<p>What I'm looking for is a rockstar ninja fighter pilot sniper beast of a coder. I know that pisses off the majority of you. I wasn't serious. :P<p>Anyway, I'm looking for a talented developer with knowledge in your preferred language of choice, although, I'd prefer ruby/python because I hope to jump in and help out in the near future, as well. Good with databases, javascript, css, xhtml. A skill level sufficient enough to build something like a twitter.<p>If you're interested, you're more than welcome to email me at kyro@kyrobeshay.com.<p>Apologies if this job post comes off as wildly novice. I'm not a hacker myself, so my requirements and such might seem rooted in a bit of ignorance. But hopefully you get the gist of what I'm looking for.<p>Thank you.
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ojbyrne
This is almost the perfect job ad for here, except for what someone in at the
beginning is going to look for - a little bit of equity, with the promise of a
lot of control (i.e. a co-founder-ish role) down the road if they rose to the
occasion. I'd be tempted myself, but I'm in the middle of something.

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jimfl
There's nothing simple about dating.

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wehriam
Tell me about it.

The good news is I don't have to pay for roses or a fancy Valentine's dinner
this year.

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vaksel
might want to mention how much you plan to pay, since for a lot of people the
"its really simple" means that they only want to pay $100

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kyro
Well, I was expecting a coder name their hourly wage, or what they'd prefer to
charge. I'm not sure if that's the accepted convention. I'm always open for
advice.

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vaksel
if you go by hourly rate you really have no idea what it will cost in the end.
A good programmer at $100/hour, can get the whole thing done in a week. A
crappy programmer at $20/hour will take a year, and it'll cost you 3 times as
much.

You really can't know how long it'll take, since most people will overpromise
and underdeliver. At least if its a fixed cost, you don't lose any extra money
for someone else being lazy

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cubicle67
I've never yet seen fixed price work well, and I think on something of this
size it's doomed to fail. The biggest problem is defining the scope which is
almost impossible to do in any detail at the beginning of a project.

Instead, I'd recommend either fixed price for small, bite sized tasks, or (as
per my current contract) a weekly rate until completion. I work on rapid turn-
around, so the client almost always knows exactly where the project's at and
how it fits with their requirements. Of course a precondition of this is a
decent level of trust on both sides, and a client who's not a pain.

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peterhi
Not a great deal of content in this message. It comes down to "This will be a
paid gig", "kyro@kyrobeshay.com" and "dating site". The rest is just plain
weasel speak.

Hopefully you express yourself more succinctly in the spec.

However there are some things that a potential coder would be interested in
that it might do for you to answer here.

1) What are you plans for hosting this site 2) How do you intend to promote
the site 3) Given that coders are crap at graphics do you have a designer to
make the site attractive 4) What is the timescale

And as a side note any competent coder can do this, the rocket scientists are
capable of developing it for themselves and cutting you out of the loop. Thats
if they would be interested in a dating site.

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wehriam
I'm a potential coder, and I think there's enough information: preferred
language, general complexity of the project, and required skills. Everything
else would be outlined in initial communication.

Posting a budget would be disadvantageous to him, as the answer is probably,
"the least possible, and no higher than a certain amount."

This post is not "weasel speak," whatever that means.

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peterhi
"I have an idea, and a couple sketches, for a site I'd like to get help on
developing. I think it's a relatively simple idea to actualize, along the
lines of a twitter/craigslist mashup. The idea's imagined success is found in
its simplicity, so I'm not looking to pack it with features."

Ok, just what does that paragraph mean. What the hell is a "twitter/craigslist
mashup"? Do you have any idea how this proposed site would actually work from
that description?

And if you don't know what weasel speak is how do you know that it is not
weasel speak? Weasel speak is the sort of buzzword laden zero content nonsense
that marketing usually churn out.

There were enough words in his post to actually describe the site or at least
what a "twitter/craigslist mashup" was and how it would be different from any
other 'me too' dating site.

I have personally been on too many projects where the specification was full
of this kind of nonsense to take such things kindly. A project that may end up
being conducted by people on different continents needs to be clear. Other
than it is a dating site I have no idea what he wants. If he justs wants to
rip off craigslist or plenty of fish then fine, but at least say so.

Hell if he just wants to rip off a site but is prepared to make sure that it
is hosted and promoted then people would probably do it for free just to get
it on their CV. Hence the reason I asked for clarification of those four
points.

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wehriam
This person wants to pay someone money to create a product. He's not forcing
you to "rip off a site" or divine his intentions.

While I generally appreciate the cantankerous developer, there's no reason to
go on the warpath here.

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kwamenum86
Good luck...just promise not to use the word "dead" tagline.

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alnayyir
No one wants a reverse engineer/systems programmer anymore :(

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eprijer
Hey linux does ;-> Lots of device drivers still need to be written.

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alnayyir
No one's asked me to contribute. I actually am going to be helping the nasm
project instead. They needed me.

