3 ms·
> First we needed a mobile app to administer the server so we hired an experienced mobile developer through guru.com. His credentials were great but maybe it sh
by chasing 11y ago
> First we needed a mobile app to administer the server so we hired an experienced mobile developer through guru.com. His credentials were great but maybe it should have been a tip-off when, right after we made the first payment, the developer moved from Europe to India... We were naive. The original development estimate was exceeded in the first week and we were up to more than 8X by the time we pulled the plug. Still the developer kept trying to charge us, eventually sending the project to arbitration, which we won.
This smacks of the client not knowing how to use a developer. Meaning: I can imagine they made a simple (probably incomplete) scope or product definition document, didn't realize where the complexity actually lay, found someone cheap, and then realized that no one had the ability to actually shepherd the project to completion. They knew nothing about their developer -- and she or he knew nothing about them. And they weren't paying that much, really. So it wasn't a huge priority in the developer's life. And maybe the dev was young or just kind of between things and something more important came up or whatever. It actually takes some thoughtfulness to be a professional freelancer. Can be harder sometimes than it looks.
Cheap overseas developer talent is fine. But. There's also a huge value to finding people who you can sit down with and talk to. Meet. Get to know a bit. Professional freelancers will absolutely help naive clients identify and avoid pitfalls from the start. We (professional freelancers) have already fallen into them all and generally have the scars and callouses to know what it really takes to produce good software in a freelance environment. Professionals know how much time and effort it actually takes to do things. They'll tell you if your "I need a Facebook clone next week" project has any chance of success. They'll help you with design and they'll help you understand the trade-offs between money, time, and functionality that all software projects must make.
Sounds like none of that happened here.
Anyway. This just touched a nerve for me. Maybe I'm totally off base.
- jefurii 11y agoFrom The Article: > But $7500 in the hole is not much cost to start a technology business. Unless I missed something, it doesn't sound like they paid the developer much at all.
- fcp 11y agoI think $7500 is their net loss. They raised $35,452 on Kickstarter. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/583591444/mineservertm-a-99-home-minecraft-server/description https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/583591444/mineservertm-...
- dav- 11y agoThey raised $35.5k on Kickstarter, and I'm assuming they have spent all of that plus $7.5k out of their own pocket before shipping a single unit.
- frandroid 11y ago7500 / 15 = 500. 500 units times $99 is $50K. With that kind of budget (that's everything, not just dev time) you can't hire a top-line developer.
- joantune 11y ago7500 can get some good (although limited) development done around here (Portugal). Dunno how much time it would take whatever they needed though
- jandrese 11y agoI didn't read much past that first paragraph for basically the same reason. This project failed because nobody involved had a single clue as to how the real world works. The worst part is that there are plenty of Minecraft server administration suites out on the web for download already. Hiring a rando "developer" (with of course a good resume, everybody in those code farms has 1,000 years of development experience in every language!) you've never met to do the one thing that might differentiate your product is just insane. The craziest thing is that a Minecraft server manager is not a difficult thing to write. I tossed together a couple hundred line Perl script with a bunch of useful features in an afternoon and ran servers with it for years.
- LoSboccacc 11y agoOne would expect differently from Cringley of all person. He made a living about mocking people outsourcing and company being mismanaged.
- velik_m 11y agoMaybe he wanted his kids to learn the lesson first hand?
- LoSboccacc 11y agoat the expense of real people paying real money?
- DanBC 11y ago> The craziest thing is that a Minecraft server manager is not a difficult thing to write. I tossed together a couple hundred line Perl script with a bunch of useful features in an afternoon and ran servers with it for years. Just checking, but how easy would that have been for the intended audience? (Mums and dads who don't know much about computing or minecraft servers).
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]