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Yeah, the idling thing, or looking from the other side, the on-demand expectation pretty much kills it. Or makes it hard to organize. I used to be active on Co
by atleta 6y ago
Yeah, the idling thing, or looking from the other side, the on-demand expectation pretty much kills it. Or makes it hard to organize.
I used to be active on CodeMentor a few years ago, and the bad thing for these problem solving kind of requests is that they are usually prompt requests. Now working remotely, in theory, you can be available almost any time, the problem is, that after a while you just feel like not wanting to leave what you do. At least not on a short notice.
Agreed upon mentoring sessions that can be scheduled work a lot better from this regard.
Actually, when I joined codementor, I was working on a startup that offered psychology consulting in a similar way. (And one of the reasons me joinging codementor was to get first-hand experience of the dynamics of such a service.) Our psychologists didn't like either that they had to be around and that they had a lot of non-meaningful inquiries. (Similar to what you see on codementor.)
- tppiotrowski 6y agoThere’s also the awkward feeling of not being able to solve the problem and still charging something. I actually preferred “tipping”. I solve your problem and then you pay me instead of running a timer.
- atleta 6y agoWell, on codementor you can give a refund. And that would erase the session (and the rating, if you received one) from your history. I think it's better than tipping. Tipping, at least to my European ears, sounds like this voluntary thing as opposed to paying for a service. BTW, what happened to your service? Or, probably better to ask, how far did you get and why did it fail?
- crispyambulance 6y ago> ...awkward feeling of not being able to solve the problem and still charging something... I think that can be addressed by setting the right expectations. A discussion with an expert doesn't have to end with "the answer" to be super helpful. A lot of times people have just gone down the wrong path and need someone to get them going in the right direction or even just confirm that they're doing the right thing. This requires a empathy from the provider and grit from the person seeking help. This kind of work is definitely not a "stackoverflow" kind of thing. It's also can't be about the money, because anyone with enough skill to help people out with dev problems is likely already well paid and doesn't really "need" to do it.
- hanniabu 6y ago> Agreed upon mentoring sessions that can be scheduled work a lot better from this regard. Yes I would like this