Do you think freelance websites devalue the work of programmers

Every time I look through these sites I cant help get the feeling that people think programming is a mundane task. The other thing that annoys me is I "rented" a coder before just to see the results. The two code examples I received where very poor and buggy. What is your take on sites like this?

Well, it depends! If the coder is over worked and under paid then they will sometimes do a bad job. However, in some case it could be that the coder is just really bad at doing his/her job.

I registered for RentACoder once, got some email notifications on available jobs but they're all incredibly silly. People are asking for really advanced pieces of software for very little money. I'm not sure what I think of sites like that anymore.

That is what I mean. There are now many articles online stating that outsourcing is a great means to get software done cheaply. I cant imagine anyone from a developed country would develop software for the prices on those sites. 80 dollars for a full featured CMS, give me a break.

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Originally Posted by DeanMc

I cant imagine anyone from a developed country would develop software for the prices on those sites.

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Maybe that is where all the programmers come from in the first place?

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Originally Posted by Atheist

I registered for RentACoder once, got some email notifications on available jobs but they're all incredibly silly. People are asking for really advanced pieces of software for very little money.

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I'd done this too, many years ago. I saw the same kinds of things: absurd poorly defined requirements expecting the world and people bidding peanuts to do those jobs.

The best part was looking at some of the follow up discussions on jobs, that were probably less private than now. Lots of "it don't work" and "I did everything you wanted" and "hey, where are you now?" when low-ballers up and abandoned things half done.

I still wonder how many bid low on jobs then come to forums begging for scraps of code to get the job done with. I always picture some guy living in Mom's basement eating cheetos over his keyboard wearing a greasy T-shirt.

Lol, cheetos. But I agree if you pay peanuts you do get monkeys but the bigger issue is the impact these guys may be having on the perception of custom software. While we laugh about it now many people are getting burned on those sites and then telling other people custom software is a waste!

While I agree with you guys about those sites being basically disgraceful to our entire industry there is also one thing that we cannot deny:

there are lots of people to whom "working for peanuts" is way to survive in this world.
Also don't forget - what you pay is what you get.

As simple as that... :ehh:

Very true!

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Originally Posted by RhinoBull

While I agree with you guys about those sites being basically disgraceful to our entire industry...

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Well it is always easy to over generalize. I'm sure there are many good customers who can work with you to help define the project clearly, and many good developers who produce results customers are happy with.

I also haven't looked in on any of those sites in a long time. Things may be quite different now.

Basically, I find getting proper program requirements out of people within our own company is hard enough and I see them every week.. so trying to arrange to have a custom program built for cheap over the internet is just asking for trouble in my opinion.