The Rent-A-Coder Follow Up

A couple of weeks ago I realized that the feature of being able to individually be notified when somebody logs on/off to Messenger is actually pretty handy for a number of reasons.

I popped a bid into RentACoder with a description of what I wanted:

"Windows Live Messenger does not allow you to set individual alerts when just certain people come on line or go off line. In the product you can set a global option to be alerted when people come online. This is an all or none option, not by the contact.  I'd like a tray option that does the following:

1. bring up the list of contacts.
2. check the ones where I want individual notification
3. when people come online that I do want notification of, I get a small indication, much the way messenger's default works. It comes up in the corner and then goes away after a couple of seconds.

This would require messenger to be running and would also assume the global notification is turned off. This is a windows only requirement. This can be for the current version of windows live messenger with not back compatibility required."

After putting this request up and within 4 hours, 220 people had viewed it.  A coder in Columbia posted a message that basically said, try this and see if it is generally what you want, if so, I can make it into the tray icon, clean it up and send it to you.  I tested it, accepted the bid and a couple of days later, presto, my problem solved.

It cost $200.

There are some interesting aspects to this. There is the obvious, i.e. I got a problem solved quickly and for a great price.

The larger, probably not so obvious issue, is the notion of micro-problem solving.  There are a million hassles in the world of computers. If there was a site called "I'd like this problem solved dot com" where you and I could post little things like this along with what we'd pay, maybe other people would jump on and say, yeah, I'd spring 10 bux for that, etc. Once there was some actual cash committed, somebody comes along as simply codes it up.  My little nit was worth 200 bux. If there are 400 people out of the millions of messenger users out there that thought this was worth a buck, in VC speak, it's a double, but for some coder, it might be some good coin.

I'll upload the files, including the source in another post since Windows Live Writer, which I'm using now, doesn't allow for files to be attached. (only partially true, I can code it into  HTML page but I'm lazy.)

P.S. The really good part? The coder (DEN), added hand features I didn't specifically ask for because he simply thought they made sense. Sweet.

Comments

[Derek Scruggs]

I've never used RentACoder or Elance, but I know some folks who've done a boatload of work that way. One guy I know used them hire someone to write a 100+ page e-book (basically, an interview/brain dump of him that's been re-organized) and write the sales letter for the web site. He spent something like $1000 on an execellent, native-English speaker in India, launched the site and made more than $30k off it. The whole project took him two months' elapsed time. Now he's got a second edition of the e-book in the pipeline.

[tom gordon]

Another alternative would be to use a third-party messenger client like Trillian, which provides this functionality (along with far fewer - as in zero - advertisements and other features which some people find more suitable in instant messaging, like per-line timestamps, full logging, chat history when you re-open a chat with someone and so-on), or any of the other OSS messenger clients.

[Brad C.]

Try Messenger Plus. It's an MSN Messenger/Windows Live Messenger add-on that allows you to do all the cool customization things you used to be able to do in ICQ. Custom names, show contacts on desktop, custom user handling, basically anything you want, it does it. And it's in active development, so it always works nicely with the latest MSN build.

http://msgplus.net

[Nicole Simon]

Something like 43 things just the other way round or pledgedrive? :)

[Paul Morriss]

I thought it funny that out of the four comments above mine, one tells you that someone's done a site like that already and two people tell you of another way of doing your problem and don't charge you. Isn't putting comments on your blog a good way. Aaah - I've just thought of the catch, you have to get people to read your blog.

[kamen123]

I have very funny experience with rentacodrer

I see some very interesting results that will be useful to share with internet users:

rentacoder team lie even from the beginning with their name rentacoder
the right name is rentapacher, because they are making only patches

rentacoder team lie that their site is safe place to do business
actually rentacoder is suitable only for making patches
rentacoder team will turn every bigger project into patch and this way will spoil it
so rentacoder is not suitable for any serious business

rentacoder team do not understand plain English if is more then several sentences, because they have experience only with patches(with short description)

rentacoder team do not understand quite simple technical questions because their mental abilities allow them to work on only patches

so with different words:
RENTACODER IS SUITABLE FOR MAKING ONLY SMALL PROJECTS(PATCHES for several hundreds)
RENTACODER TEAM WILL SPOIL ANY OTHER PROJECT WITH ENDLESS STUPIDITY. FOR SERIOUS PROJECTS RENTACODER TEAM PROVES THAT STUPIDITY CAN NOT BE BEATEN BUT CAN NOT BE HIDDEN

;-)

there are details at
http://groups.google.com/group/alt.computer.consultants/browse_frm/thread/2b7f5a18ff117f25/0d6086755d0edc87?hl=en&

[Spam Spotter]

Your post very interesting. However, I had a very bad experience with Rent a Coder which you can read here:

http://www.spamspotter.com/2006/09/12/doing-business-with-rac-rentacoder-be-careful/

While Rent a Coder works ok for the most part problems can arise when their staff encounters a complex problem.

[kamen 123]

hi
please feel free to ask if you have questions
for me is obvious that
RENTACODER SUX FOR ANY SERIOUS PROJECT.
RENTACODER IS SITE FOR PATCHES AND LIES

[TakeReal]

kamen123 is typical sucker. He was banned from RentACoder.
“kamen123” spoil perfect site in revenge.

You can read more about “kamen123” here: http://rentacoder.com/RentACoder/SoftwareBuyers/ShowBuyerInfo.asp?lngAuthorId=1606810 Quote: “(Arbitration/mediation result): RentACoder discovered evidence that suggested that Paris2 (the buyer)was not entirely truthful during the arbitration process. They were given an opportunity to disprove it, but instead refused to answer after being asked 3 times. Their account was closed for not following arbitrator instructions…per their contract.

Kamen123 simply had to agree to cooperate profesionally during the testing process to be paid. He insulted other parties numerous times and was warned to simply stop it or he would forfeit. In the same statement in which he agreed to stop, he gave 2 additional insults. His account was also closed for not following arbitrrator insturctions…per his contract.

All funds were returned to Paris2.”