STAT-VIEWS @ 19541
So you're an entrepreneur with a clear project idea.
You are looking to have a web-developer build you an efficient, attractive,
user-friendly, interactive e-commerce website. You have looked around your
neighbourhood and gone beyond to find reliable, affordable talent.
Developers mostly charge by the
hour. $50 is at the low end; many demand $75 or more! 'Ouch' you go, wondering
what is actually achieved in an hour. You can have it done in Wordpress,
Joomla, Drupal, go the customized PHP route; there's even other formats to
create your very own CMS (Content Management System).
You are what is now hugely
acceptable and encouraged - an 'Entrepreneur.' You are
mostly visually oriented, a 'doer', you speak of your ideas as you envision
them, while you think; you know when you like what you see, but have
no clue as to what all that coding language
means. It's foreign gobbledygook to you.
You are primarily RIGHT-brain
functioning. And that's exactly WHY you need the LEFT-brain 'genius' of the
analytic coder's mind to explain the ins and outs of the FRONT - and BACK- END of all those symbols that interpret the intricacies of how those visuals of
your website's images and info are presented and interact.
You are presently having a Skype and
conversing with a 'Dev.' (Web-Developer) 'They' mostly speak in terms of
"WE!" Unless you are dealing with
a Project Manager of a larger company, you are likely dealing with a single
'WE,' who is mostly a 'HE!' You have absolutely NO idea who this person is,
other than that you have seen some of 'HIS' sites, or someone said they used
'HIM' on some site and were sufficiently pleased.....
He works in the Joomla format, he
explains. 'Oh, OK' you go. It's a 'Format' used by millions of coders across
the world, on tens of millions of websites. Its complexity lies somewhere in
between Wordpress and the more highly intricate 'Drupal.' It has 'Open-Source'
software code, created and maintained by tens of thousands of coders across the
globe. It is made freely available for use to anyone; hence its 'Open
Source' identity. "Oh, OK" - you go! But, though the 'Software' is
FREE, you are still paying to have
your very own site put together with this 'Open Source Software.' ----
So far, you like the demeanour of
the young individual; you've had a pleasant Skype and you feel you can afford
his hourly rate at $27.00 CAD (a lot less than most others you have checked,
but short of going off-shore to - say India, where you have noted hourly
charges as low as $10.00 USD). You decide to go ahead, and give the 'DEV' your
'Credentials' (Username and Password) allowances to enter your Website-to-be
Hosting Account, so that the 'Front End', and 'Back-End' can be created with
access through your C-Panel. You're not completely stupid.
The word 'Budget' did get mentioned;
but you stated you don't per-se have an actual 'BUDGET;' you want to take the
'Pay-As-You-Go' route. The words 'Contractual Agreement' have also been
mentioned. You don't want to bother with that either, since you know someone
who had a highly itemized Contract with a large, well-established Web-Developing
company that had gone hugely sour at some point. He took them to Court. They
had a high profile law-firm, while the person represented himself. It cost him
thousands of dollars over a number of years, while the firm had Insurance. It ended up going absolutely NO-where. All was
a complete waste of time and money. "The Courts are not about
justice..." as a lawyer once stated. Apparently the legalese is strictly 'Business.' While the Rules are bent by 'Argument', the operative ploy is about 'Winning!' Due process, fairness and 'accountability' are mere front-end posturing while your back-end gets shafted. Democracy at its finest.
So I set up my PayPal paying agreement with the 'DEV,' who is seeking an UP-front payment of $500. Using my calculator, I configure that's some 19 hours at $27. PH.
Wrongly you think that might just do it, since after all you were told that all
of this 'Joomla Software' is "freely available to everybody;" that
all that is required is to move the necessary 'Data-Base' Files in to the
'Back-End' of your account; to transfer the 'Freely-Available-Existing CMS' in
to your account set up as well, and then start working on the HTML 'look and
feel' of your site. You transfer the money, and think the 'Working
Relationship' has now begun.
But the first week nothing happens,
since you are told your new 'Dev' is "finishing off another job, and won't
start on your site until the following week."
You remember succinctly when you first spoke with the 'They/ WE,' that he had
told you he was readily available....
NOT so! ..... And little do you
realize your nightmare has only just begun. You have handed a perfect stranger
the keys to your car and house, and, as the paying owner of your private
Hosting Account you now share equal Administrative 'Super User' access with God
knows WHO!
You start working together, and being introduced to the ins and outs of the ‘Open-Source’ format of the ‘off-the-shelf-available
Software'. As a User/Browser you have travelled on hundreds of websites over the
past 20 + years. You start asking questions: WHY is this – like THAT? WHY is
something else not more like …. and you give an example.
“ ‘Cause that’s just the way the format was
created” you are told by the impatient Dev. “Well” – you argue, “ It’s NOT
user-friendly and I just do NOT like it. It’s far too complicated and
confusing, as far as I’m concerned…”
So he grudgingly complies with your wishes by bringing in what
are called ‘Modules’ and ‘Plugins.’ And as the months go by, you keep paying many additional hundreds of dollars, as more and more of the original
‘FREE FORMAT’s set example is changing. It’s far too late to acknowledge you should've NEVER taken that route.
The relationship has become unpleasantly heated, but, long deep in to the quagmire, you realize you are
bound and stuck with it, like being in a BAD MARRIAGE!
‘HOW’ to get out of this mess?
When you finally DO decide
to cut the umbilical cord and change the 'Credentials' to keep your
'Alter-Ego Dev' from doing you any possible harm (because they are in fact
capable of shutting you out entirely; I've been there!) ... you take a deep
breath, and baffled and depleted, again, go looking for the perfect online match, to complete your
vision. All appears to be a perpetual merry-go-round.
And THAT’s the average story
between a Client and Developer.
I know it Takes Two to Tango, but this system SUCKS!
