I just want to say a big thanks to everyone! I was completely taken a back by the reaction, and the fact this hit the front page astounded me - thank you! If I have not replied to you yet I will try to by the end of the night, I have been swamped. Thank you HN!
It started as a simply Android and IOS apps. So I completed a version which outlined the basic idea that was agreed on along with an API that supported the apps. So once he was happy he paid the first milestone. Then I did go away on holiday for two weeks, I tried to send him an email but I saved it to my drafts by accident - my fault; and his right to be angry at that. We worked it out and agreed to continue. At this point I was waiting on him to provide the designs for the final part of the app. A week later still nothing, so we agreed to go on and have me just put a basic design to it, which I was unhappy about, as it was not what we agreed on, but I continued. Once I was done I went to run the app before sending it to him and it would not show any data...
He had another freelancer working on the site who had completely over written my API. He had no backups. So to make up for my loss of communication before I agreed to redo it for free, a week after agreeing to redo he cancelled the job and left that...
They are all small amounts other than the Karaoke Project, which went so well I have now been building new features for over a year on which is why it is still in continuation.
Might I suggest discussing version control with your clients in the future? "Collaboration" might be an over-charitable word for the relationship between you and the other freelancer, but even an agreement to commit in two branches to the same git repository (e.g. one hosted privately on https://github.com/ or https://bitbucket.org/) would have gone a long way towards preventing this outcome. In this case, git would have kept a permanent backup of every new feature/fix in your development process, as well as each of the other freelancer's changes. You'd have been able to merge the two at every milestone (or every day!) with minimal pain.
If you're new to version control, GitHub has a nice git tutorial at http://try.github.io/.
I brought an item last month with a deferred 30 day payment, which I was going to cover when a client I was freelancing for paid me last week. However, they have disappeared off the face of the earth and it does not look like they will reappear soon.
Because lending money is always about trust and managing risk.
In the context of potentially offering to float cash to a stranger - and getting a vague response about the exact situation requiring urgent cash - I'd like to know whether the person is trustworthy. Finding a mug shot that potentially resembles the cartoon version of the person requesting the cash from their website ( [link redacted] ) I see no harm in asking whether the person in the mug shot with the same name and potentially similar physical attributes was the same person.
Totally accurate. But he also replied to my question about why he needed the money in the context of the money being a loan rather than for work performed, so I continued the discussion.
Personally, I'd trust somebody with $300 before I'd trust them with my codebase.
Let's say you're applying for an incredibly basic credit card with a line of $1000. Would you expect the bank to obtain a copy of your credit report? Probably; that's standard practice. Would they also try to determine prior convictions? Maybe. Would you expect them to search for a mugshot of you based on a cartoon they saw, pick a totally unrelated image file, then factor what that person looks like and what they've been accused of pre-trial into the decision? I hope not.
If you're planning to spot a fellow HN user some money, and you can't show them any trust, at least show a little professionalism. If you just did that for your own amusement, please don't ever do it again.
I didn't search for a mugshot. I searched for his name, and it was the first photograph shown on the first page of the results.
Your suggestion that this was done for amusement is incorrect. A basic name search for a person in "urgent" need of money from strangers where no friend or family is able or willing to help seems like pretty basic due diligence to me.
Additionally - I'd refuse to ever lend to anybody that was an active gambler:
"@[name redacted] Hello, do you honor bets where you have made an error with the odds? (Sports book not exchange)"
[link redacted]
The exact nature of my original question was trying to determine what the money was for, and that question remains unanswered.
Your matching algorithm is about as accurate as a name match for a TSA no-fly list. Regarding the cartoon likeness, the only similarity I saw was the hairline... ok, that and two eyes, two ears, a nose, a mouth. To be honest, the cartoon image looks more like Ben Affleck.
Sorry I am in the process of creating the site. I'll stick to my web development history because that is probably the most appropriate.
I started the web development world in PHP where I used frameworks such as cakePHP, wordpress, codeignitior from there I progressed into python, Java Applets. Recently I have been really interested in Meteor and other java script frameworks. By far Meteor is my favorite tool of the moment.
In terms of what I have worked on:
-Last year I was the lead developer on a web app that allowed users to create funeral programs and other memorial products.
-I freelanced rewriting a music sharing/streaming service.
-I have developed a multi-screen karaoke system for a London based Karaoke company.
-I worked on a Medical system which allowed users to monitor their blood sugar level and receive alerts when it entered certain thresholds.
... and many more.
Please email me if you want more information about any of them.
