Delinquents

How do you deal with delinquents who take your money after making promises about what they can do but can't, and then about their mods which do not work and effectively sabotage your site so it does not work properly, and then disappear and refuse to contact you or answer your questions and fix their mistakes?

Why is it so hard to find an honest developer?

I would concentrate on fixing my system.  It is your call on whether you want to name names or not, but if you post something like "I have installed Joe's mod and it has caused this specific problem with my site".  This will either shame "Joe the mod developer" into responding and maybe helping, or possibly some others here would be able to help.

Rob

I would never name names, that is not the point. The point is everyone has strengths and weaknesses, but no one should be allowed to leave their work incomplete.

i can't believe i'm goig through this again, with the same person, and the same mod.. how did i fall for this??

It may contradict your beliefs, but an individual making mistakes once could be acceptable.  In this instance you have it twice from the same person.  This is where naming names comes into play as it helps to protect other site owners and cause mod creators to step up and not sell/take on jobs that they can't handle. 

I have been extremely fortunate in sticking to basic rules that apply to doing business in the offline world and applying them to the online world and have been able to limit the burns I've gotten while building my site.  I know we all know these and they are common sense, but here they are again.

1.  Get proof of their skill by asking to see a site they own and operate with the modification your looking for working.  Anyone who is skilled in their trade will be proud to display their work.  Carpenters, Painters, Masons and all others use photo albums to have give examples.

2.  Get references of sites they have worked on and the contact those site owners to find out what their experience was.  People love to give their opinions and help.  If you ask another site owner about so and so, then they will more than likely respond with an honest answer, many times this can be very different than what the mod creator tells you about them.

3.  Google the mod creator/developers online name and real life name.  Often you can find interesting things about almost anyone if you use google.  This can move beyond the Unity/Expertzzz forums and into other areas of people giving opinions.

4.  Pay attention to the veteran site owners and who they recommend for certain jobs.  Everyone has an expert area and only a few can do work across all parts of the Dolphin script, much better to find and use a group of experienced, honest individuals than to just buy items from a large group of individuals and then have to deal with errors as mods interfere with other mods.

In the end, the best I can say is to do your homework and make sure of the individual your choosing to hand money over.  Do not depend on paypal to protect you with buyers protection, instead use a credit card through paypal that offers the buyers protection directly from the card so you can charge it back if they don't do what they have been paid to do.  That trick does work very well, as noone likes seeing money just taken away from them, and will get most to act very quickly when it's suddenly gone from their account.

Good strategy!

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Thanks for the input!

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Well guys.. the point for me right now is for me to get my site operating properly.

I am not looking for a drama.. i am looking to get my site repaired.

I think there should be some kind of accountability.

This is really wasting my time and costing me money, and i am doing the best i can to fix it but it is driving me mad and not fair.

Also, if i name someone's name, regardless of what kind of irresponsible creep they are, it may cause other developers to not want to work with me.. and i need help right now.

like.. right now..and since i am so new, they don't always have a lot of patience as it is.

sammie has been able to help me some today.. i am possibly half way there.. but still no dice.

R

Ahhh the desease of the english, never make a fuss or complain. Thats how these people get away with it though doing shoddy work and its us that install these things have the problem of having our sites broken because they couldnt be bothered to test thier products properly or offer support.

Naming the bad could have the effect that people will be more careful when they develope something in the future, and test it properly, and if the developer knows his work, knows his product is sound, then they wont refuse to work with you, those that do, dont have the confidence in their own product or abilities, and so niether should you.

Regards

Tyke

if anyone want's i tell you if you pm me..

ok.. here is a real question for the knowing......

I almost have this issue with my video player resolved.. i think..

Can someone tell me what files need to be in the folder html/video/gallery?

what is happening is i cannot get videos to load from thumbnails on home and profile pages..

they are now working fine from the menus..

also.. i'm not english, i'm american.. so.. these days i am not much for complaining about another's non-performance..

This all depends if you have any modifications to the files you want to revert back,but if its just file replacement, just download a new copy of dolphin and using your web disk, replace those files one by one that have been affected by the mod.

Regards

Tyke

damn.. it is the mod.. i thought maybe it used the same folder.. i do not really know if that is the right path, frankly. but video/gallery is what shows when you hover on the video thumbnail on the homepage or profile page thumbnail.

i can't BELIEVE this... i asked the guy for WEEKS to fix it.. he just refused to accept the reality that there is a problem, as if he can't go to the site and just see for himself.. it's just sociopathic.

now i am also trying to figure out why my site is showing ads after i installed a template when i have a license..

I have had some bad dealings too but also some good ones.   

At one time I used a service called getafreelancer.com for a different project than Dolphin but found out that there are developers out there who are php experts and in some cases, familiar with Dolphin.  That site has a stricter rules for the coder to play by to get paid plus a ranking system. You write up a synopsis of what you want and post it for bid, including a bid range. Not unlike what is available on Boonex, just a wider audience of PHP developers are looking at your project request.

Just an fyi. 

Hey, that is good info, thanks..

Yes, like life, Boonex is a mixed bag. All in all, if you are patient.. things happen in a good way. I just do my damnedest, and it is not easy for me, to not include my emotions in these processes.

After all this work I put in to my project, I am looking forward to dolphin 7... and then here we go again.. lol