Should I add a project consulting forum?

[Ken Puls]

I was at a networking breakfast last week and we ended up chatting about the forum. One of the questions that came up was about Excel consulting, and where people would go to find a consultant.

The night before I'd been working on the site, and spent some time at vbulletin.org. The actually have a forum dedicated to consulting projects. The way it works is that a user posts their project in specific forum, then interested parties contat the poster via PM. The only user with rights to post on that thread is the original poster, and the expectation is that they will post back and say the job was completed, by whom, and if they were satisified.

I'm curious if there is any interest in a consulting project venue here. Again, I'm not looking to take a cut here, I don't do consulting projects any more, and don't want to get wrapped up in them. (And I certainly don't want this turning into Rent-A-Coder either.) But I know there are people who do consulting, and may welcome the opportunity. I know there will also be users who don't know where else to go, and may be more comfortable paying someone who's work they can see on the board.

The format wouldn't need to be what's above, by any means.

Does this sound like something worth talking about?

[Simon Lloyd]

Hi Ken, i've had this kind of forum more or less since day 1 http://www.thecodecage.com/forumz/solution-center/ and prior to that i introduced one at excelforum, i haven't had any requests in that forum and in the past 5 years excelforum has had around 6, the truth of the matter is people who visit forums....etc on the whole are looking for free help and as such aren't interested in paying for a solution or project work, you can set up a forum where by any member can ask the question (or for help or a quote) and you can set up a usergroup that can also access it and see all posts, this way only the OP will see their own post but the other usergroup (the people offering their services) can see all posts, when a project or quote has been accepted they (the poster) can mark the thread solved or whatever you want to call it by way of a prefix dropdown.

However, this forum has quite a few professionals here and as such may have a following of users that may be in that bracket that would hire someone for project work. It's a suck it and see, but my "two penneth worth" ("cents worth" i suppose to you guys ) is don't bother

[Bob Phillips]

I would say it is an unnecessary. I have contacted a couple of people who have said they want some paid help, and they invariably turn out to be time wasters, or want it at a rate that I am not prepared to work for.

[Ken Puls]

Hi Ken, i've had this kind of forum more or less since day 1 ..., i haven't had any requests in that forum and in the past 5 years excelforum has had around 6

I would say it is an unnecessary. I have contacted a couple of people who have said they want some paid help, and they invariably turn out to be time wasters, or want it at a rate that I am not prepared to work for.

That would be my fear.

It sounded good at first, but my feeling is that people who come to forums are, far the most part, self service folks. They're looking for solutions to their issues. I do get a few requests a year from my main site for coding work, which I forward on to people.

Do you guys think it's worth maintaining a list of "pros for hire", or putting something in the users profile with an "I am for hire" flag? I don't see it generating much traffic, but it could do some...

[Bob Phillips]

I don't think it will anything to the site.

[DougFleener58]

I was at a networking breakfast last week and we ended up chatting about the forum. One of the questions that came up was about Excel consulting, and where people would go to find a consultant.

The night before I'd been working on the site, and spent some time at vbulletin.org. The actually have a forum dedicated to consulting projects. The way it works is that a user posts their project in specific forum, then interested parties contat the poster via PM. The only user with rights to post on that thread is the original poster, and the expectation is that they will post back and say the job was completed, by whom, and if they were satisified.

I'm curious if there is any interest in a consulting project venue here. Again, I'm not looking to take a cut here, I don't do consulting projects any more, and don't want to get wrapped up in them. (And I certainly don't want this turning into Rent-A-Coder either.) But I know there are people who do consulting, and may welcome the opportunity. I know there will also be users who don't know where else to go, and may be more comfortable paying someone who's work they can see on the board.

The format wouldn't need to be what's above, by any means.

Does this sound like something worth talking about?

Hi Ken Puls, i think you want to add this it help us or help some other guys.

Thanks!!!

[BBMB]

Hello Ken, I understand what others have said about it not being worth it, but I think it would be a nice addition to the site.