Behavior & Marketplace

I have been a member at (tf) for nearly a year and have been lurking for much longer than that. Maybe it is just me but it seems that (tf) is on the down and doesn't seem to be what it used to. So I am just going to put out some comments, just in general.

I don't think the Administration is the problem here at (tf) but rather it is the members. Many of the members here are under aged and act the part. If members are going to act like ten year olds, they are going to get paid like ten year olds. But these same users are causing the rest of (tf) to provide legitimate services at prices which are severely less than what they really should be.

This is the same reason (tf) is still dealing with pitiful market transactions no more than a mere few dollars. The marketplace is what brings most of (tf)'ers here and is one of the most vital aspects of the community. I think this community could (and still can, with effort) evolve and produce higher profits/revenues for the freelancers if they simply conducted business appropriately.

Because honestly, let's face it, nobody wants to get paid $3.00 (USD) an hour. Minimum wage is $6.15 (USD) an hour where I live which is really sad. The reason I haven't quit my real life job making $20.00 an hour is because these freelancers here work against eachother instead of with eachother. Honestly, (tf) should be producing wages in the $15 - $50 an hour price range with ease considering the amount of traffic the web site gets. The same work that I do at my job in real life for local businesses is the exact same that is usually listed here on (tf). However, our other freelancers here are driving the costs further down than really necessary.

The community looks like a sad flea market. There are numerous approaches to fixing this and raising this absurd poverty level throughout the community, but I just wanted to know if there are any others that agree with me on this.

I have had a bad expierence with an under-age member here at TF, he just went on another forum, found another coder and charged me double the price that he was paying him. I don't see a problem with outsorcing the work, however it took days over the limit to complete and was a real big hassle for a small project. He also claimed that he was doing the work.

I think all of this would be solved with forcing people to display their ages, i do not want to deal with 13 year olds in this feild, just because of my above bad expierence.

And it's them few young people that make us more mature younger members looked down on ... don't take it out on all of us, we're not all as stupid and immature as them.

Originally Posted by Spawny And it's them few young people that make us more mature younger members looked down on ... don't take it out on all of us, we're not all as stupid and immature as them.

*agrees*

i must admit that i have allot of problems in webdesigning wich will probably fade away when i get older, but if younger designers like me ( 15 years is young right? ) never get any work then there we won't ever become good

I think you're right with your statement, I agree. I've also had unprofessional expierence with not just minors but people who are older and just looking to make a few quick bucks.

Age is not the issue at all, it's the maturity level. You'll find nearly the same amount of poor businessmen/women that are 20+ than >20.

Originally Posted by Jeff Andersen Age is not the issue at all, it's the maturity level. You'll find nearly the same amount of poor businessmen/women that are 20+ than >20.

I agree completely. Each indivisual has their own lever of maturity and in business then unfortunetly let it show in a negative way.

Originally Posted by textz I have had a bad expierence with an under-age member here at TF, he just went on another forum, found another coder and charged me double the price that he was paying him. I don't see a problem with outsorcing the work, however it took days over the limit to complete and was a real big hassle for a small project. He also claimed that he was doing the work. I think all of this would be solved with forcing people to display their ages, i do not want to deal with 13 year olds in this feild, just because of my above bad expierence.

The marketplace is top of our hit list for improvements and we are looking at numerous different things to sort it out. I do however disagree with the showing of peoples ages as:

1/. There is no way we can verify a persons age - anyone who thinks that people are going to be heavily influenced by what age they enter is far more likely to lie about it, therefore it becomes pointless.

2/. Buyers should be using a sellers portfolio, references etc to judge a supplier on and not their age - you can get great young designers and terrible older designers. Judge a person on their work and not their age (or what they put their age down as) and you should not go to far wrong.

I think the addition of iTrader will really help aid buyers and sellers alike in the forum and will encourage people to go about things in the right manner - Things will soon start improving

I think that there also should be a minimum waged limit in the marketplace. Ex, the lowest price that you can sell a 1 page design is at 50$.

This sets a level of professionalism and helps us all out because no one can underprice your designs.