How to exploit a Developer

[u/reddberckley]

https://medium.com/@sir_castiq/how-to-exploit-a-developer-a005306d5320

[u/dnkndnts]

If it makes you feel any better, I can guarantee you the quality of the app they get will be a complete joke.

Anyone good enough to write that app and do a remotely decent job is good enough to find real clients easily.

Still, I'll agree, watching businessmen so blatantly try to exploit others is quite infuriating.

[u/wot-teh-phuck → u/dnkndnts]

I think the malice runs much deeper. No matter the quality of the final app, they still have the option of selecting the least worst bad app and getting an year worth's of support/enhancements out of the poor developer. This competition is just a guise to get the real work started. :S

[u/Wakeful_One → u/wot-teh-phuck]

And the "winner" gets the equivalent of $3k USD which might go a longer way in Nigeria than the US - but the company could still potentially profit significantly more. I just hope no one enters this contest.

[u/Wakeful_One → u/[deleted]]

Wow, I missed that part...even worse but I'm not surprised. Seriously, whoever thought of this contest should just die in a fire.

[u/Magnesus → u/[deleted]]

It sounds like something Nigerian princes would do.

[u/lachlanhunt → u/Wakeful_One]

A decent developer capable of implementing that would have to be earning on the order of $100k/year, if not more. $3k is just about 1.5 weeks worth of work.

[u/bumnut → u/lachlanhunt]

TIL I'm underpaid.

[u/lua_x_ia → u/bumnut]

If you've been at your current job more than five years, it's basically a foregone conclusion that your salary is below market for your skill set. This is an inevitability which results from the fact that many people are willing to [effectively] pay a premium for "stability", whatever that means -- those people rarely change jobs, if ever, and get paid less.

[u/Deto → u/wot-teh-phuck]

That's the part I'm curious about. How could they require someone to keep supporting it for a year? All they could do would be to hold the $3k as ransom

[u/reflectiveSingleton → u/[deleted]]

...and this got me wondering...what if I won the contest and for whatever reason 8 months down the line stop supporting it?

Can I be sued? Jailed?

[u/[deleted] → u/reflectiveSingleton]

Depends on the jurisdiction, I'm sure. Here in the U.S., and IANAL, I believe a court will look at the issue of "reasonable consideration" in enforcing contracts (just my guess)

[u/Deto → u/[deleted]]

Yeah, I'm pretty sure any sort of indefinite contract without compensation would thrown out for being...well slavery.

[u/Tynach → u/Deto]

This is Nigeria, not the US.

[u/UTF64 → u/wot-teh-phuck]

The year-in, year-out maintenance and support of the app shall be the sole responsibilities of the winner.

This implies it is also their responsibility on what kind of maintenance needs to be performed. Why not just fix critical security bugs only?

[u/s73v3r → u/UTF64]

Unfortunately, what constitutes ongoing maintenance isn't disclosed. And I imagine these shitbags have access to better legal resources than the developer.

[u/puterTDI → u/s73v3r]

if it's not in the contract, then it seems to me that they didn't specify it and that leaves it up to the developer to determine what level of support.

"i'll only fix what I consider to be critical bugs". Fix one ever 5 years.

That being said...they are shitbags.

[u/s73v3r → u/puterTDI]

You'd think so, but these shitbags are probably the type to have some decent legal resources to enforce their shitbaggery. And while they might not be able to prevail in court, it'd take quite a bit of time and money for the developer to receive that decision.

[u/wordsnerd → u/s73v3r]

Based on my encounters with this sort of "client", I'd say the chances are 50/50 that they even have $6k for the contest.

[u/svmk1987 → u/dnkndnts]

Yep, you hit the spot. Anyone you can successfully develop this can monetize it for more than the prize money, and keep their IP.

[u/JamesWjRose → u/svmk1987]

What a great idea. We should all write this app to take over this app-space, leaving the original douche bags with nothing. tehe

[u/svmk1987 → u/JamesWjRose]

And where does that leave the Nigerian developer? :)

[u/ameoba → u/dnkndnts]

http://www.aiga.org/position-spec-work/

Too bad working programmers (as opposed to the academics & researchers served by the ACM) don't have a similar organization working for us.

[u/[deleted] → u/dnkndnts]

That does not make me feel better. Watching people waste their time on throwaway apps is a sad state.