This is almost the perfect job ad for here, except for what someone in at the beginning is going to look for - a little bit of equity, with the promise of a lot of control (i.e. a co-founder-ish role) down the road if they rose to the occasion. I'd be tempted myself, but I'm in the middle of something.

There's nothing simple about dating.

Tell me about it.

The good news is I don't have to pay for roses or a fancy Valentine's dinner this year.

might want to mention how much you plan to pay, since for a lot of people the "its really simple" means that they only want to pay $100

Well, I was expecting a coder name their hourly wage, or what they'd prefer to charge. I'm not sure if that's the accepted convention. I'm always open for advice.

if you go by hourly rate you really have no idea what it will cost in the end. A good programmer at $100/hour, can get the whole thing done in a week. A crappy programmer at $20/hour will take a year, and it'll cost you 3 times as much.

You really can't know how long it'll take, since most people will overpromise and underdeliver. At least if its a fixed cost, you don't lose any extra money for someone else being lazy

I've never yet seen fixed price work well, and I think on something of this size it's doomed to fail. The biggest problem is defining the scope which is almost impossible to do in any detail at the beginning of a project.

Instead, I'd recommend either fixed price for small, bite sized tasks, or (as per my current contract) a weekly rate until completion. I work on rapid turn-around, so the client almost always knows exactly where the project's at and how it fits with their requirements. Of course a precondition of this is a decent level of trust on both sides, and a client who's not a pain.

Fixed fee projects are similarly fraught with danger. There are two scenarios:

1) The client over-pays due to developer over-bidding. (In relation to the time it took him to complete the project.)

2) The developer over-works due to under-bidding.

Neither is particularly advantageous for the client, as a developer will not be as responsive to a client's needs if he or she is working towards a minimum feature set.

A developer can make a reasonable estimate based on clear goals. If requirements change (as they inevitably do) the developer will be compensated accordingly. Similarly, if the project is finished in less time than expected, the client will reap the benefits.

I'm a potential coder, and I think there's enough information: preferred language, general complexity of the project, and required skills. Everything else would be outlined in initial communication.

Posting a budget would be disadvantageous to him, as the answer is probably, "the least possible, and no higher than a certain amount."

This post is not "weasel speak," whatever that means.

"I have an idea, and a couple sketches, for a site I'd like to get help on developing. I think it's a relatively simple idea to actualize, along the lines of a twitter/craigslist mashup. The idea's imagined success is found in its simplicity, so I'm not looking to pack it with features."

Ok, just what does that paragraph mean. What the hell is a "twitter/craigslist mashup"? Do you have any idea how this proposed site would actually work from that description?

And if you don't know what weasel speak is how do you know that it is not weasel speak? Weasel speak is the sort of buzzword laden zero content nonsense that marketing usually churn out.

There were enough words in his post to actually describe the site or at least what a "twitter/craigslist mashup" was and how it would be different from any other 'me too' dating site.

I have personally been on too many projects where the specification was full of this kind of nonsense to take such things kindly. A project that may end up being conducted by people on different continents needs to be clear. Other than it is a dating site I have no idea what he wants. If he justs wants to rip off craigslist or plenty of fish then fine, but at least say so.

Hell if he just wants to rip off a site but is prepared to make sure that it is hosted and promoted then people would probably do it for free just to get it on their CV. Hence the reason I asked for clarification of those four points.

This person wants to pay someone money to create a product. He's not forcing you to "rip off a site" or divine his intentions.

While I generally appreciate the cantankerous developer, there's no reason to go on the warpath here.

Good luck...just promise not to use the word "dead" tagline.

No one wants a reverse engineer/systems programmer anymore :(

Hey linux does ;-> Lots of device drivers still need to be written.

No one's asked me to contribute. I actually am going to be helping the nasm project instead. They needed me.