A problem-solving contest site for WordPress

[jakebarnes]

@Jeffro - - -

Yes, we were thinking we would take a percentage, something like 10%. No doubt that will change once we have some sense of our audience. It depends on how much time the site actually takes from us, in terms of admin. The percentage would be on top of the prize, so if the prize is $20, the fee would be $2.

I wasn't thinking of using an escrow account, though we could probably set up something like that if there was demand for it.

[jbj]

This is really an excellent idea, and the only regret I have is that I didn't thought of it before ;)
Good luck to the upcomming site, I'm really looking forward to it.

[hafiz]

Will this stay strictly a QA-based site or will it then grow into spec work competition for theme/plugin developments as well?

[Darren Hoyt]

Personally I don't want to see a spec environment where people are writing entire plugins and offering them up with the hopes of having them chosen. That could get pretty complicated.

Ideally, the site will be question-and-answer and be pretty straight forward. Question: how do I call posts from a certain category?". Answer: (brief code sample). The asker tries the code, it works, the answerer gets paid and the contest is over. First to answer, first to get paid -- unlike 99 Designs where you might spend 10 hours designing a logo and not get paid a dime for it.

[hafiz]

That's what I've been thinking too, Darren. Spec work contests are generally frowned upon, and with this site being called a "Contest" site people might get the wrong idea.

Glad to know it's going to be strictly Q&A.

[jakebarnes]

hafiz, as Darren said, I think the site will provide the best service for straight-forward code questions. I think spec work is ethically questionable. Possibly people might occassionally post open-ended questions, but for such requests there are already many other services - the WP-Pro list, or even eLance.

Having said that, I'll qualify the above by saying I do not want to be a censor. I notice on Stack Overflow some people are highly critical of some of the questions that get asked. I'd like to take a broad view about what is permissible, so as to avoid some of the arguments that I point to here:

http://www.teamlalala.com/blog/2009/...h-on-the-site/

[jakebarnes]

jbj, if you like the idea that much, then we should talk more.

[jbj]

jbj, if you like the idea that much, then we should talk more.

That will be a pleasure :) Feel free to email me to jeanbaptistejung AT G Mail DOT com!

[sparun]

any updates on what is going on now ? :)

[jakebarnes]

Hey, everyone, thanks for the interest. Just so you all know what is going on, we ended up having a dispute with the group that was offering the software we were going to use to run the site. If anyone can suggest some other software, useful for running questions and answer sites, I'd love to hear about it. I'd love to get the site going, but we need to find the right software.