Freelancer.com Just wanted to say.....

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gnfb

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#157356 28-Nov-2014 12:36

Freelancer.com

I just wanted to say that yesterday I had a very pleasent experince on the freelancer .com website

I wanted to install a version of a opensource program called osticket

I set up a free request and sat back to see responses

My request was

Somone to install osticket on a godaddy shared server and achieve full function

I was amazed to se in minutes I had 5 offers to provide the service for between $28 and $30 NZD

The first chap discussed the situation via online chat then had a go experienced difficulty with the PHP IMAP situation
opted out
No charge
second one really had a go had a long conversation again via online chat
eventaully decided that i was not possible to get full functionality after trying to install on my godaddy shared server
opted out
No Charge

So ok the option that I wanted was not possible
Will have to use a different system or get a VPS?

The point being both chaps were helpful both were going to fully install software for $30NZD
Both I belive ,although they were unsuccessful knew what they were doing

Might be worth considering for your next little job

Is an English Man living in New Zealand. Not a writer, an Observer he says. Graham is a seasoned 'traveler" with his sometimes arrogant, but honest opinion on life. He loves the Internet!.

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xpd

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#1184874 28-Nov-2014 13:08

Slightly OT, but if youre after a ticketing system, look at Spiceworks. Its free, runs on Windows and does more than just ticketing (asset management, network mapping etc etc).

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marpada

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#1184881 28-Nov-2014 13:30

Well, $30 is a lot of money if you live in a country where the average daily income is $1.

If you can't use the software because the PHP is not avaialble and Godaddy is not willing to install it (go figure) there must be still of ton of shared hosting providers that support your requirements like http://support.hostgator.com/articles/hosting-guide/hardware-software/php-modules so you don't necessarily need to upgrade to a VPS.

gnfb

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#1185079 28-Nov-2014 18:17

appreciate comments
I am at present playing with a thing called acorn aid just sorting the stupid smtp etc but its looking good
I will also look at spicewworks

Is an English Man living in New Zealand. Not a writer, an Observer he says. Graham is a seasoned 'traveler" with his sometimes arrogant, but honest opinion on life. He loves the Internet!.

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MichaelNZ

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#1195604 11-Dec-2014 15:35

You need a host which supports PHP IMAP (I have sent you a PM about this) or setup a VPS and follow the directions here:
http://php.net/manual/en/imap.installation.php

I suggest caution with giving your login details to people you don't know. It's very unwise from a security point of view and may likely breach your host's AUP (Acceptable Use Policy).

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elliotstan

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#1208558 5-Jan-2015 14:05

Can second the freelancer.com site for help as well. Friend of mine has also had good dealings with them but always recommended

" only time I’ve had trouble is with freelancers not being able to speak much English so they struggle to understand the brief, worth paying a little extra to get someone that can communicate properly."

Its not just for website work as well.

timbosan

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#1208570 5-Jan-2015 14:18

I would like to offer a view from the other side of the coin - as someone who has bid for work on Freelancer. Generally I find the site greatly devalues peoples time and work. I have over 25 years experience in software development yet I have to bid against others and be cheaper than them, to even get a look in. The site pushes bidders to undercut each other to remain 'top' of the list. And when people are prepared to work for $5 an hour (not an exaggeration, I have seen work on Freelancer go for this much) what can you do but just move on?

Between that and I fact that in order to make yourself appealing you have to spend money, take exams, etc, it ends up being more hassle than its worth.

Oh, and if you are unlucky enough to win a job but the employer doesn't mark it complete, it just sits there forever as unfinished work, which directly affects your completion score, and Freelancer will do NOTHING to either close the job, or fix the process so that time limits are applied.

fishandchips

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#1209205 6-Jan-2015 13:26

xpd: Slightly OT, but if youre after a ticketing system, look at Spiceworks. Its free, runs on Windows and does more than just ticketing (asset management, network mapping etc etc).

I would second this. Spiceworks is very user friendly to use but does have an upper limit for the number of tickets you can have. We used it for work and had very few issues, until we reached the upper ticket limit. Spiceworks came to the party to help us around our issues. Only got rid of it as we had a great offer from another company.

raytaylor

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#1209588 6-Jan-2015 22:53

I have used osticket and found it to be awesome.
Though as stated above, you need a host which supports php-imap.

Most however support pop3 so you can just collect the tickets via pop3 instead. Be careful about how that pop box gets its mail though - you dont want to end up on a spammers list.
We ended up using form mail on our website to submit a message to the mailbox, and anything that comes in without the word ticket in the subject gets deleted.

Next time yahoo/spark server's get hacked, you dont want your support email getting out otherwise your incoming tickets will be spam.

Anyhow osticket works real well, is customisable if you know a bit of php - we added fields, created map buttons for google maps etc.

Kayako however is pretty much top of the line for ticketing.
Its the bees knees.
Though it doenst work on most web hosting companies without all the fancy php modules switched on so you usually need to host it yourself.
We opted to use the cloud (they host it) edition.

Then our billing and CRM system improved its ticketing system to the point where it wasnt really useful maintaining two systems so we had to kick the kayako as having all the customer info in the one billing, crm and ticketing interface was much better, even though we lost html, multiple attachments and all the knowledgebase features of kayako.
But they are going to be improving it hopefully in 2015 to get some of the kayako features.

Ray Taylor

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raytaylor

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#1209593 6-Jan-2015 22:58

Oh and back on topic - I too regularly use freelancer.com and have had a few good expierences.
You need to properly document what you want - like draw GUI designs in paint and draw maps of how you want such interfaces to link together.
The documentation is very important because you are often dealing with people who speak english as a 3rd language, and if everything is written down and drawn for them, they find it much easier.

My guy who I use regularly now lives in Ukraine and although he isnt as cheap as india or the phillippines, he does good work even though communicating with him can be difficult due to the language barrier. Though there is nothing worse than speaking to someone who has a trained american accent which gives you the false impression they understand your slang or your descriptions etc and you have to plain it down for them.

Ray Taylor

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gnfb

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#1209848 7-Jan-2015 12:17

Thanks agin for all the comments
In the end I setup a server at home myself and installed osticket on there myself with no real issues

The major problem in all this was Godaddy when I conteacted them they told me that i could move all my stuff over to there new server s at no extra charge but I would have to do the move myself then osticket would work.
seeing as this is at this stage just testing and when and if the project ever gains commercial light It will be moved back here to nz. Then I wont mind paying NZ prices as it will be producing income.

Is an English Man living in New Zealand. Not a writer, an Observer he says. Graham is a seasoned 'traveler" with his sometimes arrogant, but honest opinion on life. He loves the Internet!.

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gnfb

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#1209952 7-Jan-2015 15:08

timbosan: I would like to offer a view from the other side of the coin - as someone who has bid for work on Freelancer. Generally I find the site greatly devalues peoples time and work. I have over 25 years experience in software development yet I have to bid against others and be cheaper than them, to even get a look in. The site pushes bidders to undercut each other to remain 'top' of the list. And when people are prepared to work for $5 an hour (not an exaggeration, I have seen work on Freelancer go for this much) what can you do but just move on?

Between that and I fact that in order to make yourself appealing you have to spend money, take exams, etc, it ends up being more hassle than its worth.

Oh, and if you are unlucky enough to win a job but the employer doesn't mark it complete, it just sits there forever as unfinished work, which directly affects your completion score, and Freelancer will do NOTHING to either close the job, or fix the process so that time limits are applied.

As a died in the wool capitalist i have to believe in market forces dictating price. With the WWW, the theory goes you have to compete with all and as we all know $5 per hour in outer Mongolia is $100 per hour here.

having said that programmers here still charge $125 per hour and "people" pay it for various reasons

One of those reasons is "would you rather deal with a English speaking kiwi or some chap from god knows where!"

Is there a local based freelancers.com just for kiwi services?

Is an English Man living in New Zealand. Not a writer, an Observer he says. Graham is a seasoned 'traveler" with his sometimes arrogant, but honest opinion on life. He loves the Internet!.

I have two shops online allshop.nz patchpinflag.nz
Email Me