Employer/Buyer review

[Bradley Stone]

I would like to see what the chances are of starting a forum where we can review people who contract us for work. Mostly this is inspired by people who contract me from distant locations and don't pay me and then threaten to come to cgarchitect.com and contact artists here. I am sure that I could save some people some headaches by posting my experiences with these type of people. I am sure I am not the only one who has had this experience and I think it would be a great way to promote ethical relationships in the industry, earn us more money, and solidify our community. What do you think?

[mbr]

Careful, slander can come back to bite you. We all have former 'clients' that screwed us, but you have to be careful what you say. You can't legally just tell everyone that they are thieves and liars, unfortunately. This is from a recent experience and a talk with my lawyer. Basically you have to suck it up, or take them to court (which I did not do because my contract was with an LLC that had no assets, making it next to impossible to get a cent. I lost a LOT of money.).

 

From now on, I will get money up front for larger jobs and not do a minute's worth of work that I have not received pay for. It's the only way to avoid problems.

[Bradley Stone]

I don't want to slander anyone. It is possible that a forum where reviews are written could be a place where slander may occur but it would be the individual posters responsibility to tell the truth about their relationship in an honest but non-malicious manner. Reviews are written all the time for everything from books to movies to business practices and it is done in a manner in which it best serves the public. This is pretty much exactly what I am proposing here. It would act as nothing more than a service where we could protect our community. If there were more unity on our side of the fence then I don't think artists and designers would be such a frightened community of people living in fear of our own clients. I really hope that this idea gets some consideration. I sincerely belive it will be a benifit to us all. Also I just wanted to post the definition of "Slander" taken from dictionary.com because I think it is a word thats definition is often missunderstood by people.

 

slander

 

\Slan"der\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Slandered; p. pr. & vb. n. Slandering.] 1. To defame; to injure by maliciously uttering a false report; to tarnish or impair the reputation of by false tales maliciously told or propagated; to calumniate.

 

I too like to get some payment up front and just a thought for others that I found that helps me some is to schedule large projects in segments. Take an up front payment for a portion of the project and then bill again when that portion is used up. Work on another project while that check is being processed and then resume work on the project when you have recieved and cleared that payment. I think that is pretty much the same thing that MBR suggests which is a true pearl of wisdom.