I'm starting to think about not working for this potential client I met today.

He said he wants me to modify an open source software, I asked him what language it's written with, he replied "Open Source". He thinks Open source was a language.

He hasn't even given me the link of the repo, he was already telling me not to put bug in the project in a bid to always make him contact me for updates.

I asked him sarcastically, "Who does that? ".

He was also talking about me doing minor tweaks here and there if need be after I deliver.

Too many red flags for me. No contract and I'm not interested. I foresee it's going to go sour.

What do you guys feel?

Uhhh

"He thinks Open source was a language."

I'm surprised you engaged him beyond that point.

You're about to rebuild Facebook!
Run!

@C0D4 You mean rebuild Devrant?

@AlmondSauce Yeah, sounds like he needs to hire a programmer.

@AlmondSauce because the clients have to have a technical grasp of things and just hire people to do stuff for fun?

What ridiculous reasoning for not engaging with a client.

Some of the other stuff maybe, but not that.

@Chea I think that would be easier then FB somehow, but it's not open source

@torpkev @chea The problem isn't his lack of knowledge, the problem is that he answered the question of what language it was written in with a ridiculous answer, rather than simply saying "I don't know."

Clients that haven't got a clue are fine. Clients that haven't got a clue, but think they know everything are almost never worth working with.

@AlmondSauce Acme brand WowProduct - Open Source code.

Yeah, the client should definitely know the names of the programming languages and know what isn't. Hell, half the programming languages nowadays sound like pokemon.

You're ragging on the idea of a client trying to give some kind of additional information but at least they tried.

Imagine if all career paths were so petty. Mechanics who won't fix your car because you thought that there was something wrong with the gears.. haha.. gears, useless customer, everyone should know that is a problem with the drivetrain.. how dare they try and give additional info.

@torpkev Your analogy is flawed. This isn't a customer turning up and saying "please fix my car, there's something wrong with the gears!" (and it turns out to be the brakes.) This is a customer turning up and saying "I want you to modify this car so it has 10x the acceleration it currently does, it's *definitely* a Ford btw (even though it's a Honda), and don't you dare introduce any problems while you do this modification, I don't want you overcharging me."

I don't know of many mechanics that would take that job either.

@AlmondSauce nope. OP asked what language, client replied open source, not turning up saying this is definitely a ford, make it 10x faster.

Your complaint was even engaging them after replying incorrectly to that question. Not ridiculous requirements.

More like turning up at the mechanic asking for work done on your Honda, the mechanic asking what kind of alternator and you saying.. a red one.

It makes you look stupid to someone who knows better, but they likely wouldn't be there if they knew in the first place. So why act like an ass and instead just factor it into the job spec.

Refusing to deal with a client based solely on them not knowing an answer and guessing incorrectly is super petty and elitest.

@torpkev Based on the ridiculous things the client said after coming up with the "open source is a language" comment, I'd say my initial assessment would have been right on the money. We can back analogies back and forth all day, but I very much doubt we'll agree there.

I've dealt with enough crappy clients in my time to be inherently suspicious, that much is true. If you want to engage with such clients, be my guest. But I couldn't, in good faith, encourage others to do so.

@torpkev how many are pokemon and how many are big data technologies? https://pixelastic.github.io/pokemo...

@cmarshall10450 ha. Well, there goes my first hour of work today

@torpkev it could be better. The questions are all the same, just in different order, and you get 63% going for all big data.