NYCPHP Meetup

[pcps at ix.netcom.com]

Sorry if this is not up to NYPHP Job list quality. I'd rather feed the 
NYPHP community than the middlemen.

As a small-time competitive webmaster ;-) I have maintained small-job 
relationships with PHP/LAMP technologists with the following 
characteristics:

* numerous small jobs, paid via PayPal or via third-party (client) 
arrangement as freelance work
* Drupal/Joomla/Wordpress/other installs/mods
* sysadmin along the specific lines of competitive webmastering (lots of 
little details)
* scripts and code development off-the-beaten-track, in alignment with 
that somewhat-unique sysadmin stuff
* Confidentiality is of the utmost importance, so jobs are either 
obscured from their ultimate deployment (and thus are properly 
abstracted or generalized) or the developer is brought in on profit 
share (ad revenue, affiliate commissions)
* The process is often driven by SEO and Competitive 
(ecommerce/marketing) tactics. That might mean the reasons for 
requirements are not clear to you... so if you are uncomfortable doing 
something a certain way "just because", then this work is definitely not 
for you.
* Often the key driver is novelty or opportunity... so speed is 
important as is .. did I mention CONFIDENTIALITY? There is no tolerance 
for missing first-mover advantage because someone broke confidence. 
There can be no tolerance for unauthorized re-use of proprietary code or 
tactic developed for such projects (although  FOSS is fine provided any 
release is after the competitive advantage has been exhausted).

Are you interested in small project work? You will work directly with 
me. Over time you may also be included into plans on per-project partner 
basis.

If you haven't thought these comment thru, let me summarize some 
possible consequences:

* you won't be building your resume because this stuff is all 
confidential. You will see opportunities to make money and build web assets
* you will be learning first hand how Drupal/Joomla/WordPress/other are 
"broken" from the competitive perspective, and finding ways to "fix" them.
* you will sometimes feel like a spy in a Spy vs. Spy comic book 
(sometimes the white one, sometimes the black one).
* you will learn how the pros are doing things, although you may not 
learn why they work or how well they work until you participate yourself.
* you cannot pursue the same ideas/projects/tactics on your own without 
being completely shunned...and it will always be better not to be 
shunned :-)

I have more opportunity than I can manage and I have openings for 
PHP/LAMP technologists right now on a per-project, freelance basis as 
described. Some of the skills that really make you valuable include:

Faster than a speeding bullet : you can yank crappy role management out 
of an otherwise decent FOSS PHP script in a few minutes time. Or add it 
inside the day.
More powerful than a locomotive : you can mod httpconf via .htaccess or 
ssh on Dreamhost/Hostway/Westhost/WhomeverHost without calling tech 
support, and then make PHP progress on your project
Able to leap tall buildings in a single bound : "make this work on that 
host as well" and "abstract this so it works over there" sound the same 
to you.

or for the nostalgic among you:

faster than a streak of lightning : "integrate <OS blog CMS> and <OS 
forum sw> and <OS links manager>" doesn't take all day
more powerful than the pounding surf : "it uses smarty - please fix that 
problem" is almost trivial for you (yes, we have CSS / designers on call)
mightier than a roaring hurricane : "it's 180GB, but we only need about 
10MB of it in MySQL for this project" != problem

Obviously this is not usually all one person... it is parsed into small 
jobs as needed and the PHP person is likely to comprise much of the glue.

If you have interest, send me your contact info and I will put you on 
the list for consideration. If you want you can highlight work you are 
proud of or skills you feel make you worthy of the short list. Those who 
are very specialized (MySQL guru, CSS guru, crack visual designer, 
Drupal/Joomla/WP expert, etc) I have definite need provided you are both 
independent and flexible (more often than not, your expert advice will 
be valued but not adopted exactly or entirely).

Note: No gmail accounts. No AOL accounts. No autoresponders. This is not 
an offer of employment. I am not a lawyer. No animals were harmed in the 
preparation of this message. If your email address includes a profanity, 
please refrain from replying to me although feel free to dream of one 
day having that opportunity again. If you would ever build a global 
search/replace/censor function without making sure that it did not 
operate within the host domain's URL, please do not reply. If you do not 
know 2 distinct meanings for the abbreviation "CSS", please do not 
reply. If you make a living bidding on small jobs or outsourcing them as 
a gc, please do not reply as you will not get rich off of me and I don't 
need any additional intermediaries (nor do the technologists working for 
me). If you are convinced that you can offer me outsourcing or related 
services or anything other than exactly what I describe here in this 
post, please do not reply. That would be spam, and spamhaus is very 
unforgiving as are many ISPs these days.

-=john andrews
Reply to john at the domain seo-fun on the COM top level domain.