How Not to hire an iPhone dev consultant / A challenge for a great OpenGL dev

http://taptaptap.com/blog/how-not-to-hire-a-consultant-to-create-your-iphone-app/

by EtienneJohnred • 15 years ago

33 25 15 years ago

taptaptap.com

mikealeo• 15 years ago

Daniel just posted this via Twitter: http://cl.ly/1D440f190n2n2g2K2K28.

elbrodeur3• 15 years ago

Sounds like Casasanta gave them fair warning. Public fistfights like this, though, are pretty obnoxious.

pavel_lishin• 15 years ago

Right; at this point if I were considering working with either of them, I'd probably not.

gte910h7• 15 years ago

>gave them fair warning.

Fair warning they're going to put out a hit piece? Or a "We will put this out if you don't do X, Y and Z".

That sort of fair warning runs awfully close to "extortion" in the layman's use of the word.

I don't KNOW either party or the facts. One or the other could have acted horribly here. But "fair warning" with a demand for value is pretty good definition of extortion.

I'm not really excited about a business relationship with either side of this spat.

elbrodeur3• 15 years ago

Interesting story. He said/she said stories like this, though, are often difficult to parse. Regardless of what is fact, what is fiction and what is in between, the allegedly sheisty developer Daniel Pasco seems pretty flippant:

http://twitter.com/#!/dlpasco

>> My side of this story is actually pretty funny. May tell it sometime.

This type of attitude seems like a poor response when your business is dependent on clients. I certainly wouldn't want to work with someone who, when our working relationship gets difficult, treats the issue as a joke.

sosuke• 15 years ago

tap tap tap, famous in the iPhone dev world for making tons and tons of money want to crowd source the development of an app? I wonder if having tap tap tap as your publisher is worth a 60% cut of the profits.

There is a pretty sweet plasma globe game in the store right now http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/plasma-globe/id400905823?mt=8 if you're looking for ideas or want to see what is out there already

olivercameron2• 15 years ago

It is worth it. I am the developer of Voices, which has to date sold 644,000 copies thanks in large part to their publishing power.

runjake• 15 years ago

I don't know either of the men involved, but consider the source:

http://www.bynkii.com/archives/2008/01/come_on_crybaby_cry.h...

(For anyone who doesn't remember that MacHeist drama from a couple years ago)

shareme• 15 years ago

seems both side made mistakes but instead of being men and working it out in private want to bitch fight in public..

Clients of both parties than loose..sad

danilocampos• 15 years ago

Matt Drance's Twitter alter-ego, Batdrance, put it pretty well:

"I like to complain publicly and play the victim when my business partners do anything I don't like. Who wants to work with me?"

https://twitter.com/batdrance/status/33276755297046528

drivingmenuts• 15 years ago

I don't get the modern trend of airing your dirty laundry in public like this.

Just comes off as shit-stirring to me and makes me want to avoid both parties.

Zev2• 15 years ago

I have a some good friends who work at Black Pixel and had the fortune of meeting Daniel Pasco (and others on the Black Pixel team) a few days ago, just after MacWorld. They're all class acts and damned good at what they do. I wouldn't hesitate to work with or refer someone to them, period. I don't know anyone who wouldn't. Aside from Casasanta, apparently.

I don't know the full story. I don't know what Casasanta is hoping to achieve by posting this. But, I do know other stories from people who do contracting that have been left hanging by him or have refused to work with him due to insane deadlines. And thats enough for me to think that this is a load of bullshit on Casasanta's part to try and make himself look good for whatever reason.

aaronbrethorst• 15 years ago

+1 — Dan Pasco's a great guy.

tzs2• 15 years ago

I think quitting a job by tweeting that the company is trying to extort you into indentured servitude precludes being a "class act".

> I don't know the full story. I don't know what Casasanta is hoping to achieve by posting this.

Well, he was publicly accused of trying to extort someone. Doesn't that merit a public response?

gte910h7• 15 years ago

Depends on what the threat is in this alleged extortion. You might want to get out ahead of something like that.

Not sure twitter is the best medium for that, but hey, it's what happened..

The more I read everything, the more it looks like Casasanta was likely threatening to write a bad blog entry about this if the developer didn't work more for him doing something. I don't know the facts here, but it feels like there was a mismatch of expectations here somewhere. Not sure if it was an intentional deception or a X didn't think the same thing as Y or what. Perhaps Casasanta is due more than he got, perhaps not. That's a niggling factual issue we are unlikely to ever know without more information.

I DO know I wouldn't touch this code with a 10km stick. Who know who really owns copyright on all this after this sort of blowup. It's a good way to end up in court if nothing else.

Zev2• 15 years ago

Casasanta has a history of this sort of thing: http://kingscourt.posterous.com/more-from-john-casasanta-mac... is another example.

And to me, it sounds like the only reason this isn't extortion is because Dan didn't go along with Casasanta's plan.

olivercameron2• 15 years ago

For what it's worth, I talked to John over a year ago and he mentioned his frustrations with how slow the project was going. After Daniel posted his tweet, I could see this coming.

gte910h7• 15 years ago

What developer with a real backlog takes customers without a willingness to make a deposit? Following this advise is a sure way to get the type of developer they're alleging Pasco is.

gte910h7• 15 years ago

After running the app, it looks nothing like that graphic.

nupark• 15 years ago

Whether or not Black Pixel is at fault, John Casasanta has guaranteed that no iOS contracting company with a reputation to consider will want to work with him, ever.

gte910h7• 15 years ago

Actual Screenshot of the program: http://i.imgur.com/DQkVq.png

(Didn't look at the code, just dropped in a blank icon and hit compile to inform the discussion).

How Not to hire an iPhone dev consultant / A challenge for a great OpenGL dev

Related Stories