Portal Developer Needed
 

Earlier this year we promised that a new portal and a system where uses can have a single login for life would be produced next year. This was something that was originally going to be coded by PATeam members, however with the recent changes to PATeam we no longer have the resources to accomplish this early in the year as we had planned.

We would like a portal that aids with the marketing and growth of the game and us such we feel that it would be worth the investment to get it produced by professionals.

We have put together a basic specification for the portal and passport systems. And we would like to welcome people to get in touch with us with regards to producing the portal. We would like people to provide fully costed quotes and timescales for the implementation once we have discussed the specifications with them.

We would also like to hear from people with search engine optimisation skills who can consult on this project to make sure that the new portal will maximise our position within search engine rankings.

There is no gaurantee that this project will go ahead, it will only happen if the quotes and ideas generated are of sufficient quality.

Re: Portal Developer Needed
 

I have rate good SEO skillz.

Re: Portal Developer Needed
 

I can help a developper with the graphics & ergonomy, as for the search engines optimization there are a few tricks I know, but you should really care about Google and Yahoo only (achieving a good ranking with Yahoo is easier). On the marketing side, having worked 5 years in the eBay marketing department I may have some ideas about what to do without spending too much cash.

Re: Portal Developer Needed
 

Props to whoever (Jolt?) is putting up the money for this work. If this work is done it may be a big step forward for the game.

Re: Portal Developer Needed
 

If this goes ahaed (I haven't had anyone get in touch yet), then it would be jolt paying for the work assuming that the bids we recived looked solid and reliable etc.

Re: Portal Developer Needed
 

has anybody submitted quotes yet?

come on ladies lets get things rolling along. youve whined on about it for long enough now they want it done, and will pay, dont bloody fanny about :)

Re: Portal Developer Needed
 

will the spec be released or do people have to contact PA Team? It might be a fact that there worried [wether due to there reputation in the community for example] to approach you, a bit forboding.

Re: Portal Developer Needed
 

A detailed specification of what pateam wants would be a required part of the design and contract i would imagine

Re: Portal Developer Needed
 

Remember that the vast majority of PA players don't have the skills to do this kind of work, so it'll be up to those who can to spot this thread and get in touch with Kal, presumably by PM. Good luck to PA Team though.

All of that will probably be established after making initial contact with PA Team. It wouldn't make much sense to publicise the exact spec in this thread.

Re: Portal Developer Needed
 

I think PA Team would be better off if they'd actively seek someone to do it instead of just writing this PD thread.

Good luck with finding someone to do it.

Re: Portal Developer Needed
 

Heartless, headhunting would be a nice idea but it's not really viable at this level. For starters, outside agencies are usually appointed to find prospective candidates, and that obviously can't be done here. Second, PA Team don't (through no fault of their own) have a great knowledge of individual players' abilities - it's known that some people have these skills, but not always who they are. Alliance techies, for example, are rarely the most famous of players.

Re: Portal Developer Needed
 

We have recieved our first spec/quote :)

So far only one other person has expressed info though (I'll be sending them out info to provide a quote ASAP)

So, if you know anyone who might be interested regardless of what they know about the game, please do ask them to get in touch with us.

Re: Portal Developer Needed
 

Furball, headhunting does not necessarily require an outside agency to do it. It's a matter of willingness, and PA Team - like everyone else - must be willed to do something in order to actually achieve its goals. There are also a couple of good websites where you can hire freelancers for your project.
Secondly I think that it is no excuse to not know the players with skills. In fact, it is rather unlikely that they know anyone with sufficient knowledge and willingness to do the portal and there are not necessarily that many people inside the community which would take on the task - in the end just another reason supporting my first point.

Re: Portal Developer Needed
 

I'm really not sure what you're getting at, PA Team have put up an advert and are attracting bids from the community. It's rather difficult to find the right people via IRC, since not everyone hangs about in a single public channel, and many players now only reside in private channels.

Then again, it'd probably be better to have someone with knowledge of the game to design the portal. Hence the focus on getting someone from the community to develop the portal.

If PA Team worked full-time on PA as opposed to being staffed for volunteers, I might accept that they should have better knowledge of the community. However, they can't realistically be expected to know everyone in the game, and as I've said before, alliance techies (who often have these skills) are often fairly reclusive.

Re: Portal Developer Needed
 

Do you intentionally try to misunderstand my postings furball?
Or did I fail at clearly stating that PA Team are not doing enough with only posting this job offer on the games forums?

The job does not require someone with knowledge of the game (yes it is a bonus to have it, but no requirement). Asking a limited audience only does by default limit the chance of finding a suitable person for the job. Neither does a job advert require a headhunting agency to find suitable people - using existing internet services like Rent A Coder should surely be doable?

Re: Portal Developer Needed
 

No, that part of it was fairly clear. As I said, it's an advert looking to see what initial interest there is. No doubt if it receives insufficient replies then PA Team will take further steps to find someone.

I think that the first stage should be trying to find someone from the community. As you said yourself, it'd be a bonus to have someone with prior knowledge to design the portal.

It'd be a mistake to assume that this advert is all that PA Team are going to do to try to find a portal developer. This is just the first stage, and if the offers don't meet up to PA Team's requirements, a service such as RentACoder would be the next logical step.

Re: Portal Developer Needed
 

It certainly ain't the first stage, as the first stages were the previous attempts of getting it done, each stage attempted with people from the community. It is just a logical consequence to start looking outside this community as well.

Re: Portal Developer Needed
 

I'm sorry, but I don't feel I can suggest anyone without also providing strong arguments against that person.

Re: Portal Developer Needed
 

I still think the alliance techies are something which haven't been explored yet. This post is a step in the right direction, but it shows that little effort has been taken.

Contact HC's from each alliance, get them to give you the names of their techies. Speak with each techie, see if they could offer something and be interested in offering something. This thread is a start, but you should be chasing people who have the skills if you genuinely need them.

There are a couple of people I know who may have been interested, they've offered help before but nobody has bothered replying to them. Now might be a time to go hunting for alliance techies to expand your options.

Re: Portal Developer Needed
 

hrm, sounds very similar to a project I developed for PA many moons ago (The Round 10 "Planetarion Passport". The core was there, albeit not perfect it did what was needed from a passport/portal but never got the game integration due to reasons beyond my control.

Re: Portal Developer Needed
 

did anymore happen with this...?

I know a second bid was submitted.

Re: Portal Developer Needed
 

All of the bids we received have been passed onto Jolt for consideration. Hopefully there will be a decision in the near future.

Re: Portal Developer Needed
 

Translation: Nothing will happen. Thank you for trying to help.

Re: Portal Developer Needed
 

Theres still a chance that it will.

Re: Portal Developer Needed
 

They were only passed on a few days ago, so there is no reason to doubt anything at this stage.

Re: Portal Developer Needed
 

Except the lessons of history. :\

Re: Portal Developer Needed
 

Given that PATeam has never asked for anything like this from Jolt before, and that jolt have generally been good at providing paid coding resources, then I don't think there really are that many relevant lessons from history.

Re: Portal Developer Needed
 

hey jolt gave us the big wisdom of biffy :) then i think of it that is prolly the only thing they have done for the game cept buying the crap for tax resons :salute: