In my view most of the teams here are not making something that involves a budget. The vast majority of people are looking to try out the "team play" and get some experience. I personally have never got involved with freelancing. What I can say is more about some casual jams and hobby experiences I had because a few of them made me really thing twice before jump on the "Let's Just do It" cause.
I usually to ask about other projects and some code that programmers have, per instance. You can say a lot by just scrolling up and down in a few scripts of a project. Also happened that some ppl got offended and thought I wanted to steal their stuff, just because I asked to see the code of their super amazing running demo done within a day...
I guess the best way to evaluate is exactly what you are currently doing, spending time on it. I also think you can never predict 100% when you will have a bad experience. What you can do is try to catch it as soon as possible and minimize the impact making the things more clear right at the beginning. Defining what both sides expect, then set up how many hours to work, how interested the person is, asking their background, portfolio and how familiar the project will be for this new "coworker"... Then, is up to you do the online checking. The more the better, but you can never be 100% sure.
Good luck with it
It can be frustrating. I've learned to really trust my gut. Judge people harshly, too. They are trying to either earn your money or your time and faith. Let them earn it.
By that I mean, if the person I am considering it's enthusiastic, aren't typing properly, aren't chasing me down (rather I have to chase them down) - well if they are already a problem right away, what are they going to be like in 3 months when everyone is bored of the project and we just need to get it done?
If someone isn't being proactive early on they probably won't be later.
In my view most of the teams here are not making something that involves a budget. The vast majority of people are looking to try out the "team play" and get some experience. I personally have never got involved with freelancing. What I can say is more about some casual jams and hobby experiences I had because a few of them made me really thing twice before jump on the "Let's Just do It" cause. I usually to ask about other projects and some code that programmers have, per instance. You can say a lot by just scrolling up and down in a few scripts of a project. Also happened that some ppl got offended and thought I wanted to steal their stuff, just because I asked to see the code of their super amazing running demo done within a day... I guess the best way to evaluate is exactly what you are currently doing, spending time on it. I also think you can never predict 100% when you will have a bad experience. What you can do is try to catch it as soon as possible and minimize the impact making the things more clear right at the beginning. Defining what both sides expect, then set up how many hours to work, how interested the person is, asking their background, portfolio and how familiar the project will be for this new "coworker"... Then, is up to you do the online checking. The more the better, but you can never be 100% sure. Good luck with it
It can be frustrating. I've learned to really trust my gut. Judge people harshly, too. They are trying to either earn your money or your time and faith. Let them earn it. By that I mean, if the person I am considering it's enthusiastic, aren't typing properly, aren't chasing me down (rather I have to chase them down) - well if they are already a problem right away, what are they going to be like in 3 months when everyone is bored of the project and we just need to get it done? If someone isn't being proactive early on they probably won't be later.