I've decided for the time being to close off the Jobs category of the forum. I greatly appreciate the enthusiasm the community has shown with posting to this category, I think the volume of jobs being posted has taken over otherwise relevant discussion on the board. My hope is that we can restore a bit of balance to the forum and get some real, good discussion going on.
I'm also working on developing a related site specifically for job postings, a la 37signals' job board. I think having a separate part of the site devoted to jobs will help better serve both sides.
I dunno about the job board, but I do think it's a fine idea to remove the job postings. Sometimes they're the only action on this forum for days on end. And after I'm done reading 'em, I go away.
There are many job boards now, and I've taken to just reviewing the ones that cost money to post a job. It's mostly because the postings are better quality, while the free posts tend to have a whole mess of qualifications I could never dream of achieving, if I even wanted to.
I wonder if this community might be better served with a sub-contracting forum. Most of my freelance jobs come from other businesses who need quick help with their projects. Perhaps Martin and nclud needs help with a project? They come here. Go? No go?
I definitely think there is something very powerful in having a localized and contextual jobs board for the DC market. I get at least 3 calls a week from recruiters who just can't find any talent that is looking. And....obviously I am speaking to something beyond Craig's List.
We've got more work than we can handle (hence the 5 day delayed response) -- but I don't personally know how well contracting forums work. I know we like to work with people we have relationships with -- and those typically start from personal referrals/recommendations.
Late to the party, but I agree with mringlein. A focussed, localized job board is needed. Indeed, I came here today to post about an immediate need for freelance xhtml/css developers to develop a few sites we have on the docket. Ahem.
CL is great, but it's not focussed enough. You wind up getting everyone that has ever seen a TABLE tag responding to the ad. Edit: And the problem with Authentic Jobs, 37Signals, TechCruch job boards is that they're expensive - and not local.
I'd love to see the Jobs category on this site stay around until another replacement is found/built. It's just too good of a resource to be without, IMO. There are projects (read: money) waiting to be handed to developers. It seems a shame to not have this way of connecting the two.
Edit: At least with a Jobs category, it would be easy to filter out these if you didn't want to see them. As it is now, they are all grouped into the General Discussion. Last I checked it doesn't cost anything to add a category to these forums.
@jtnt There is (was) a jobs category. Currently it's hidden and only seen by me (the admin). I removed it when we were having the problem mentioned in my original post (too many job postings, not enough quality discussion).
Yeah, I know. I actually used it a few months ago. I think my point is that the having a category doesn't create the job postings, it's the need to find reputable, quality people. And if people are posting jobs, then there's a need - and will (are) post their job postings anyway. At least with a category for them those not looking for work could easily ignore them and get on with the other discussions.
And absolutely no offense, but it's not like these forums are exactly bustling, and getting people to come here to look for (and post) jobs, could actually enliven the other quality discussions - not to mention possibly get more people involved in the actual group itself.
Wow, turning away a Jobs Category in a networking community, what is the world coming to? What is "too many"? I respectfully disagree and think a Jobs Category is appropriate here (though I never checked it out until today). I actually came here today to post a nice Designer position in Reston for a friend of mine. I feel the people at Refresh-DC "get it" and this is (or would be) a great place to post jobs and/or freelance projects. I also would not be averse to picking up the occassional xhtml/css freelance project, though I love my day job at AOL too, and would rather hear about them through people I know rather than fishing them up.
checking back here a few months after this discussion to see if there were any gigs floating around...looks like there hasn't been much conversation, jobs or otherwise, around here.
perhaps the jobs are the draw to get people to visit the board, and then see other conversations they're interested in joining or contributing.
As a frequent reader of this site, and a recruiter, I found it absolutely REFRESHING to be able to communicate with people with the skills we wanted that are typically hard to find. It's unfortunate that some people have flooded the board with unwanted or irrelevant material, but some of us do not abuse it. You may want to look at the model that JoelonSoftware.com created for his job board. They do charge a hefty fee now, of 350 ---Not suggesting that at all :) , but have reduced spam and garbage postings, and it still allows serious recruiters to connect with the best in their field.
If on the chance the job board is not brought back can we put something up on the general conversation board?
There are plenty of options available, both free and fee based, but there is no option that will replace a moderator. If all you want to do is create yet another job board then I guess you could do that, but then there would be a time tradeoff and it would still require moderation. Why not just link to a few good sites around the DC area pull in their jobs using an XML feed? For example, I could set up a tag and RSS feed on Jobmatchbox.com for RefreshDC that would supply a jobs list on the site. Employers like Pete could post their jobs to Jobmatchbox, which is reliably moderated, and rest assured that their jobs would show up on the RefreshDC site. This would cut the crap and allow the RefreshDC organization to avoid getting sidetracked by building or managing yet another job board. People would still come to the site and you could focus your energy around sparking lively discussion in the forums.