Before the holidays I took on a project, something I was doing for free for a friend, and it was converting a template into a WordPress theme. I spent a fair bit of time on it, but at the end of the day it was going to take much more work than I originally thought. I told him this, and that I was super busy.
The holidays came and went, and I didn’t have any more time to work on it, so I sent him what I had done, knowing he could clean up the lose ends quicker than I could, as I didn’t have any experience with the plugins that this template was going to rely on.
Just recently, he revealed the new theme to the world, and didn’t even mention my name once in the many paragraphs of text he included on the new theme announcement.
I am of split feelings about this. I know I didn’t hold his hand until completion on this conversion, but I did spend some time and effort on the work. Should I be credited or does it really matter? Suffice to say, I am willing to just shrug it off because I have more important things to do, but it’s one of those “well, it would have been nice…” feelings.
Another example of why I am not taking on any “free” work right now.
Phil Said,
January 4, 2007 @ 9:38 am
That is pretty low in my opinion. If you benefit from the hard work of others you should be giving credit to them. Not only is it just the polite thing to do but the extra exposure you might get from it could result in extra paying jobs.
Brandon Wood Said,
January 4, 2007 @ 11:43 am
I agree with Phil, that is pretty low. I’ve recently been doing some of the same type of work - converting designs into WordPress themes. Luckily, I have been given due credit. These were also non-paying job, something I hope to get away from doing as well…
Ryan (Thortatude) Said,
January 4, 2007 @ 4:03 pm
Sorry to hear that David, It is sad to see that people are like this. One of my mottos is give credit where credit is due.
Zachary Houle Said,
January 5, 2007 @ 12:53 am
Well, as I’ve learned … life sometimes isn’t fair. I’d move on. However, the next time he comes calling for anything else, you might want to bring this up and give him an assertive ‘nope’.
Jeremy Choi Said,
January 6, 2007 @ 12:09 am
Hey David,
Want to do some free work for me too?
kidding.
Happy New Year !
David Peralty Said,
January 6, 2007 @ 8:02 pm
Thanks all… I appreciate the sentiment. Hopefully, things will work out better in the end. Life is all about surrounding ourselves with positive people that we can enjoy and learn from.
And Jeremy…you know I like working for/with you… but… yeah… no more free work… Takes too much time. lol.
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