How do you find and rate the right Dolphin programmer

Tough question. Usually, the ones that you'd really want to do business with, are too busy to come forward when you post a job offer. Conversely, the one that jumps on your offer like a duck on a June bug, is probably the last person on earth you'd want to deal with.

Bottom line, wherever you try to find the coder from, if he/she doesn't have a clear and established reputation, and if you have a project (as you seem to) with a number of phases, start the work and payments in increments.

If you were a little clearer in what it is that you wanted to achieve, we may be able to point you in the right direction. My suggestion would be to post what you want to achieve (in the market), ask for examples of work already completed, ask people that have had experience around this community and some of the stand out charachters that reside in the community... To name a few (not a completelist):

DosDawg
Houstonlively
modzzz
jtadeo
MrPowless
Magnussoft
mydatery
wolf2217
CodeSatori
Kevinmitnick
JOOsocial
scriptologist
gorpus
ESASE
Rayzzz
kolimarfey
Simion
Caltrade

These see more guys stand out and contribute regularly to the community and could help steer you in the right direction, Like I said, not an exhaustive list but people that stand out to me as being genuine carers for Dolphin and Unity and the Boonex community as a whole.... Yeah some may be a bit gruff in their approach but the end result is they know their stuff and genuinely want to help those that are truly interested in developing their sites and the community as a whole.

Good Luck.!!!

Ha, Ha!!! Mydatery in a previous blog post (http://www.boonex.com/unity/blog/entry/We_need_a_Dolphin_7_0_EXPERT_to_retain) recommended a lot of the people that I have just metioned.... ooops I am sure he is going to say I pinched his list... LOL! Just scrolling through the blogs to see the relevant people and came across that post as well.. Ha, Ha!

But seriously, maybe I missed some names off the list that he included so check out that post as well.

This applies to you all, not just @jdanial see more

Happy Dolphin Training All!

Actually I think your list is more complete than mine was CBY, LOL.

Anyways, you need to take a moment and realize that Dolphin is unlike most scripts out there. No one is an expert on every part of it, not even Uno as much he'd like to be. It's just not reasonable to expect anyone to be. Some are great at hosting (Dowdawg) and some are great at flash (Rayz) and some are great at Google API's (Kolimarfey) and some are great at coming up with php (Deano) and so on and so on and so on. But in see more the end you need to take a moment and look at what you need done then hire the right "team" of people to work through it all and get it done.

For example, if you were looking to first secure your server then I'd suggest Dosdawg for that, then you want php type functionality, go to mrpowless, deano and/or myself (that's what we do) from there you could go see Rayz for some flash (if he has the time for it, he's busy) and perhaps even grab some additional Google API's off of Kolimarfey to round it all out.

Once you've seen all those guys you need to pick one that has the proof they can fully integrate it all appearance wise into a very smooth package. Keep in mind, template comes before all things except the install, but once it's all done someone needs to come back in and sweep/mop/buff the site to bring it to that perfect appearance you want it to have.

And please note the post by HL (HoustonLively) that if you post a job and people come running in to offer to help, more than likely you DON'T want what they're selling. The best coders on here may hit and run the forums/blogs but rarely do they bid on the jobs. The reason is simple, time is valuable and they're just not enough to spend going through most of the bids. All the great coders on here have made people made from time to time, look for examples of their work and be willing to spend a few hours on a demo site (all should have one or 2) to get a feel for what they can and can't do.