Etiquette toward bidding programmers on Elance

[rrbarna]

I joined this site in the hopes of learning Access, but soon discovered a couple freelance websites such as Elance where I can get someone to create the database I need quickly and for a low price.

I have narrowed my selection to 5 bidders who seem like good candidates and have assigned all of them the same task of creating a prototype data entry form so that I can see who has the best grasp of what I need and how they execute that task.

I'm in a situation now where most of them have submitted their assignment and each candidate has put a lot of thought and effort into their work. Obviously I will only choose one in the end, but how do I deal with the others? Is just a simple thank you enough, or is it appropriate to pay them a small amount in compensation for their time? How would you feel if you spent an hour to work on a test project and did not win the bid? Is this just part of the job that you accept and move on?

 

[DJkarl]

As a contract programmer I would say you are not any under obligation to pay for the time spent on a bid, unless you've lead that programmer to believe they had the job already, if they are bidding for a project then it is like an interview, put your best foot forward and try to land the job, sometimes it works sometimes it doesn't, but if you don't get the job you certainly would not expect them to compensate you for the time you spent trying to get the job.

One other thing, I have used Elance before, I have seen some unrealistically low bids on complex projects, I would be wary of going with the cheapest if the majority of bids are higher.

 

[rrbarna]

I've narrowed my selections to two applicants and I'm having a real tough time deciding who to go with. They both speak perfect English (USA/UK), are skilled, have great feedback and produced a great prototype for me... it's just that they each took a completely different approach, both of which I like.

So... I thought about hiring both of them and let them each go at it their own different way. In the end, one will probably have a better design overall, and the other will likely have some features I wish the overall better designed one had. Would it be appropriate to ask one programmer to implement his features into the other design? Maybe I should tell them each at the beginning that I've hired two of them? Is it normal to ask them to collaborate and maybe they both work on one design?

I really would like to hear your thoughts one this.