Idea: CodeIgniter Pro Network

[eluser]Référencement Google[/eluser]
Hi,

I was wondering if some of you would be interested in developing a side community around CodeIgniter which would be dedicated to pro's only, just like Expression Engine Pro Network.

I don't have yet any wireframe of this idea, it's just something I would find useful for my company to find resources, discussions, jobs, freelancers and other stuff only dedicated to professionals, with a kind of quality label that would unsure me the seriousness of the subscribers. So I am opened to all discussions around it.

I would be interested also to have the position from the Ellislab team about this idea and of course this post is destined more to CI experienced people that use it into their professional life.

[eluser]Thorpe Obazee[/eluser]
It seems like a nice idea but aren't we all (at least 90%) professional developers writing applications (using CI, etc) for clients?

[eluser]Mike Ryan[/eluser]
Interesting idea. Are you proposing this purely as an altruistic idea to improve the community, or is there a business behind it? I'm not really sure how it would benefit the community to split resources/discussions between two sites, especially as this site has areas for resources, discussions, jobs etc.

[eluser]Référencement Google[/eluser]
@bargainph : That is the fundamuntal of my idea, everybody can code on CodeIgniter and beeing pay for a website, but how much of them are really web professionals ? I think you can lower your % to 30% maximum. Also defining what is a CodeIgniter pro or not is part of another discussion that we can have once the idea start becoming more concrete.

@Mike: As said in my post, I have not even a wireframe of what it can be, it's just an idea that I through over the forum to see if it can be interesting and which reactions do we get back on it, then discuss about it, then also getting the position of Ellislab is important for us, and finally if a small group of people want to start the idea with me, I am fully open.

You are saying me the words "Improving the community". The goal of this idea is NOT to improve the actual CI community, it is good enough as is. The goal would be to make a side network for and only for professionals, and also for clients to find quality professionals, because I see on Google there is more and more demand and people on sites like Odesk and other freelancers sites using CodeIgniter. That was not the case 2 years ago, there was a great evolution and a more and more of CI professional users. So unless Ellislab don't want take parts of this project, it would be to make it on another domain name, another server, etc...

Also to answer more on your question, it will have to be a commercial project, not to win a lot of money on top of it, but more to cover the fees around the project and also to motivate a bit the team that will manage it, because when you do things for free, almost all projects fail after a certain time, see for example all CMS's that have been developped here around, which of them can you really define as professional ? If there is a kind of company backed to a project, things and discussions are different and more professionalized.

I can imagine that every professionals would have to pay a small annual fee to get the ability to use the "CodeIgniter Certified Professional" label. But like I told, this idea need to be brainstormed if there is a potential around it.

[eluser]xwero[/eluser]
Seeing the term CodeIgniter Certified Professional and small annual fee in the same sentence makes me a bit weary. When i read it the first thought was what if entrepreneurs just buy in to add it to their list of credentials so they can profit from it.

[eluser]Référencement Google[/eluser]
This is to be discussed Xwero, that's why I posted here. The annual fee was meant to access to network and its resources + it is a need to cover the project bills and motivate a bit the team, now it was not meant that people can buy their certificate, it would be also part of the brainstorming to find out how to define and to who we deliver the certificate (this go in my answer above: how can we define who is a CI pro or not?)

[eluser]xwero[/eluser]
Personally i'm not a big certification fan. And CI is not that big of a tool to create in dept exams about.
See the join EE PRO page for ideas if you want a label. As i understand it it's more a network of trusted companies/individuals.

A fee has to come with benefits even if it's mainly to cover the bills and keep the people who work on it motivated. EL asks no fee so i don't think it will stick for it's community product.

[eluser]Daniel Moore[/eluser]
Personally, I believe that starting a new site for the "professional" or "experienced" CI programmer would cause some serious hardships for this site if it were successful.

A true professional that has clients and jobs to do simply doesn't have the time to visit a lot of different web sites "just to discuss issues" as we do here. If the "professionals" go to the new site, then the newcomers who come here for assistance will be out of luck, thereby discouraging "new" professionals in the future.

I think it works well as it is. We already have the appropriate forums here. It is also quite easy by reading people's posts as to who is a professional and who is a newbie. Just remember, if they post the following: "OMG HI! CI DON'T WORK. CAN U FIX IT?" then don't hire them for a project.

[eluser]Dam1an[/eluser]
Can you not add a poll to this thread so you can get a better idea of what everyone thinks
But i agree with Daniel and think it would have negative effects on th normal CI community

[eluser]Référencement Google[/eluser]
[quote author="Dam1an" date="1240599375"]Can you not add a poll to this thread so you can get a better idea of what everyone thinks
But i agree with Daniel and think it would have negative effects on th normal CI community[/quote]

Poll Added