Last Christmas, my client asked if I could do an email blast and I figured I could so I made the commitment. I knew enough to use MailChimp, and figured if they had a chimp for a logo, then even a chimp could do it. Wrong.
Simultaneously, I hired SmartMan to do the mail-out of the email blast itself, basically incorporating new text advertising the Christmas Special into the existing color scheme/brand of the client. The end product was perfect, looked much better than I thought I was ever going to get, and Smartman only charged me $30.00. To help visualize, if anyone is on NewEgg's mailing list, the email looked a bit like that, only the color/logo, etc... were different.
It looked extremely professional, and my customer was very impressed.
However, I discovered that MailChimp is NOT so easy that even a chimpanzee can do it, and asked SmartMan if he could help. After about 4 hours of back and forth via Skype, I had MailChimp programmed and the email blast sent out, and I knew how to do the whole thing, start to finish. He kept asking if I wanted him to just do it for me, and I kept telling him no, I wanted to learn how to do it. It's how I'm wired. So, he spent maybe 3 times the amount of time helping me learn how to do it, than it would have taken to just do it for me.
During this whole period, I kept telling him that I would pay for the time, and in my mind I had a figure of about $100, which I thought was fair for having about 5 hours of expert, one-on-one assistance. We never actually named a figure, and I was a bit worried that he might want $200, or even $300. But, at the end, when I asked him how much, he said "No problem. Don't worry about it, mate." and didn't charge me anything.
I sent something, as a gratuity anyways. It would have been wrong to do otherwise.
Then, a few month later I had a problem with a website, and asked if he knew of a solution that he could just tell me. Instead, he got the WordPress username and password, and 3 minutes later the problem was fixed. Probably a small thing for him, but it saved me a LOT of time, and as most people know, you want to get paid a premium for what you know, and not necessarily what you do. Smartman was the perfect person at the perfect moment.
He also didn't want to charge me for that work either.
For me, all of the above is SOLID. There's a lot of talk, flim-flam BS that gets thrown around, but when someone does you a substantive favor like SmartMan did for me, that is MONEY in the BANK as far as I am concerned, and it buys a good bit of loyalty from me, hence this post. Smart Man is GOOD PEOPLE, he does GOOD WORK, and while I don't disagree with the "flakiness" of other people's experiences (I've had a bit myself, but talking about that is not my role here.) I am certain that there is no dishonest/scamming intent here. Who knows what personal/financial/family/etc.... issues he may be having? Who here has not had them interfere with their ability to perform their work?
I don't object to the ban. Obviously something must be done. I DO object to the Permanent ban. SmartMan deserves a way out, and I think that if Mods here were to lay-out the conditions by which SmartMan could earn his way back, I think that everyone could win. Those that are owed money would have a better chance of getting it, as SmartMan is incentivized to do so, SmartMan has an opportunity to continue earning his living by servicing the Members here at BHW, and BHW overall would be improved by the presence of SmartMan and the wide body of knowledge and the skill-set that he brings.
And this isn't just yapping on my part, either. It's not much, but I will contribute $100.00 to help SmartMan compensate those that are owed money. It's only what I feel like I owe him anyways, and now it looks like he needs it. Not sure exactly how the money can be transferred and to who, but I will do it if it helps to get him back on track. I guess that's it. Can't think of anything else that needs to be said, except for that I hope BHW reconsiders the situation.
