Vote now for the Board and the BCC of the TYPO3 Association

Thu. 2nd April, 2020

From 3rd April 2020 until 17th April 2020 23:59 CET the voting platform is accepting your votes for the new members of the Board and the Business Control Committee.


This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://typo3.org/article/vote-now-for-the-board-and-the-bcc-of-the-typo3-association

Dear Members and friends,

I have a suggestion (rather a strong one). I believe we all love TYPO3 and we all want to prevent something which maligns or sabotages the reputation of TYPO3 or this community.

It has come to my notice that some companies and developers (including one from this community who brags and makes lots of noise in here, I prefer to call him “Empty Vessel” for reference) have started offering services on TYPO3 for obnoxiously ridiculous prices. On one such occasion, Empty Vessel quoted a price of 200,00/- € for doing a full upgrade of a TYPO3 website with 9 custom extensions from v6.2 to v10. Can you imagine? Or, would any of us be willing to do it?

How does this affect the community? Well, let me explain!!
This has a ripple effect. Once, people start offering services on TYPO3 for such prices; the general expectation of the clientele changes. Clients now want to have everything done for chit prices because they can find people like Empty Vessel who will snake dance to their tunes for these prices. But, the rest of us are then faced with a very hard choice:

  1. Accept these numbers and start working for such prices ourselves.
  2. Go jobless or face intense drought phases while its raining projects on top of people like Empty Vessel.

Do we really want to take up the first option? Well, I would rather stop working on TYPO3 after 14+ years than go that way. Because, I consider myself to be a glorified TYPO3 developer and I am proud of myself and my accomplishments. I am proud of being associated with TYPO3. So, I would not stand by and watch nobs like Empty Vessel who just appeared on the horizon recently take that glory and honor away from me.

Additionally, since people like Empty Vessel can only compete on prices and have no quality standards, projects get delayed, deliverables are sub-standard and clients in many cases develop a general sense of hostility and attrition to TYPO3 itself. So, not only are these people ruining the market through prices, they are bringing a bad name to TYPO3, ruining its true worth and destroying the community itself. All hard work from genuine people like us are then measured through these standards. Imagine the horror if people like these are let loose to work more and more on TYPO3 projects because they offer their services on chit prices?!? I surely freak out imagining it!!

Hence, I earnestly request the new board to take this very seriously. Please implement a uniform pricing slab for services on TYPO3. No member should be allowed to quote prices below the recommended number. Let people compete on merit and competence rather than on under-the-belt techniques. If anyone violates these pricing standards, they should be blacklisted and penalized.

Please save the honor of TYPO3. Please save the honor of the community. Please save us genuine TYPO3 lovers.

My two cents!!
Regards,
Anupam Chatterjee
CEO, Vrisini Infotech LLP