Ask Advice: Contractor or Disposable cofounder?
We've all seen these gigs:

"need help with development of web application"

and the more you look into it, it looks like somebody has some cash to spend and a vague idea of a site they'd like to implement. What they don't realize, but what is common knowledge here at HN, its that their ideas are cheap, implementation is what counts, and it looks like the details of the successful implementation will be partially or fully on your shoulders. The more you put into it, the more they get out of it, but you'll still be payed the same, and quite possibly, at the end, if they achieve any success, they will think it was all their doing.

What do HN contractors think of such a situation, and are their any guidelines or best practices to follow?

I'll throw some things out there, but not endorsing anything:

.5. Avoid, like the plague, any "I have an idea for a web app" jobs.

1. Insisting that any "big ideas" come from the client, and the contractor just keeps his nose to the grindstone, and keeps quit on bigger issues (user experience, existing competition, "feature or startup?", virility, scalability, etc).

2. Equity. But I don't think you can just answer a job ad on craigslist and say I work for 30 bucks an hour and a piece of the action, or can you?

3. Giving your absolute all, knowing that any success will result in more work from this particular client, as well as any referrals.

4. Telling the client what they need is more of a "consultant" than contractor, which you can be, to guide them to the most successful completion possible, but it will cost them more.

5a. Accept work from clients that are in over their heads, will probably get nowhere, but will pay you, build them a quality web app that nobody will ever use, but don't keep yourself up nights working about things like fantastic user experience, twitter integration, etc.

5b. Work for those idiots who say they want a "facebook clone" and use facebook as the final spec, don't innovate, and make sure you get payed.

6. Work for a little while, wait until the client realizes he's way over his head without you, and then make a sweeter deal.

I hope I'm not looking greedy, that's not my intention or how I feel about it, I'm perfectly willing to be the best contractor possible at competitive price, and wish my clients the best success they can have, I'm more interested in not being taken advantage of.

Web app contracting is so wide open. You can be hired to add a comment section, or you can end up making success or failure decisions.

Contrast it with other job descriptions. Somebody might own a muffin shop, and they put an ad in the paper for somebody to help bake the muffins. Because most everybody in society has an understanding in muffin baking and an expectation of whats involved, that job ad description is clear. Contrast that with another ad like "need somebody to help me bake muffins, we need to figure out the best recipe, develop a unique and memorable brand, and create a marketing plan, and hopefully later expand to other locations." In the world of muffins, that last ad description is arguably for a cofounder, but "need help with the development of a web application" could describe anything from CRUD to CTO.

Whoops sorry this was so long, I didn't realize until I submitted, since I was typing into that little box :)