RentACoder logo

RentACoder logo

In several weeks time RentACoder, one of the famous freelance job board, is going to change its name. The changed name will be vWorker.com which stands for “virtual worker”. Along with its brand new name, RentACoder will also have a new logo, tagline and site design! RentACoder facebook page has details for the meaning of the logo and a preview of the new site design!

RentAcoder's new logo

vWorker logo

Why the change? In a message RentACoder CEO Ippolito expalins, that it is changing to reflect the diversity of the many talented workers they have on the site. “Back when I founded the company in 2001 we concentrated just on technology and programming, and the name Rent a Coder fit us. But today in 2010, the site is not just coders, but also graphic artists, writers, translators, marketers, personal assistants and numerous other types of workers. Our new name will reflect that and reminds employers that they can find all kinds of talent here” said Ippolito.

Back in 2001 RentACoder was just a small startup of two employees, working from an extra room in Ippolito’s house. Today in 2010, RentACoder has upsized offices twice, been in hundreds of business journals and newspaper, and have become three time INC 5000 winners (fastest growing private company in the U.S.).

The old name “RentACoder” was often criticised by the freelancer community being limiting and underestimating the designing and architecting efforts often required to serve the nature of jobs frequently posted on the RentACoder. The term “Rent” also lacked respect that the freelance community deserves. In short the name “RentACoder” failed to appropriately portray the nature of the service offered on the job board. Despite it’s old inappropriate name and paradigm the job board remains as one the top few freelance job boards in the world serving several hundred thousands of freelance developers and service buyers.

RentACoder Background

RentACoder Background

Although the new name “vWorker” is much more generalized than the “coder”, the term “worker” remains as demeaning and disgraceful as before. One of the commenter to Ippolito’s message put it like “this name (vWorker) does not reflect innovation, research and technology! Smells more like prototype jobs handled by unskilled persons”. Definitely creative freelancers do not want to be portrayed as workers. Another commenter expresses his dissatisfaction: “The new design looks great but new name is not too attractive. Its depicts a normal worker not an expert or technology specialist or valuable person that has much higher expertise than an ordinary worker. The word “worker” is very general and can be used for a person who is doing even a very common task.” Some are even shouting and saying “THIS NAME IS NOT THE BEST WE CODERS DESERVE.”

However, Ippolito explains “I understand you are reading “worker” as a “manual laborer” and that is not something you would want to be associated with. As it turns out, the term “virtual worker” is actually not a manual laborer and it’s not a term that we invented either. It’s a fairly common business term that already exists and means a person who does work remotely over the internet. These are *always* white-collar jobs (which are office professionals). They are never manual laborers because you cannot do remote work in manual professions (where people work with their hands rather than their brains).”

But freelancers are not happy with that explanation. “We are Professional. and Owner of Company. and not the worker at ALL. this feels down. This will not attract any new comer to work like work. rather he will deliver his professionals skill to some other site. there has to be difference between professional (highly qualified) and worker(under qualified)”, another disgruntled freelancers disputed Ippolito.

Whether there is logic or not the fact remains that coining of the name “vWorker” will remain as debatable as “rentacoder” and freelancer community will definitely found to be divided on this point.

We thank RentACoder for they acknowledged that a paradigm shift was necessary. We also hope that the site will not just be re-branded with a new name and a logo but also will be overhauled with better look and feel and will offer greater usability experience. All those debate aside, bottom line remains the quality and value of services the RentACoder aka vWorker (or whatever) offers to its community of buyer and sellers.

Find more on the subject on vWorker blog

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