Aspectos éticos

This is the final stage in contracting commissioned work. Towards sealing the contract, the commission (and its accompanying details) is first documented by the contractors. Furthermore, the latter request a down-payment in order to reassure themselves of the clients’ legitimacy.

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4.2.3.1 Documenting the commission

Contractors document the commission in order to be able to subsequently share it with those that will do the job of building (the builders). The tools used in writing down the specifications and storing them for future use (e.g. during deciding on the building task, see section 5.3.1) range from physical resources such as sketches, to digital software solutions such as Trello, Evernote, Google Docs or Dropbox.

An example of such an activity taking place is presented in the following vignette (Vignette 3), in which case the contractor (Paul) was a member of a Minecraft union. This is merely a documentation phase, which means that the commission does not become available to others at this point, but rather during the subsequent practice of delegating building tasks (see section 4.3). As per Vignette 1 and Vignette 2, this is part of a Skype log which the contractor (Paul) provided and constitutes the last part of their negotiations.

Vignette 3 Example of documenting the commission

Paul: “Sounds good. I post this project up. Shall I title this project

‘Project GMC Futuristic City Lobby?’ Are we permitted to announce this project once completed to the public? Or is your network/project in development and would like to hold off on the publications?”

Dan: “You can announce the project once complete to the public.” Paul: “Shall we tag you network as well? IP and such?”

Dan: “The server is in development, so currently there is still no IP.” Paul: “Alright. No worries. We have many clients in the same position.

Let us know when you do release :) we will broadcast your project as well. Helps generate you public attention / free advertisement.”

Discussing posting details: First of all, the contractor enquires on the name that

he is going to attach to the project. The name itself is of interest, as it includes information that point to the type of the project: GMC refers to the name of the Minecraft server the build is aimed for, while the “Futuristic City Lobby” informs the builders for both the thematic aesthetics of the build (a futuristic city), as well as of the practical purpose it is going to serve (a lobby in a server).

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Other details that are usually documented are: the functional and the aesthetic specifications (as discussed above), the commission’s price and the deadline when it has to be delivered to the client.

Discussing promotional details: The rest of the discussion revolves around

promoting and whether the contractor is allowed to advertise the work the union is doing by posting the final build on their forum threads. More specifically, Paul is asking for permission to do so, by specifying that it is going to be public and it is going to happen only when the project is completed. Once he receives the permission to do so, Paul enquires on whether they could refer to the network itself, by posting the “IP and such.” By that, he refers to the actual IP address of the network Dan is developing. This reference is crucial for server owners, as the IP is used by the players for connecting to the network; as such, having a reference to the server’s name and IP address in the promotional material would facilitate in advertising the network (as pointed out by Paul). Dan explains that since “the server is in development, there is still no IP,” which leads to Paul’s empathetic reaction, who says that many of their clients are in “the same position.” However, he encourages Dan to let the union know about the IP, when the server is “released,” offering to broadcast its launching. He even makes the reason for publicising explicit, by saying that it “helps generate you[r] public attention/ free advertisement.”

Accounting for who is going to do the work: Paul gives an account of how

the work that is commissioned by Dan is going to be handled by the union members involved in the process: he is the one that is going to receive it (by the client), document it and subsequently make it available to the rest of the union by “post[ing] it up.” When it comes to advertising the work though, he switches to the third person by referring not only to himself but to the entire union (“are we permitted to announce this project…?”). Through this, it becomes evident that: (1) the work will be handled by someone else (by the one who will claim it, as is the established members’ method of getting jobs, see section 4.3); (2) the union acts as a whole and its members reflect on that, even when they are talking with their clients. It needs to be pointed out that this particular contractor (Paul) was one of the most prestigious members of the union: he was one of its founding members, due to his connections in the market and the expanded

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network of clients (which resulted in the provision of a large number of commissioned work).

4.2.3.2 Receiving down-payment

The final step prior to accepting the commissioned work is to receive a down- payment for the build as “a guarantee” (Spence) that the client is not going to scam the contractors. Scamming is a common phenomenon in this market, which is manifested in many ways, one of which is for the client to receive the product without paying the contractors for their services.

Steve: “There is definitely instances in the past where you get

this nice big job to do for somebody, get it off and they just don't want it. And it's just a waste of your time.” [Interview material: The participant, who was a client, was describing why a down-payment is important during contracting by giving examples of clients not paying for builds.]

The intermediaries come into play here, as the payments are sorted out through them. Either PayPal or dedicated vendors (see section 3.3.2) provide a safety net for both parties, reassuring them that if the clients do not receive what they paid for or if the contractors do not receive a full payment for the services provided, they will get a refund or not be obliged to deliver the build (respectively)24.

When it comes to getting commissioning propositions by returning clients though, this step can be skipped as contractors have already established a trustworthy relationship with their clients and do not need further confirmation of their legitimacy.