Salary is a very tricky thing. Yes, there are locations that pay a Jr. developer $100k or more. My bias is showing in that I don't live on one of those areas.
That still does not change how I handle salaries. However, I left out a critical part.
Yes, I like hiring remote developers. Yes, I like paying each developer what they feel they are worth so that they are comfortable with the job and not always looking for the next thing.
HOWEVER, before I start looking for a developer to hire I have to assess what the position is worth to the company. Regardless of geographic norms for the developer, if the position of Jr. is not worth $100k to the company, then I will dismiss the candidate because others will provide similar value and within my range.
I want everyone to be comfortable with the salary being paid. That includes the developer I am hiring, the company I am hiring them for, and myself. The person who will be held responsible for the decision.
You are correct on the second point. I do fully understand the first point, however my answer is that if programming is a craft to you, take your own time to master your craft and put your efforts up on github.
As to your second point, some developers are not passionate about programming as a craft. I know developers and have worked with developers that programming is a job. Outside life, they have other interests and do not want to spend their evening turning a unit test green. I'm fine with that but when I am hiring, I am looking for passion.
I do apologize for the unfortunate wording on that comment.
It really was not my intent to imply that only back-end developers are serious developers. I'm going to chalk that one up to the fact that this was a live interview and sometimes things just fall out of my mouth before I can shut it. I do apologize and ask that any front end developer, designer, or any developer proficient with photoshop to please accept my apology. :)
I was trying to say that if a company is advertising for a developer, seeing photoshop on the ad is a red-flag. I have known a few developers who can also design but only a few.
In my experience, when you start seeing disconnects like this is it because the company hasn't put a lot of thought into exactly what they want the developer to do. That is bad for them, it is worse for whomever they hire.
I am married to a wonderful designer and would never ever disparage designers. :)
The point of the post was to start a discussion, which it did. It was aimed at PHP developers, not Drupal developers and my goal was to present a scenario that they could ponder. What IF one of the major projects got to the point where they felt it was in their best interest to fork PHP.
I don't think PHP is bad. As a member of the PHP community, I do everything I can to promote PHP and it's usage, best practices, etc. There are however, lessons we as a community can learn from the projects that have been built on PHP.
I agree with the previous commenter that more PHP developers should give back. Since I'm not a C programmer, I give back through writing, pointing people to tutorials and blog posts around the web, and speaking at user groups around my region. I encourage every PHP developer to get involved in their local PUG and be an active member.
Thank you for taking the time to read the post and comment on it. :)