It is no secret that I spend a lot of time promoting the PHP Community. It is a vibrant, helpful and friendly community and I've said before that I believe it to be one of the most important asserts of the PHP language. I'm also a realist though; I've built teams and I've hired developers. [...] I have experience in this area and I have strong opinions. I am going to share one of those opinions with you right now: Don't hire developers who are active members of the PHP Community.

His list of "don't hire" reasons are:

• PHP community members solve problems
• If they can't solve a problem, they usually know who can
• They love to show off
• They make their employers look good at conferences.
• They work for free

For each topic, he gives a brief summary explaining its relation to the "don't hire" mentality. Reading between the lines, you'll see his true message, though - PHP community members have a lot to offer you and your business. Their visibility and experience (and connections) can only benefit the work they do.

It's been a while since I've bothered to look at ning, but this time around I was VERY impressed. The interface is slick! Kudos to Elizabeth and Ben for setting this up, and of course all the people at ning for the cool platform.

The site already has a good start with a few members on it and discussions already starting for getting to know fellow members and opinions on moving to make this official PHP Community page.

If you'd like to check it out or get involved in the effort, head over and sign up.

UPDATE: it's been six hours since this initial posting and the site already has 24 members registered and growing more all the time. Head over and sign up now! And check out this new post over on the Zend Developer Zone for even more info.