I've been burnt. Had Mr Ideas say go ahead, actually made some small progress payments, kept changing his mind, etc. Eventually the wheels fell of the project and he sued for loss of income ! The gall of it all. His argument was that had I delivered on the verbal contract, his idea would have generated the fantastical revenue which he now missed out on and I was to make him square.
So I use a variant of this method. When people rave on about their great idea, I tell them that it "is interesting" and given a sufficiently detailed specification I will quote on what it would cost to build. Doesn't mean that I will build it. So far nobody has come back with a sufficiently detailed spec.
For a lot of other people (where you dont want to invest the time debating/educating them), you can offer to let them retain equity and work on it at contract rates. If you have the spare time and use for the cash, you can give them a slight discount (vs. market) and everyone wins.
As a note and please don't construe this as a critique because it is valid to not want to spend time educating people, some times we are just to busy and these things can come from everywhere. But for me personally, I feel like it is my duty to the rest of you guys to educate them. I don't do it for them only, I do it for, me, them the next developer they cross paths with, educating them helps them as well as the next developer and could possible end up enriching both peoples life if they get it right.
That being said, and given the fact that I restore vehicles as a hobby, I generally approach it from a car analogy because it seems that everyone understand a computer to car analogy. I simply tell them, do you realize that your idea will entail more work than a frame-off restoration of a car back to original mint condition. That literally in less time, I could totally disassemble a car, it's motor and body, remove all of it's rust, weld what needs to be welded, sand it all, paint it, rebuild the axles, the transmission, the engine install them, install all the wring and electronics and reupholster the interior etc. etc.
I then go on to explain that if they have not done any planning other than an idea, it is like doing all that without having a manual that tells me what the head bolts should be torqued to, what the original color code of the body paint was, etc. I do this in a polite way, but they end up getting the gravity of the situation.
Then I will tell them I love to restore cars, if you go out and buy a really exotic car, I would love to come over at night and give you a hand on it, because it would be interesting to me. Applications are like that. I have to be really excited about the idea to want to put that much free time into a project. If we are around it, I usually point to my 69 Bronco and say I have over 1000 hours in that truck. It is my pride and joy, I was really excited about that project. The magnitude of what they asks sets in at that point.
Most importantly though, I try to do so from a perspective of educating them and not berating them. I think this whole problem arises from a lack of understanding of what or better put how much they are asking for. I think it stems from the fact that software, in their experience, makes doing things easier and faster, but making software has little to do with the experience of using software, it is actually inverse the more automated and helpful a piece of software is the more work that went into making it seem like it almost reads your mind.
On a related note, I think of the worthiness of ideas based on whether they are interesting enough to get me to work on them in my spare time even if it were for free.
If they respond with "But don't you like my idea?" or "You mean you don't want to help me?" respond with something like "I haven't done enough research to know if the idea is good or not, and it's really hard to predict how the market is going to go, especially in technology. I think it'd be awesome if you built this thing... I just can't offer much more than moral support, high-fives, and maybe a little bit of advice. If you really want someone to build this, try hiring a freelancer on ODesk... I just can't make the time right now."
Don't worry about whether the idea sucks; very few ideas survive through the full development of the product, and very few of these people will follow-through.
If they keep pushing, end the conversation with "Look, you're my friend, but I'd much rather we stay friends than become business partners." or "Look: I'm choosing to spend my time on my projects. This doesn't mean I don't like you, or that I dislike the idea; it just means that I'm not the guy to build it for you. I'll gladly point you to resources, or show you where to go to hire a programmer, but this is your project, and you should be the one to build it."
*Obviously, you'd have to compile a list like this, but that should be relatively easy to do.
1) I think the idea sucks:
Stay honest, but polite. I try to explain why I believe the idea is not, in its current form, good enough. I stay as scientific as possible in this explanation, by giving concrete examples, scenarios and cases where it wouldn't work. At the same time, I provide some advice in terms of what I think there are opportunities for the idea (if any) and almost always finish with a motivational message about not giving up. After all, it's not because I think it's not a good idea that it is not... and who am I to crush people's dreams.
2) You're not interested in the idea:
A lot of us have busy lives, and that's a fact. There are many things you would like to do, try, and experience but at some point there are choices to be made and priorities to establish. When I'm not interested I explain that there's a lot on my plate already, and that I wouldn't be able to keep up with it. So instead of saying yes, out of excitement, and disappointing later, I'd rather politely decline upfront for everyone's best interest :)
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Bottom line, there is no need to lie or invent excuses, but 'explain' it in a way people understand, and they shouldn't get hurt.
What ends up happening is that you start working on it and the "ideas person" doesn't have any time invested in it and gets bored when it's not finished within a short amount of time. If they do decide to move on, you can't do anything with it unless you want to either give them a percentage or go through a lawsuit.
I worked on a project for 6 months only to have the ideas guy tell me that he would rather focus on things that are making him money now, like computer tech support (this was back in 2003). His business went under a year or so later.
I get approached a couple of times a month like this and I usually end up telling them that I am working on my own projects and I don't want to lose focus. It's never been a problem.
