If you don't really know anything about them, but you've seen many of their posts, I don't see how that should factor into it. The most I would expect to be able to glean from the mere fact that someone is a prolific DDF'er is that they like to save money, or to travel, or something of that nature. Not exactly key criteria for a contractor.
Do you mean a prolific DDF'er who you know well through DDF? That I could possibly agree to, no different than someone you know well through in-person interactions and feel confident enough in to contract their services. But if you don't even know someone well enough to know, for example, that they're in the backup generator business, how well do you know them already?
Notice how I wrote - in
bold, no less - "all other things being equal". Obviously, if someone has no experience or no reputation, I wouldn't take him merely on the basis of being a DDFer.
But take AsherO for example. I've never met him, and didn't even know his real (full) name until a short while ago. Yet if I needed someone in his profession (whatever that is) and I had to choose between him and another equally-qualified candidate, I would choose him in a heartbeat, merely based on the respect I have attained for him through DDF.
Or how about WhyAich... There are tons of travel agents out there. Yet I dropped my old travel agent (who, frankly, wasn't doing much more for me than Kayak would) and switched to him, just on the basis of interacting with him here on DDF, and getting to know him that way.
