Like everything else in life - it's variable. I'm an idea person who found a highly qualified iPhone developer in the SF Bay Area, who was interested enough in doing dev work for me part-time (he's a FT iPhone dev for a large corp) that he only asked for $2500 plus 3% equity. I'm in Vancouver. I found him on CL. Also, although IMO they mean nothing, he was happy to sign an NDA. It was a good experience.

Even a great idea is worth nothing compared with the work of implementing it. And my guess would be that the ideas you'd find on craigslist are more along the lines of "build a twitter clone only MORE SO" than any genuine insights.

Even if you do think the idea is amazing, only engage in such a deal if you get to keep 90% of profits. Development work requires hundreds of man hours. Ideas can come while in the shower.

It's the difference between "Dude, I should learn to play the guitar" and practicing an hour a day for five years.

Since most, if not all of the CL "opportunities" involve NDAs I was wondering what are some positive/negative things developers have experienced. I was hoping to gain some insight on how to approach such dealings and what to avoid.