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Speaking as a programmer myself I would have to say many of the programmers have left the adult community and moved on to greener pastures. Expectations are such that clients expect the highest quality programmers at the lowest outsourced prices. While it is natural to want to pay the least amount as possible there is something to the saying "you get what you pay for". When there is too much of a skew in 1 direction there will be a shift in the supply/demand. In the case of adult, less favorable pay means programmers go elsewhere.
I would estimate less than 5% of the opportunities I am presented with in the adult industry are on any terms that I can realistically accept. Other sectors and communities offer much more favorable work.
The best programmers and in demand and will go after the low hanging fruit first (best pay with most favorable working conditions).
Unlike an auto mechanic, programmer's code can be multiplied exponentially to increase productivity. However, this is not something taught in schools or books. It is something that is learned with experience.
This usually involves a high degree of meta-programming and even creating new programming languages specific to the task at hand. PHP is horrible at expressing intent and for this reason the more talented programmers avoid it at all costs. Anyone who says all programming languages are equal is ignorant and knows nothing about programming. They should be avoided at all costs. You wouldn't say a horse, car, and plane are all equal because they are all transportation vehicles would you? The adult industry is stuck in PHP and so that is another reason why top talent is hard to find in adult.
"The best programmers can write better programmers than they can hire".
Interviews from CEOs of some of the top tech companies (Bill Gates, Steve Jobs) have placed the higher programmer productivity difference around 100 to 1.
If it costs you $100/hr and that programmer can work 100x more effectively than a $10/hr outsourced programmer then the $100/hr programmer is 10x cheaper (and a lot less hassle to deal with).
The problem is how can you tell if someone is 100:1 or 1:1? You can't... unless you know enough programming yourself. That means you are likely to get ripped off. The only thing left is to go by are the recommendations of people you trust.
If a programmer knows he can get 100x more work done than an $8/hr outsourced programmer, but he can only get 5x the pay on average he is naturally going to see working for himself as a better option of making money than working for others.
The other issue you must solve if you want to find competent programmers is to know what you want and be able to express it succinctly. This means having detailed specs, screenshot mockups, detailed list of features, example user scenarios.
Larger companies often are much more detailed about the specifics of what they need done and so they are much easier to work with.
Too often when starting to talk to a potential client I speak with them for over an hour and I still don't know what it is they want. I've learned that if they don't already have the specs documented it isn't worth talking to them.
As a result of all of this I have teamed up with others and am pursuing larger corporate clients as well as developing my own projects.
I am still open to opportunities if they make sense but I have given up actively trying to find programming work in adult.
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