Everyone has seen those websites that try to connect developers with other developers based on projects they want to work on. There have been many attempts at them. I don't think any have been terribly successful, though. I could be wrong, of course. I'm not really talking about elance.com, or monster.com - those are more freelancers strictly looking to get paid for their services. I'm talking more like openinvo.com, except without the upfront fees.

Why do most of these sites seem to have such a tough time being successful? It's definitely something I feel most developers or web designers, etc, would find useful. I know I always hear people complain about how tough it is to find people to work with on ideas of theirs.

I think most of these types of sites end up becoming just a deadpool of "want ads". It's not very fulfilling to post an ad saying you're looking for a project to join, or post an ad saying you're looking for people to join your current project.

So what do you think? How can these types of services be made better?