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#286416 06/25/2001 4:28 PM
Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 3,590
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Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 3,590
Matt 'Digital Boy' TorbinInterview by: Matt "Digital Boy" Torbin
Interviewee: David Murphy
Site: Tek-Tips Forums




UBBDev
Hello David, can you share a little info about yourself and your background?

David Murphy
I have general responsibility for all technical, operational, and marketing functions for Tek-Tips Forums . After eight years of financial management experience with Arthur Andersen and Unisys, I've held management positions in finance, personnel, and technical sales for start-up companies in emerging markets, and have a B.B.A. degree from the University of Michigan.

UBBDev
What prompted you to develop Tek-Tips?

DM
Seeing people help one another on the site gives me a great deal of satisfaction. People know using the forums ultimately reduces their cost at work and increases their productivity. The gun slinger who works alone and thinks they have it all figured out is an IT dinosaur. Just like PC's left the "mainframers" in the dust 10 years ago, IT professionals who don't leverage their use of the Internet are getting left behind too.

UBBDev
Who is the typical/average Tek-Tips community member? What demographic do you mostly target?

DM
The typical member is a technical computer professional who supports either a corporate IT department, or is a technical consultant. So, they could be an administrator or programmer or whatever. The bottom line is they have end users that depend upon them to keep their systems up and running.

UBBDev
What defines a "successful" online community, in your view?

DM
Where people's time is well spent. Our value proposition is to reduce a member's cost and reduce the amount of time they take to get a job done.

UBBDev
What do you feel is the best avenue for developers who want to promote their new communities? What avenues should they avoid?

DM
Developers get paid to develop. And, that being their core competency it is also where they should spend their time. From a business perspective, if they want to "promote" they should be highlighting their programming skills to prospective clients. If they can do it in a forum on their site and still make money that's great. However, developers have a terrible time trying to draw the line between what is billable and what is not -- it's hard to cut a prospect loose that's been waisting your time for weeks.

UBBDev
What do you feel is the biggest challange you face(d) with Tek-Tips?

DM
There is no one biggest challenge. We knew building the largest IT forums on the Internet would take years -- and it has! We keep our heads down, work hard, and listen to our members for features they want to see on the site.

UBBDev
Where do you see the next major developments in "communities" on the web to go?

DM
People have been very disenfranshised with all the Silicon Valley and MBA "community" hype. What I mean is just because you go to a site and engage in "parallel clicks" doesn't equate to community. You have to engage with others and this is where most sites get "weak kneed" because they can't "control" where things go. I disagree with the notion that just because some site was able to grab your e-mail address you are now part of their community -- it's a shallow proposition.

I see more and more "bricks" companies using the Internet to develop and nurture "clicks" community strategies. Leading key clients to secure areas of their sites and engaging them with useful information will increase their own value proposition as well as their client's sense of community. However, changing corporate cultures is a pretty steep climb so these things will take years to evolve...

UBBDev
We support sites that use forum software for the basis of adding community, the UBBâ„¢ specifically. Is there any advice you might have for those site developers who run forum software in adding a community?

DM
Be honest with your forum visitors. Draw clear lines about what advice is free and what they will have to pay for. Communicate clearly to web visitors what you expect from them in your forum and follow-up with posters who get out of line.

UBBDev
What does the future hold for Tek-Tips?

DM
We are excited about where things are going. We have over 83,000 registered members now, serve 2.3 million pageviews per month to 170,000 unique IP's, and our 500+ forums get about 10,000 posts per week.

We are also soon launching the ability for members to have their own forums on the site so we're excited to see where that takes us. It should be a lot of fun!

UBBDev
Thank you for your time David, thought-provoking and informative.

:::

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