Interviewed by: Allen Ayres
Spotlighted Site: netwerkin.orgNote: Proving that success can strike twice, we interview this month's top site's owner, XPert. Using a masterful mix of color, great template work, blended with nice, well-thought-out modifications and a busy member base, ".org" shows what you can make of your site if you use a little creative juice in your coffee.
UBBDev: Hello XPert, congratulations are in order again
To start with some background info, why did you start .org and where do you plan to take it?
XPert: .org started by accident really. I bought the names netwerkin.org and .net just to keep people from grabbing the name in case Netwerkin became popular. I was playing around in Photoshop one day and made the image in the left side of the header and like it so much that I decided to buy another UBB license and build a site around it.
UBBDev: What makes your target audience for .org different from your .com site?
XPert: The target audience for .org would be more of the "open minded" media type people. Netwerkin.com is a place for computer junkies of all platforms but .org is more a place for me to try some creative thinking.
UBBDev: "Media-type people"... your background is in server administration, pretty much tech-grand-central... does .org give you the artistic freedom you don't find elsewhere?
XPert: Artistic freedom is an interesting term. The .org site gives me a place to attempt to be artisitic. I spend 10 to 12 hours a days doing my job so being an online answer person at Netwerkin got to be a burden after awhile. The .org site lets me be just another community member and also gives me a place to have fun.
UBBDev: Can understand that. Then, for those of us with multiple sites to run, can you tell us how you manage to keep the site personalities seperate and manage your time to keep one site from being subserviant to the other?
XPert: Running multiple sites can be a real bear. I'm blessed with a great moderating staff and that allows me to concentrate on one site at a time. My wife is the only other admin (choose your admins wisely) and she helps a lot as well. I am in the process of building a brand new 6.2.1 UBB for .org with a completely new look. I've always enjoyed hacking templates more than hacking .cgi files. I doub't that .com will see an upgrade any time soon, I just don't have the time to do it. As far as keeping the sites seperate in personality it's like raising more than one child at a time. They each have unique needs and you have to treat them differently.
UBBDev: Mucho personal time involved then... $64,000 question: What is in all this for you... where does the joy/interest/enthusiasm keep coming from that makes you put in the hours it takes to build such a great site?
XPert: What's in it for me? It certainly isn't profit. I've never asked for any help paying for the servers or licenses so it has to be the fun of learning new things. I can built large networks in my sleep but have always been applications challenged. I try to build the sites by myself, including the graphics. Anyone that witnessed my first attempts can testify to the fact that my graphics skilss have come a long ways.
UBBDev: flip-side... what do you do as a site-owner that keeps your members coming back for more?
XPert: I really wish I knew the secret to keeping members coming back for more. I know that for me it has always been the feeling of community and being part of the site. I try to keep members in the loop as far as my plans for "their" website, and ask for their advice and opinions when it's appropriate. One of the most difficult things is maintaining consistency in the rules and enforcement of them so that the members can have a fun experience as well as a safe one. I really try to keep them excited about coming back.
I would like to add a huge thank you to the entire community at UBBDev for their help and patience with new users like myself. Without the information and resources here I would have given up long ago. I only hope that I can be as helpful to people that are learning now.
UBBDev: Thank you Xpert, for sharing your knowlede with us and being a great part of our community
screenshots are on page 2
