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ThreadsDev :: The winner of the Official Beyond Compare/UBBDev/ThreadsDev Combo Content Rulez Contest was Leoville Town Square .

Leoville Town Square is a fansite of technology guru Leo Laporte (the Mayor of Leoville) known for his Books and Radio & Television Shows.
ka-blooey!

Leo has had a pretty busy schedule lately, but we were able to chat with JoshPet, an Administrator on the site who was able to answer some questions about the site and the community.

Congrats on Leoville bringing home the Content Rulez trophy! grin

JoshPet :: Thank you, I wish I could take credit. But the Leovillagers deserve all the credit for making Leoville a great community and a wealth of knowledge. smile

TD :: Well how did "Leoville" and the Leovillagers come to be?

JP :: While I've watched Leo on TV since the "ZDTv Days", I didn't frequent the message boards until just a few years ago. But thankfully, Leoville is blessed with a wonderful "Town Historian" named MissDaisy who maintains a wonderful Leoville Time Capsule Thread which holds all the historical moments of Leoville.

I can fill you in on some of the highlights.

Leo decided to start a message board back in June of 2001 when he discovered that the comments to his blog entries were fast turning into a spontaneous community.

The community did not start on a UBB.Threads board. He started with a free message board, then ultimately tried something called Discus and quickly saw how popular the board was going to be. One of the founding board members, Mrs Mock Tudor writes:

quote:

The day that Leo started the Town Square there was a slim window - about 2 hours I believe - of the pre-Discus board. Some of us had the opportunity to watch on the homecam as Leo set up the initial board, and we started posting, and he got a small hint of how popular things were going to be. Being who he is, Leo installed the first board, posted the link, then installed the free version of Discus, and posted the link, and then upgraded to Discus Pro all in the space of one afternoon.

The popularity of his online community fast outpaced the cheesy "flat-file" board software. Another founding member, Charlotte writes:
quote:

I'm afraid Leo underestimated his Laporteans just a tiny bit; the board couldn't quite keep up with us. Leo put up a message saying that this was not working and he was trying different software. I can't remember exactly how many boards or versions of boards he went through to find one that could keep up with us. He finally found the beloved Discus Board, which he upgraded shortly afterwards. It was a great board, but worked only temporarily.

Unfortunately, the community kept growing faster than the board could keep up with. When it outgrew its boundaries last October (2001), it crashed, losing a lot of precious Calling Carol good-times. As if that still wasn't enough, the server finally just gave up after that. Leo's ISP asked him politely to cut back, because his site was just never supposed to become so big. Leo had to make a lot of changes, including deleting all posts that were over three months old. He tried upgrading the Discus Board, but it still died. That's how we got to the new UBB board.

TD :: Then.... Enter UBB.Threads?

JP :: Yes, in February of 2002 UBB.Threads was installed and the Mayor (Leo) made his first post . Still skeptical if anything could handle the postings of the Leovillagers he asked everyone to "bang on it as hard as you can".
avatar

TD :: And it's still kicking, obviously. wink

JP :: Still kicking strong! smile The user database is pruned pretty regularly, but it hovers just under 3000 members. Since inactive users are purged, that means there's a good bit of active users. The forums are well over half a million posts with typically 600-700 messages posted a day.

TD :: Has the recent press about the TechTV and Comcast/G4 merger brought an increase in activity?

JP :: Most definately. crazy There's been quite a shakeup recently at TechTV and with Leo's contract, so Leo's fans have come out in the masses to show their support and say thanks .
term
Just earlier this month, with the announcement that the entire staff at TechTV was "laid off" due to the Comcast/TechTV merger, and a mention on slashdot, the forums reached their "max online" of over 1300 members. shocked The last few months, the site has been averaging 200+ GB of Bandwidth per month. crazy


TD :: Wow, that's definately a bundle. shocked So with all the uncertainty, what's in store for the future of Leoville?

JP :: More of the same I'm sure. Leo still has his very popular weekend Radio show on KFI in LA. A good deal of his fans listen weekly via the internet feed. He's also stated that he has other offers, so I'm sure he'll turn up on the tube again soon.

He has announced a new, called Leoville.tv coming this summer which would be subscription based Tech Entertainment through the net. smile

TD :: So, aside from Leo related News and discussions, what else will we find at Leoville?

JP :: The forums at Leoville really cover a very wide spectrum. There is definately a good bit of TechTV related stuff. Fans, screen caps from webcams/spycams and screen captures from shows.
But there are extensive sections with information and discussion on everything from Web Design, gaming, software, hardward, blogging, and other technology related things.
There's also a popular section to share your photoshop creations. But they also discuss News, politics and have an active "debate" forum. Personally, for me, it's a great resource. If I have a computer issue or need to research a new digital camera or something, I definately search the Leoville Town Square first.

TD :: We know a site is only as important/popular to the members as it is to the owner. How much does Leo himself participate in the discussion?

JP :: Unless he's traveling or has something else keeping him extremely busy, Leo is usually on every day. He hand approves every membership himself to try and keep out the trolls. And he posts regularly. Usually in the "Leo" or "TechTV" forums. But sometimes he comments on spycam captures and other threads as well.
logo

TD :: Does Leoville have topical 'experts' who help drive discussion?

JP :: Not really any "official" experts, but like any community, there are certainly many regulars who are very active in their favorite forums. Several of the people Leo has worked with frequent the board as well.

There is a user matty who moderates the Macintosh forum (as there tends to be alot of Mac vs. PC flame wars started in there, so he helps keep things in control), MissDaisy moderates the "Time Capsule", and I take care of anything board related and keep an eye for trouble elsewhere.

TD :: Well, congratulations to you and the citizens of Leoville for having an outstanding community. We'll hope the best works out for Leo and we'll keep watching/listening/reading. wink

JP :: Thanks!

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