Interview By: Jamin "Skorpion" Colley, blizzardrealms.com
Discuss: Here

UBBDev: What is your background, and how did you get started on the web?

Saehoon: Well, I'm a college student majoring in computer science currently attending Umass Boston. Exactly one year and two months ago, I got interested in web designing and since then I've been learning more about it everyday. I first started a crumby home page located on geocities, after about two months I purchased the domain Saehoon.com and here I am today. I'd also like to put in a word that without my co-webmaster Paul Han our site wouldn't have came this far... he's really helped out in a lot of ways, also to our moderators and other site contributors.

UBBDev: How did you brainstorm the idea behind Saehoon.com?

Saehoon: At first I didn't know what kind of site to create, then I finally decided to go with something I'm fairly knowledgable about, which is the Asian Entertainment scene. This site would provide photo galleries of popular stars, news, information, album reviews and the like. As for the domain name, I'm pretty sure that you're all wondering what it means. It's actually pretty silly, it's just my Korean name. I noticed all the other Asian Entertainment sites domain names were all too common, I decided to use my name and hopefully one day people will think Saehoon stands for Asian Entertainment. =

UBBDev: What was your reason for purchasing a UBB for your site?

Saehoon: I wanted to create in addition to the resources on Asian Entertainment a full blown friendly and fun community, after extensive research, I chose UBB for it's the best bulletin board software on the market.

UBBDev: What do you like most about UBB?

Saehoon: The refined layout, style and it's versatility.

UBBDev: And what do you dislike most about it?

Saehoon: Having to re-install mods whenever upgrades are released... it's a real pain.

UBBDev: What do you do to keep your site "fresh," and what do you recommend to keep people coming back for more?

Saehoon: The obvious of course is to always add new content. However, alternatives would be using hacks such as Active Topics on the main page of your site, using random images, text or similar tricks of that sort. As for my recommendations to keep bringing visitors back, once again it would be good quality content and appearance. Honestly, I wouldn't go back to a site which isn't visually appealing, unless they have killer content. These two aspects of a site I believe are the most important points to building a successful website.

UBBDev: What's the mod on your UBB that you like best? And what mod do your users like best?

Saehoon: I love all the mods on my UBB, but for my favorite I'd have to go with who's online, now that's something every UBB should have. As for my users, I'd have to say they like the avatar and smilie mods the best. The avatar hack makes it fun for users to post and it also livens things up, as for the smilie mod, on my board I have about 180 smilies total... some of them are just outright hilarious and it totally enhances the discussions. All these hacks enhance that fun community environment and it really gets people posting.

UBBDev: Which mod do you feel is most beneficial to your UBB? Or, which one modification is an absolute necessity?

Saehoon: I'd have to say it's the avatar hack, there are tons of avatar images which users can select on my forums. This allows each user to be unique and it sort of creates an image of that user. It would be boring to stare at letters all the time, pictures liven things up. =)

UBBDev: Are there any "tricks of the trade" you'd like to share so that any UBB owner can improve the success of their site?

Saehoon: Use colors that match nicely and are appealing to the eye. Do not use huge graphics, (as I've noticed on some boards) it takes way too long to load and it totally kills the visitors experience browsing your board. Remember, fancy graphics do not always create the best looking board. Also, modifications are great, but don't go overboard. If your site doesn't need a certain mod, don't install it.

UBBDev: What are the future plans you've got for your site?

Saehoon: Well, we've just created a search directory (Asian related), hopefully this will grow and provide many resources to our visitors. As for other future plans, we're taking it day by day. Members are growing everyday and we're busy just adding new content.

UBBDev: Thank you for your time and congratulations!

Saehoon: Thanks a lot, I'm honored to win this month's Member Spotlight