<font size="3">Saehoon</font>

Interview By: Jamin "<a href="http://www.ubbdev.com/ubbcgi/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_profile&u=00000440">Skorpion</a>" Colley, blizzardrealms.com
Discuss: Here

<font color="#cccc99">UBBDev</font>: What is your background, and how did you get started on the web?

<font color="#cccccc">Saehoon</font>: 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.
<img src="/members/April2001/saehoon/index.gif" height="283" width="375" border="0" align="right">
<font color="#cccc99">UBBDev</font>: How did you brainstorm the idea behind Saehoon.com?

<font color="#cccccc">Saehoon</font>: 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. = <IMG SRC="smilies/tongue.gif" border="0">

<font color="#cccc99">UBBDev</font>: What was your reason for purchasing a UBB for your site?

<font color="#cccccc">Saehoon</font>: 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.

<font color="#cccc99">UBBDev</font>: What do you like most about UBB?

<font color="#cccccc">Saehoon</font>: The refined layout, style and it's versatility.

<font color="#cccc99">UBBDev</font>: And what do you dislike most about it?

<font color="#cccccc">Saehoon</font>: Having to re-install mods whenever upgrades are released... it's a real pain.

<font color="#cccc99">UBBDev</font>: What do you do to keep your site "fresh," and what do you recommend to keep people coming back for more?

<font color="#cccccc">Saehoon</font>: 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.

<font color="#cccc99">UBBDev</font>: What's the mod on your UBB that you like best? And what mod do your users like best?

<font color="#cccccc">Saehoon</font>: 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.

<font color="#cccc99">UBBDev</font>: Which mod do you feel is most beneficial to your UBB? Or, which one modification is an absolute necessity?

<font color="#cccccc">Saehoon</font>: 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. =)

<font color="#cccc99">UBBDev</font>: Are there any "tricks of the trade" you'd like to share so that any UBB owner can improve the success of their site?

<font color="#cccccc">Saehoon</font>: 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.

<font color="#cccc99">UBBDev</font>: What are the future plans you've got for your site?

<font color="#cccccc">Saehoon</font>: 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.

<font color="#cccc99">UBBDev</font>: Thank you for your time and congratulations!

<font color="#cccccc">Saehoon</font>: Thanks a lot, I'm honored to win this month's Member Spotlight <IMG SRC="smilies/biggrin.gif" border="0">

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