UBBDEV:
What is your background and how long have you been on the web?
Neal Ulen: Well, let's put it this
way...I remember first using "PCs" back when you saved your data to
cassette tapes. As a kid I used to spend hours at the local university
playing Star Trek on print terminals using hacked (shhhhhh) passwords. The
weird thing is, I never went into the computer field, I actually studied
mechanical engineering. BUT, I do work for a very large computer component
manufacturer...can't get away from them. (c: I first started using
the internet back in 92ish while in graduate school. I mainly used it for
research, newsgroups, and communication with other researchers...this was still pre-WWW. It was at that time I got my first taste of network gaming.
It was a cheesy multiplayer space combat game with graphics along the lines of
Tempest...but it was soooooo cool. Then Mosaic came along a little after
that, and the rest is history. I've just recently got around to teaching myself
perl, so
much of this is a learning experience as I go along. Basically all web
development stuff I've done up to this point has been directly related to
interests or hobbies.
UBBDEV: What was your reason for purchasing the ubb for your site?
NU: At MFO we originally bought and
tried a piece of forum software called DCForum (Hey, it was cheap!). It
was also awful. I could customize it a little, but it was difficult to use
and visitors just didn't like it. I finally convinced Jon to switch to UBB
because 1) As a user I really like it. 2) It is basically an internet
standard as far as forum software goes. 3) Almost everyone knows how UBB works
when they run across it on the internet. 4) It has a huge development
community! When developing GF.N we naturally picked UBB again for these
exact same reasons and the familiarity with doing script modifications.
UBBDEV: What do you do to keep your
site "fresh" and what do you recommend to keep people coming back for
more?
NU: There are two fundamental ways to
draw people back to a site. 1) Build a community. 2) Offer content
that gets updated fairly regularly (daily). Again, MFO and GF.N are completely
different setups. MFO has both of these "draws". We've
built up a nice community of movie freaks in our forum that resides under the
fundamental content of the site: movie reviews, previews, DVD reviews,
and news. GF.N on the other hand is relying completely on building a
community where people want to hang out. Building a pure community is a
difficult thing to do from the ground up if you don't offer some sort of secondary content in
the beginning. GF.N launched about a month ago and is slowly building up
to what I think will be a fun and dynamic community. Offer up designs that
are easy on the eyes, and not too busy...if possible.
UBBDEV: Are there any "tricks of the trade" you'd like to share that any ubb
owner can use to improve the success of their site?
NU: The success of a bulletin
board is directly proportional to the activity on the board. When
you first start up a board new visitors will be reluctant to register and
stay if there is no activity. Early on post as often as
possible. Recruit friends to get some discussion going, because
without it the board won't grow. I think a lot of webmasters over
design their UBBs. They do too many hacks. Keep it simple,
keep it clean, keep it functional. Add only those hacks/mods that
offer useful functionality to your members. Don't underestimate the
power of the header and footer fields in the Control Panel settings.
These are the two most powerful settings the UBB has. It can
transform a generic out of the box UBB into a unique looking and amazingly
versatile piece of software! Choose/create your icons and graphics
so they match the theme of the site. At MFO for example, I use full
and empty popcorn buckets to show if any new posts have been made since
the last visit, and the ranking system uses characters from the silver
screen. Lastly, share your new modifications with the rest of the
UBB community. (c:
UBBDEV:
How did you brainstorm the idea behind "Moviefan Online" and "GamerForums.Net"?
NU: There's no real mystery behind
Moviefan Online's (MFO) background. A friend of mine, Jon Hall, started up
the site and I soon joined to help him out. Our motivation? Love of movies, plain and simple. The design of the site
just sort of evolved to it's current state, there was never a plan or
design guide we were following. Isn't this usually the case? (c:
The site is very clean looking and
functional. Jon and I believe strongly in using lots of dark colors in all of our
designs. For those of us who spend a lot of time in front of a computer,
there is nothing worse than visiting a site with a pure white (or light colored)
background...kills my eyes! MFO is a traditional type site in that the UBB
is a section of the site, unlike GamerForums.Net (GF.N) which IS the UBB. GF.N was started out of our love of another form of entertainment...games
obviously. We talked about the idea for months prior to the launch
which was about a month ago. We wanted to start a central community where
people could come and discuss ALL things gaming. The design and layout for
GF.N has a pretty strange and unique little story behind it. I'm a big sportbike fan/rider (on top of everything else), and I've
always loved the yellow version of Honda's VFR 800. (c: Being a
gaming site I wanted something that would jump out and grab your attention...yet still be somewhat
easy on the eyes because of the very dark backgrounds. And what jumps out
at you more than a fast, sexy sportbike with vibrant colors? I'm actually very
pleased how it turned out when compared to the unconventional inspiration!
I've even labeled the bike as our official motorcycle. (c:
UBBDEV:What do you like and dislike
most about the ubb?
NU: I really like the default
configuration options that ship with UBB, and I also like the flexibility with
respect to modifying the code...even for us perl newbies. Though they are
secondary to the actual UBB software itself, the 4 points I listed above are
also STRONG likes. I don't like the speed, especially in large forum
setups. I really could live without all the small, nagging html formatting problems
embedded in the code. I've probably spent as much time tweaking html
output as I have adding mods. Argh! I also dislike the fact that
they release updates so often. For those who don't mod their board, it's
not much of a problem. But MFO is running at 5.45c, which wasn't that long
ago, and I have no interest in updating all my mods into a new version. One final gripe.
(c: The software, as shipped, is functional but very Spartan. A lot of work has to go into it to make your forum stand out from
the other boards you run across. Even with these complaints UBB is still
our choice at these two sites.
UBBDEV: Name the mod to your ubb that you like the best (and why) and name the mod
your users like the best (and why)?
NU: I think the mod that I like
the best is Who's Online. As an administrator I like to know how many
people are on my board, and who they are. This mod used in
conjunction with private messaging allows for a more open community.
The mod that the users like the best are obviously the ranking (MFO) and
the avatars (GF.N). The ranking system at MFO was done prior to me
discovering UBBDev.com, so it offers something even more unique than the
standard Stars hack. Being new to perl I also learned a lot setting
it up without the assistance of all the great members at UBBDev. The
MFO members really dig the movie theme rank icons and status bars (50
levels) that start with the much hated Leonardo DiCaprio and ends with a
member getting their own custom icon (or Darth Vader) (c: GF.N
uses the avatars hack straight from UBBDev.com with game related
characters. This is a great hack and allows for more customization
from the users point of view. We currently have 165 avatars to
choose from, with more being added!
UBBDEV: What are your future plans for your site?
NU: Moviefan Online is a very
mature site, even though the UBB has only been installed since July or
so. It will plug along as it always has as we build up an even
larger UBB community and continually add new content to the sections of
the site. GamerForums.Net is only a month old and we fully expect
that as the word spreads the community there will only strengthen. We are also going to offer free hosting of game forums for those who don't
have the means to do it themselves, and we are actively looking for an
affiliate program that will open up the site even more.
Finally, I want to thank all the members/mods/admins at UBBDev for all
their work and help...and I'm sure everyone shares this sentiment. (c:
~ Neal Ulen
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