Weekly Staff Interview Series #9 — Eren
Hello, and welcome to the latest edition of our Weekly Staff Member Interview Series!
This week, we have decided to interview Eren. This member is a staff member of Forum Promotion, and is one of our own at the Editorial Team, #BetterRedThanDead!
Now on to the interview!
Hi Eren, the question I like to start off with, just like everyone else, is what can you tell us about yourself? My name is Kyle and I am 26 years old. Despite my age I've done a lot with my life especially in the realm of healthcare. I am a 4 year veteran of the United States Air Force specializing in surgical technology. That means I am a part of an operating room and I participate in surgeries alongside surgeons. I can assist in any type of surgery including C-Sections. I have been a volunteer (and paid) Emergency Medical Technician Basic for 10 years now (nationally, and two different state levels)and have a vibrant history of providing the care and treatment you would expect when calling for an ambulance. I've spent time as a volunteer fire fighter but never really gained an interest in that sort of thing. I'm a storm spotter with NOAA and the occasional Storm Chaser. As you would expect I'm a webmaster who has been doing forum administration for over 14 years now. I have a love for forums, design, and simple coding but my interests hardly ever extend past being a hobby. I am currently enrolling as a full time nursing student. How has your time here at FP been? What do you like about the community? My time at FP has been fun so far. I like the people who run the forum and those that make up the staff as well as the community at large. I also enjoy the topics we talk about and how we can, as a whole, bring back the concept of forum communities on the internet. Overall it's a very good community and I'm excited to see how it's going to evolve in the coming months under it's new leadership. What can you tell us about Political Debate Forums? Political Debate Forums is a old but new community. It's built off of an old political forum database that I used to administrate in 2010 but had been running on it's own independently as soon as April 2014 as well. It's an anonymous web platform for debate, discussion, and argument about all things political in the US and the rest of the world. It's an ongoing project that's received a lot of positive support and continues to grow at a good rate.It's main mission is to protect free speech and to create a unbiased and mostly unmoderated platform while recognizing some order does need to be maintained. You can visit PoliticalDebateForums at the following URL: http://www.politicaldebateforums.com/forums/ Do you have any advice for those of us interested in starting a new debate forum? This is not an easy niche to start in. Don't start up in it unless you are dedicated, like debates, have thick skin, and can relax on the moderation. For a long period of time you will be talking to yourself. When the forum does finally grow you have to keep a delicate balance of political thought and theory to maintain good order. What methods were most successful when promoting Political Debate Forums? So far the best method I have used is networking on larger political forums and linking via my sig as their rules allow. Most of these forums don't really care if you have a link in your signature. Some won't mention it. Asking the lead admin usually opens doors. When moderating a debate forum, have you learned anything about cooling down arguments which get too hot? Could you share some of your experience with us on how to best accomplish this? Free speech is the very root of a political forum and forums in our niche often die out when users are censored or feel censored. For the most part I recognize my users are all grown adults, most are of voting age and higher, and many are there for heated debate and argument. There are simple rules in place but unless we really need to cool something down or shut down a thread, such as in a case of general forum drama, we generally let things work themselves out. It's worked very well so far. Are there any other projects you are working on at the moment? I have none right now but I am propositioned every once in a while to help on communities. Are you a staff member at any other forums or websites? No, my forum and life offline are far too time consuming to do much other than what I do at FP and my site. What advice can you tell newer admins here at Forum Promotion, on what they could do to better their new forums? Work on your design and style. I generally look at many of the forums that are posted on FP and quite a few are very sloppy in design or just generally look bad. I usually do not comment because I don't want to be "that guy". Design is the welcome mat to your forum and without a unique and welcoming theme you are shutting the door to a large portion of your potential success. What would you suggest to improve Forum Promotion? It could be anything. I would really like to see FP move to better software at this point. I don't like free forum systems and this one especially is outdated. I'll support whatever measure the new admin takes but I would like to see this forum expand, grow, and take on more important meaning. What are your thoughts on the Forum Promotion Blog? What kind of articles are you interested in reading? Any suggestions? It's generally a good blog although I think we could do much more with it. For example it could be more a magazine styled theme and involve a lot more on being a webmaster. Right now it doesn't really grab the eye or welcome the user in. I enjoy articles on design and administration tactics the most.
And that wraps up this weeks staff member interview! Thank you for reading this, we hope you will continue reading these every week that they are posted! Feel free to comment below on the interview. Also, feel free to ask the person that got reviewed any questions you feel like!
Hi Eren, the question I like to start off with, just like everyone else, is what can you tell us about yourself? My name is Kyle and I am 26 years old. Despite my age I've done a lot with my life especially in the realm of healthcare. I am a 4 year veteran of the United States Air Force specializing in surgical technology. That means I am a part of an operating room and I participate in surgeries alongside surgeons. I can assist in any type of surgery including C-Sections. I have been a volunteer (and paid) Emergency Medical Technician Basic for 10 years now (nationally, and two different state levels)and have a vibrant history of providing the care and treatment you would expect when calling for an ambulance. I've spent time as a volunteer fire fighter but never really gained an interest in that sort of thing. I'm a storm spotter with NOAA and the occasional Storm Chaser. As you would expect I'm a webmaster who has been doing forum administration for over 14 years now. I have a love for forums, design, and simple coding but my interests hardly ever extend past being a hobby. I am currently enrolling as a full time nursing student. How has your time here at FP been? What do you like about the community? My time at FP has been fun so far. I like the people who run the forum and those that make up the staff as well as the community at large. I also enjoy the topics we talk about and how we can, as a whole, bring back the concept of forum communities on the internet. Overall it's a very good community and I'm excited to see how it's going to evolve in the coming months under it's new leadership. What can you tell us about Political Debate Forums? Political Debate Forums is a old but new community. It's built off of an old political forum database that I used to administrate in 2010 but had been running on it's own independently as soon as April 2014 as well. It's an anonymous web platform for debate, discussion, and argument about all things political in the US and the rest of the world. It's an ongoing project that's received a lot of positive support and continues to grow at a good rate.It's main mission is to protect free speech and to create a unbiased and mostly unmoderated platform while recognizing some order does need to be maintained. You can visit PoliticalDebateForums at the following URL: http://www.politicaldebateforums.com/forums/ Do you have any advice for those of us interested in starting a new debate forum? This is not an easy niche to start in. Don't start up in it unless you are dedicated, like debates, have thick skin, and can relax on the moderation. For a long period of time you will be talking to yourself. When the forum does finally grow you have to keep a delicate balance of political thought and theory to maintain good order. What methods were most successful when promoting Political Debate Forums? So far the best method I have used is networking on larger political forums and linking via my sig as their rules allow. Most of these forums don't really care if you have a link in your signature. Some won't mention it. Asking the lead admin usually opens doors. When moderating a debate forum, have you learned anything about cooling down arguments which get too hot? Could you share some of your experience with us on how to best accomplish this? Free speech is the very root of a political forum and forums in our niche often die out when users are censored or feel censored. For the most part I recognize my users are all grown adults, most are of voting age and higher, and many are there for heated debate and argument. There are simple rules in place but unless we really need to cool something down or shut down a thread, such as in a case of general forum drama, we generally let things work themselves out. It's worked very well so far. Are there any other projects you are working on at the moment? I have none right now but I am propositioned every once in a while to help on communities. Are you a staff member at any other forums or websites? No, my forum and life offline are far too time consuming to do much other than what I do at FP and my site. What advice can you tell newer admins here at Forum Promotion, on what they could do to better their new forums? Work on your design and style. I generally look at many of the forums that are posted on FP and quite a few are very sloppy in design or just generally look bad. I usually do not comment because I don't want to be "that guy". Design is the welcome mat to your forum and without a unique and welcoming theme you are shutting the door to a large portion of your potential success. What would you suggest to improve Forum Promotion? It could be anything. I would really like to see FP move to better software at this point. I don't like free forum systems and this one especially is outdated. I'll support whatever measure the new admin takes but I would like to see this forum expand, grow, and take on more important meaning. What are your thoughts on the Forum Promotion Blog? What kind of articles are you interested in reading? Any suggestions? It's generally a good blog although I think we could do much more with it. For example it could be more a magazine styled theme and involve a lot more on being a webmaster. Right now it doesn't really grab the eye or welcome the user in. I enjoy articles on design and administration tactics the most.
And that wraps up this weeks staff member interview! Thank you for reading this, we hope you will continue reading these every week that they are posted! Feel free to comment below on the interview. Also, feel free to ask the person that got reviewed any questions you feel like!
