Imad, you are a “PR Liaison”, what exactly do you do?

I do all sorts of fun stuff including public relations related tasks. Working with community related problems is part of it. However, I am focusing more on why I moved to this position, which will relate to some upcoming introductions in the future.

If you could change one thing in your MyBB “career” what would it be?

I have always been a developer, and I always will be. If I had more time I would definitely apply to be a MyBB developer, I simply love developing. However, I enjoy my current position; after all, I chose to move to it from SQA.

What is your opinion on the “mybb is free, it’s plugins should be too” debate?
My stance on this debate is neutral. Paid plugins may be a good move for MyBB and maybe not. Moreover, the community is quite widespread. We have a part of the community supporting paid plugins and enjoy that path, and we have part of the community about free plugins, and there is a great amount of followers for that as well. It is a healthy diversity, and only time will tell where community modifications will head toward (in terms of monetary value.) It will be very interesting to see how it will head in the next 5 years.

What do you think MyBB lacks that would make it even better?

I have had quite a stance in the past against MyBB heading toward a more social network standpoint, so has the rest of the team. However, after some consideration, I personally think that MyBB can use some enhancements in that department. I am not talking about heading in a direction MyBB’s competition have, notably the commercial alternatives. However, I do think MyBB can utilize what it currently has to offer to intertwine with the rest of the software in a more complete fashion. I will not go in depth about it in this interview however; this is not the place for it.

How did you originally get involved with MyBB?

I originally got involved with MyBB when I was searching for a better alternative to PHPBB, I was not happy with PHPBB and neither were my forum users. From there, I was active on the MyBB community forums and decided to apply for an SQA position when the new SQA group was first introduced. (in case you were curious, the SQA group idea originated from MyBB’s former lead developer Ryan Gordon.)

What forums do you currently own?

I do not currently own any forums, although I may in the future pick one up.

Anything else you’d like to say?
Nope.

[b]So, Nathan, you’ve recently been added to the MyBB SQA team. Congratulations. What’s your favorite thing about being on the team?[/b]

That’s a hard one. I’d have to say working with people who have similar interests and who aren’t afraid to put crazy, random ideas out there.

[b]I heard you had an interesting experience being added to the team, starting with that you didn’t apply. Please explain.[/b]

This was one of the most interesting experiences I have had on the MyBB community. Being an avid supporter of MyBB, I try to help out as much as I can. Being that providing support to those who need it or searching for new issues or potential security threats which may arise. It all started in the /me thread where I created a post about a bunch of issues I had found. From then I noticed people, including staff members, asking “Why aren’t you on the SQA team yet??”. As I have quite a strong knowledge of how MyBB works, I did keep that thought at the back of my mind. After that it become somewhat of a meme in the /me thread. Every time I’d find a bug, someone (In some cases 4-5 members) would quote it again and again. Finding this amusing, I eventually said I’d apply in early 2012. But it turned out they didn’t want to wait until then. On the 28th of November I received a PM from Tim B. who asked if I was interested in a position on the team, and I gladly accepted. Yeah he’s awesome.

[b]What exactly does an SQA member do?[/b]

SQA stands for Software Quality Assurance. We make sure new features are working correctly, ensure that new releases install/upgrade successfully and check if bugs have been fixed correctly without unwanted side effects. We make sure that is MyBB running at it’s best.

[b]Well, enough with the MyBB staff stuff. You’re also a Big Board Owner, of un-ruled.com. Was [url=http://un-ruled.com]Un-Ruled[/url] originally powered by MyBB?[/b]

No, it wasn’t. UnR was powered by vBulletin until I acquired it. Imho that wasn’t acceptable. I converted it to MyBB and is now ran my myself and Zack Magee.

[b]How did you find MyBB?[/b]

I first came across MyBB in 2007 whilst using a forum which was powered by it. I didn’t take much notice (I wasn’t into forum development at that time) but I found it again in 2009. Ever since I’ve been hooked.

[b]What do you like most about MyBB?[/b]

It’s free! You can’t beat it’s price. In all honestly, [url=http://wiki.mybb.com/index.php/Free_never_tasted_so_good]free really never tasted so good[/url].

[b]What’s your favorite MyBB plugin?[/b]

I’m going to say Google SEO (Editor’s note: [url]http://mods.mybb.com/view/google-seo[/url]). Google SEO is top notch at providing everything a forum owner could need to enhance their forum ready for indexing. There are many other amazing plugins out there but I think that one stands out from the rest.

[b]Your MyBB profile says you code in PHP, Perl, and Ruby. Which one do you like the most?[/b]

Tricky question. PHP is the language I’m best versed in, but Perl is great for performance. PHP will have to be my answer. It’s simply outstanding the things you can do with it if you put your mind to it.

[b]What’s your favorite flavor of Linux?[/b]

That depends on the environment. For a desktop I use Fedora 14 32 bit. In the past I have used Ubuntu too (Dual booting with Windoze). On all my servers I use CentOS. It’s stability is outstanding and it runs smoothly.

[b]Dream job?[/b]

Astronaut. My childhood dream was to be the first man on Mars. First MyBB SQA team member on Mars?

[b]Current job?[/b]

I am currently a freelancer/web developer. I write applications and software in return for a small sum of money. I also participate and contribute to open source projects such as MyBB.

[b]What does a normal day in the life of Nathan Malcolm look like?[/b]

It’s a very simple process. Wake up, fall out of bed, turn my computer on, start work. While I’m working I like to listen to drum and bass or anything that has a good beat. I often spend time with family and friends. It does get a bit hectic but that’s my life. There can be days where I don’t go to bed until the early morning just to finish a project off.

[b]Anything else you’d like to say?[/b]

MyBB rox!

So Jesse, you’re the owner of HackForums, the largest above-ground hacking forum. You also own SupportForums.net and MyBBCentral. How did your web career start?

With the rise of the internet in the mid-90′s there was an apparent opportunity to earn money. I was a computer guy since I was 11 and my first computer was in 1981. So I grew up with computers. In 1994 I started my own retail business in NYC selling video games, computers, software, and movies. Media retail was good back then. Eventually I got online and unfortunately only grabbed a few domains back then but certainly wished I had grabbed more. At the time they were $75 a year each from Network Solutions and a resale market for domains only had not yet been established. Most of the actual revenue wasn’t established on the internet until Google Adsense came along. My internet career started before most of the people who read this were born.

Have your sites always been MyBB?
No. Originally I was using Matt’s WWW Threads. Which is threaded, flat file, and runs in Perl. That was in the 90′s.

How’d you find MyBB?
I think at some point I was linked to MyBB as an upcoming software to check out. I was always and still am very active in reviewing forum software.

Why did you choose MyBB above any other forum software? What makes it the best?
I was using phpbb2 at the time and the amount of edits I was forced to add to their core for adding a hack was getting ridiculous. And each upgrade was just painful. This was when I was trying to have dozens of forums and I realized phpbb was not the solution. So that created the search for better software. For my purposes MyBB is the most suitable. I prefer a free solution because of the many forums I run. I need something that’s easily extended and easily upgraded. MyBB fits the bill. I think it’s the best right now but that won’t last forever.

What else do you want to see in MyBB?
Possibly more care with custom groups and moderator permissions. Those are some obstacles I personally face on my own sites.

What are your favorite MyBB plugins?
I can’t really say. Maybe New Points. I don’t run it on any of my sites but it appears to be well written. It would be too narcissistic by just saying my own plugins. Oh I guess Ryan (Tikitiki) Gordons PM Admin. I use that a lot but I’ve also heavily modified mine.

All of the above mentioned websites are pretty popular and well-known Do you have any others that aren’t listed up there?
Pronforum.com is my newest adult oriented website.

How do you feel about all the forums popping up that seem to be imitating HF?
They are annoying. Not because I think they are a threat to HF but because I think it’s such a shame so much energy is wasted on something that will definitely fail. I’ve never started a forum by copying something else. It’s the wrong way to go.

How did your sites grow to be so successful? Any tips for aspiring webmasters?
By being original, having a real passion for the topic and being patient. I also have now over 15 years as a webmaster with much of that time with communities. I get asked for tips all the time. I can’t sum up 15 years of experience in a paragraph but my best advice is to be passionate, work hard, have patience, and read everything you can on sites like SitePoint.com.

Have you had any sites that just failed?
Sure lots of them. But even my failures I turn into small successes by selling them off. Usually with a good domain and a nice custom theme I can resell the site with little to no revenue then focus on something that is working for me. I’ve done this numerous times over the years.

What’s a typical day like in the life of Jesse Labrocca?
I take my kids to school, have some coffee, and get to work. Later I pick up the kds, maybe do some shopping and take care of dinner…then it’s back to work. Eventually I stop and go to bed. That’s typical but I also have a lot of fun days too. Living in Vegas rules.

Anything else you’d like to say?
Not really.