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ROC Spotlight: Interview with Kenny
By: Kenny
Terrouge: Hi Kenny!
Kenny: Hello Kathryn!
Well, you're now the only original Terrougian (asides from Kelly) still providing for the magazine, how does it feel?
Well, it's both a good and bad feeling, really. Back in the old days, Josh, Dave, and I would have some long chats about the direction we were going, and we were a very tightly-bound group. By ROC standards, the current incarnation of Terrouge is still very close, but with so many more people the sense of bonding is not as obvious.
Your Redwall ezine is claimed to be the first of its kind; how do you feel about having so many "competitors" now?
Competition is a good thing in every market, and especially in this one - it keeps you on your toes, forces you to try and come up with something that no one else has successfully pulled off. You have to keep on innovating or you run the risk of getting left behind.
The design of the site changes every few months, do you think you'll find ONE you'll be happy with, or do you think site design change gives freshness?
Changing site designs helps keep things from stagnating . . . . I don't see us ever just sticking to one site design for the rest of our existence. Our current design might not be around for more than a few months more - we'll just have to wait and see.
What would you suggest to someone just coming into the ROC (a newbie)?
Everyone new to the ROC should experience a wide variety of Redwall clubs and sites. I like Terrouge, but we only fill a few niches of the ROC experience; there's a lot more out there than just Terrouge or Redwall.org or the Redwall Encyclopedia or any number of the more popular sites. Go out and see all the sites - just make sure to come back to this one ;-). And while you're surfing those sites, be nice and respectful towards the webmasters and every other beast you meet.
What advice would you give to aspiring webmasters?
Webmaster-ing can be a tough job, so make sure that you understand what you're getting into. Down the road, your site might be a powerhouse in the ROC, or it might be just another dead site that you had to discontinue because you got in over your head. Make sure you know what skills you'll need for your project, take the time to learn those skills, and set aside enough time for you to accomplish your goals. Anyone can make a decent-looking page with Dreamweaver or FrontPage and update it a couple times, but it takes hard work and knowledge to keep it going. Also, and this is somewhat unrelated to my above rant, but make sure that you have good posture and proper typing position - it'll save you a world of pain a few years down the road.
Do you have any ideas, or predictions for the future of the ROC?
I'm hardly a prophet, but I do think that the ROC is going to stay fairly close to the way it's always been. There'll be some technologically advanced sites, simple sites, big sites, and small sites. With the newer web technologies and the increasing expectations on webmasters, I do think that we'll continue to see some truly innovative sites that can stay fresh in a way that the sites of a few years ago never could without massive amounts of work. It's really an exciting time to be in the ROC.
Now, being an ezine, I guess you could say that you really only have to update once a month, but still, how many hours on average do you have to put into your site per day/week?
Well, before I started working on the Vulpine Imperium (our upcoming club/game), I probably averaged around 5-10 hours a month working on Terrouge, depending on the complexity of the projects that were being worked on. With VI, I'm spending around 3 hours a day (excluding Saturdays and Sundays) programming for Terrouge.
Do you feel a sense of responsibility in how you conduct yourself in the ROC because of how well-respected you are by people?
I don't think that I act much different now than when I arrived in the ROC six years ago. Certainly I'm more mature, and more well-known, but I've almost always tried to conduct myself in a fairly professional manner. Simply the fact that I'm well-respected by some hasn't changed the way that I act online.
What computer skills did you personally have to know when you created Terrouge along with Dave and Josh?
Well, I was mainly the HTML guru - Dave had the better web designing skills (and may still be the better designer), but HTML was my forte. I was also the one responsible for shrinking the load times for the site . . . Dave's designs were awesome, but also quite graphics-intensive, which meant very slow load times in a world where 56.6 K modems were just coming into popularity - I absolutely hate waiting for pages to load up, so I did all I could to reduce the wait. My other skills centered around Unix stuff (FTP and Telnet, for example), and CGI (though our server at the time, Vr9, had a horrible implementation of it -- hardly anything worked).
Do you see many more years ahead for Terrouge?
I'd really like to see Terrouge continue on into the years, but only time will tell how long it'll last. Late next year I'll be taking a two-year hiatus from the Internet and the ROC; I expect that Terrouge will continue, that someone else will step up and carry the torch. But who knows what will happen?
How does one become a member of the Terrouge staff?
Well, right now, we're not really looking for new members. It's a fairly complex and time-consuming, not to mention emotional, undertaking to get new members. Erin is our editor-in-chief, and she can attest to the many hours she spent looking through and analyzing the last round of applications. I don't foresee any staff additions in the near future, at least not on a reporting basis.
Thanks Kenny, keep up the great work!
Thank you - it's been my pleasure.