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ROC Spotlight: Interview with Retto

Terrouge: Hi there Retto!

Retto: Hello!

Terrouge: Well, you've been around for six or seven years now, do you feel old, or intimidated by this swarm of newbies full of brand new ideas, time, and enthusiasm?

Retto: Sometimes I feel old, like when I try to explain to someone a site that hasn't existed in five years, or talk about someone who doesn't do anything on the ROC anymore. Newbies with brand new ideas and time are great. I think they bring a lot to the ROC and to people's enjoyment of it. Newbies without new ideas are usually good, only occasionally bad, and normally only bad in that they don't know what people are used to and ready to find.

Terrouge: What would you suggest to someone just coming into the ROC (a newbie)?

Retto: Find out what's happening. Lots of people, I think, read a little bit of a club, perk up and say, "Wow! This is cool, I'm joining up!" and then go on without really getting oriented. Read the last few posts of the message board; get a feel for who the people are, and come across as nice, because first impressions usually do last.

Terrouge: Your site, the Golden Leaf Inn, is one of the most-visited Redwall sites out there. How many hours a week/day do you have to put into it on average?

Retto: It really varies depending on what I'm doing with it. If I'm involved in a big project, I could be spending over fifteen to twenty hours a week on something. Usually, though, I spend about an hour or so a day…some days more, some less. Most of it is, of course, automation, so I occasionally slack off for a few days, and then spend two hours at once going through and making sure nobody's breaking major rules.

Terrouge: What computer skills did you have to learn before you made the Golden Leaf Inn?

Retto: It has been more of a work in progress, building up as I go. It started with basic HTML and JavaScript, then I tried dabbling around with Mscript II (Which is an islandnet-only scripting language). Eventually, I realized I could use PHP on there, also, so we use a lot of that now.

Terrouge: ROCS, Questor's Bold, and ROCS2 were great successes (which you obviously liked as your character Vayala was in our Questor's Bold). Do you have any ideas, or predictions for the future?

Retto: Depends, really, on how far out into the future. In the next year, there are going to be more and more, I think because webmasters have realized that people are still interested in Survivor games, and that it isn't considered just a big copy. It seems like its going to grow to two different sections, one which the more accomplished writers of the ROC will feel more compelled to join, and one which everyone else, the as-of-yet un-tested would be able to join.

Looking to longer in the future, a bunch of clubs, probably at least four, will probably have annual or bi-annual survivor games for just their members. I'm actually surprised that hasn't happened already. Perhaps it is a bit too much effort. Looking along the other path of the future, with the more accomplished writers, it will eventually grow to be annual or bi-annual, also, but probably with a difference, in that the story quality will be becoming better and better as the same people come to interact with each other. Of course, people will (and probably are well on their way to doing this) call them a bit elitist.

Terrouge: I'm sure many new ROC'ers are inspired by you, and your accomplishments. Did anyone inspire you when you came to the ROC?

Retto: (People are inspired by me? Eep?) Bunches of people inspired me, to varying degrees. Definitely Dave (of redwall.org) has inspired me, in making and developing dedicated websites. Julian Ho, also in the club at redwall.org, inspired me a lot to get off my seat and get stuff done, and to go into more creative things.

Terrouge: What was your biggest contribution, in your opinion, to the ROC, biggest accomplishment?

Retto: In my own mind? I don't really think about it. The entire Golden Leaf Inn, then, because it has so many things within it.

Terrouge: Okay, for all the webmasters out there, how many e-mails do YOU get a day concerning your site?

Retto: People think I get lots of mail, but I usually get about one a week. I'd like more, but I think it's partly that everything is so automated that people get along quite well without me moving things around too much.

Terrouge: What advice would you give to aspiring webmasters?

Retto: Think of something original before you go off and build a site. Be different, and be exciting. More people will come to your site if it's not just the same-old, and if people don't really come, you can blame it on the idea and try it differently.

Terrouge: Do you still read Redwall? Are you still as interested in it, and the ROC?

Retto: I still read Redwall occasionally. Not, perhaps, as much as other books, and not as much recently, but I do read the new books as they come out, and I re-read the books over from time to time. I'm not as interested in it as I was when I started, but the interest is not gone. I'm also still very interested in the ROC and the people I know on it.

Terrouge: Thank you Retto!

Retto: You're welcome.

By: Kathryn