Interviews

We’re now at our twelfth issue of the Informer – a whole year old, and this month I will be interviewing Shane and Brad, administrators of the Informer since its beginning.

Matthew: What inspired you to make the Informer?

Shane: A suggestion in the RSBandB Site section.
Brad: Yeah, Shane put out a topic looking for prospective editors, but no-one really seemed able. I was going to take it on with another ex member. But we never really got it off the ground at that time, didn’t start till a few months after all that.
Shane: Yea, it first came up in December 2005, didnt get it up and running until May 2006, a year ago.

Matthew: How long did the development and setting up of the site and crew take?

Brad: Only a few weeks, Shane took care of the site.
Shane: Yeah about that, I have a new design coming later this summer 😉

Matthew: We shall look forward to it! Did you imagine the paper would be as it is now when you first decided to start making it, or did you originally have other ideas in mind?

Brad: Well, we had an idea of how it would be, collectively. Since then it’s evolved through people’s ideas, suggestions and input, as well as hiring new people who wanted new things with it, which we’re fine with most of the time.
Shane: Yea.

Matthew: How do you feel about the Informer reaching its twelfth issue? Did you expect it to last so long?

Shane: Just like everything on RSBandB it started with a ‘wait and see’ approach, to see how it’d go.
Brad: Yeah, it was sort of like an experiment.

Matthew: Shane, exactly how popular is the Informer? How many hits per month?

Shane: Roughly 2000 unique people per month hit the Informer site.

Matthew: Are there any top-secret plans for expanding the informer in the future?

Shane: No. Even if there were we couldn’t tell you.
Matthew: Ah, well, it’s worth trying to get something out of you. 😛

Matthew: Are there any plans on how you are going to integrate the Informer into the next version of RSBandB?

Shane: Yes, the new site will pull from an RSS feed and display the latest articles on the page.
Brad: So people are aware of when the site has been updated.
Matthew: A full article kind of feed or just little snippets?
Shane: Just the headlines, I dont have room for a full article. From there the people will go directly to the Informer site.
Matthew: We shall wait with anticipation for the next version. 🙂

Matthew: How have your roles changed over the time you have been leading the Informer?

Shane: I started out as the one and only tech writer.
Brad: I used to do economy, then came to the reality it’s an impossible job. Now I mainly proof read and edit, as well as manage and discipline 😛
Shane: Now I mainly manage the technical aspect behind the site, publishing and reading the articles.

Matthew: To finish, how do you think the informer will change or develop over the next twelve months?

Brad: We hope to implement new features to keep the Informer fresh and entertaining for the readers.
Shane: More new features.
Brad: We understand the same only things every month can get boring.
Matthew: More writers?
Shane: Possibly if the need arises. As time goes on people leave, so it’s only natural to fill those spots.
Matthew: We shall hope no-one else leaves.

Matthew: Thank you, Shane and Brad.

Brad: Thank you.
Shane: Thank you, MOTV.