Interview: Minstrel
One of the things we'll be doing here at A Forum Blog is talking with people who are active in various forum communities across the net. Sometimes we all get so wrapped up in the topic at hand (whatever we happen to be posting about that day) that we take for granted that there's a real person on the other end typing those responses.
My hope is that through these interviews we'll all get know the people we're talking with a little better… which will only help improve the sense of community each of us can get out of the forums we participate in.
Forum Junkie: Hi Minstrel, thanks for taking some time out of your day for this interview. I'll try not to take too much of your time, so let's get started. Why don't you tell us a little about yourself.
Minstrel: Hmmm.... where to start and what to say, "what to leave in and what to leave out" :-) I was one of 12 children; moved around a lot when I was young thanks to my father's upwardly mobile career (I had been in 13 different schools by the time I hit grade 6).
Eventually went on to university where I began using computers, mainframes in those days. In graduate school (psychology), I had some data to analyze that, at the time, wasn't manageable by any of the existing statistics software, so I took about 3-4 months off to learn enough Fortran to write my own program to analyze the data (using card punch and card readers on a Burroughs main frame). Later, I learned Algol, Pascal, compiler Basic, a little assembler, and in time migrated to Visual Basic and Visual C.
By the mid-1990s, I was in private practice as a psychologist and learned enough HTML to stick up a couple of pages of resources for my clients. That exercise migrated into a full website, which later expanded and went through a name change to become Psychlinks Psychology Mental Health and Self-Help Resources at http://www.psychlinks.ca/ -- of course, this led me into other internet technologies and search engine optimization, which in time led me to forums on web design and SEO and eventually to my own forums.
Forum Junkie: How long have you been involved with forums?
Minstrel: With forums specifically, probably actively since about mid-2003. I browsed a bit before then and occasionally contributed to newsgroups or mailing lists.
Forum Junkie: How many forums do own or moderate at, and which forums are they?
Minstrel: I own the PsychLinks Online forum at http://forum.psychlinks.ca/ and I'm one of 8 owners of the Band of Gonzos (and a Gonzette) forum at http://www.bandofgonzos.com/ -- in addition, I am a moderator at the Friends of Firbormyalgia forum at http://fmsforum.debsplace.org/index.php and a former moderator at WebProWorld, http://www.webproworld.com/ and the Uncommon Knowledge psychology forum at http://www.uncommonforum.com/index.php
Forum Junkie: Outside of the forums you own or moderate at, what are few of your other favorite forum communities?
Minstrel: Well, The Forum Zone, of course! I also hang out from time to time at several SEO forums, including DigitalPoint, cre8asite, Highrankings.com, Webmaster Forums (V7), Webmaster-Talk, and WebProWorld, etc., but nothing regularly. After a while, it just becomes too time-consuming to follow more than 2 or 3.
Forum Junkie: That's a respectable number of forums. How much time would you say you spend in forums on average every day?
Minstrel: Most of the time I spend is on my own forums, PsychLinks Online and Band of Gonzos -- it varies, of course, but I would guess maybe 3 hours a day? Mostly in the morning drinking coffee before work and late at night after work.
Forum Junkie: Forums have often been compared to "real life" communities or groups. What's your take on that comparison?
Minstrel: I think one does build up some real friendships in online communities. I often wonder how well most of them would survive translation to the real world but I don't know the answer to that. I do know that I have come to value some of my online friendships -- indeed, the Group of 8 which formed Band of Gonzos (and a Gonzette) consists of people who met online (in another forum via mutual disenchantment with that other forum) and have never, to date anyway, met offline. That in particular has been a very productive and close partnership.
Forum Junkie: The formation of the Band of Gonzos (and a Gonzette) forums is interesting. Have you found that working with a group of people you've never met to be rewarding/beneficial?
Minstrel: Definitely. I've never done this before and to be honest I wasn't sure how well it would work. And in fact, with a different group of people it probably wouldn't have worked.
What distinguishes this group is mutual respect for one another as people as well as for the specific talents each one brings to the group -- at the risk of being self-promoting, I think collectively the skills and talent in the group is awesome. There's not much in the world of web design, promotion, SEO, and programming that one of the group doesn't have some special expertise. It's also different for me to work on projects and sub-projects with so many possibilities for brainstorming. Again, though, with another group of personalities I doubt that this would have been viable at all -- for anyone else contemplating it, my advice would be choose your partners carefully (actually, that's not bad advice for dating and marriage, too!).
Forum Junkie: I would imagine it takes a high level of trust working with a group of people you've never actually "met". Did you find that building this trust was more or less difficult than it would have been with a group of people you had met in person?
Minstrel: We actually did have some knowledge of one another before the group was formed as the Band of Gonzos. We were familiar with one another from posting on another forum and I think we'd all learned to respect the contributions and the professional integrity of those what would become the Band of Gonzos (and don't forget the Gonzette!) from their posts on that forum, so it wasn't as if we went into it totally cold.
Forum Junkie: Based on your experiences with the Gonzo's forum what advice would you offer to other forum owners as they seek out partners and moderators to work with them on their forum communities?
Minstrel: Take your time. Choose people who have complementary interests and talents, rather than people who do exactly what you do. Choose people who have demonstrated that they can compromise and negotiate when necessary -- people who aren't going to go on power trips or ego trips or need to run the show all the time -- people who are able to see other viewpoints and work with those other viewpoints. And then work out an agreement in advance about how someone will leave the group should that become necessary (either because that partner wants to leave or because the other partners need that person to leave); get that part out of the way up front so there won't be any misunderstandings later and so no one has to worry about being ambushed down the line.
Forum Junkie: Let's shift over to the PsychLinks forum for a minute. I've visited that forum a couple of times. Never for advice…my mother is also a psychologist so get my fill of free help quite often…whether I want it or not:-) What really surprised/impressed me was the serious nature of the topics, and the willingness of people to share somewhat personal information Have you found that moderating a forum with a set of serious topics much more challenging than the other forums you moderate at?
Minstrel: The majority of our visitors browse the topics as guests -- I expected that and I'm fine with it -- if they find the information helpful, that's great, and some who did eventually register told me that they had been anonymous browsers for several weeks before taking the plunge. A few who have registered have chosen to hide their online status and I don't discourage that either. I think a lot of it is reassuring themselves that they will be protected on the forum, that by posting they are not opening themselves up to being ridiculed or otherwise abused.
I've gone to some trouble to encourage people to protect their personal information and privacy and have taken all steps available to me to protect their privacy (e.g., guests can't see the member list, email addresses hidden, no photos or avatars that might compromise identity or member sensitivities, membership requires admin approval and I've installed a mod that logs IP addresses of new members in case they abuse another member). So protection of privacy and sensitivity of the members was a priority for this forum from the start.
The other thing that's different is the potential danger of advice offered by other members: I monitor the board closely and whenever I see anything given as advice that might be risky I intervene with a cautionary post immediately. By the same token, I am careful to state repeatedly that anything said in the forums is not a substitute for face-to-face counseling or psychotherapy, and most of my own posts include the advice to at least speak with a family doctor or school counselor.
As to people sharing personal information, I am sometimes surprised but not often -- I think many people find it easier to share information that is distressing to them online than in person.
Forum Junkie: What's your long term vision for your PsychLinks forum?
Minstrel: Interesting question. I thought about doing this for a good couple of years before I took the plunge earlier this year. I think there is a need for such forums and some of those I browsed I wasn't happy with - I didn't see enough expertise in many of them, for example (often they are peer support groups without professionals even as moderators, so some of the suggestions I thought were quite dangerous), and I definitely had concerns about the lack of privacy protection on some.
Right now (i.e., since March 25, 2004, when it was launched), the vision is to build it as a useful forum and promote it in search engines so people can find it. If it gets much bigger, I will need to recruit some moderators -- that actually presents more of a challenge than you might think because many of my colleagues are not very knowledgeable about the internet or forums at all.
Will it expand into anything more than it is now? Beyond getting larger, I'm not sure. I may possibly look at adding some limited commercial aspects somewhere down the line but it's not a priority for me now. Maybe when I retire in 10 years, if it's still a going concern, I'll use it to stave off senility!
Forum Junkie: One last question regarding your SEO/SEM experience; do you do work for clients in this field or do you use your knowledge strictly for personal use?
Minstrel: I'm a psychologist by profession. I came to web design and promotion by the back door and learned most of what I do by trial and error and listening to other people (who often learned the same way). I am happy to share what I've learned in the Band of Gonzos forum or in other forums but I don't make my living at it. I'm really a hobbyist, which makes it fun and exciting for me. Would I ever undertake a project for pay? Sure. Just as I did occasionally for the right project when I was programming. But the key is "the right project", i.e., one that interests me and one that is for a client I think I can work with. I don't ever intend to do it full time -- I already have a full time profession I enjoy.
Forum Junkie: Thanks again Minstrel for sharing with us. You should get back to your
forum, I think a spammer just registered;-)
My hope is that through these interviews we'll all get know the people we're talking with a little better… which will only help improve the sense of community each of us can get out of the forums we participate in.
Forum Junkie: Hi Minstrel, thanks for taking some time out of your day for this interview. I'll try not to take too much of your time, so let's get started. Why don't you tell us a little about yourself.
Minstrel: Hmmm.... where to start and what to say, "what to leave in and what to leave out" :-) I was one of 12 children; moved around a lot when I was young thanks to my father's upwardly mobile career (I had been in 13 different schools by the time I hit grade 6).
Eventually went on to university where I began using computers, mainframes in those days. In graduate school (psychology), I had some data to analyze that, at the time, wasn't manageable by any of the existing statistics software, so I took about 3-4 months off to learn enough Fortran to write my own program to analyze the data (using card punch and card readers on a Burroughs main frame). Later, I learned Algol, Pascal, compiler Basic, a little assembler, and in time migrated to Visual Basic and Visual C.
By the mid-1990s, I was in private practice as a psychologist and learned enough HTML to stick up a couple of pages of resources for my clients. That exercise migrated into a full website, which later expanded and went through a name change to become Psychlinks Psychology Mental Health and Self-Help Resources at http://www.psychlinks.ca/ -- of course, this led me into other internet technologies and search engine optimization, which in time led me to forums on web design and SEO and eventually to my own forums.
Forum Junkie: How long have you been involved with forums?
Minstrel: With forums specifically, probably actively since about mid-2003. I browsed a bit before then and occasionally contributed to newsgroups or mailing lists.
Forum Junkie: How many forums do own or moderate at, and which forums are they?
Minstrel: I own the PsychLinks Online forum at http://forum.psychlinks.ca/ and I'm one of 8 owners of the Band of Gonzos (and a Gonzette) forum at http://www.bandofgonzos.com/ -- in addition, I am a moderator at the Friends of Firbormyalgia forum at http://fmsforum.debsplace.org/index.php and a former moderator at WebProWorld, http://www.webproworld.com/ and the Uncommon Knowledge psychology forum at http://www.uncommonforum.com/index.php
Forum Junkie: Outside of the forums you own or moderate at, what are few of your other favorite forum communities?
Minstrel: Well, The Forum Zone, of course! I also hang out from time to time at several SEO forums, including DigitalPoint, cre8asite, Highrankings.com, Webmaster Forums (V7), Webmaster-Talk, and WebProWorld, etc., but nothing regularly. After a while, it just becomes too time-consuming to follow more than 2 or 3.
Forum Junkie: That's a respectable number of forums. How much time would you say you spend in forums on average every day?
Minstrel: Most of the time I spend is on my own forums, PsychLinks Online and Band of Gonzos -- it varies, of course, but I would guess maybe 3 hours a day? Mostly in the morning drinking coffee before work and late at night after work.
Forum Junkie: Forums have often been compared to "real life" communities or groups. What's your take on that comparison?
Minstrel: I think one does build up some real friendships in online communities. I often wonder how well most of them would survive translation to the real world but I don't know the answer to that. I do know that I have come to value some of my online friendships -- indeed, the Group of 8 which formed Band of Gonzos (and a Gonzette) consists of people who met online (in another forum via mutual disenchantment with that other forum) and have never, to date anyway, met offline. That in particular has been a very productive and close partnership.
Forum Junkie: The formation of the Band of Gonzos (and a Gonzette) forums is interesting. Have you found that working with a group of people you've never met to be rewarding/beneficial?
Minstrel: Definitely. I've never done this before and to be honest I wasn't sure how well it would work. And in fact, with a different group of people it probably wouldn't have worked.
What distinguishes this group is mutual respect for one another as people as well as for the specific talents each one brings to the group -- at the risk of being self-promoting, I think collectively the skills and talent in the group is awesome. There's not much in the world of web design, promotion, SEO, and programming that one of the group doesn't have some special expertise. It's also different for me to work on projects and sub-projects with so many possibilities for brainstorming. Again, though, with another group of personalities I doubt that this would have been viable at all -- for anyone else contemplating it, my advice would be choose your partners carefully (actually, that's not bad advice for dating and marriage, too!).
Forum Junkie: I would imagine it takes a high level of trust working with a group of people you've never actually "met". Did you find that building this trust was more or less difficult than it would have been with a group of people you had met in person?
Minstrel: We actually did have some knowledge of one another before the group was formed as the Band of Gonzos. We were familiar with one another from posting on another forum and I think we'd all learned to respect the contributions and the professional integrity of those what would become the Band of Gonzos (and don't forget the Gonzette!) from their posts on that forum, so it wasn't as if we went into it totally cold.
Forum Junkie: Based on your experiences with the Gonzo's forum what advice would you offer to other forum owners as they seek out partners and moderators to work with them on their forum communities?
Minstrel: Take your time. Choose people who have complementary interests and talents, rather than people who do exactly what you do. Choose people who have demonstrated that they can compromise and negotiate when necessary -- people who aren't going to go on power trips or ego trips or need to run the show all the time -- people who are able to see other viewpoints and work with those other viewpoints. And then work out an agreement in advance about how someone will leave the group should that become necessary (either because that partner wants to leave or because the other partners need that person to leave); get that part out of the way up front so there won't be any misunderstandings later and so no one has to worry about being ambushed down the line.
Forum Junkie: Let's shift over to the PsychLinks forum for a minute. I've visited that forum a couple of times. Never for advice…my mother is also a psychologist so get my fill of free help quite often…whether I want it or not:-) What really surprised/impressed me was the serious nature of the topics, and the willingness of people to share somewhat personal information Have you found that moderating a forum with a set of serious topics much more challenging than the other forums you moderate at?
Minstrel: The majority of our visitors browse the topics as guests -- I expected that and I'm fine with it -- if they find the information helpful, that's great, and some who did eventually register told me that they had been anonymous browsers for several weeks before taking the plunge. A few who have registered have chosen to hide their online status and I don't discourage that either. I think a lot of it is reassuring themselves that they will be protected on the forum, that by posting they are not opening themselves up to being ridiculed or otherwise abused.
I've gone to some trouble to encourage people to protect their personal information and privacy and have taken all steps available to me to protect their privacy (e.g., guests can't see the member list, email addresses hidden, no photos or avatars that might compromise identity or member sensitivities, membership requires admin approval and I've installed a mod that logs IP addresses of new members in case they abuse another member). So protection of privacy and sensitivity of the members was a priority for this forum from the start.
The other thing that's different is the potential danger of advice offered by other members: I monitor the board closely and whenever I see anything given as advice that might be risky I intervene with a cautionary post immediately. By the same token, I am careful to state repeatedly that anything said in the forums is not a substitute for face-to-face counseling or psychotherapy, and most of my own posts include the advice to at least speak with a family doctor or school counselor.
As to people sharing personal information, I am sometimes surprised but not often -- I think many people find it easier to share information that is distressing to them online than in person.
Forum Junkie: What's your long term vision for your PsychLinks forum?
Minstrel: Interesting question. I thought about doing this for a good couple of years before I took the plunge earlier this year. I think there is a need for such forums and some of those I browsed I wasn't happy with - I didn't see enough expertise in many of them, for example (often they are peer support groups without professionals even as moderators, so some of the suggestions I thought were quite dangerous), and I definitely had concerns about the lack of privacy protection on some.
Right now (i.e., since March 25, 2004, when it was launched), the vision is to build it as a useful forum and promote it in search engines so people can find it. If it gets much bigger, I will need to recruit some moderators -- that actually presents more of a challenge than you might think because many of my colleagues are not very knowledgeable about the internet or forums at all.
Will it expand into anything more than it is now? Beyond getting larger, I'm not sure. I may possibly look at adding some limited commercial aspects somewhere down the line but it's not a priority for me now. Maybe when I retire in 10 years, if it's still a going concern, I'll use it to stave off senility!
Forum Junkie: One last question regarding your SEO/SEM experience; do you do work for clients in this field or do you use your knowledge strictly for personal use?
Minstrel: I'm a psychologist by profession. I came to web design and promotion by the back door and learned most of what I do by trial and error and listening to other people (who often learned the same way). I am happy to share what I've learned in the Band of Gonzos forum or in other forums but I don't make my living at it. I'm really a hobbyist, which makes it fun and exciting for me. Would I ever undertake a project for pay? Sure. Just as I did occasionally for the right project when I was programming. But the key is "the right project", i.e., one that interests me and one that is for a client I think I can work with. I don't ever intend to do it full time -- I already have a full time profession I enjoy.
Forum Junkie: Thanks again Minstrel for sharing with us. You should get back to your
forum, I think a spammer just registered;-)
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