Matthew Mecham is one of the most famous people in the world of online communities, and a popular person among Webmasters who use the famous Ikonboard — and now the popular Ibforums — scripts to power their communities.
马修·麦卡姆(Matthew Mecham)是在线社区世界上最著名的人之一，并且是在使用著名的Ikonboard(现在流行的Ibforums)脚本为社区供电的网站管理员中最受欢迎的人。
Matt has worked on products like YaBB SE and, with YaBB founder Zef Hemel, started "Ikonboard", one of the most popular community scripts on the Internet. Now, Matt’s making a splash with his own group of services, Invision, which has rolled out Ibforums. We asked Matthew to dedicate some of his time to answering a few questions which have been on our minds…
Matt从事YaBB SE之类的产品的开发，并与YaBB的创始人Zef Hemel共同创立了“ Ikonboard”，这是Internet上最受欢迎的社区脚本之一。 现在，马特(Matt)以自己的服务集团Invision引起轰动，该集团已推出Ibforums。 我们要求马修(Matthew)花费一些时间来回答我们一直在思考的几个问题……
Or, jump straight to Part 2…
或者， 直接跳至第2部分...
Hi Matt. Thanks for giving us an opportunity to talk to you. First up: what does your average day involve, besides work? Do you sit at the computer all the time, or do you have other interests too?
嗨，马特。 感谢您给予我们与您交谈的机会。 首先：除了工作外，您的平均工作时间是什么？ 您是否一直坐在计算机旁，还是有其他兴趣？
As most of my work is computer-based, I tend to spend what must be an unhealthy amount of time in front of one. I do make sure that I keep my weekends as free as possible to spend time with my fiancee; as much as I enjoy my work, it’s refreshing to get away from it all and do something else. It definitely helps maintain balance and perspective.
由于我的大部分工作都是基于计算机的，因此我倾向于将一定不健康的时间花在一个人面前。 我确实确保我的周末尽可能自由，以便与未婚妻共度时光。 尽管我喜欢我的工作，但摆脱一切并做其他事情却令人耳目一新。 它绝对有助于保持平衡和洞察力。
What made you start writing your own forums script, Ikonboard? What did you do before you ventured into that direction?
是什么让您开始编写自己的论坛脚本Ikonboard？ 在您朝那个方向冒险之前，您做了什么？
In the latter part of 1999 I ran a Website for the graphic and Web design audience (at www.ikondiscussion.com). The site was centered around tutorials and tips on good design. I found myself, as have many Webmasters, looking for a forum script that I could use to build an online community, and, like many other Webmasters, I ran the site as a hobby and the budget was on the proverbial shoestring.
在1999年下半年，我为图形和Web设计的受众提供了一个网站(位于www.ikondiscussion.com)。 该网站围绕着有关良好设计的教程和技巧而展开。 我发现自己和许多网站管理员一样，都在寻找可用于构建在线社区的论坛脚本，并且像许多其他网站管理员一样，我以爱好的方式运行该网站，而预算却是一笔不小的开支。
I stumbled across a decent free forum script (it literally was just 1 script) called "BoardMaster" (now defunct). It was a fairly basic but solid little script in a similar vein to UBB (this was before the days of YaBB, vBulletin, etc). It didn’t have any of the "must have" features boards come with in these modern times (such as private messaging, complex profiles, etc.), but it was enough to run a small community.
我偶然发现了一个不错的免费论坛脚本(实际上只是1个脚本)，称为“ BoardMaster”(现已停用)。 这是一个相当基本但坚实的小脚本，与UBB相似(这是在YaBB，vBulletin等时代之前)。 它在现代没有任何“必备”功能(例如私人消息传递，复杂的配置文件等)，但足以运行一个小型社区。
My site required some custom scripting and the scripting language of choice at the time was Perl. I learnt Perl the wrong way (as the experts will tell you) by looking at other Perl scripts and figuring out how it all worked. I picked it up pretty quickly as I used to program AMOS on the Amiga (but that’s another story). After I had the site ready to run, I set about making small modifications to the forum script — little things like improving the navigation (such as a forum drop down box at the bottom of the page), and allowing different images to be used in different forums. I released these "hacks" into the BoardMaster community and eventually was asked to moderate the "hacks" forum.
我的网站需要一些自定义脚本，当时选择的脚本语言是Perl。 通过查看其他Perl脚本并弄清楚它们的工作原理，我以错误的方式(专家会告诉您)了解了Perl。 当我过去在Amiga上为AMOS编程时，我很快就拿起了它(但这是另一回事了)。 准备好网站运行之后，我便开始对论坛脚本进行一些小的修改，例如改进导航(例如页面底部的论坛下拉框)以及允许在其中使用不同的图像之类的小事情。不同的论坛。 我向BoardMaster社区发布了这些“黑客”，并最终被要求主持“黑客”论坛。
As any Webmaster will tell you, a Website is never really finished, it’s just constantly evolving. I was always looking for ways to improve this site and this desire led me to another forum script called "Board Power". Compared to BoardMaster, Board Power was feature-filled and fun to use, and offered what was (at the time) a complex and powerful administration center. I downloaded a copy and toyed with it for a few weeks before deciding to replace the existing live BoardMaster with Board Power, much to the delight of my community. It wasn’t long before I had released a few hacks and set up a little mini-site dedicated to modifying Board Power.
正如任何网站管理员会告诉您的那样，一个网站从未真正完成过，它还在不断发展。 我一直在寻找改善此站点的方法，这种渴望使我进入了另一个名为“ Board Power”的论坛脚本。 与BoardMaster相比，Board Power具有丰富的功能和易于使用的功能，并提供了当时(当时)复杂而强大的管理中心。 我下载了一个副本，然后玩了几周，然后决定用Board Power替换现有的Live BoardMaster，这让我的社区感到非常高兴。 不久之后，我发布了一些技巧并建立了一个专门用于修改Board Power的小型站点。
The biggest hack I authored was a pre-runner to Ikonboards "User Control Panel". It allowed you to modify your profile, add buddies to a contact list and send and receive private messages (this was long before private messaging was popular and included as a default feature in today’s bulletin boards). Unfortunately for Board Power, the developer never really seemed to take Board Power seriously — a string of disagreements and shady business practices forced me to abandon the Board Power community. During my time at Board Power, I’d developed a review script (labeled Ikon Review) that allowed the public to submit Websites, tutorials, etc., and give the administrator the ability to rate and submit them. The internal wrangling at Board Power and the lack of good alternatives made me think seriously about writing my own forum script.
我创作的最大的黑客攻击是Ikonboards“用户控制面板”的预运行器。 它允许您修改个人资料，将好友添加到联系人列表中以及发送和接收私人消息(这很早之前私人消息才流行起来，并已成为当今公告板上的默认功能)。 对于Board Power而言，不幸的是，开发人员似乎从未真正认真对待Board Power-一系列分歧和阴暗的业务实践迫使我放弃了Board Power社区。 在Board Power期间，我开发了一个审查脚本(标记为Ikon Review)，该脚本允许公众提交网站，教程等，并使管理员能够对它们进行评分和提交。 Board Power内部的争执以及缺乏好的替代方案使我认真考虑编写自己的论坛脚本。
As development of Ikonboard started, I noticed a new kid on the block going by the name of "YaBB". Never one to resist a new script, I downloaded a copy and played with it, and it wasn’t long before I had a few little hacks for it. And I paused the Ikonboard development for a short while, figuring that if this script shaped up, I could use it instead of writing my own. I joined the YaBB development team and contributed to its early development (such as the search engine, topic views and thread review when posting). Although YaBB was beginning to gain momentum, I still yearned to complete Ikonboard, and felt that I couldn’t be involved with both YaBB and Ikonboard, so I resigned from the YaBB team in the summer of 2000.
随着Ikonboard的开发开始，我注意到街上有个新孩子，名字叫“ YaBB”。 从来没有人抵制过一个新脚本，我下载了一个副本并玩了它，不久之后我有了一些小技巧。 然后我暂停了Ikonboard开发一小会儿，以为如果该脚本成形，我可以使用它而不是编写自己的脚本。 我加入了YaBB开发团队，并为它的早期开发做出了贡献(例如发布时的搜索引擎，主题视图和主题审查)。 尽管YaBB开始蓬勃发展，但我仍然渴望完成Ikonboard，并感到无法同时参与YaBB和Ikonboard，因此我于2000年夏天辞职了YaBB团队。
The feature list for Ikonboard was driven by suggestions from the Ikondiscussion community. I wanted to add the personal messenger and control panel into the base script, and enhance many other standard features, such as announcements, moderation tools, and more. I figured that if these features were standard, people wouldn’t need to modify the code to add in such functionality; I wanted Ikonboard to be a complete solution and act as a solid base for more functionality. I put up a "coming soon" page in early August 2000 with a section to subscribe to the mailing list, and within a few weeks I had over 200 email addresses. A month later, in September 2000, Ikonboard v0.9 BETA was finished and ready to download.
Ikonboard的功能列表由Ikondiscussion社区的建议驱动。 我想将个人Messenger和控制面板添加到基本脚本中，并增强许多其他标准功能，例如公告，审核工具等。 我认为，如果这些功能是标准功能，则人们无需修改代码即可添加此类功能。 我希望Ikonboard成为一个完整的解决方案，并为更多功能奠定坚实的基础。 我在2000年8月上旬建立了一个“即将推出”页面，其中有一个部分用于订阅邮件列表，并且在几周之内，我有200多个电子邮件地址。 一个月后的2000年9月，Ikonboard v0.9 BETA完成并准备下载。
Whenever a new product is released to the market, it has to battle strong competition from existing products in the same market, while proving a competitor for them at the same time. Which script did was Ikonboard’s largest competitor, and what other difficulties did you face while launching the first stable release of Ikonboard?
每当有新产品投放市场时，它都必须与来自同一市场中现有产品的激烈竞争作斗争，同时还要为它们提供竞争产品。 Ikonboard的最大竞争对手是哪个脚本，您在发布Ikonboard的第一个稳定版本时遇到了哪些其他困难？
When I released Ikonboard there wasn’t a great deal of serious competition, certainly nowhere near the glut of forum scripts that are available today. Board Power and BoardMaster were dying slowly, either through stupid decisions or lack of development (the BoardMaster developer disappeared without a trace). vBulletin was relatively new, not yet out of the version 1.1 releases, YaBB was just starting out, phpBB 1 hadn’t been released, and UBB 5 was still the leader of the pack. I never really worry about competition and what other forum software houses are doing, I just concentrate on my own work and try to take it as far as I can.
当我发布Ikonboard时，并没有进行很多激烈的竞争，当然，今天的论坛脚本供不应求。 由于愚蠢的决策或缺乏开发，Board Power和BoardMaster的死亡速度缓慢(BoardMaster开发人员消失得无影无踪)。 vBulletin相对较新，尚未发布1.1版，YaBB刚刚起步，尚未发布phpBB 1，UBB 5仍然是领先者。 我从来没有真正担心竞争以及其他论坛软件公司在做什么，我只是专注于自己的工作，并尽我所能。
When Ikonboard was released, some UBB owners claimed that Ikonboard was just a re-badged copy (which obviously it wasn’t) and made some noise, which I guess is quite natural as most boards look alike from the front end. In my experience, it’s only a small handful of people that try to stir up trouble — you rarely see the developers getting involved in a tit-for-tat argument; as a matter of fact, I’ve remained on good terms with the UBB and vBulletin authors and development teams. On paper, UBB was Ikonboard’s biggest competitor at the time of its release, even though I didn’t really see it as "competition" — that’s not meant in an arrogant way, it’s just that I was never trying to compete with UBB because we serviced two different markets.
当Ikonboard发布时，一些UBB所有者声称Ikonboard只是经过重新标记的副本(显然不是)，并且发出了一些声音，我想这很自然，因为大多数主板从前端看起来都是相似的。 根据我的经验，只有极少数的人试图制造麻烦-您很少看到开发人员卷入“针锋相对”的争论； 实际上，我与UBB和vBulletin的作者和开发团队保持着良好的关系。 从表面上看，UBB在发行时是Ikonboard的最大竞争对手，即使我并不真正将其视为“竞争”，这也不是自大的意思，只是我从未尝试与UBB竞争，因为我们服务于两个不同的市场。
The biggest difficulty Ikonboard faced — and Invision Board still faces — is being taken seriously by the commercial sector, where most people assume that "free" equates to "better than nothing". I’ve always tried hard to persuade people that this isn’t always the case, and that, in fact, 3 of the most used software tools on the Internet are all freely downloadable. Apache, MySQL and PHP are all giants in their field because they’re free. It’s difficult to imagine PHP being as widely used as it is if you had to pay for a server side license before you could use it. With that in mind, I do find it fairly ironic that the free software that uses these tools isn’t allowed to prove itself before it’s labeled as "better than nothing". Having said that, over time Ikonboard did carve itself a pretty decent reputation and was used by some rather large Websites, including Sony and Viacom.
Ikonboard面临的最大困难-以及Invision Board仍然面临的-商业部门正在认真对待这一问题，大多数人认为“免费”等同于“胜于无”。 我一直努力说服人们，情况并非总是如此，事实上，互联网上最常用的3种软件工具都可以免费下载。 Apache，MySQL和PHP都是免费的，它们都是各自领域中的巨头。 很难想象，如果要在使用PHP之前先支付服务器端许可证的费用，那么PHP的使用范围将是如此之广。 考虑到这一点，我确实具有相当讽刺意味的是，使用这些工具的自由软件在被标记为“胜过一切”之前，不允许其证明自己。 话虽如此，随着时间的流逝，Ikonboard确实赢得了相当不错的声誉，并被包括Sony和Viacom在内的一些相当大的网站所使用。
What type of license agreement was Ikonboard first released under, and what license agreement is your current script, Ibforums, released under?
Ikonboard最初发布的许可协议类型是什么，您当前的脚本Ibforums发行的许可协议是什么？
Ikonboard and Invision Board both follow the Freeware model using our own proprietary licensing: they’ve always been available for free but they aren’t, and have never been, open source. A lot of people ask us why we don’t release Invision Board as open source (GPL), and my answer is always the same: Open source is great, and PHP, MySQL and Apache all prove that the GPL model works. YaBB and phpBB also do well with the open source license, but it’s not something that we wish to do. I’ve released little scripts before and in almost all cases, to most, open source merely means "I can remove the copyright, rename it and release it as my script" which, of course, isn’t the case — I got tired of seeing my work re-badged. To true open source developers this may seem vain and narcissistic, but I always marketed my products with a business approach.
Ikonboard和Invision Board都使用我们自己的专有许可来遵循Freeware模式：它们一直都是免费的，但是它们从来都不是开源的。 很多人问我们为什么不将Invision Board作为开源(GPL)发布，我的回答始终是相同的：开源很棒，PHP，MySQL和Apache都证明GPL模型有效。 YaBB和phpBB在开源许可证上也做得很好，但这不是我们希望做的事情。 在几乎所有情况下，我都发布了一些小脚本，在大多数情况下，开源仅意味着“我可以删除版权，对其进行重命名并将其作为我的脚本发布”，当然，事实并非如此-我已经厌倦了看到我的工作被重新标记。 对于真正的开源开发人员来说，这似乎是徒劳和自恋的，但是我总是以商业方式推销我的产品。
Invision Board is free to download, but you don’t have the ability to re-distribute or re-badge the product without our written consent. Of course, you’re allowed to change the template colors, the graphics, and make as many modifications to the board as you wish (as long as you don’t remove the copyright and link at the bottom of the page). In effect, this allows you to do as much as you can with an open source product apart from re-distribute it with the modifications in place. I’m not looking to make money directly from Invision Board — that was never the intent — but we do use it as a way to get traffic to our sites, which offer custom scripting, Web hosting, forum hosting and priority support. That’s how we make our money — that’s how we’re able to develop a product and allow it to be used for no cost. Most businesses that we’ve dealt with prefer to use a freeware product because the developer still holds some liability, offering a priority support plan also gives them the confidence that we’re not just doing this for kicks. We have a great support team of about 20 core members who do a fantastic job and always receive praise from our clients.
Invision Board可免费下载，但未经我们的书面同意，您不能重新分发或重新标记产品。 当然，您可以更改模板的颜色，图形，并根据需要对板进行多次修改(只要您不删除页面底部的版权和链接)。 实际上，这使您可以对开源产品做更多的事情，除了通过适当的修改重新分发它。 我并不是想直接从Invision Board上赚钱-从来没有意图-但是我们确实将它用作获取网站流量的一种方式，这些网站提供自定义脚本，Web托管，论坛托管和优先级支持。 这就是我们赚钱的方式-这就是我们能够开发产品并允许其免费使用的方式。 与我们打交道的大多数企业都喜欢使用免费软件产品，因为开发人员仍然承担一些责任，提供优先支持计划还使他们有信心，我们不仅会为此而努力。 我们拥有一支由大约20名核心成员组成的强大支持团队，他们的工作做得非常出色，并始终得到客户的好评。
When you released Ikonboard, who was working with you at the time, and what resources did you use?
当您发布Ikonboard时，当时谁在与您合作，您使用了哪些资源？
When Ikonboard was first released, I was working on the code, development and support on my own. I was paying for virtual hosting at my own cost. However, it wasn’t long before I started recruiting a team to help support the product and moderate the support board — it being a new product, we were all in the same boat, had to be quick on our feet and learn fast. We were fortunate to have some talented people working with the Ikonboard team — our NT specialist Marcel (aka Redmak) went on to work on Neowin.net, but nearly all of the original "iTeam" are still with me today, nearly 2 years later.
Ikonboard首次发行时，我是自己进行代码，开发和支持的。 我自己付费购买虚拟主机。 但是，不久之后我就开始招募一个团队来支持产品并调整支撑板-它是一个新产品，我们都在同一条船上，必须快速站起来并快速学习。 我们很幸运能有一些才华横溢的人与Ikonboard团队一起工作-我们的NT新手Marcel(又名Redmak)继续在Neowin.net上工作，但差不多2年后的今天，几乎所有原始的“ iTeam”仍然在我身边。
When Ikonboard 2 was released, the product had started to gain momentum and we were out-growing our virtual hosting — especially bandwidth. I was stretching my budget to make the payments but it was obvious that something needed to change to allow us to grow. Fortunately for us, Ventures Online stepped in with a very generous offer of semi-dedicated hosting in return for a banner advertisement to help us grow. When JEG acquired Ikonboard, we moved across to their in-house network. Ikonboard.com sat on a dedicated linux server (an IBM Netfinity) and was plugged into the twin OC48’s that powered the network — needless to say, bandwidth and resources weren’t an issue any longer.
Ikonboard 2发行时，该产品开始获得发展势头，我们的虚拟主机(尤其是带宽)已不再增长。 我当时正在拉紧预算来付款，但是很明显，需要做出一些改变才能使我们成长。 对我们来说幸运的是，Ventures Online介入了很多，专门提供了半专用托管服务，以换取横幅广告来帮助我们成长。 JEG收购Ikonboard之后，我们转移到他们的内部网络。 Ikonboard.com坐在专用的Linux服务器(IBM Netfinity)上，并插入为网络供电的双OC48中-不用说，带宽和资源不再是问题。
Early in 2001, JEG approached and bought Ikonboard. What were the details of that deal?
2001年初，JEG与Ikonboard接触并收购了Ikonboard。 那笔交易的细节是什么？
The Jarvis Entertainment Group (JEG) approached me in the first quarter of 2001. At this time, Ikonboard had been out for several months and had established itself. I’d just started work on Ikonboard 3 and I was aware that trying to manage the development, for administration and the business was too much, considering that I also had full time employment. I spoke with the CEO of JEG on a few occasions before the deal was formalized, and he promised many things such as dedicated hosting in his own datacenter, helping with the administration and business development, and assured me that he didn’t want to charge for Ikonboard. He was happy to let it grow and remain free — after all, a busy Website can get good sponsorship deals, and keeping a good flow of traffic through the network impresses the shareholders.
贾维斯娱乐集团(JEG)在2001年第一季度与我联系。此时，Ikonboard已经缺席了几个月的时间，并且已经确立了自己的地位。 我刚开始在Ikonboard 3上工作，我意识到考虑到我也有全职工作，因此试图管理开发，行政和业务工作实在太多了。 在交易正式达成之前，我曾与JEG的首席执行官进行过几次交谈，他答应过很多事情，例如在自己的数据中心中专门托管，帮助管理和业务发展，并向我保证他不想收费对于Ikonboard。 他很高兴让它成长并保持免费-毕竟，繁忙的网站可以获得良好的赞助协议，并且通过网络保持良好的流量给股东留下了深刻的印象。
After much deliberation, I signed the contract and the deal was done, now Ikonboard was owned by JEG and I was brought into JEG to manage the project. I feel that it’s worth mentioning here (to put many rumors to rest) that the deal did not involve any money at all. My "payment" was in the form of shares in JEG (which at the time of writing I have not managed to sell or trade as they are virtually worthless). Initially there was a large outcry from the Ikonboard community who feared the worst — that a large corporation had swallowed us up, and it was only a matter of time before they were charged for downloading Ikonboard — or that it would be broken up and sold on. It took me a long time and a lot of personal promises to reinforce that this was not going to happen and that Ikonboard would remain free.
经过深思熟虑，我签署了合同并完成了交易，现在Ikonboard由JEG拥有，我被带到JEG负责项目管理。 我觉得在这里值得一提(消除许多谣言)，这笔交易根本不涉及任何资金。 我的“付款”是以JEG的股份形式(在撰写本文时，由于它们几乎毫无价值，我还没有设法出售或交易)。 最初，有一个来自Ikonboard社区的大声疾呼，他们担心最坏的情况-一家大公司吞噬了我们，而下载Ikonboard的费用只不过是时间问题-否则将其拆分并出售。 我花了很长时间，并做出了许多个人承诺，以确保这不会发生，而且Ikonboard仍将是免费的。
What were the strong points of Ikonboard over its free competitors?
Ikonboard在其免费竞争对手方面的强项是什么？
When Ikonboard was first released, its strongest point was the speed of development, the quick support, and the interactivity of the community that drove the product forwards. Ikonboard 3 was heavily influenced by the wants and needs of the community at the time. I was very open about its development and kept a public log of ideas and code snippets for the community to review and discuss. Zeff Hemel (YaBB founder) was inspired by my notes about "iDatabase" (a database abstraction layer) and worked the ideas and structure into his own DBA when he was working on YaBB 2 Perl (development stopped on this product a long time ago). I also laid down the foundation for user selectable skins and templates in these coding notes long before any other board had such a feature. And it was no surprise that other boards copied this idea shortly after the first Ikonboard alpha was unveiled. Not that I mind — to have contributed to the "feature pool" that modern day bulletin boards draw from is an achievement in itself.
Ikonboard首次发布时，其最强之处是开发速度，快速支持以及推动产品向前发展的社区的互动性。 Ikonboard 3当时受到社区需求的极大影响。 我对它的开发非常开放，并公开记录了想法和代码片段，以供社区进行审查和讨论。 Zeff Hemel(YaBB创始人)的灵感来自于我关于“ iDatabase”(数据库抽象层)的笔记，并在他从事YaBB 2 Perl的工作时将思想和结构融入了自己的DBA中(很久以前就停止了对该产品的开发) 。 我还早在其他任何板子都具备此功能之前，就在这些编码说明中为用户可选的外观和模板奠定了基础。 在首个Ikonboard Alpha发布后不久，其他董事会就复制了这个想法也就不足为奇了。 我并不介意-为现代公告板所利用的“功能库”做出贡献本身就是一项成就。
Can you tell us more about Aurora? What was its status, in terms of development and completion, when you left Ikonboard and JEG?
您能告诉我们更多有关Aurora的信息吗？ 当您离开Ikonboard和JEG时，在开发和完成方面，它的状态如何？
Aurora was about 35% complete when I left JEG and Ikonboard. There was no moderator control panel or administration control panel, and very few moderation tools other than the basic close, open, and delete topic. Aurora’s database structure was exactly the same as the Ikonboard database structure, so the demo version we had available was still using the Perl administration center to create categories and forums, etc. There was a lot of bridging code to get it to run — it was far from an alpha product, let alone a full release product. Its main goal was to show development progress, and it was used as a tool to show how fast the new PHP version would be.
当我离开JEG和Ikonboard时，Aurora的完成率约为35％。 除了基本的关闭，打开和删除主题外，没有主持人控制面板或管理控制面板，并且很少有主持工具。 Aurora的数据库结构与Ikonboard数据库结构完全相同，因此我们可用的演示版本仍在使用Perl管理中心来创建类别和论坛等。有很多桥接代码可以运行它-远非alpha产品，更不用说完整版产品了。 它的主要目的是显示开发进度，并且用作显示新PHP版本的速度的工具。
Earlier this year, you left JEG and stopped working on Ikonboard altogether. What were the reasons for that?
今年年初，您离开了JEG，并完全停止了在Ikonboard上的工作。 是什么原因呢？
It is worth mentioning at this point that JEG is a company that trades on the OTC/NASDAQ and is regulated by the SEC; this means that I’m unable to put them in an adversely negative light that might affect their business — but I’ll try to be as open as the law allows me to be.
值得一提的是，JEG是一家在OTC / NASDAQ上交易并受SEC监管的公司； 这意味着我无法对他们产生不利的负面影响，这可能会影响他们的业务-但我会尽法律所允许的那样保持开放。
I was growing steadily disillusioned with the direction in which Ikonboard was being taken by JEG as early as the end of the last quarter of 2001. I felt that I was totally mislead and that certain details had been exaggerated or omitted to persuade me to sign the contract. However, I’d committed myself to finishing Ikonboard 3 and I decided I’d see the project through before deciding what to do.
早在2001年最后一个季度末，我就逐渐对JEG采取Ikonboard的方向感到失望。我感到自己完全被误导了，并且某些细节被夸大或省略了以说服我签署该协议。合同。 但是，我承诺要完成Ikonboard 3，因此我决定在决定做什么之前先完成项目。
In the very late part of 2001 and early art of 2002, I was under a huge amount of pressure from JEG to release the final version of Ikonboard 3 and write a totally new hosted version of Ikonboard, to be called MyIkonboard. I knew that Ikonboard 3 was not ready for a final release, yet the pressure continued. I’d often read press releases stating a release date I’d never given, and be told to "make sure that it’s done". I was still working full time, and worked on Ikonboard in the evenings, often until 5.00am to get it finished — considering I had to be at work for 9.00 this didn’t leave much time for sleep. I was told on several occasions that JEG couldn’t afford to pay me anything and therefore couldn’t employ me — so I had little choice but to continue doing both.
在2001年后期和2002年初，我受到JEG的巨大压力，要发布Ikonboard 3的最终版本并编写一个全新的Ikonboard托管版本，称为MyIkonboard。 我知道Ikonboard 3尚未准备好最终发布，但压力仍然存在。 我经常阅读新闻稿，声明从未公布的发布日期，并被告知“确保已完成”。 我仍在全职工作，晚上一直在Ikonboard上工作，通常要到凌晨5.00点才能完成工作-考虑到我必须在9.00上班，所以没有太多时间睡觉。 几次告诉我，JEG无法负担我任何费用，因此无法雇用我-因此，我别无选择，只能继续做这两个。
The demands grew and grew daily until I felt mentally exhausted — I was trying to work full time and maintain Ikonboard 3, develop MyIkonboard and write "Aurora" (Ikonboard PHP). Charles Warner, at the time another JEG "employee" and shareholder felt he was in exactly the same position. He was assigned to dealing with all the business Ikonboard generated and taking care of the JEG network — not an easy task, and a very time consuming one. The final straw came in February when Charles and I were issued with a directive from the CEO of JEG informing us that he wanted to charge for Ikonboard, which would make me break my promise to the Ikonboard community. Charles and I discussed our options and decided that we would rather start over than continue working with JEG. It wasn’t an easy decision to walk away from 2 years of work but I felt it was the right thing to do.
需求每天都在增长，直到我精神疲惫为止–我试图全职工作并维护Ikonboard 3，开发MyIkonboard并编写“ Aurora”(Ikonboard PHP)。 查尔斯·沃纳(Charles Warner)当时是JEG的另一位“雇员”和股东，他觉得自己的职位完全相同。 他受命处理Ikonboard产生的所有业务并负责JEG网络-这不是一件容易的事，而且非常耗时。 最终的稻草发生在2月，当时我和查尔斯得到JEG首席执行官的指示，通知我们他想为Ikonboard收费，这会让我对Ikonboard社区的承诺落空。 查尔斯和我讨论了我们的选择，并决定我们宁愿从头开始，也不愿继续与JEG合作。 离开2年的工作并不是一个容易的决定，但我认为这是正确的选择。
Were you legally required to turn over all development of Aurora to JEG, even though they had only acquired Ikonboard? Was Aurora in plans before JEG acquired Ikonboard?
即使他们仅收购了Ikonboard，您是否在法律上要求将Aurora的所有开发移交给JEG？ JEG收购Ikonboard之前，Aurora处于计划之中吗？
When I left Ikonboard, I returned all the Ikonboard, MyIkonboard and Aurora files as a matter of course. All of these files were being developed live on JEG’s servers — but as a gesture of goodwill, I returned the copies on my hard drive even though JEG did not have a direct legal claim to all future work that I developed. JEG acquired Ikonboard, not all code that I develop, however, as I was developing Aurora as Ikonboard PHP I felt that a clean break was in all of our best interests.
当我离开Ikonboard时，自然会返回所有Ikonboard，MyIkonboard和Aurora文件。 所有这些文件都是在JEG的服务器上实时开发的-但出于善意的表示，即使JEG对我开发的所有未来作品没有直接法律主张，我仍将这些副本退还到硬盘驱动器上。 JEG收购了Ikonboard，不是我开发的所有代码，但是，当我以Ikonboard PHP的形式开发Aurora时，我觉得彻底的休息符合我们的最大利益。
With whom did you start Ibforums? What support did you get from the outside community to start afresh?
您与谁一起创办了Ibforums？ 您从外部社区获得了什么支持以重新开始？
Charles Warner and I left JEG to start our own partnership. We set up Invision Power Services as soon as we could — this is the parent company for all our services. The support we had from the community was simply amazing. I had hoped that a few members would follow us over to Invision Board, but I never expected about 85% of the regular posters to follow us. It was at that moment that the true community feel unified us and made us all feel part of an extended family. We set up a temporary board to hold discussions and within a few days we had nearly a thousand members registered and actively posting.
我和查尔斯·沃纳(Charles Warner)离开了JEG，开始了我们自己的伙伴关系。 我们将尽快建立Invision Power Services-这是我们所有服务的母公司。 我们从社区获得的支持简直令人赞叹。 我曾希望有几个成员能跟随我们进入Invision董事会，但我从未期望约有85％的常规海报会跟随我们。 正是在那一刻，真正的社区使我们团结起来，并使我们所有人都感到自己是大家庭的一部分。 我们成立了一个临时委员会来进行讨论，几天之内就有近一千名成员注册并积极发帖。
For me, the community is just as important as the product — especially in the business we’re in. If we’re marketing a community building product, then it makes sense that we have a strong active community of our own — Ikonboard and Invision Board have always been lucky enough to gain a diverse following. The current Invision Board team is as diverse as it is as talented. Ken (Heartcall), one of the founding members of the original "iTeam" is a performing musician, and Luke our support co-ordinator is also a talented musician, recently performing live in front of 20,000 people in a performance that included Michael Jackson.
对我来说，社区与产品同样重要-尤其是在我们所从事的业务中。如果要营销社区构建产品，那么我们拥有自己的强大活跃社区-Ikonboard和Invision就很有意义董事会一直很幸运获得了广泛的关注。 当前的Invision董事会团队既有才华也有多元化。 最初的“ iTeam”创始人之一Ken(Heartcall)是一位表演音乐家，而我们的支持协调员Luke还是一位才华横溢的音乐家，最近在20,000名观众面前进行了现场表演，其中包括Michael Jackson。
Andre and Oscar (Nominell) are two of the most original graphic artists I’ve seen in a long time, Stewart Cambpell is doing wonderful work converting our clients from other forum software to Invision Board — often juggling 20 conversions at a time. And the self titled "MadDocktor" is our security expert — often plugging holes in Windows software and giving us all advice on how to protect our systems. The list goes on and on! We’re very lucky to have one of the best teams in the business. Our dedicated support team (consisting of 20 members) works its socks off to provide first class service with our free and priority support requests — 98% of all tickets and posts asking for support are answered within a few hours, if not sooner. As we have such a large team spanning the globe, it’s not practical to have a centralized office for us all to work in. The Internet is a communications medium and we use it to keep in contact, regularly holding meetings on our private IRC channel. All of the team members are in constant contact via the support board and instant messaging software.
安德烈(Andre)和奥斯卡(Oscar)(Nominell)是我很久以来见过的两个最原始的图形艺术家，斯图尔特·坎伯(Stewart Cambpell)所做的出色工作将我们的客户从其他论坛软件转换为Invision Board —通常一次要进行20次转换。 自称为“ MadDocktor”的是我们的安全专家，通常会堵塞Windows软件的漏洞，并向我们提供有关如何保护系统的所有建议。 清单不胜枚举！ 我们很幸运能拥有业内最好的团队之一。 我们专职的支持团队(由20名成员组成)致力于为我们的免费和优先支持请求提供一流的服务-98％的寻求支持的票务和帖子会在几个小时内得到答复，甚至是更快。 由于我们的团队遍布全球，因此设立一个集中的办公室供大家工作是不切实际的。互联网是一种通讯媒介，我们使用它来保持联系，并定期在我们的IRC专用频道上举行会议。 所有团队成员都通过支持委员会和即时消息软件保持联系。
You preferred to write Ibforums in PHP, as opposed to your previous choice of writing Ikonboard in Perl. Are there any reasons of that? Did you consider PHP to be more superior to Perl?
与您以前选择用Perl编写Ikonboard相比，您更喜欢用PHP编写Ibforums。 有什么原因吗？ 您是否认为PHP比Perl更优越？
When I started getting into Web programming, back in late 1999, Perl was the language most commonly used — it was actively developed and installed on nearly all Web servers. Through writing modifications for other bulletin boards, I became quite comfortable with Perl, so when I started Ikonboard it was natural to continue using Perl. I should note that nearly all the major bulletin boards were using Perl at the time. UBB, wwwthreads (now UBB.Threads), etc. were all coded in Perl, as PHP had yet to prove itself, and in its version 3 incarnations, it was clumsy and missing a few of the power features that made Perl easier to use.
当我在1999年底开始涉足Web编程时，Perl是最常用的语言-它是积极开发并安装在几乎所有Web服务器上的语言。 通过为其他公告板编写修改，我对Perl感到很满意，因此当我启动Ikonboard时，很自然地继续使用Perl。 我应该指出，当时几乎所有主要的公告栏都在使用Perl。 UBB，wwwthreads(现为UBB.Threads)等都用Perl编码，因为PHP尚未证明其本身，而在版本3的化身中，它笨拙且缺少一些使Perl易于使用的强大功能。
During the development of Ikonboard 3, PHP was gaining ground rapidly. The new bulletin boards, such as vBulletin were coded in PHP and attracted a lot of interest, as PHP was quicker and less server-intensive (when compiled into Apache, as most PHP installations are). Perl was starting to look a little outdated and I realized that if Ikonboard were still to compete, it must make the transition to PHP. I read the signs pretty early — Perl was getting bad press and development had seemed to stagnate, mod_perl was such a pain to set up and code for that it wasn’t much of an option for the average Webmaster, and despite Ikonboard 3’s complete compatibility with mod_perl, it wasn’t often run under mod_perl. PHP was definitely the future.
在Ikonboard 3的开发过程中，PHPSwift普及。 新的公告板(例如vBulletin)是用PHP编码的，引起了人们的极大兴趣，因为PHP更快，服务器占用率更低(与大多数PHP安装一样，当编译为Apache时)。 Perl开始显得有些过时了，我意识到，如果Ikonboard仍然可以竞争，它必须过渡到PHP。 我很早就读过这些迹象-Perl变得糟糕，新闻和发展似乎停滞不前，mod_perl的设置和编写代码如此痛苦，尽管Ikonboard 3具有完全的兼容性，但对于普通的网站管理员来说，这并不是很多选择使用mod_perl，它通常不会在mod_perl下运行。 PHP绝对是未来。
In early 2002, after Ikonboard 3 was released, I ordered a few PHP books and set about learning the language. PHP is like Perl in so many ways, it didn’t take long to pick up, and I made a start on the totally new Ikonboard PHP (code-named Aurora). Unfortunately, Ikonboard PHP never saw the light of day under my reign at Ikonboard. When I left the project I returned all the Aurora files and development notes.
在2002年初，在Ikonboard 3发布之后，我订购了几本PHP书籍并着手学习该语言。 PHP在很多方面都像Perl，很快就可以使用，我从全新的Ikonboard PHP(代号Aurora)入手。 不幸的是，我在Ikonboard任职期间，Ikonboard PHP从未见过曙光。 当我离开项目时，我返回了所有的Aurora文件和开发说明。
So PHP seemed like the natural choice when I started developing Invision Board. Its forgiving nature and quick code development allowed me to build the basic structure of Invision Board within a few short months. I didn’t have to worry about mod_perl, fast_cgi or any of that nonsense, I could just code PHP and not worry (too much!) about cross platform issues — it was like a breath of fresh air. My early PHP code was approached from a "Perlish" angle, so much so that I dubbed my style "PHPERL". After working with PHP for about 5 months I feel that I am as comfortable with it as I was with Perl after 12 months.
因此，当我开始开发Invision Board时，PHP似乎是自然的选择。 它的宽容性和快速的代码开发使我能够在短短几个月内构建Invision Board的基本结构。 我不必担心mod_perl，fast_cgi或任何废话，我可以只编写PHP代码，而不必担心(太多！)跨平台问题-就像是呼吸新鲜空气。 我早期PHP代码是从“ Perlish”角度入手的，以至于我将自己的样式称为“ PHPERL”。 在使用PHP大约5个月之后，我觉得与12个月后使用Perl一样，我对它感到满意。
Did you face any legal problems because of your contract with JEG, when you started Ibforums? Did you use the same routine codes, converted to PHP of course, to start Ibforums?
当您启动Ibforums时，是否因为与JEG签约而面临任何法律问题？ 您是否使用了相同的例程代码(当然会转换为PHP)来启动Ibforums？
The contract JEG and I signed was very loose. There was no non-compete clause and no claim on any future work developed by me. JEG only acquired Ikonboard and all rights to it; they did not and could not acquire me or my coding style. If you’ll excuse the analogy, if you purchase a Van Gogh painting and employ Van Gogh to paint a few more for you and he then leaves, you would not have any legal grounds to force him to change his style just because he worked for you and you bought one of his paintings.
我和JEG签订的合同非常宽松。 没有竞争条款，也没有要求我开发任何未来的作品。 JEG仅获得了Ikonboard及其所有权利； 他们没有，也无法掌握我或我的编码风格。 如果您会打个比方，如果您购买梵高的绘画并聘请梵高为您绘画更多作品，然后他离开，您将没有任何法律根据强迫他改变自己的风格，因为他为你和你买了他的一幅画。
I have my own way of working and my own coding style and this was naturally carried onto Invision Board. The Invision Board development was quick because it was my third bulletin board script that I’d authored within an 18 month period (Ikonboard 1/2 and Ikonboard 3 were totally different). Without a doubt, some of the Ikonboard structure and methods are in Invision Board, but that’s because it’s my style and the way I code. Invision Board has been out for many months and I know that JEG has examined the Invision Board code for copyright infringements. As I’ve heard nothing from them, one can assume that JEG has no issue with Invision Board.
我有自己的工作方式和编码风格，这很自然地带到了Invision Board上。 Invision Board的开发很快，因为它是我在18个月内编写的第三个公告板脚本(Ikonboard 1/2和Ikonboard 3完全不同)。 毫无疑问，一些Ikonboard结构和方法都在Invision Board中，但这是因为这是我的风格和编码方式。 Invision委员会已经停职了许多个月，我知道JEG已经检查了Invision Board代码是否侵犯了版权。 由于我什么也没听到，因此可以认为JEG与Invision Board没什么关系。
Is Ibforums similar to Ikonboard in any way, such as the coding structures or programming guidelines? What new features do you plan to implement, or have already implemented, in Ibforums?
Ibforums是否在某种程度上类似于Ikonboard，例如编码结构或编程指南？ 您打算在Ibforums中实现或已经实现哪些新功能？
Nearly all bulletin boards are the same at a fundamental level. Most allow registration, log in, search, help, posting, moderation and administration — it’s only the implementation that’s different. Ikonboard was coded in Perl and Invision Board is coded in PHP — for this reason alone there cannot be any direct code similarities. PHP is a scripting language, it has a preset number of tools to do a job; does this mean that all scripts are the same because they use these tools? Obviously, the answer is no. For example, there is only one way to connect to a MySQL database in PHP; this means that all bulletin boards written in PHP that use a MySQL database must share an almost exact line of code — how could you copyright that?
在基本层面上，几乎所有公告板都是相同的。 大多数都允许注册，登录，搜索，帮助，发布，审核和管理-只是实现有所不同。 Ikonboard是用Perl编码的，而Invision Board是用PHP编码的-仅出于这个原因，不可能有任何直接的代码相似性。 PHP是一种脚本语言，它具有用于完成工作的预设数量的工具； 这是否意味着所有脚本都相同，因为它们使用了这些工具？ 显然，答案是否定的。 例如，只有一种方法可以用PHP连接到MySQL数据库。 这意味着所有使用MySQL数据库以PHP编写的公告板都必须共享几乎完全相同的代码行-您如何版权呢？
A product is a sum of all its parts, if you start breaking it down into routines and code structure, you’ll find that it’s the same as any other PHP script — it can’t be significantly different when the coder is restricted to using the limited tools a scripting language provides. Aurora was a bit messy when I left, and its final feature set hadn’t been decided. Invision Board allowed me to start over again, and the experience I gained in using MySQL during the Ikonboard 3 development meant that I could write a much more efficient program this time around. Ikonboard’s MySQL database structure was very messy because of the self-imposed limitations that iDatabase (a proprietary database abstraction layer) created.
一个产品是其所有部分的总和，如果您开始将其分解为例程和代码结构，就会发现它与任何其他PHP脚本相同-当限制编码器使用时，它不会有太大不同脚本语言提供的有限工具。 当我离开时，Aurora有点混乱，它的最终功能尚未确定。 Invision Board让我重新开始，而且在Ikonboard 3开发过程中获得的使用MySQL的经验意味着我这次可以编写效率更高的程序。 由于iDatabase(专有数据库抽象层)创建的自我施加的限制，IkonboardMySQL数据库结构非常混乱。
Although Invision Board may have started from the seed that Ikonboard planted, it’s grown into a completely different product that stands on its own merits. Invision Board’s new features are all based around usability. I feel that we’ve got the point of feature saturation, which leaves the end user a little cold and confused. I’m trying to develop an easy-to-use product that has solid, powerful features for administration and moderation, whilst retaining good usability for the end user.
尽管Invision Board可能是从Ikonboard种植的种子开始的，但已经成长为完全不同的产品，各有千秋。 Invision Board的新功能全部基于可用性。 我觉得我们已经达到了功能饱和的目的，这使最终用户有些冷漠和困惑。 我正在尝试开发一种易于使用的产品，该产品具有用于管理和审核的牢固，强大的功能，同时又为最终用户保留了良好的可用性。
Zef Hemel, the creator of YaBB, is now helping Ibforums. Can you let us know how you signed Zef up to help with the Ibforums community?
YaBB的创建者Zef Hemel现在正在帮助Ibforums。 您能告诉我们您如何注册Zef来帮助Ibforums社区吗？
When I was at Ikonboard, Zef was a very active and capable poster in the Coding forum — always willing to help out and offer his extensive advice when it was required. His name was put forward by a team member as a potential moderator. After a brief discussion it was decided that he more than deserved an official post because of his hard work in that forum. I was not concerned about Zef’s other activities or that he started YaBB, one of our competitors at the time, as I knew Zef well enough to trust that he’d always be objective. When we left Ikonboard to start Invision Board, Zeff followed — and his hard work continues. He’s a great asset to the team.
当我在Ikonboard时，Zef是Coding论坛中一位非常活跃且干练的海报–随时愿意提供帮助并在需要时提供他的广泛建议。 他的名字是由一名团队成员提出的，是一名潜在的主持人。 经过简短的讨论，由于他在该论坛中的辛勤工作，他决定当之无愧地担任正式职务。 我并不担心Zef的其他活动，也不必担心他创立了YaBB，YaBB是我们当时的竞争对手之一，因为我非常了解Zef，因此可以相信他永远是客观的。 当我们离开Ikonboard创立Invision Board时，Zeff紧随其后-他的辛勤工作仍在继续。 他是团队的宝贵资产。
At this point I can’t really say what the future holds. Invision Board v1.1 will probably be the last development cycle that I do on my own, as all future versions will be developed within a team. I’ll still be very actively involved in coding the board, but it’ll free some of my time up to work on other projects we have in the pipeline, such as our CMS/Portal hybrid plug-in that’s in very early stages. If Zef wanted to be involved at a coding level, he’ll definitely be on the short list of potential candidates.
在这一点上，我还不能真正说出未来。 Invision Board v1.1可能是我一个人做的最后一个开发周期，因为所有将来的版本都将在一个团队中进行开发。 我仍然会非常积极地参与开发板的编码，但是这将腾出我的一些时间来处理我们正在进行的其他项目，例如处于非常早期阶段的CMS / Portal混合插件。 如果Zef希望参与编码工作，那么他肯定会在潜在候选人的候选名单中。
Are you facing any challenges at the moment from other forums, especially as you now have Ikonboard as a major competitor?
您现在是否正面临来自其他论坛的任何挑战，尤其是当您现在将Ikonboard视为主要竞争对手时？
I have to say, Ikonboard is a hard act to follow! But I’ve always maintained that competition is a good thing, as it brings about rapid developments in technology. When you consider that a forum script is nothing more than a database and a bunch of HTML forms, there isn’t much more you can do until Web technology advances, so all we can do is build on existing ideas to make them more user friendly. Ikonboard, Invision Board, UBB, vBulletin, phpBB and YaBB SE have all introduced neat little ideas into the "feature pool" that we all draw from. If there was only one forum script in existence, the feature pool wouldn’t be as buoyant as it currently is.
我不得不说，Ikonboard是很难遵循的！ 但是我一直认为竞争是一件好事，因为它带来了技术的飞速发展。 当您认为论坛脚本只不过是数据库和一堆HTML表单时，在Web技术发展之前您无能为力，因此我们所能做的就是建立在现有想法上，使它们更加用户友好。 Ikonboard，Invision Board，UBB，vBulletin，phpBB和YaBB SE都将整洁的小想法引入了我们都可以借鉴的“功能库”中。 如果只有一个论坛脚本存在，那么功能池就不会像现在这样活跃。
A good example of how competition advances technology in a forum script context is the humble private message notification pop-up. If I remember correctly, vBulletin was the first to introduce the idea that when a new private message was received, a little JavaScript dialogue box popped up to inform you, making it very easy to note when you had a new private message. phpBB took this idea and built on it to create a HTML page in a pop-up browser window. I took that idea and built on it further by adding more functionality to the HTML page — it’s highly likely that someone else will develop this further, continuing the cycle. The biggest challenge Invision Board faces is getting across that just because you can download it for free, it doesn’t mean that it’s not as good as the products that charge. I feel that given time, Invision Board will prove this on its own merits.
谦虚的私人消息通知弹出窗口是竞争如何在论坛脚本上下文中提高技术的一个很好的例子。 如果我没记错的话，vBulletin是第一个引入这样的想法的人：当收到新的私人消息时，会弹出一个JavaScript对话框，通知您，当您收到新的私人消息时，很容易注意到。 phpBB采纳了这个想法，并以此为基础在弹出的浏览器窗口中创建HTML页面。 我采纳了这个想法，并在HTML页面上添加了更多功能，从而在此基础上进一步发展-很有可能其他人将对此进行进一步开发，从而继续进行下去。 Invision Board面临的最大挑战是，您可以免费下载它，但这并不意味着它不如要收费的产品好。 我认为，在有时间的情况下，Invision董事会将根据自身情况进行证明。
Netmag.co.uk recently recommended Ibforums as one of the best free forums around. Has that helped gain more popularity and converts from other forums?
Netmag.co.uk最近推荐Ibforums作为周围最好的免费论坛之一。 这是否有助于获得更多人气并从其他论坛进行转化？
.Netmag is one of the most popular printed Internet magazines in the UK. I was rather amazed to see the feature in print, and naturally pleased that Invision Board came out on top. It’s definitely helped us "sell" Invision Board to potential customers — you can’t get much more of an independent review than one in a magazine. I think that all the systems reviewed benefited from the exposure that printed material gives — as the saying goes "there’s no such thing as bad publicity". We did note that we had a lot more calls from the UK after the magazine was published.
.Netmag是英国最受欢迎的印刷互联网杂志之一。 我很惊讶地看到了该功能的印刷版，并很高兴Invision Board脱颖而出。 这无疑帮助我们将Invision董事会“销售”给了潜在客户-独立杂志获得的好评不比杂志多。 我认为，所有审查过的系统都受益于印刷材料的曝光度-俗话说“没有不良宣传”。 我们确实注意到，该杂志出版后，我们接到了来自英国的更多电话。
At the moment, you’re also offering paid services, including paid support, installation and copyright removal add-ons. Are these services in high demand? How does your paid support different from your normal support via Ibforums?
At the moment, you're also offering paid services, including paid support, installation and copyright removal add-ons. Are these services in high demand? How does your paid support different from your normal support via Ibforums?
Invision Board is free, so to secure Invision Boards future, we have launched these paid options and separate services from the parent company, Invision Power Services. Our support team work around the clock on both free and priority support tickets. We pledge to answer all free tickets within 24 hours and priority tickets within 12 hours — in nearly all cases we beat those times by a large margin. Our priority account holders also benefit from direct telephone support and access to private support forums within the public support board, to request support or just to get questions answered promptly.
Invision Board is free, so to secure Invision Boards future, we have launched these paid options and separate services from the parent company, Invision Power Services. Our support team work around the clock on both free and priority support tickets. We pledge to answer all free tickets within 24 hours and priority tickets within 12 hours — in nearly all cases we beat those times by a large margin. Our priority account holders also benefit from direct telephone support and access to private support forums within the public support board, to request support or just to get questions answered promptly.
We already have a growing number of clients taking up the paid-for option, as it gives them complete peace of mind with their Invision Board. Our team regularly logs in and solves problems for our priority customers, which saves valuable time when support is required. And our installation service is always in high demand. Invision Board is easy to install, but most Webmasters would rather concentrate on content than installing complex scripts that power their site.
We already have a growing number of clients taking up the paid-for option, as it gives them complete peace of mind with their Invision Board. Our team regularly logs in and solves problems for our priority customers, which saves valuable time when support is required. And our installation service is always in high demand. Invision Board is easy to install, but most Webmasters would rather concentrate on content than installing complex scripts that power their site.
The Parent company, Invision Power Services, also offers other services besides Forums, such as hosting and Web development. Are these tied with the forums in any way? Do any of these services drive traffic into your other offered services? Can you tell us more about your "hosted Ibforums" service?
The Parent company, Invision Power Services, also offers other services besides Forums, such as hosting and Web development. Are these tied with the forums in any way? Do any of these services drive traffic into your other offered services? Can you tell us more about your "hosted Ibforums" service?
Invision Board is just one department of the Invision Power Services business. Our main services include Website design, custom scripting, and hosting (from forum hosting through virtual hosting to dedicated hosting). Our forum hosting package is very popular. Unlike some of our competitors, our package is "real" hosting: you get your own allocation of Web space, your own Invision Board, your own database and FTP access — it’s not simply a "custom" Invision Board powering several installations. You’re free to add modifications to the code and do pretty much all that you’d expect to do on a regular virtual hosting plan. The forum hosting servers that we own are all fully optimized for Invision Board, offering the best possible environment for the board.
Invision Board is just one department of the Invision Power Services business. Our main services include Website design, custom scripting, and hosting (from forum hosting through virtual hosting to dedicated hosting). Our forum hosting package is very popular. Unlike some of our competitors, our package is "real" hosting: you get your own allocation of Web space, your own Invision Board, your own database and FTP access — it's not simply a "custom" Invision Board powering several installations. You're free to add modifications to the code and do pretty much all that you'd expect to do on a regular virtual hosting plan. The forum hosting servers that we own are all fully optimized for Invision Board, offering the best possible environment for the board.
The relationship between Invision Board and Invision Power Services is closely tied. Invision Board is maintained by the revenue that Invision Power Services generates and Invision Power Services is able to reach a large audience because of the traffic that Invision Board generates.
The relationship between Invision Board and Invision Power Services is closely tied. Invision Board is maintained by the revenue that Invision Power Services generates and Invision Power Services is able to reach a large audience because of the traffic that Invision Board generates.
Are there any plans to have Ibforums converted to or written in Perl in the future?
Are there any plans to have Ibforums converted to or written in Perl in the future?
We had considered porting Invision Board PHP to a Perl version, but have largely decided against it after polling the community. There may have been a need for it 12 months ago when PHP was still being picked up by Web hosts, but it seems now that PHP has reached the point that Perl had, in that 99% of Web hosts have it installed and freely available. I fact, I’d bet that there are more hosts that support PHP and MySQL than those that have taken the time and trouble to install the Perl interface for MySQL (the DBI modules). We do have an Invision Board "Lite" in the works, but this is being developed in slow time and its release will largely depend on the state of the market. We’ll be reviewing the need for a Perl version when Perl 6 is released.
We had considered porting Invision Board PHP to a Perl version, but have largely decided against it after polling the community. There may have been a need for it 12 months ago when PHP was still being picked up by Web hosts, but it seems now that PHP has reached the point that Perl had, in that 99% of Web hosts have it installed and freely available. I fact, I'd bet that there are more hosts that support PHP and MySQL than those that have taken the time and trouble to install the Perl interface for MySQL (the DBI modules). We do have an Invision Board "Lite" in the works, but this is being developed in slow time and its release will largely depend on the state of the market. We'll be reviewing the need for a Perl version when Perl 6 is released.
Have you done any benchmark tests to compare Ibforums with other scripts? A little while back, there were benchmark tests done to compare Ikonboard with other scripts — can you let us know some details about that?
Have you done any benchmark tests to compare Ibforums with other scripts? A little while back, there were benchmark tests done to compare Ikonboard with other scripts — can you let us know some details about that?
I try and stay away from pure benchmarks as much as I can. Designing a program just for speed is folly. A good design should put security first, usability second and efficiency third — raw speed should be near the bottom somewhere. Let’s face it, the difference between 0.03 and 0.1 is about the time it takes you to blink, we’re not really able to distinguish between these measures. I’ve run some personal benchmarks with Invision Board, phpBB2, YaBB SE and vBulletin and on paper Invision Board is faster, but in "human" terms, there isn’t much in it.
I try and stay away from pure benchmarks as much as I can. Designing a program just for speed is folly. A good design should put security first, usability second and efficiency third — raw speed should be near the bottom somewhere. Let's face it, the difference between 0.03 and 0.1 is about the time it takes you to blink, we're not really able to distinguish between these measures. I've run some personal benchmarks with Invision Board, phpBB2, YaBB SE and vBulletin and on paper Invision Board is faster, but in "human" terms, there isn't much in it.
I certainly didn’t approach Invision Board with the aim of making it the fastest board in it’s field. When I was working on Ikonboard PHP (Aurora), David ran some tests based on what we had completed (reading, registering, posting, etc) against other boards. The test results showed that on his machine Aurora was faster and more efficient. The Jarvis Entertainment Group thought it good PR to advertise these figures. But whether or not the final version of Aurora would have out-performed its competitors will probably never be known.
I certainly didn't approach Invision Board with the aim of making it the fastest board in it's field. When I was working on Ikonboard PHP (Aurora), David ran some tests based on what we had completed (reading, registering, posting, etc) against other boards. The test results showed that on his machine Aurora was faster and more efficient. The Jarvis Entertainment Group thought it good PR to advertise these figures. But whether or not the final version of Aurora would have out-performed its competitors will probably never be known.
What are you plans for Ibforums in the future? What new features have you planned for it?
What are you plans for Ibforums in the future? What new features have you planned for it?
Invision Board is a constantly evolving product. We get some good feedback and feature ideas from the community, and nearly all these suggestions are considered for inclusion if they have a broad enough appeal and are workable.
Invision Board is a constantly evolving product. We get some good feedback and feature ideas from the community, and nearly all these suggestions are considered for inclusion if they have a broad enough appeal and are workable.
Future releases of Invision Board will focus primarily on optimization and efficiency. We’re also in the process of completing more database drivers, including MS-SQL and pgSQL. We have a few ideas that we’re keeping close to our chest to try and take Invision Board into different markets, but that’s firmly in the "next year" category.
Future releases of Invision Board will focus primarily on optimization and efficiency. We're also in the process of completing more database drivers, including MS-SQL and pgSQL. We have a few ideas that we're keeping close to our chest to try and take Invision Board into different markets, but that's firmly in the "next year" category.
What about yourself? Do you intend to be associated with Ibforums in the future, or are you planning to be involved more in other areas of Invision Power Services?
What about yourself? Do you intend to be associated with Ibforums in the future, or are you planning to be involved more in other areas of Invision Power Services?
I’ll always be associated with Invision Board. Version 1.1 will probably be the last version I’ll develop on my own as I have some other projects that I want to get off the ground for Invision Power Services. Having said that, Invision Board will always be taken seriously, and I’ll still have a big say in its development and code structure — I just feel it’s got to the stage where the main core has been developed and stabilized, and immediate future releases will be mainly service releases.
I'll always be associated with Invision Board. Version 1.1 will probably be the last version I'll develop on my own as I have some other projects that I want to get off the ground for Invision Power Services. Having said that, Invision Board will always be taken seriously, and I'll still have a big say in its development and code structure — I just feel it's got to the stage where the main core has been developed and stabilized, and immediate future releases will be mainly service releases.
We’d like to thank Matt for his time. We look forward to watching Ibforums and Invision Power Services continue their success in future!
We'd like to thank Matt for his time. We look forward to watching Ibforums and Invision Power Services continue their success in future!
翻译自: https://www.sitepoint.com/matt-mecham-ibforums/
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