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Interview with Matt Mecham, creator of iKonboard
(Click here to view the original thread with full colors/images)
Posted by: OTS Staff
<b><font color="#FFFFCC">EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH MATT MECHAM</font></b>
<i>Creator/Developer of Ikonboard
<font size="1">Conducted on July 20, 2001</font></i>
OTS: Tell us your background. Who are you and what do you do?
Matt Mecham: I live in Hampshire, England on the south coast, infact if I was any further south I'd be swimming.
I have full time employment as a graphics designer. This mainly involves laying up magazines, creating logos as well as creative design. Ikonboard takes up nearly every other 'spare' second of time that I have.
OTS: Tell me a little history of Ikonboard, like what made you decide to create it and what factors led to the creation of this forum script?
MM: Ikonboard started off back in late August last year. I was involved in a few 'hacking' communities for other bulletin boards. I was growing weary of the direction these developers were taking their boards and the way they treated their members. Several of the hacks that I wrote ended up being in the 'official' version pretty much without modification without mentioning who the original author was.
I then started work on a little review script for my website 'ikondiscussion.com' (Information and Knowledge ONline). The main aim of the site was to provide tutorials, product reviews and other free webmaster resources.
The reviewscript 'Ikon Review' started to look more and more like a bulletin board so I figured I'd throw myself into the deep end and start over with a new bulletin board 'Ikon board'. Back then (it's funny how 6 months on the internet seems like 10 years in "real life") there wasn't a deal of choice for free bulletin board systems - certainly no where near as many as there are today.
I thrashed the idea around with a few friends (Luc, Jordan and Ken - the original iTeam) and we came up with a list of features we wanted as standard, the idea being that Ikonboard would be one of a few 'fully hacked' vanilla boards.
OTS: What do you think makes Ikonboard better than the competition's?
MM: What makes Ikonboard better? This is an interesting question.
I could say that the code is far cleaner than most. I could say that it's more efficient than other perl boards. I could rave on about DBM, mySQL, pgSQL the use of hash references, the object orientated approach - but to the end user it doesn't mean anything.
I could also be naive and say 'Ikonboard is the best' - but different people have different tastes.
I think that the "human" factor makes Ikonboard better than some other perl boards. The ikonboard community is very active and vibrant - they contribute to the "Ikonboard ethos". We rely heavily on the wants and needs of the community to give them a product that they want. We also care about every single installation problem that we hear about. It's not unusual for me to post updated code at 4:00am to help someone.
OTS: How hard is it to develop a script like this?
MM: The pure development is fairly straightforward. I'm a perl coder writing perl code and if you'll excuse the analogy, it's like a builder building a house - it's not difficult if you know what you are doing.
I've spent a lot of time working on the code and database structures. I've written a custom API for database interaction. This allows Ikonboard to run on a plethora of DB systems without having to rewrite large sections of the code, or using a special version. The "pre-coding" development was the hardest.
I find that it's the ancillery components that can cause frustration. Answering support questions, answering emails, administrating the support board, keeping the members up to date with news postings and announcements all take time. Keeping Ikonboard going is a full time occupation in itself. I'm very thankful to the ikonboard team for all the help and assistance they give.
OTS: What do you think about the other forum scripts that are available out there? Do you sometimes wish you had a feature on your forum that is visible on theirs?
MM: There are so many forum scripts out there at the moment, it's bizarre. I guess that about half will be still around in 6 months time. I've seen it happen so many times. A new script is released, it gets well known. The author gets swamped with support questions, loses interest and moves on.
Other than Ikonboard I think that you can cut the list down to a handful of bulletin boards that will stand the test of time.
In no particular order:
vBulletin took the bulletin board market by storm. It was a breath of fresh air to a classic design. Version 2 really is excellent, there is no denying that. vBulletin sets the standard that everyone else follows. It's this years #1 bulletin board system.
UBB (tm) - some say the pioneer of todays bulletin board look and feel. UBB has been around for years and it's not going to disappear overnight. Many feel that the long awaited version 6 was a disappointment, others love it. Many feel that it's unefficient and badly written, others venomously disagree. Whatever your feelings on it, it's still in the top 5 "best bulletin boards" list and it's place in history has been secured.
phpBB has picked up quite a following over the last few months. It started out as a "poor mans vBulletin" but has since developed it's own character. I've not spent much time on phpBB forums, but from what I hear it's popular and can only get better.
WWW Threads (not to be confused with the ghastly wwwboard) is a criminally underrated bulletin board. I hardly hear it mentioned, but it's used on some popular sites. It's a fantastic piece of software with many unique features - it's even pioneered a few of it's own. The author seems to be moving towards PHP/mySQL which may give it a new following.
OTS: What do you think of Ikonboard's script-hacking community. Do they significantly help you improve your script?
MM: A resounding "YES". We have a wonderful hacking community and we wouldn't be here without them. We've made Ikonboard 3 easier to make modification and add ons for, we hope that we attract an even larger "script hacking" audience.
OTS: Will you be sticking with the current programming architecture of your forum script, or have you got something big planned for it? If so, how about giving us a hint?
MM: If you asked that question 4 months ago, I would have raved on about Ikonboard 3's unique code structure. We're just coming to the end of a total rewrite for ikonboard. Ikonboard is written entirely in an OO (object orientated) style - allowing several processes to share the same code. I won't bore you with the technical details, but it's pretty cool 
OTS: What part of Ikonboard would you have re-done or improved if you had the chance to do it all over again? Are you planning any further enhancements and/or improvements for the current version of Ikonboard?
MM: I'm taking the chance to do it all over again with this re write. I've spent a lot more time looking at how the features should interact, and how the database should be set up. The time you spend _before_ coding a line on a new project can help sink or swim a project.
OTS: What do you do in your spare time, if you have any?
MM: Sleep. I seriously don't have any spare time - although I do try and keep my weekends clear to see my girlfriend. There no point having a successful bulletin board if there's no one to share it with.
OTS: If you were asked to describe your forum script in one sentence, what would it be?
MM: "The most cost effective commercial bulletin board currently available".
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Many thanks to Matt Mecham and Jarvis Entertainment Group, Inc. for this interview.
Visit Ikonboard.Com for more information on their great forum script.
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