HAWK and ralph.m Featured on the SitePoint Podcast

Hello,

This is Patrick O’Keefe and I am one of the co-hosts on the SitePoint Podcast, alongside Brad Williams (Thing here on the forums), Louis Simoneau and Stephan Segraves (Hartmann). For those who remember, I was on the forums staff, as both a Mentor and Advisor, for around 8 years.

Each of the last three episodes of the podcast has featured a member of the SitePoint Forums staff. In episodes 119 and [url=http://www.sitepoint.com/podcast-121-online-community-roundtable-part-2-with-matthew-haughey-and-sarah-hawk/]121, SitePoint Community Manager Sarah Hawk (HAWK) joined me for an online community management roundtable where we discussed the profession itself and the challenges that we face.

On episode 120, SitePoint Advisor Ralph Mason (ralph.m) joined some of our usual lineup as a guest host to talk about SitePoint’s [url=http://www.sitepoint.com/thinking-web-voices-of-the-community/]“Thinking Web: Voices of the Community” book, which he contributed to.

SitePoint Podcast #119: Online Community Roundtable with Matthew Haughey Sarah Hawk and Venessa Paech » SitePoint
SitePoint Podcast #120: Don’t Rush To SitePoint! » SitePoint
SitePoint Podcast #121: Online Community Roundtable Part 2 with Matthew Haughey and Sarah Hawk » SitePoint

Thank you for reading and I hope that you enjoy these podcast episodes! :slight_smile:

Sincerely,

Patrick

We want more of Ralph the Mighty! :cool:

Awesome stuff. How did I manage to miss these podcasts? :smiley:

Rad opening music on the podcasts :stuck_out_tongue:

Thanks for the replies. :slight_smile:

xhtmlcoder, glad that you liked Ralph’s appearance on the show.

3dy.ro, thanks for the kind words! :slight_smile:

cydewaze, glad that you like it! :slight_smile:

Thanks,

Patrick

great podcasts!

I would have probably commented on those SP Blogs but of course I don’t have JS enabled on my browser thus actually posting a REPLY is not available. :slight_smile:

So since Patrick was so kind to provide an alternative format assumedly you was interested in some forum feedback; on the ‘round table’ I shall honour the opportunity.

Although it won’t be as eloquent and specifically targeted as what I would have written on the Blogs I’ll nonetheless continue.

Podcast #119

It was encouraging to see in the majority of cases the employed moderators on the whole came from the community where they participated in a former capacity. Like was mentioned first-hand experience of a specific forum counts as they all a have their own unique micro cultures or personalities; so what might work within one forum may not in another.

Again another nice coverage of “why forums rock” was mentioned compared to the shortcoming of a lot of social media sites. It was mentioned the social media lacked real substance or the capacity to provide support or in-depth social interaction past the quick-and-the fast fleeting post. The forums concept; although aged, still wins because it actually performs and fulfils its support and ‘fountain of knowledge’ role.

It was even hinted that Facebook pretty much was dead-end in some respects and shunned by certain demographics, whereas others seemed to like adopt it. Thinking Web was also briefly mentioned also another plus-side of SPF forums.

Podcast #120

The show that introduced one of the ‘Thinking Web’ co-authors Ralph an actual voice of SPF the community.

Yes, once he got into flow and lost some of the hesitancy it moved quite nicely and was kept real… I think Ralph did an outstanding job, I suspect he hasn’t done a podcast before but the actual message he delivered spoke volumes. He should certainly consider doing one again.

I think he nicely represents a typical ‘freelance web guy’ mainly front-end web designer - one of the guys that don’t often get promoted or heard by large entities. He kept it real regarding the daily struggles faced by ‘the man in the trenches’.

When he spoke of Thinking Web his sentences carried a passion for what he believes in and community spirit in helping others and keeping things ‘simple’ and understandable. He even covered how he has managed to transfer skills learnt from the forum and pass them on to others. Noting how there are always gems of information or new ideas to be found or people that will correct your mistakes. He even managed to mention about getting his mother up-to-date with browsers, which gets a thumbs up.

Need I say more of why I liked the Guest appearance of Ralph the Mighty? :slight_smile:

Podcast #121

It was quite interesting to see and contrast how the different communities dealt with certain aspects regarding management. I haven’t heard the audio version yet but it looked like there were conflicting parts.

Numbers featured quite a lot and I have seen abuse of that myself; on various forums and I enjoyed some of the light humour regarding some people’s fixations with false number based reputation systems, etc.

It was also interesting for the public to get an insight of how Sarah, likes to govern the SPF forums for those whom are regular members.

Also it was interesting to see how member management and support for those members that seemed to need more help to fit in was taken by the panellists. Plus the fact that a lot of people being naive that ‘actions have consequences’ or wanted to hide behind a pseudonym pretending they were more skilled than they were, etc.

Thank you Patrick hope you enjoyed my brief “alternative” feedback. :cool:

Thanks for the feedback, Racell and xhtmlcoder. I’m glad that you enjoyed the episodes. :slight_smile:

Patrick