Tom Huls, a true MyBB veteran, answers your interview questions.

Please tell us a bit about yourself.

My name is Tom, as you might have guessed from the cute avatar I have been using for quite some time now. I’m 22 years old, from the Netherlands and a fifth year maths student. My MyBB experience started when I began using Messenger Plus!, which I must have been sixteen or something back then. For some reason I felt the need to post on the forum there, which was powered by a very early version of MyBB. After some time I made some comments about the bulletin board software and that’s how I ended up here.

Other than MyBB, what are some of your hobbies?

This question gets asked regularly by other people and usually I reply by saying that I enjoy reading and walking. However, the number of unread books on my shelf keeps growing and I hardly get out. That’s mostly because studying takes up quite a bit of my time, but I intend to shift the balance a bit in the next few months. In any case, solving maths riddles is not on the list 😉

Being one of the more reserved MyBB team members, what are some of your duties regarding MyBB?

Basically, I am in charge of all that relates to internationalization and managing the translations. That includes uploading new translations when they’re finished, assisting translators in their joband also keeping the Dutch translation up-to-date, which I’m the author of. Apart from that, I do some basic stuff as changing usernames and giving support, although unfortunately I often find myself short of time so I have not been as active as I would like to be. In addition, I’ve helped beta test quite a few releases.

What are your three favourite MyBB features, and briefly, why?

– The search functionality, because although I tend to know fairly well that something was posted I can almost never find it again by simply looking for the thread in a specific forum.
– The edit button. It’s surprising to see how often I find myself using it, even though I’m also a great fan of the Preview button.
– Multiple PM recipients. Makes sending the same personal message to multiple staff members or translators just that tad bit easier.

What does your average day look like?

I always try to get up at 6 am. I wash up, quickly grab some bread and cycle to the nearest train station. The train leaves at 6.45 and after a quick transfer I arrive at university at 8.05. During the trip I often read some of the free newspapers distributed at train stations, listen to some music or podcast, skip through some math books or just enjoy the view. As there’s always something to do I rarely ever find myself bored or annoyed by the time it takes me to get to university. The day then consists mainly of studying, either on my own or by attending lectures. A bit after 5 pm I return home, where I eat, quickly turn my laptop on and deal with new emails, forum posts and so on. Then I take a shower at about 9.30 and go to bed quickly after that to get my eight hours of sleep.

Of course, in reality, I hardly ever manage to get up at six in the morning, trains are delayed, at university I get distracted by other students so don’t get much done and in the evening I go to bed way too late to get my eight hours of sleep 😛

Many weekends are spent with my girlfriend, family visits or watching Formula 1 and snooker.

What is your dream career?

I wish to become a mathematics teacher. Indeed, not very spectacular 😉

What is your favorite movie?

I can’t say I have a favorite movie. One of the more recent movies I saw was “La tourneuse de pages”, which I found a very nice one. One that also stuck was Elephant; not so much a nice movie, but certainly moving.