Ryan Gordon was second to answer your questions, he must have thought they were bugs cause he had the answers the day after me asking them.

Tell us a bit about yourself

Hi, I’m Ryan Gordon, and I live in the Bay Area of California, USA. I’ve been on the MyBB team since April 2006, back in the days of MyBB 1.1. I’m currently an intern for a SQA position during my summers, and school during the school year. In my other time I run various websites, I work with my Robotics Club (helping get financing & partners, doing programming and occasionally mechanical or electrical jobs), and I also do some freelance and for-fun coding. I love playing soccer, and have played soccer for most of my life. In my free time I love talking and hanging out with friends, joking, gaming, and going to the movies.

Does your brother ever annoy you when you’re programming MyBB?

All the time 😦

What’s it like helping administrate the largest known MyBB forum, with over 4 million posts (NCAABBS)?

It’s definitely interesting. You learn a lot of what it takes to run an operation that big in terms of programming optimizations, security, and stability as well as managing it well.

Other than MyBB, what are some of your hobbies?

I love playing soccer in my spare time. I also am on a robotics club, and who would’ve guessed? I’m the main programmer.

How does an average day look for you?

Weekdays I wake up at 8:00am and get into work by 9:30am. I get off work at 5:00pm and drive myself through commute traffic back to home. At around 6:00pm I have my dinner and turn on the computer. During the next few hours, I try to enjoy a TV show or two on Hulu.com and talk to friends. Otherwise I am on the MyBB Community forums and my other various projects to check up on and do my job. I end up going to sleep anywhere between 10pm and 3am.
Weekends usually call for some relaxing, going to the movies or hanging out with friends, chores, et cetera. Of course, during the school year, my days are filled with assignments.

What is your favorite book?

I must admit, I was raised a Harry Potter fan. My closet however is filled with programming books, some half read, some my bibles, some I’ve scanned over. The Dan Brown books are also among my favorites.

What feature have you always wanted in MyBB but has not yet been included?

Automatic updates. That would be killer =) Will definitely be in MyBB 2.0

What is your favorite language, both programming and real languages?

PHP is definitely the language for me. English is also my favorite real language.

Is MyBB your only developing project on the internet or are you involved in others?

I do periodic work for clients (creating a website here and there), I also have my own RCT3 Fansite that I have co-owned and have continued to run for 4 years.

What initially attracted you to MyBB?

My first RCT3 Fansite ran a phpBB 2 forum. Me and the owner decided we wanted something with a little more functionality. At the same time, I had known and had been friends with Justin S., our now Lead Designer, who also ran a RCT3 Fansite and was looking for a better forum to replace phpBB 2 with. He found MyBB, and he linked me to it. It was definately a much better choice and we chose it. At the time this was going on, I was learning the basic web programming languages, including PHP. I put my PHP skills to the test by first creating plugins and soon after, I got hooked.

What is the most trouble you’ve ever been in?

That’s a hard question to answer. I would say some of the fights and tantrums me and my brother would use to have, would get us in lots of trouble.

What is your dream career?

I would say, owning and creating a theme park on the ranks of Disneyland/Great America has always been a dream of mine.

Anything else you want to add?

Just a few interesting facts about me I guess:
I hate California weather because I like it when it rains – It is peaceful, cleansing, and something different then the norm.
I program best at the late hours of the night, because I am not bothered by noises, people or issues much; it allows me to focus and get things done.
I have a knack for making people laugh with my jokes when I’m not in a working environment and I love to make people smile.

Justin S. is the first team member to have a go at answering questions, so be nice to him.

Tell us a bit about yourself

Hi, I’m Justin, and I live in Central Ohio, USA. I’ve been on the MyBB team since April 2006, back in the days of MyBB 1.1. I’m currently a junior in high school. In my free time, I run a roller coaster simulator fansite called RCTgo, and also do some web design through my portfolio, Belloman Design. I obviously love roller coasters, and I play the alto saxophone in my school’s jazz, concert, and marching bands.

How did you discover MyBB?

My experience with forums all began through the RollerCoaster Tycoon community, so it’s fitting that I found MyBB through one of those forums. I already had a bit of experience administrating forums when I discovered MyBB, as I had already created a forum of my own with InvisionFree. Anyway, at some point I had found a forum of Sebar’s (a notable member of the RCT community), which was running MyBB. I knew a bit about forum softwares at that point – notably vB, IPB, and phpBB – but had never heard of MyBB.

Eventually, I decided to check out the website, downloaded a copy of MyBB and installed it on my web hosting account. I fell in love instantly – even at PR2, it had just about everything I wanted, and was enough of an incentive to completely start over my forum with it. It’s been nearly four years since I discovered MyBB and I’m still in love with it.

Describe some of the roles you have taken on in the MyBB team

When I first became a member of the MyBB team, I was added alongside Ryan Gordon as one of the official MyBB Wiki managers. We were tasked with maintaining the wiki, ensuring all of the articles were of a high quality, and that all of the appropriate articles were there.

At some point, I was asked to redesign the MyBB website. A redesign had already been in progress, but we (the team) felt that it could use a bit of a “refresh.” I guess you could say that is where I began my role as designer.

For MyBB 1.4, I created the layouts for countless pages in the new MyBB Admin CP. I’d say roughly two-thirds of the layouts were done by me in HTML mockups. At the same time, I also wrote almost all of the wiki documentation for the new features and changes in MyBB 1.4, most noticeably rewriting nearly all of the wiki articles for the Admin CP.

Today, my roles are MyBB Lead Designer and Wiki Lead. I’m responsible for almost every new layout that goes into MyBB, as well as (on the side) making sure the Wiki is up to date and being well maintained.

Which program/tool do you enjoy using the most while designing the new layout and graphics for MyBB?

Pencil and paper go a long way when initially mocking up layouts. With an eraser in hand, I can easily brainstorm how I want a page laid out, as it often takes a bit of time to get something that’s “just right.” Another great thing about paper mockups is that they’re obviously strictly layout, not theme, which I think is important in early stages.

Recently, though, I’ve been using a program called Balsamiq Mockups, which is a fantastic tool that tries to imitate pencil and paper mockups. It’s really easy to get things looking exactly how I want them, and I think I’m going to be using it quite a bit more in the future.

Here are some pencil mockups that Justin did for 1.4.

How much time do you spend designing MyBB? Describe the process of being a designer of MyBB.

When I’m designing a new layout for MyBB, I’ll often start with a paper sketch or a mockup in Balsamiq Mockups, experimenting and fine tuning the layout to exactly how I think it should be. At this point, I’ll usually show it to Ryan Gordon, and finally to the rest of the MyBB staff for input. Once a decent amount of input has been received, I’ll typically open up a text editor and begin creating an HTML mockup, which gives the developers a clear picture of how I envision the layout to look. I’ll then do the same: show it to Ryan Gordon and finally to the rest of the staff for review. Finally, a developer will eventually come in and commit the feature, based on the mockups I created.

I do not keep track of how much time I spend on any particular design or on designing MyBB in general. I do it whenever I have free time.

What feature did you want MyBB to have that was never included?

Soft delete. As someone who is paranoid about deleting things, I would love to have the option to “delete” posts without actually deleting them. A lot of people suggest to simply unapprove posts that you want to keep but not delete, but that doesn’t work too well: it clutters up the moderation queue, and isn’t really what I consider unapproved posts to be for.

Other than MyBB, what are some of your hobbies?

Roller coasters, web design, architecture, band, and reading.

What do you have for breakfast each day?

I typically eat some combination of bagels, muffins, waffles, pancakes, French toast, and yogurt. I hardly ever skip breakfast.

What was the meaning behind your former username, Belloman?

I’m afraid I’m not going to answer this question. I always like to keep a few secrets about myself.

What was your favorite nursery rhyme?

I’m not sure if this is the proper title or if it was my favorite, but “It’s raining, it’s pouring,” comes to mind.

What is your dream career?

Architecture. I have always been in love with buildings and maps, and I think something related to architecture or engineering is a perfect fit for my interests.

Anything else you would like to add?

Being on the MyBB team has truly been a life-changing experience, and I don’t think I will ever regret joining the team. I’m also really looking forward to seeing what the future holds for MyBB – whatever it is, I’m sure it’ll be great!

We have many helpful members at MyBB’s community forums, and it’s great when one of them is willing to join the MyBB team.

Welcome our newest staff member

Kieran, more commonly known to you as Polarbear541, will be joining the Support Team. He’s been a MyBB user since the launch of 1.4 and is comfortable with the way it works and in customising it. Don’t be surprised to see him answering questions and pointing people in the right direction. Please make him feel welcome.

Applications are open

If you would like to be a part of one of the teams we have here at MyBB (development, support, SQA), please feel free to submit an application about yourself through our contact form.  Tell us a little bit about yourself, what position you would fit into best, and any past experience related to web development.  Good luck!

Greetings all. Today we’ve got a little update on the MyBB staff.

Returning and new staff members

Firstly, we welcome back nickman. nickman was with us previously on the development team and has now offered to rejoin us on the SQA team. When he was on the developers’ team he worked mainly on bug fixes, and SQA is all about bug fixes and offering possible fixes. Please make him feel welcome again.

Please also welcome Joshua Mayer. Joshua is very active and has been a great help to members who request various forms of support.

Staff member leaves

Today we say goodbye to Sergio Montoya who has been a developer with us for the past year. He leaves us to focus more on his personal and real life. We hope you join us in wishing him the best of luck in his future.  Sayakb has been moved to the development team to fill Sergio’s place.