Community Interview: Nicolas FR
Nicolas FR is an add on developer for XenForo and furthermore he also provides many translations from English to French. You may find many of his Add ons on the official XenForo forums.
Hello! Thank you for accepting my interview request. Can you tell me and the community more about yourself? Who are you, what's your age, gender, where are you from ?
It is a pleasure to respond to your invitation and it is I who thank you for having thought of me.
My name is Nicolas, I am French and I am 49 years old. I have lived in West Africa for more than 20 years, I have stayed in Mali for a long time, but for 9 years I have been in Senegal where the situation is calmer.
I work for different companies that need my IT services, mainly computer or network troubleshooting.
How did you become a developer ?
I don't consider myself a developer, I lack a lot of skills to really aspire to become one.
I have facilities, humbly, to understand and learn things that concern I/O in general so it is on this basis that I started to produce small add-ons which are essentially HTML and CSS that I managed to combine with the excellent developmennt tools of the XenForo environment.
Let's say I'm a little Front-end and not at all Back-end!
What is your greatest strength being a developer ?
As a developer, which I am not therefore, I think my strength is my creativity, I have ideas that seem good to me.
I sometimes find myself in front of obstacles when I try to concretize them but I try either to circumvent them or to step over them by searching on the net, by asking questions, by dissecting other add-ons... Often I arrive at my ends. So far anyway, I have a short experience.
What is your greatest accomplishment ?
From having just crossed over the fence, I was an add-on consumer to now I'm a small, artisanal producer.
How long have you been on forums in general? What's the history behind you?
I started to take an interest in forums the years 2006/2007. At the time I was looking for information to buy a scooter and I came across a motorcycle forum that had a small section on scooters. It was the number 1 forum on 2 wheels and it was very active.
It was the beginning of the advent of 125cm3 scooters and the users of the forum complained of having only one unfortunate section for them... I had sympathized with many members and I suggested that we create our own forum! Everything started from there, at the beginning a free forum then very quickly vBulletin.
The forum quickly grew and we became the number 1 of French-speaking forums on 125 scooters!
After 2 years I had to leave France for Africa and I gave the keys to the forum to my best moderator, I gave him everything, the passwords, the hosting accounts and domain name, the admin access, ftp, etc...
Guess what happened? He banned me after 2 months!!! He put everything in his name and banned me! Who can believe that? You can see on Wayback Machine what the forum looked like back then, my username was touba.
A few years ago when he got tired of administering the forum he stopped everything, instead of handing over he preferred to delete everything claiming that the database could not be exported and that blah blah blah... And since the closure of the forum he continues to pay for the domain name to be sure that no one will take up the torch.
Instead he posted a... misleading text.
What add ons do you plan to release in the future?
Hmm... Should I reveal my plans to the public? At the risk of seeing someone overtake me?
Where do you see your forum/development heading in a couple of years? What are your goals?
As I explained previously my development skills are limited due to my PHP level. I would really like to invest myself in learning this essential language, it would open up possibilities that I dare not see today.
Otherwise for my forum I hope it will support the development of XenForo and that I would have succeeded in creating an active French community. But it doesn't just depend on me: it depends on the future of forums in general, that of XenForo and the interest of French speakers in developing communities... with XenForo!
How much hours do you develop daily or weekly ?
I am on my forum and the official one several hours a day. I think about development and devote myself to it at least 2 hours a day. Besides that I create tutorials and try to animate my community and answer questions on the official forum.
Do you consider yourself an expert developer? Are there aspects that you'd like to know better ?
I think I have already clarified the subject previously. I am not a development expert and I hope to be able to dedicate myself to PHP in the months and years to come.
Do you enjoy solving bugs that might occur on your add-ons?
Well it reminds me of math at school when you managed to solve a problem that seemed unsolvable to you at first sight. Fixing bugs is really satisfying. And I would even say at my level: succeeding in coding what I had imagined is just as satisfying.
Another thing that is satisfying: responding to user requests by adding the features they lack.
What's your best add on?
The most popular is Footer Pro so I guess that's the one.
If you had a million Euro, what would you do?
I would simply stop working, for the rest I would not change much...
What do you recommend a starting forum owner?
I would recommend him to believe in himself, to produce content and above all to be patient. The time of forums that are a hit after a few weeks or months is over, today the fight is tough on the net to find your place, without perseverance Google will only take a bite out of you and you will disappear...
If you don't have a solid project then don't even get started... Or rather if you get started, you'll learn from your mistakes...
Nicolas FR is an add on developer for XenForo and furthermore he also provides many translations from English to French. You may find many of his Add ons on the official XenForo forums.
Hello! Thank you for accepting my interview request. Can you tell me and the community more about yourself? Who are you, what's your age, gender, where are you from ?
It is a pleasure to respond to your invitation and it is I who thank you for having thought of me.
My name is Nicolas, I am French and I am 49 years old. I have lived in West Africa for more than 20 years, I have stayed in Mali for a long time, but for 9 years I have been in Senegal where the situation is calmer.
I work for different companies that need my IT services, mainly computer or network troubleshooting.
How did you become a developer ?
I don't consider myself a developer, I lack a lot of skills to really aspire to become one.
I have facilities, humbly, to understand and learn things that concern I/O in general so it is on this basis that I started to produce small add-ons which are essentially HTML and CSS that I managed to combine with the excellent developmennt tools of the XenForo environment.
Let's say I'm a little Front-end and not at all Back-end!
What is your greatest strength being a developer ?
As a developer, which I am not therefore, I think my strength is my creativity, I have ideas that seem good to me.
I sometimes find myself in front of obstacles when I try to concretize them but I try either to circumvent them or to step over them by searching on the net, by asking questions, by dissecting other add-ons... Often I arrive at my ends. So far anyway, I have a short experience.
What is your greatest accomplishment ?
From having just crossed over the fence, I was an add-on consumer to now I'm a small, artisanal producer.
How long have you been on forums in general? What's the history behind you?
I started to take an interest in forums the years 2006/2007. At the time I was looking for information to buy a scooter and I came across a motorcycle forum that had a small section on scooters. It was the number 1 forum on 2 wheels and it was very active.
It was the beginning of the advent of 125cm3 scooters and the users of the forum complained of having only one unfortunate section for them... I had sympathized with many members and I suggested that we create our own forum! Everything started from there, at the beginning a free forum then very quickly vBulletin.
The forum quickly grew and we became the number 1 of French-speaking forums on 125 scooters!
After 2 years I had to leave France for Africa and I gave the keys to the forum to my best moderator, I gave him everything, the passwords, the hosting accounts and domain name, the admin access, ftp, etc...
Guess what happened? He banned me after 2 months!!! He put everything in his name and banned me! Who can believe that? You can see on Wayback Machine what the forum looked like back then, my username was touba.
Club Scooter GT - La Communauté Scooter GT et Maxi
A few years ago when he got tired of administering the forum he stopped everything, instead of handing over he preferred to delete everything claiming that the database could not be exported and that blah blah blah... And since the closure of the forum he continues to pay for the domain name to be sure that no one will take up the torch.
Instead he posted a... misleading text.
Club-ScooterGT.com
Why have you chosen for XenForo and no other software ?
I don't remember exactly how I came across XenForo when I decided to recreate a forum in 2018. I guess I looked for info everywhere and it inevitably led me to choose it. It's a choice in the mood without really technical consideration at the base ... Choice that I do not regret.What add ons do you plan to release in the future?
Hmm... Should I reveal my plans to the public? At the risk of seeing someone overtake me?
Where do you see your forum/development heading in a couple of years? What are your goals?
As I explained previously my development skills are limited due to my PHP level. I would really like to invest myself in learning this essential language, it would open up possibilities that I dare not see today.
Otherwise for my forum I hope it will support the development of XenForo and that I would have succeeded in creating an active French community. But it doesn't just depend on me: it depends on the future of forums in general, that of XenForo and the interest of French speakers in developing communities... with XenForo!
How much hours do you develop daily or weekly ?
I am on my forum and the official one several hours a day. I think about development and devote myself to it at least 2 hours a day. Besides that I create tutorials and try to animate my community and answer questions on the official forum.
Do you consider yourself an expert developer? Are there aspects that you'd like to know better ?
I think I have already clarified the subject previously. I am not a development expert and I hope to be able to dedicate myself to PHP in the months and years to come.
Do you enjoy solving bugs that might occur on your add-ons?
Well it reminds me of math at school when you managed to solve a problem that seemed unsolvable to you at first sight. Fixing bugs is really satisfying. And I would even say at my level: succeeding in coding what I had imagined is just as satisfying.
Another thing that is satisfying: responding to user requests by adding the features they lack.
What's your best add on?
The most popular is Footer Pro so I guess that's the one.
If you had a million Euro, what would you do?
I would simply stop working, for the rest I would not change much...
What do you recommend a starting forum owner?
I would recommend him to believe in himself, to produce content and above all to be patient. The time of forums that are a hit after a few weeks or months is over, today the fight is tough on the net to find your place, without perseverance Google will only take a bite out of you and you will disappear...
If you don't have a solid project then don't even get started... Or rather if you get started, you'll learn from your mistakes...
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