Community Interview: Tracy Perry
Although Tracy Perry is not a member of our community (yet), you can find him around various forums giving his insights on daily matters, forum and internet life matters, etc. As I asked him to interview him, he simply stated he wasn't an interesting person, but I think with the answers given, that this is a huge understatement.
Anyways, I enjoyed reading posts by Tracy Perry and thus I thought it might be an interesting read about his history, personality and community for those who also seen him around. He is the owner of the Astro What? forums. So if you enjoy reading about Astronomy and like seeing pictures, this forum is something for you and I encourage you to register.
#1 - Who are you, what's your age, gender, where are you from ?
My name is Tracy Perry and I'm 59 years old, male and was born and raised in East Texas (Tyler Texas area). I lived several years in the Dallas MetroMess, working as a police officer, before having the opportunity to move back to my home town to assist in taking care of my elderly parents and in-law while still continuing my career in law enforcement (which then morphed into IT after a shooting I was involved in).
#2 - What is your greatest strength being a webmaster ?
If any greatest strength, it's the knowledge of the technical underpinnings of running infrastructure to support the web apps/sites.
#3 - What is your greatest accomplishment ?
Greatest accomplishment was not related to anything with the internet/forums at all. During my career as an LEO I concentrated on family violence issues and helped many families get out of abusive relationships by working with them to find safe place to live and get away from the abusive partner. Many of those victims did not realize that there were resources present that would assist them in escaping the cycle of violence and my greatest joy was seeing them get away from their tormentor and then be able to grow on their own.
#4 - How long have you been on forums in general? What's the history behind you?
I've been messing with forums (and the internet) since their inception and availability to the public, and my exposure to "community/social media" goes back to even before public available internet.
That exposure was via FidoNet, the largest non-governmental funded network in history, that had members around the globe. It was the precursor to what we know as forums, but was a blend of not only a forum, but worldwide exchange of messages in topical groups. So a post you made in Dallas Texas could could easily show up in London, Paris or anywhere in the world that participated in that group, and you would get replies from around the world.
I started a QuickBBS bulletin board while working patrol in Lewisville, TX. Was running on an old Vendex Headstart 8088 computer with a small 40MB SCSI hard drive in it that was donated by a user. I installed DesqView on it, which gave me the ability to run the BBS and the Fidonet mail in one instance and then do what I needed to do on the computer in another. Once RemoteAccess BBS came out (a multi-node clone of QuickBBS) I moved over to it as it would allow me to run two live nodes, each running at 2400 baud. I ran one node with FrontDoor doing FidoNet and the other node was a standalone RemoteAccess instance.
Once the Intel 386DX chipset series came out, I upgraded my system and moved over from DOS/DesqView to OS/2. I also moved from RemoteAccess/FrontDoor to an OS/2 native written script called Maximus/2 and used Binkley as the mailer. I eventually morphed the system into a 3 node setup, all three running US Robotics 14.4K HST modems. Once I became the official HUB6000 for the DFW FidoNet node (area was divided up into 6 hubs) I moved over to US Robotics Dual Standard modems on all the nodes. All 3 nodes were configured to receive inbound echomail/netmail and then spawn off a mail processing instance in the background that also was configured to monitor for any other additional inbound mail on one of the other active nodes.
I was elected NET124 NC (Network Coordinator), a position which covered the Dallas Metroplex and was responsible for receiving FidoNet SYSOP applications, making the nodelist available to any who requested it, assigning new SYSOPS to HUBs and making sure that the local FidoNet Sysops complied with Policy 4.
All of the above was when I was working as a patrol officer in Lewisville, Texas. Due to the fact of my familiarity with computer systems I was the only patrol officer selected to sit on the city planning group for the IT infrastructure of the Police Department, Municipal Court and the Fire Department.
Those were fun times, and in many ways I miss them as the camaraderie of the users was greater than it is currently with society. We had our flame wars and trolls.... but they were VERY easily taken care of generally.
When I moved back to my home town, I hooked the equipment back up and got back into FidoNet, but due to being a small town there wasn't the demand there that was present int he DFW area since the base income was so much lower and most did not have home computers, much less modems, so I eventually shut it down.
#5 - What's the most successful forum you ever owned?
The most "successful" is probably the one I currently run dealing with astronomy and astrophotography (Astro What?) and it's slowly gaining new members as word gets out to others via word of mouth right now. It's the first that I've really gotten involved in, as almost every site I set up was on a topic I had interest in, but I was more interested in the setting up the server, the script and such and not as much in generating content. One suggestion to ANY person thinking of setting up a site. Do you research, see who your competitors are, now they are doing what they are doing and then figure out a way to do MORE than they do. You will also need to recognize that in todays environment, the main part of the content of the site will be generated by YOU. So you need to be able to bring some knowledge to the site if it is niche related.
#6 - What has inspired you to start your forum?
Which one? <grin>
The current one was due to the fact that I had astronomy equipment that had been sitting in a room for a few years that I was going to use, but life got in the way and I simply didn't have time. I was volunteering IT work at several local medical clinics and a women's shelter and that was a full-time job in itself, then playing with several sites on the side in my off-hours. My spouse finally encouraged me to back off all the volunteer work since I was getting older and to enjoy my retirement. I started getting into live viewing with the telescopes and started participating in a few forums that are related to the topic. I really wasn't fond of the scripts they use, and to top it off, there was frequently a feeling of "snobbishness" present by many of the users towards beginners. So I decided to start a forum up mainly to have someplace to post my "thoughts" and images on, but at the same time offer anyone that came across it a place to see if they would like to call "home".
The one before my astronomy site was a pipe & tobacco forum (running IPS)... but since that's a "nasty" and socially unacceptable habit it was hard getting traction.
#7 - Can you tell us more about the software your site is running and why you have chosen that software
The current site runs under XenForo. I have been using XenForo since 2012 on various sites I have used, and the main reason I chose them was that I liked the interface on the sites I came across that used it when compared to vBulletin and Invision.
I have licensed and ran IPS, WoltLab and Xenforo in addition to playing with the majority of the unpaid scripts at one time or another.
I'm a firm believer in targeting the script you choose at what you need for your site. For my current site it's XenForo and using a majority of Bob's add-ons (ShowCase, AMS, Link Directory and Classifieds are the prime ones). Bob's add-ons are probably the most full-featured of any of the 3rd party developers in any of the scripts I have used, plus they have the ability to be easily "tweaked" for your site needs.
The pipe site I mentioned above was running under IPS as it had the "Pages" 1st party add-on that was very powerful and allowed you many additional functions and features, as well as at the time, they had a really nice classifieds add-on that I had targeted towards members being able to sell refurbished pipes and such.
The current site (along with a few others I run) is set up on a Hetzner 4vCPU/8GB RAM/160GB SSD VPS based in Ashburn, Virginia. I am running AlmaLinux 8 on it and using EVA2000's fantastic CentMinMod (currently in BETA for that OS).
#8 - Where do you see your forum heading in a couple of years? What are your goals?
Hopefully along the same current path, a place where both beginning and experienced astronomers can come together and discuss their love of the field and share their knowledge.
My only "goal" is to provide a welcoming place that will allow that.
#9 - How often do you work on your forum, creating new content, adding news, doing back-end stuff?
I work on the site daily doing some manner of work. I try to post new content at least once a day and update the articles that I have written as I gain more knowledge.
#10 - Do you consider yourself an expert webmaster? Are there aspects that you'd like to know better ?
It depends on what you classify as a "webmaster". If it comes to the aspect of setting up a server, integrating the required parts in the most efficient manner - then I'm not bad and have a lengthy history of helping others with it.
If talking about coding templates and doing wild stuff in themes/styles... no, I'm still in the learning process of that, so I guess you could say that is the area that I'm beginning to delve into.
#11 - Do you like to have each detail set-up the way you want it and have everything go perfect? Or are you more laid back and fix a couple settings and let things fall into place on their own?
I like to already have a general idea on what I want a site to accomplish, and what it will take to get there, whether it be via add-ons or the way it looks. I will get a base layout stated, but will continue tweaking as the site is available based upon my personal choices, and input from users on what they might think would make it easier to interact with the site.
#12 - Do you pick staff according to their popularity on forums, or their personality?
I don't have any staff other than myself currently, but the ONE way to cause issues is to pick your staff based upon popularity. A staff member should not be simply staff because they are popular. In fact, I'd go so far to say that those "popular" ones you should avoid.
When you say "personality"... it's simply another word for popularity in my opinion, as frequently a users online persona is not the same when they gain a position of power over others. You have to look at their past behavioral patterns, how level headed they are during their interactions with others and how they avoid getting drawn into the "games" that some users want to play. We all, at one time or another, fall prey to those gamers... but you have to look at how often they are willing to simply say enough is enough and ignore those "playerz" after a certain point.
#13 - How do you advertise?
I don't really advertise, other than I have some shirts that I wear out in public and to some local astronomy club gatherings that garner questions. I also use my og_logo as my avatar on other sites that I am a member of. Also, if allowed, I will put a short blurb in my sig line on sites.
I don't do any "paid" type advertising on FB or similar.
#14 - How do you maintain your traffic/income and keep members entertained?
My site is a hobby for me... and I pay 100% of it out of my pocket.... and will most likely continue to do so even if it reaches the point of costing one to two hundred a month (averaged). I'm old enough to realize that ALL hobbies cost money.... fishing, hunting, kayaking, boating, astronomy/astrophotography, cooking... you name it, if it's a hobby there are out of pocket expenses, you simply prioritize them if you have more than one. Now, if it starts taking $400-$500 monthly average to support it, then yes, I will probably then start looking at monetizing it, as it will easily pay for itself and any improvements I want to do if utilizing those kinds of resources.
I don't run any ads on the site.
As for "keeping members entertained". I don't look at my site as a point of entertainment as many would consider the use of the word. There are no "fun" threads, as that's not what the site is targeted at. The "entertainment" is seeing who can post the best images of a target, and who can give the best responses to request for help.
I don't consider the site a business, and it was never targeted to be such.
Although Tracy Perry is not a member of our community (yet), you can find him around various forums giving his insights on daily matters, forum and internet life matters, etc. As I asked him to interview him, he simply stated he wasn't an interesting person, but I think with the answers given, that this is a huge understatement.
Anyways, I enjoyed reading posts by Tracy Perry and thus I thought it might be an interesting read about his history, personality and community for those who also seen him around. He is the owner of the Astro What? forums. So if you enjoy reading about Astronomy and like seeing pictures, this forum is something for you and I encourage you to register.
#1 - Who are you, what's your age, gender, where are you from ?
My name is Tracy Perry and I'm 59 years old, male and was born and raised in East Texas (Tyler Texas area). I lived several years in the Dallas MetroMess, working as a police officer, before having the opportunity to move back to my home town to assist in taking care of my elderly parents and in-law while still continuing my career in law enforcement (which then morphed into IT after a shooting I was involved in).
#2 - What is your greatest strength being a webmaster ?
If any greatest strength, it's the knowledge of the technical underpinnings of running infrastructure to support the web apps/sites.
#3 - What is your greatest accomplishment ?
Greatest accomplishment was not related to anything with the internet/forums at all. During my career as an LEO I concentrated on family violence issues and helped many families get out of abusive relationships by working with them to find safe place to live and get away from the abusive partner. Many of those victims did not realize that there were resources present that would assist them in escaping the cycle of violence and my greatest joy was seeing them get away from their tormentor and then be able to grow on their own.
#4 - How long have you been on forums in general? What's the history behind you?
I've been messing with forums (and the internet) since their inception and availability to the public, and my exposure to "community/social media" goes back to even before public available internet.
That exposure was via FidoNet, the largest non-governmental funded network in history, that had members around the globe. It was the precursor to what we know as forums, but was a blend of not only a forum, but worldwide exchange of messages in topical groups. So a post you made in Dallas Texas could could easily show up in London, Paris or anywhere in the world that participated in that group, and you would get replies from around the world.
I started a QuickBBS bulletin board while working patrol in Lewisville, TX. Was running on an old Vendex Headstart 8088 computer with a small 40MB SCSI hard drive in it that was donated by a user. I installed DesqView on it, which gave me the ability to run the BBS and the Fidonet mail in one instance and then do what I needed to do on the computer in another. Once RemoteAccess BBS came out (a multi-node clone of QuickBBS) I moved over to it as it would allow me to run two live nodes, each running at 2400 baud. I ran one node with FrontDoor doing FidoNet and the other node was a standalone RemoteAccess instance.
Once the Intel 386DX chipset series came out, I upgraded my system and moved over from DOS/DesqView to OS/2. I also moved from RemoteAccess/FrontDoor to an OS/2 native written script called Maximus/2 and used Binkley as the mailer. I eventually morphed the system into a 3 node setup, all three running US Robotics 14.4K HST modems. Once I became the official HUB6000 for the DFW FidoNet node (area was divided up into 6 hubs) I moved over to US Robotics Dual Standard modems on all the nodes. All 3 nodes were configured to receive inbound echomail/netmail and then spawn off a mail processing instance in the background that also was configured to monitor for any other additional inbound mail on one of the other active nodes.
I was elected NET124 NC (Network Coordinator), a position which covered the Dallas Metroplex and was responsible for receiving FidoNet SYSOP applications, making the nodelist available to any who requested it, assigning new SYSOPS to HUBs and making sure that the local FidoNet Sysops complied with Policy 4.
All of the above was when I was working as a patrol officer in Lewisville, Texas. Due to the fact of my familiarity with computer systems I was the only patrol officer selected to sit on the city planning group for the IT infrastructure of the Police Department, Municipal Court and the Fire Department.
Those were fun times, and in many ways I miss them as the camaraderie of the users was greater than it is currently with society. We had our flame wars and trolls.... but they were VERY easily taken care of generally.
When I moved back to my home town, I hooked the equipment back up and got back into FidoNet, but due to being a small town there wasn't the demand there that was present int he DFW area since the base income was so much lower and most did not have home computers, much less modems, so I eventually shut it down.
#5 - What's the most successful forum you ever owned?
The most "successful" is probably the one I currently run dealing with astronomy and astrophotography (Astro What?) and it's slowly gaining new members as word gets out to others via word of mouth right now. It's the first that I've really gotten involved in, as almost every site I set up was on a topic I had interest in, but I was more interested in the setting up the server, the script and such and not as much in generating content. One suggestion to ANY person thinking of setting up a site. Do you research, see who your competitors are, now they are doing what they are doing and then figure out a way to do MORE than they do. You will also need to recognize that in todays environment, the main part of the content of the site will be generated by YOU. So you need to be able to bring some knowledge to the site if it is niche related.
#6 - What has inspired you to start your forum?
Which one? <grin>
The current one was due to the fact that I had astronomy equipment that had been sitting in a room for a few years that I was going to use, but life got in the way and I simply didn't have time. I was volunteering IT work at several local medical clinics and a women's shelter and that was a full-time job in itself, then playing with several sites on the side in my off-hours. My spouse finally encouraged me to back off all the volunteer work since I was getting older and to enjoy my retirement. I started getting into live viewing with the telescopes and started participating in a few forums that are related to the topic. I really wasn't fond of the scripts they use, and to top it off, there was frequently a feeling of "snobbishness" present by many of the users towards beginners. So I decided to start a forum up mainly to have someplace to post my "thoughts" and images on, but at the same time offer anyone that came across it a place to see if they would like to call "home".
The one before my astronomy site was a pipe & tobacco forum (running IPS)... but since that's a "nasty" and socially unacceptable habit it was hard getting traction.
#7 - Can you tell us more about the software your site is running and why you have chosen that software
The current site runs under XenForo. I have been using XenForo since 2012 on various sites I have used, and the main reason I chose them was that I liked the interface on the sites I came across that used it when compared to vBulletin and Invision.
I have licensed and ran IPS, WoltLab and Xenforo in addition to playing with the majority of the unpaid scripts at one time or another.
I'm a firm believer in targeting the script you choose at what you need for your site. For my current site it's XenForo and using a majority of Bob's add-ons (ShowCase, AMS, Link Directory and Classifieds are the prime ones). Bob's add-ons are probably the most full-featured of any of the 3rd party developers in any of the scripts I have used, plus they have the ability to be easily "tweaked" for your site needs.
The pipe site I mentioned above was running under IPS as it had the "Pages" 1st party add-on that was very powerful and allowed you many additional functions and features, as well as at the time, they had a really nice classifieds add-on that I had targeted towards members being able to sell refurbished pipes and such.
The current site (along with a few others I run) is set up on a Hetzner 4vCPU/8GB RAM/160GB SSD VPS based in Ashburn, Virginia. I am running AlmaLinux 8 on it and using EVA2000's fantastic CentMinMod (currently in BETA for that OS).
#8 - Where do you see your forum heading in a couple of years? What are your goals?
Hopefully along the same current path, a place where both beginning and experienced astronomers can come together and discuss their love of the field and share their knowledge.
My only "goal" is to provide a welcoming place that will allow that.
#9 - How often do you work on your forum, creating new content, adding news, doing back-end stuff?
I work on the site daily doing some manner of work. I try to post new content at least once a day and update the articles that I have written as I gain more knowledge.
#10 - Do you consider yourself an expert webmaster? Are there aspects that you'd like to know better ?
It depends on what you classify as a "webmaster". If it comes to the aspect of setting up a server, integrating the required parts in the most efficient manner - then I'm not bad and have a lengthy history of helping others with it.
If talking about coding templates and doing wild stuff in themes/styles... no, I'm still in the learning process of that, so I guess you could say that is the area that I'm beginning to delve into.
#11 - Do you like to have each detail set-up the way you want it and have everything go perfect? Or are you more laid back and fix a couple settings and let things fall into place on their own?
I like to already have a general idea on what I want a site to accomplish, and what it will take to get there, whether it be via add-ons or the way it looks. I will get a base layout stated, but will continue tweaking as the site is available based upon my personal choices, and input from users on what they might think would make it easier to interact with the site.
#12 - Do you pick staff according to their popularity on forums, or their personality?
I don't have any staff other than myself currently, but the ONE way to cause issues is to pick your staff based upon popularity. A staff member should not be simply staff because they are popular. In fact, I'd go so far to say that those "popular" ones you should avoid.
When you say "personality"... it's simply another word for popularity in my opinion, as frequently a users online persona is not the same when they gain a position of power over others. You have to look at their past behavioral patterns, how level headed they are during their interactions with others and how they avoid getting drawn into the "games" that some users want to play. We all, at one time or another, fall prey to those gamers... but you have to look at how often they are willing to simply say enough is enough and ignore those "playerz" after a certain point.
#13 - How do you advertise?
I don't really advertise, other than I have some shirts that I wear out in public and to some local astronomy club gatherings that garner questions. I also use my og_logo as my avatar on other sites that I am a member of. Also, if allowed, I will put a short blurb in my sig line on sites.
I don't do any "paid" type advertising on FB or similar.
#14 - How do you maintain your traffic/income and keep members entertained?
My site is a hobby for me... and I pay 100% of it out of my pocket.... and will most likely continue to do so even if it reaches the point of costing one to two hundred a month (averaged). I'm old enough to realize that ALL hobbies cost money.... fishing, hunting, kayaking, boating, astronomy/astrophotography, cooking... you name it, if it's a hobby there are out of pocket expenses, you simply prioritize them if you have more than one. Now, if it starts taking $400-$500 monthly average to support it, then yes, I will probably then start looking at monetizing it, as it will easily pay for itself and any improvements I want to do if utilizing those kinds of resources.
I don't run any ads on the site.
As for "keeping members entertained". I don't look at my site as a point of entertainment as many would consider the use of the word. There are no "fun" threads, as that's not what the site is targeted at. The "entertainment" is seeing who can post the best images of a target, and who can give the best responses to request for help.
I don't consider the site a business, and it was never targeted to be such.
