Interview with whu606
We had a chance to chat with whu606, moderator of Vanilla Forums Community Forum, for our monthly interview.
Tell us about yourself.
Originally from the UK, I’m a 53 yr old former teacher of English, and then IT, I am semi (well, 3/4 tbh) retired with my lovely (and, frankly, long-suffering) wife on the Greek island of Spestes in the Argo-Saronic Gulf, where we have lived for the last 8 years.
What first brought you to Vanilla Forums?
I'd been running a very small phpBB forum for players in a prediction game set up for users of the West Ham board on the BBC 606 sport forum.
When the BBC decided to close the site, a group of us decided to set up our own West Ham discussion forum. I found the phpBB forum 'clunky', and was wondering about alternatives. Luckily, Vanilla was part of the Bluehost CPanel offer, so I set it up to have a look, and soon decided it was the one for us.
What do you like best about Vanilla Forums?
How easy it is to customise, even for inexperienced users, and how much support you get from the community forum. Making a 'mod' on phpBB seemed like a crash course in Astrophysics by comparison.
What is one thing you recommend to those starting out using the Open Source version of Vanilla Forums?
Make sure you understand how to set up a custom theme, and why you might need to.
What are your interests outside of Vanilla Forums?
I walk a bit, watch a lot of sport, read, and generally potter about.
Any fascinating facts about yourself that you would like to share with the Vanilla Forums community?
I am one of the world's worst gamblers (luckily I don't do it very often), once failing to get on a horse in the Cheltenham Gold Cup ridden by a cousin by marriage, even though his mum and dad had tipped him to me the previous week. Needless to say, Imperial Call came in at 9/2...
What is the story behind your Avatar Picture and/or Name?
My user name is simply the name of our forum, and my avatar is the one I started with on our forum, which is a picture of the young Sir Trevor Brooking, one of West Ham's true greats, and a perfect gent.