Interview with Jake Bunce by xenFrench

Interview with Jake Bunce by xenFrench.com
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Can you give us a brief bio?

I am 32 years old and single. I am a web and computer guy who has dabbled in many different areas. Currently I am running a computer lab for an elementary school while I continue to provide support for XenForo and do contract work for people's websites. Interests include health and fitness, massage therapy, and education.


Can you summarize your educational experience for us ?

I have a bachelor's degree in Computer Science. I also have education in teaching and massage therapy. I have been a computer technician, lab assistant, support technician, and a web developer.


Besides the internet, what are your usual activities?

I spend my free time playing computer games and exercising. I am very health conscious so I always dedicate time to healthy eating and exercise. I am not very social so I don't do stuff with other people outside of work and school.


What are your favourite books, movies, music, games, food ?

I am a huge trekkie. I routinely watch old episodes of the various star trek series except for Enterprise which I don't like. I also watch the old star trek movies except for the reboot which was an abomination. My favorite trek series is TNG. My favorite movie is #5 (The Final Frontier) which is a deeply misunderstood movie about the creation of God as an externalization of our pain.

Revolver is another favorite movie of mine:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0365686/

It is a movie about the ego. I have watched it at least 50 times. It is an extremely intellectual movie that demands attentive watching to fully understand the lessons and metaphors.

As for games, I love RPGs. I play WoW, Diablo 2, and Path of Exile. I also love puzzle games like Minesweeper which is much more than a guessing game if you are serious about it:

http://xenforo.com/community/threads/minesweeper-mental-exercise.35666/
http://www.mscclan.com/forum/showthread.php?t=11612


What's your role and how your integration passed within the XenForo.com team ?

I volunteered my time on the XenForo support forum. They took notice and brought me on to help as a moderator. My specialties include imports and code customizations.


Which hack is your favourite ? One of yours and one of somebody else.

http://xenforo.com/community/resources/nodes-as-tabs.9/

It's not a specific application but rather it expands the scope of application for nodes. It can be very useful in changing the organization of your forum content and creating new content.

http://xenforo.com/community/resources/post-content-find-replace.1549/
http://xenforo.com/community/resources/redirection-scripts-for-vbulletin-3-x.264/

I use these addons for imports. They have been very useful to me.


When you worked with Jelsoft, they you impose constraints, you feel bridle as vBulletin Support?

I never had any workplace problems at vBulletin. I worked independently, helping people with their individual needs. I was a telecommuter so I had a lot of freedom. I never met any of my coworkers.


Do you have good memories of the time Jelsoft? before and after the takeover by Internet Brandt.

I worked for vBulletin for 9 years doing what I love. I feel very fortunate. The change of ownership didn't affect my job at all. As a telecommuter I never had any connection to the headquarters.

I had some concerns about development after the core developers left. I voiced my concerns to management but I wasn't in a position to influence the direction of the software. Eventually I lost interest in vBulletin, but I still enjoyed my job with them.


What are the advantages of XenForo compare other forum software? why buy XenForo ..

XenForo has a very simple, intuitive, and user-friendly approach to features and the interface. Users report a very positive experience with the software which helps activity and return visits. Some people have quantified this:

https://forums.digitalpoint.com/threads/one-month-after-switching-from-vbulletin-to-xenforo.2637721/
http://xenforo.com/community/threads/increased-activity-thanks-to-xenforo.44896/

Then there is the coding aspect. The MVC design of XenForo provides a level of organization and extensibility that enables rapid development of new features with minimal regression. The virtual classing system provides great flexibility in developing addons. The code was also written with performance in mind; many people have measured significant performance gains after converting to XenForo:

http://xenforo.com/community/threads/server-load-vb-xf-joomla-proof-is-everything.8073/
http://xenforo.com/community/threads/xenforo-caching-amazing.32629/


I know that work is currently oriented primarily on Xenforo, but many people are looking forward to great addon as CMS, gallery etc. ... is it already planned? (PS: For me, the addition of a gallery is definitely a big advantage )

I don't have any official information about planned addons. Most people find solutions in third party addons. Here is a popular portal addon:

http://xenforo.com/community/resources/8wayrun-com-xenporta-portal.90/

And a video gallery:

http://xenforo.com/community/resources/8wayrun-com-xenmedio-media.97/


XenForo cause a big BOOM in software forum, did you expect was that?

Yes, I fully expected it.

There was a definite opening in the marketplace as a result of problems at other forum software companies. I saw forum development becoming distracted with non-forum features as well as a general lack of leadership and innovation. I believe this was partly influenced by a misperception that forums are a dying market, a perception based more on marketing trends than on actual needs.

XenForo also has a strong development team. I knew that Kier and Mike were very skilled developers who had worked on the same team for many years which gives them a level of communication that is a huge benefit. I also recognized that they had the right philosophy to evolve the forum market; their focus was very much on UX and core features rather than getting distracted with peripheral features like everyone else. Kier talked about this in his interview:

http://www.theadminzone.com/forums/showthread.php?t=78018


There are many similarities with Facebook, is this intentional?

I have been creating and using web sites long enough to have witnessed changing fashion trends. For example, ten years ago the fashion was square boxes, and now it's rounded corners. I think there is very little intention in following a current fashion trend.


The current team is made of 2 developers, moderators and a business manager, is this enough, do ou expand your team?

Support and moderator coverage seems good right now. I'm sure new people will be brought on as needed.

Expanding a development team is not always easy or productive as Brooks will tell you:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brooks's_law

But development is moving at a brisk pace with the current team. You can see lots of recent updates in this forum:

http://xenforo.com/community/forums/have-you-seen/


Do you think officially support other languages?

I have no official information on that. But XenForo is UTF8-native which allows it to support any language. You just need to translate the phrases. Many language packs have already been developed by other users:

http://xenforo.com/community/resources/categories/translations.31/


What is the first thing you do when you wake up and the last before going to bed ?

I do inversion using this machine:

http://teeter-inversion.com/Shop/Clinical-Commercial/DEX-II.html

I have back issues and inversion helps a lot.


Which are your future plans professionally and personally?

I have recently acquired education in massage therapy but I haven't been able to apply it yet, so that is on my list.

I still desire to downsize my life. I already live small but I want to live tiny:

http://xenforo.com/community/threads/tiny-house.1893/

This idea is on hold for now, but one day...


Should we be worried about the future XenForo?

No. The lawsuit is over, development is moving fast, and XenForo has an impressive resume of big forums representing it:

http://xenforo.com/community/threads/the-big-forum-list.26352/

Things are looking up.


Tell us something we don't know about you and XenForo!

Before I knew about XenForo I was considering creating my own forum application. Then I learned about XenForo and jumped on that bandwagon instead.


A final word for the French community?

Thanks for the interview, and thank you for supporting XenForo.