1. What is your name?
Darrick Brown
2. What is your quest?
To build a time machine. Actually, all I want is a time-pause button so I can take a nap.
3. What is the air-speed velocity of an unladen swallow?
Green.
4. How did the idea for Everything and later Everything2 come about?
It was Rob and Nate. When I came on board, the ideas were already there. I just helped implement the web framework behind it.
5. What were the biggest challenges and rewards of creating the site?
I think the biggest challenge creating the site at the time was just the process of running a live website that had oodles of simultaneous users. We did not have a sophisticated system for updating the site. So things often went wonky when we updated the code. Hence, this fantastic node about me:
http://www.everything2.com/index.pl?node=dbrown
The biggest reward? Even though I haven't been involved in the site for years, I've enjoyed seeing the site and community evolve to where it is today. I still run into people that use e2. It's a great feeling to see how every one of them gets excited about e2.
6. Do you have any favorite writeups, either of your own or from someone else?
moJoe always managed to do good.
7. What do you see for the future of Everything2?
I can't say. The fact that it has thrived this long is a testiment to its staying power.
8. What has surprised you the most about the evolution of the site? Is there anything that you expected to happen that hasn't yet?
I think the fact that the site is pretty much maintained by volunteers is astounding. I'll log on every once in a while and see tons of messages from the dev group. People are still making code updates and adding new features. Amazing.
To be honest, I would have never expected the site nor the community to still be around 10 years later. e2 has outlived the majority of internet-boom-era sites and businesses that had billions of dollars in funding between them.
9. Are there any questions I should have asked but didn't?
Q: What did you gain from writing an entire web framework in perl?
A: Looks of shocked incredulity from fellow techies.
Everything2 Decaversary Interviews
If you have questions or comments, please contact dbrown or Jet-Poop.