I am Iti and I am really glad to announce that few days geleden I took a short interview of one of the Fanpop's creator Dave P. who is populair here door his gebruikersnaam Papa. It was great taking interview of one of the most loved F4 member ( I am sure he's most loved member) It was an amazing experience so thanks papa for giving me your precious time. I won't was much of your time. Here's the interview:
<i>Q.1 How did u got the idea of making the site as this site is really different.
Dave Lu and I were brainstorming different ideas back in 2005. One thing we really liked at the time were sites like Digg.com and Reddit but both sites were focused on technology and computers (at least at the time, reddit which remains populair has meer diverse subjects covered now). We thought that maybe there was maybe an opportunity to create a site that would allow people to share their favoriete links/resources about non-tech topics like running, parenting, photography, etc.
u might not remember, but the original site allowed u to add linken only (and commentaar on them).
They Wayback Machine can give u a glimpse of Fanpop in August of 2006!
web.archive.org/web/20060828081034/www.fanpop.com/
Q2. How'd u describe your journey of Fanpop from 2006 to 2014? Is there something which u miss?
Well it's been an amazing journey. Hard to describe. There was a ton of excitement at the beginning. We had quit our stable jobs for a big unknown. We weren't able to pay ourselves any sort of salary for the first jaar and had no idea if we'd ever make any MONEY ! The site didn't really take off the way we wanted initially. But early on we saw things like Twilight and Harry Potter getting popular. We realized that entertainment was big (if not things like parenting, running, etc.). So we quickly moved to make the site meer entertainment focused in 2007.
Actually there are 2 things I miss from early on:
1) The team used to work together out of Dave Lu's apartment. We would meet every dag and there was a lot of buzz and electricity as the site was new and growing. We've since moved to a telecommuting model. Some of the team has moved out of the SF baai, bay Area. So we don't see each other in person so much anymore and we aren't face-to-face everyday. I miss that.
2) When we started, we were able to interact meer with the users. There was a very tight group of early users. They were super passionate and friendly towards one another. Eventually the audience gets bigger, there are meer personality types and meer friction/arguments. It's what happens normally to any site. I still think we have a lot of great, friendly users but, of course, as the audience gets larger the meer tight-knit nature of the community changes. I sometimes miss that smaller, small-town feel of Fanpop.
Q3. Do u check the latest trends in Fanpop of any particular club?
We do. We keep tabs on what the populair clubs are. We've seen a shift from some of the big teen franchises like Harry Potter, Twilight, Vampire Diaries, One boom Hill, Hunger Games to other things. These days anime is a very big category for us. We haven't seen the same "box office" powerhouse movie series on the site and this has been reflected at the box office (with the exception of Hunger Games). We check out the Fanpop club periodically and Random (because it's so weird). I also have to keep tabs on some of the meer mature themed clubs to make sure they don't get out of hand of too inappropriate.
Q4. Are u guys planning something unique for Fanpop in coming years?
There are always things in the works for the site. The rate of change for the site has definitely slowed over the years though. Much of that is because, over time, u add meer and meer features and the overhead for operating and maintaining the site increases. We are still a 4 person team and now we have to maintain and fix bugs for a lot meer than when we started!
Q5. Would u like to tell us which is your favoriete band/ pop star?
Hmm. Growing up I was a HUGE fan of The Beatles. I like a lot of different types of music. Jazz, classical, pop, rock, folk, a lot of Hawaiian (since I'm from Hawaii). I have a 12 jaar old daughter so I listen to a lot of top, boven 40 on the radio b/c that's what she likes. Most of my adult vrienden have no idea what's on the Billboard top, boven 40. But I know most of the songs. Of the new pop stuff I like all the usual suspects Katy Perry, Taylor Swift, Kesha, Lourdes. I think the one that gets stuck in my ear lately is that Ingrid Michaelson number, Girls Chase Boys. That "Rude" song door Magic also cracks me up, mostly b/c of the muziek video (I feel like I'm the annoying dad that the lead singer is singing the song to).
I recently felt like an old man b/c my daughter told me about a friend who was performing the song "All of Me" at a talent show. I immediately assumed it was the jazz classic "All of Me" (here's a Billie Holiday version if u don't know the song: link)
When I told her this, she stared back at me like I was from an alien planet. Only later did I realize she meant the John Legend song, "All of Me" link
Amusingly, I do know BOTH songs, however, I didn't immediately think of the current Billboard hit song with that title. I think my daughterthought I was nuts!
Q6. Do u wanna share something of tell something to fans?
I guess that last story was something to share! Anyway here I'll leave u with some random facts:
1) favoriete TV Show: Breaking Bad is my all-time favoriete toon (Lost is pretty close 2nd)
2) I mostly enjoy non-fiction boeken but when I hit fiction it'sfantasy/sci-fi. Recently read the first two boeken of the KingkillerChronicles door Patrick Rothfuss (Name of the Wind and Wise Man's Fear are the titles of the books). Described as "adult Harry Potter" if there are any fantasy fans looking for a solid series, this is it.
3) I won Fanpop's Got Talent in 2008 (at least in the muziek category -- I THINK I won it!) Don't know if the video is still up.
Oh, when Fanpop started it was originally named "Fansters". We changed to "Fanspots" but had to change again when a baseball card company came out with a "fanspot.com" website 1 week before we were going to go live. Dave Lu came up with Fanpop (mercifully, b/c I think some of the names I threw out were things like "fanhound" and, I thought it was clever butterrible, "afficianutto").
Our business partners, especially the banks, can NEVER get our name right. We would receive the endorsement stamp from the bank for our checkbook and the first time it read "Sanspots". I think they sent us a "Fantarp" stamp when we changed our name.
We often joke that our name is "Fanpoop" b/c of the misspellings (we actually might have registered that at one point to prevent any squatters from using it).
