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Hey Guys!
I’d like to take a moment of your time to introduce our first “Member Of The Month”! This month, we’ve decided to award ErikThorsen with the “Member Of The Month” ribbon, as he has assisted the community on numerous occasions, to no benefit to himself. So Erik, thank you very much for your help, and keep up the good work! We hope you enjoy wearing the Member Of The Month ribbon this month!
Not only that, I took a moment during the week to ask Erik a few questions, and he kindly responded. After my message is the interview in which we took this week.
So, overall thanks Erik, and I hope the new MOTM feature will serve great to thanking our many wonderful members in the JoomlArt community.
Sincerely Yours, Michael C.
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Hi Erik, can you tell us a little about you? Where do you live? Is ErikThorsen your real name?
I am from Norway and my name is in fact Erik Thorsen. I am 32 years old and have been working with websites and CMS since the time of Mambo. 🙂
I noticed you have webverksted.no in your profile page, was this site designed by you?
This site is based on a template so no, not so much my job but I am working on a new site now, based on Joomla. Unfortunately it will not be a Joomlart template based site but it will be something completely different. ( have to stand out a bit with my own site ) But my personal site: http://www.erikthorsen.no used the Ja_sargas template.
Can you tell us a little bit about the company in which webverksted.no is for?
Webverksted.no is a company who delivers all sorts of services related to web design, web hosting, graphical design and much more. We offer a wide range of services and no job is too complicated. We are constantly trying to be updated on the latest trends in the market and we have delivered several e-commerce solutions and custom-made components.
How did you become to know the open-source Joomla system?
I have been working with open-source Joomla since the very beginning. I started off with Mambo after all the others failed ( drupal and so on ) None of the cms solutions could provide what I wanted and you might say that I followed a few people from Mambo to Joomla.
How did you become to know our JoomlArt templates?
I have been looking at the Joomlart templates a long time before I actually joined. When I joined it was surprisingly enough the best template place around and they have kept on evolving and renewed themselves since the very beginning.
What made you stay with JoomlArt?
It is no secret that the templates and of course also a few of the “additionals” have kept me safe and sound here at Joomlart. There is no hiding that from times support have been lacking but I have never expected to get support for a template. I buy something that is clearly working and if it is too complicated for me I would need to search for answers or help somewhere else. The price is so competitive that I can even hire people to make changes. With this being said, support is now taking a turn towards excellence and I look forward to be able to find new solutions and examples to deliver even better results for my clients.
What motivates you to help out your fellow members of the community?
As anyone in the open source community, I too feel that I have to give back to the community. And I have found “a home” here at Joomlart. I had to learn everything from scratch, like everyone else and giving back by helping people out with minor issues is rewarding in itself. Nothing beats a forum member replying: “problem now solved. Thanks a lot for your help”. I must say though that sometimes people doesn’t seem to appreciate the help one gives but most do. Getting help is a lot easier if everyone keeps the main “rules” of forums.
1: Give a good description in the title
2: Start the message with a polite and nice greeting.
3: Describe the problem as thorough as possible. Include links, live sites, screenshots, which version of Joomla you are using, what template you are using and so on. The more information provided the better the chance of getting the problem solved.
4: End the posting with a “I would appreciate if anyone could find the time to help me with my problem” ( instead of “screaming” I NEED HELP NOW )What is your favourite JoomlArt template?
Ja_Sargas is my favourite
What do you like about JoomlArt?
I like the fact that they deliver clean, professional and state of the art templates. This is what keeps me look for the new releases every day ( even though I know it is only twice a month, there might be something else released.. ) It just keeps me looking for more.
If you ran JoomlArt for a day, what would you do? Would you change anything?
It is difficult to say. Yes, I think I would have made some changes. Not major ones but perhaps added a few small things.
1: Added a poll for “features and templates”. Making it easier for people to vote on what is important for them.
2: Added a wiki ( I think this might already be on the steps but.. )
3: Perhaps been even stricter in regards to the postings from some forum members. It is vital when you have a problem that you provide information about the problem and a url or screenshot is usually critical. I think perhaps I would have added to the forum rules that messages not containing enough vital information would be deleted and user would have to repost with complete information.Other than this I think Joomlart is now driven as good as possible.
What kind of templates are you interested in seeing more of?
“magazine/newspaper/community” styled templates are my favourite. Templates that can “hide” loads of information without looking too cramped up.
What is your current employment status (what do you do)?
I run my own web design company and this is what I do for a living in addition to serving the needed here at Joomlart ) :p
What is your best achievement that you’re proud of?
The best achievement is that I have been able to start up and run my own company for more than 3 years now. For me that was a big challenge and to make a living making websites is not the easiest career.
What is the biggest mistake you’ve done and how did you learn from it?
I think that would have to be not quitting my previous job sooner to start what I am doing now. I love my job. I learned from that experience that in life you do have to gamble once and a while and this also keeps you a bit more on your toes.
Anything else you’d like to mention that you feel is important for us to know about you?
Well, I think I have ranted enough about me. I would just like to say that I really appreciate the honour of becoming the first “member of the month”. It is a great honour and I will value it highly!
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