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Interview with Faken (Dan Richard) The Brains Behind Pixel2Life
1: If you were given $1,000 to spend freely on software what would you spend it on and why?
Easy
Macromedia Studio 8... I'm so far behind on my Macromedia software, it's not even funny... Flash 5 anyone?2: Can you remember the day you registered Pixel2Life domain, did you have an instant plan of action as to how the site would be or were you simply going with the flow of random thoughts?
Actually, when I first registered Pixel2life.com just before Christmas, the plan was to make it a personal portfolio and a tutorial site for CorelDraw related products. The entire tutorial search engine idea only came to me when I was searching for specific web development tips and I was frustrated that I couldn't find everything a webmaster would look for under one roof. That's when I started looking into designing a large search portal instead of building my 20th portfolio site.
3: Is there any story behind the original design and layout? What made you choose the current layout Pixel2Life has now?
The original layout actually looked like some kind of gaming clan website or something... I don't know... it appealed to me at the time. Eventually it became obvious that we were growing and the site needed to be much more professional and better laid out. The content just didn't suit the layout anymore. So I ended up basing the second version of a template I downloaded for a completely different project that was never brought to life. I always loved this template, so I thought I'd use it for v2. It's a bit graphics heavy, but I love it. I've always found the blue/green XP colors to be very appealing, so this is a layout I don't mind looking at for hours every day... seems people agree with my choice for the most part!
4: Is there any work you can show us that your extremely proud of besides Pixel2Life?
You know, I used to have projects that I thought were really terrific, but my success and pride in Pixel2life.com simply overshadow them completely. P2L is really my baby now, and I more or less live and breath it constantly in one form or another. I've designed and released over 100 sites in my career as a web designer, but nothing was ever as big as this, and I look forward to building on P2L's success with new projects in the future.
5: Have you ever traveled outside of Canada and if so what countries have you visited?
Canada is indeed my home and country of birth (born in Ottawa), but I've always loved the US and spend a lot of time there. La Jolla, California will always be my special getaway spot, but I'm also frequently in New Jersey and New York on business. Aside from that, I've traveled to Europe for design related projects (I was meant to live in the UK, I swear!) and I've vacationed in places like Aruba, Dominican Republic etc. but that's all come to a grinding halt since I started P2L and since my daughter was born.
6: If you were a new member to 13dots.com what would your overall first impression of the site be?
I'd probably be shocked at just how friendly you guys are over there... it's hard to find a community that is so inviting and friendly as the folks at 13dots.
7: Boxers or briefs? (just for the ladies)
Commando style!
8: How many languages do you speak and write?
I read and write English and French and have a hazy grasp of Italian.
9: If you had to give advice to a designer what would it be?
Be true to yourself and your style and never take criticism personally. Ever.
10: What inspires you or gives you inspiration?
I find inspiration in the strangest things... I'll be blank for a particular design, and I'll start to stare at the floor. After a few minutes, I'll see a pattern in the hardwood that gives me an idea. So, I try to read as much as I can to keep my imagination sharp, and I expose myself to all forms of visual stimulus to keep things churning. It can be anything from watching a movie that's strong in visual appeal to magazines, or I might take my camera out and head to the older parts of the city for a photo shoot with the architecture.
11: Your favorite web design tool is?
Corel Photopaint. By best friend since 1994.
12: Are you enjoying these questions?
Yes, but I'd prefer to have them read to me in person by Milla Jovovich.
13: Do you have any hobbies away the computer?
You bet... I've been bodybuilding since I was 16, although I've been out of it for awhile due to complete lack of time, and I collect Predator and Alien figures and memorabilia from the various films. Looking to get back into model building too, but that's time I don't have.
14: What's behind the name Pixel2Life? (what does it stand for)
When I was first thinking of creating my personal portfolio site, it would have been all about me and my work, along with personal photos etc.. so you would have everything from my artwork (pixels) to my life. I like to pretend I'm clever like that.
15: Where do you see yourself in 10 years from now?
Hopefully still running Pixel2life or some evolutionary form of it.
16: Do you have any favorite sites that just blow you away?
Most people don't know this, but I LOVE http://www.kimble.org
17: Your birthday falls on what day?
September 12th... I'm a Virgo *giggle*
18: What graphic programs do you use?
I use everything Corel! Too bad they don't have the marketing budget and support of the USA like Adobe, because Photopaint is much more powerful than Photoshop. I think it's the totally different interface that scares people or something.
19: If you could choose one person to meet who would it be and why?
Mel Gibson. He has a way of looking at life that seems so unique and inspiring... I'd love to sit with Mel, have some beers and just talk about whatever we have on our minds. On a more realistic level, I await the day that I finally meet Jay, the genius behind the scene on P2L, in person. He lives in the UK, so he's not exactly a car drive away... some day Jay!
20: Out of curiosity what one thing could you see that would improve Pixel2Life more?
I definitely think further reducing the code/image size of the pages would be extremely beneficial to our users, especially the poor folks still on 56k.
21: When you first got the idea of making Pixel2Life a tutorial database did you ever feel it would grow to now over 15,000 tutorials?
Yes and no... I don't want to be cocky and predict super high numbers of content or traffic, but in the back of my mind, I have specific goals and I have no intentions of not making them. I always figured the site would get pretty big, but now that it's happening, I'm surprised and sort of wondering where to go next.
22: Has Pixel2Life ever been ripped? If so how did you handle the situation.
Actually, we get ripped on a weekly basis... and that's just the ones I know about! I'll typically start by issuing a DMCA notice with the host. If that fails, I'll follow up with the Data Centre and if necessary, get my lawyer involved. It's frustrating as hell, but that's life. Once you reach a decent size, people will do all kinds of things to achieve your success. Rather than work their asses off, they think if they just rip your site or your database, they can skip all the sweating and get to the good stuff right away. It's amusing to see them last a few weeks before they throw in the towel or get shut down.
23: Tell us a little about the Staff of Pixel2Life, are they a great Team to work with?
I can honestly say that my success with P2L is due to the staff that surround me.. without them, the site would be a disaster. Jay is our lead programmer and his knowledge of PHP and web coding in general is staggering. He's extremely talented and I count myself extremely lucky to have him working on my side. He loves to argue with me on everything and takes a lot of wind out of my sails when I start going overboard on expansion plans. Donna is our Lead Community Administrator and is the goddess of all things P2L. She works with a team of very hardworking moderators (Shout out to Jaymz, CanenArt, Ckristian, Griffin, Mooey, PSGirl, rc69, adam123, SHIVMOO, Stu, syntex and Tasha for all their butt busting hard work) and without these guys, our forums would have been closed ages ago. It's actually shocking to me how well they run the forums (most forums I use are pure chaos) and we get tons of positive feedback from members and guests about their work. We also have some relatively new folks on the staff that have been helping us out... Chaos King is helping out with some bug fixes, Ghost is our new IPB skinning genius, and Neil runs/modifies topsites. Hope I got everyone *worried look*
We don't always see eye to eye on issues that come up, but we always work it out and I can never thank these people enough.
25: How many hours a week do you spend on Site maintenance and approving tutorials?
Around 40 to 60 hours... it's VERY time consuming because we get so many submissions every day, and I manually check each one.
26: Slicingguide.com has it been a success or flop?
Definitely a success. In fact, sometimes I forget it's even there until I get another email thanking me for making it, which still happens frequently. I'm glad to see so many people learned from it, despite the CSS fanboys getting mad at me for using tables
27: Has anyone ever offered to buy Pixel2Life?
I've had 3 serious offers to buy it, but I didn't feel they met with my expectations... I have a lot at stake with P2L and I worked hard to build it. $100,000 seems like a big number, but when you stop and think about it, it's not really that spectacular. I also have a huge fear of handing this site over to another person or company and they completely destroy it within a few months.
28: How many websites have you designed in the last 10 years or so?
Well over 100. From 1996 to 2002, I was doing A LOT of freelance and was producing about 2 or 3 sites a month at some points.
29: Have you ever thought of holding a Pixel2Life convention where members would come face to face?
Thought about it, but haven't given it serious consideration yet. Just the staff alone are from complete opposite ends of the globe.
30: Who is Yoda?
Yoda is inspiration. Small but powerful, underestimated yet masterful.
Finished, this interview is.
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Thanks for your time in this interview Dan.
Wow... ive never seen a computer nut with biceps that big.. Im so jealous 
- Great Interview, it was... lol Any way good work. It would be kind of neat to meet everyone in person, but you guys can pay for my ticket or just fly over to me 
