Article Staff Interview - Sanctuary

Greetings once again, Valourians! My name is Eclipse, and with this new month of August, I approach you again with yet another interview. In similar vein to the interview I did last month with BiohazardSr, this time I'll be interviewing a staff member.

...Yes, I know of BiohazardSr's position, but to be fair, he wasn't a mod when I interviewed him. (Ah, and for those curious, the August MOTM interview will be happening as scheduled; it should be up within a week at most.)

As I mentioned before, I would like to have the interviews on a sort of cycle, so the next interview put out will most likely be a Prominent Member one (that's the plan, anyway - here's hoping it won't change much), so you'll know slightly what to expect.

I must give a brief shoutout to @[member="ClamEatsCurry"] for his suggestion about follow-up questions - in addition to some of the common questions, this interview will have follow-ups based on answers given. My goal is to continue this trend in this and later interviews.

Now then, to get to the point, this time I will be interviewing the well-known @[member="Sanctuary"] - the fairly illustrious developer who fixes things and ingests memes.
Some of us know him well based on interaction with him, myself included, but there must be a lot of stories to tell, true? Now we'll get to find out.

Questions asked by Eclipse, the interviewer, will be in this colour.
Answers given by Sanctuary, the interviewee, will be in this colour.

Let's begin with an introduction. Who are you, and can you tell the audience a little bit about yourself?
I'm Sanctuary! I'm a Developer here at Lake Valor, as you all probably knew, and I've been one for almost 2 years. I'm 19 years old and I've been involved with web development for 4 years now. I'm also an Administrator here. LV isn't the first forum I've administrated (I've also been administrating forums for 4 years), but it's the one I've stayed with the longest and enjoyed the most.


You've been involved with web development for 4 years? That would mean you started at about early high school, so it's been your passion for a while (as has administrating forums, apparently).
What got you started and intrigued with the area of web development, and what kept you in the field?
Yup, I started when I was 15, sometime during my 9th grade Summer vacation (or Winter I guess, since I was in the Southern Hemisphere at the time).

TL;DR - On my first "real" forum (the one mentioned in the next question), I was very active, got promoted to Global Moderator, and then Community Admin a little while after. One of the other Admins sent me an HTML/CSS video playlist and said "here, watch these, you're gonna need them" and I was like "aight". I started watching the videos, the site went down less than a month later, but I continued watching the videos and began messing around with a test board to learn how forums work, because I found that stuff to be pretty cool. 4 years later, here I am.

(Long) Backstory

Spoiler

On the first forum where I actually realized it was a forum, I got very active. Actually, on the very first week of me joining, they had Staff Applications up. I applied for Moderator, but I was very naive at the time. You guys know how Moderators on LV are assigned to about 5-10 sections per Moderator? Well, in the staff application, I listed the forums I wanted to moderate. Here they are: "Gears of War". Yes, you read it right. I applied for a single forum. Not even its own forum, it was a subforum. And I got accepted too! I was just that good.

But about a week or so later, I got demoted. They didn't tell me why, but I found out later that it was because I applied to only one forum. There was actually another opening for Staff Applications shortly after, and I applied again, but I made the same mistake and applied for a single forum (the same one) and got denied this time.

Fast forwarding a few weeks and skipping some details, I was eventually promoted to Global Moderator (the same as LV's Super Moderator position) due to how active and known I was. I was very surprised and excited, as this meant I got another chance. I continued to be active and started my journey as a Staff member.

Fast forwarding another few weeks and skipping even more details, I received yet another promotion, this time to Community Administrator! This is where one of the other Admins comes into play. He linked me to an HTML/CSS video playlist with about 45 videos and told me that I'd need to watch these since I'll need to know how to fix things on the forums if anything goes wrong. I took everything with extreme importance at the time, due to just being given the most important position of my online life, so I watched the videos.

At the time, the owner of the forum wasn't present. As far as Admins went, I believe it was just me, the Admin who promoted me (who was/is one of my best/good friends for a while after all of this), and maybe one other? Not sure. But the owner was never around, and he was the only one who could pay the bills. A little while after I got promoted, the site went down because nobody was able to cover the costs, since nobody but the owner had access. I was pretty sad because I loved that site to bits.

Regardless of that tragic incident, I continued the videos and decided to install my own test board to get to know how to make forums and how they work. I really enjoyed forums (I still do), so I was very curious and excited to learn how things work. I kept at it for a very long time and joined a forum where you can download and share files, and also make support threads for issues you're having or things you're stuck on. I'm still on that forum to this day, and that's actually where @[member="Satix"] found me!

How did you come up with your username? I'm sure there's an interesting tale behind it.
TL;DR - This video; the opening theme to my favorite game from my favorite video game franchise.

Backstory

Spoiler

The night of signing up on my first "real" forum, I almost signed up with my usual username (which was my name and a couple numbers), but I stopped and thought "Wait! This site is pretty new, I can have almost any username I want!", so I stopped and spent some time to think. "What do I like, what do I like..." I mumbled to myself. A light bulb appeared over my head and I chose my new username that I'd stick with for that site. Moments later, I registered under the username "Guardian". Truth is that I was really into Gears of War at that time, so I went with my favorite game mode as a username. It was a good pick at the time to me, and I was happy I went with something new for once.

Fast forward a month later, I came across the knowledge that you can change your username up to 3 times a month on that site, so I thought I'd take advantage of that and have some more fun. I was in a very, very deep "Kingdom Hearts is the best thing ever" mood at the time, so I asked an Admin if they could change my username to "Sanctuary". They did, and I thought "Awesome. Time to enjoy this, I'll find something new in another month". 4 years later and I've yet to change my alias. Not sure if I ever will, but I don't really have a reason to at this point. Plus, "Sanc" has a nice ring to it.

What initially brought you to Lake Valor? But beyond that, what made you stay at Lake Valor?
TL;DR - @[member="Satix"] PM'd me on another site, I made the original LV theme, started to browse around, started posting. Stuck around because of the members, the amount of activity, and because of how welcome I felt to the site. Plus, there were memes. I like memes.

Spoiler

@[member="Satix"] contacted me on another forum asking if I was available for a project and a price for that job. I responded stating that I'm available and the price I would charge for that job. He was satisfied with the price and told me he would contact me again once he had the funds gathered. A few days later, I received a PM from him letting me know he was good to go, so I began working on said project (said project being the original Lake Valor theme).
A week and 100+ (and counting) edits later, the theme is complete. LV finally has its first custom theme! It was a nice milestone for the site, and everybody seemed to love it. Everybody was happy, myself included, and the job was done. Or so I thought.

I always let people know that if there's any bugs or something similar on the final product, they can contact me and I'll adjust 'em appropriately. There ended up being a few more things, so they left my account as an Admin account and I stuck around in case things were needed. There was also the Shoutbox present at the time, so I interacted with some members a few times, but not too often.

Eventually, I found myself browsing around the site and reading topics, namely in the Q&A section. I liked the idea, so I decided to make my own. After that... everything just seemed natural. I started posting while continuing doing work on the theme, which was very fun because I usually don't do that on sites that contact me for theme work. Time flew by and I found myself visiting frequently, if not every day, so I guess it just sorta happened.

Making a theme essentially from scratch for Lake Valor had to be quite the feat. Your effort clearly shows in the extreme care and devotion you put into your work. But that wasn't the only theme you created - Lake Valor has 7 themes now, and while some aren't fully your creation (like Palette Town), you've definitely had a hand in all of them.
What incentivised you to stick around and create all the other new themes for Lake Valor as well?
Great Lake is actually the only theme I fully designed and coded. However, all other themes, with the exceptions of Kaleidoscope and LV Lite, were entirely my work as far as coding goes. I did do a lot of coding on Kaleidoscope, but the base was already there for me by the time I came around to it (I was gone for about 3 months once and another developer started on that project, but left it after a certain point, which is where I picked it up once I returned). Lake Valor, Lake Valor (Modern), and Kaleidoscope were all designed by @[member="Achromatic"], Chameleos was designed by @[member="Satix"], Great Lake was designed by me, and Palette Town was designed by @[member="Wiskim"]. Wiskim designed the index page for Palette Town, but I did everything else after that.

The themes were actually also projects that Achromatic and Satix wanted me to do. Great Lake (which was originally named "Oktoberfest") was actually of my own will. There was a Halloween-based theme that LV had before I was around, and it seemed to be pretty popular with the members. I myself wasn't a very big fan of it, though. So I decided to make my own in hopes that it would be a bigger hit than the last one. It turns out that it was! Many different members have told me that they love it and some still use it to this day, which makes me happy.

Palette Town was made because it's been some time since we had a new custom theme, and we also wanted to get something with a more artsy feel to it, so we held an event where members could submit some submissions and waited it out for a short while. You guys already know the outcome, so I won't get into that.


What's your favourite part about Lake Valor, and why?
My favorite part about the site itself is the community. Everybody is always kind and ready to help out one another, and you don't always see that on forums (or at least not the ones I've been around). Being around that kind of atmosphere is great and can sometimes be refreshing. My favorite part about being involved with the site is that I get to make things for others to use. Making things easier, faster, and more efficient for members (myself included) is great because it makes everyone's experience much better and a lot more enjoyable than it already was.


What is your current role(s) on Lake Valor? How did you come into it, and how do you feel about it?
My role as a Developer includes creating themes and modifications, editing existing themes and modifications, designing the page layouts that are seen around the site, fixing bugs and then accidentally creating bugs while trying to fix bugs, and more.

My role as an Administrator includes helping those who need it, answering any questions members may have (whether it's via topics, statuses, or our Discord server), making important decisions for the site itself, and making sure everything stays in order.

How I came about my role as a Developer was explained in an earlier question, so I won't get too into that again. As for becoming an Administrator, I guess I just became one over time. I did all those things I listed in the last paragraph even as I was still considered just a Developer, because I didn't see a reason to not do them. Eventually, Satix himself told me he already considered me "officially" part of the team, and I was glad to hear.

I enjoy both my roles on LV. While tiring and stressful at times, at the end of the day, they're pretty rewarding! Plus I get to do things like terrorize members and create things that destr- I mean, replace old features.


You monster! Does your destruction of joy know no bounds!?
From the sound of it, it sounds like Satix considering you part of the team came as a bit of a surprise to you, but something that Satix had felt for a while, even though you were 'hired from outside' so to speak.
Up until that point, though, how did you feel when interacting with the rest of the staff team?
Actually, I didn't interact with anybody on a personal level for a very long time. I only spoke to @[member="Satix"] and @[member="Achromatic"] (when he was also an Admin) on Skype, and that was almost all on a professional level.

The first member I interacted with on a personal level was @[member="Noctis"]. We shared a few similar interests so she PM'd me asking if she could add me on Skype, and we became friends through there. She's actually one of my best friends to this day.

The second member I interacted with on a personal level was @[member="Pari"]. Pari is actually the reason why I got to know the rest of the staff members in the first place. She added me but we didn't talk much at first, but she asked if I wanted to be added to the Staff group chat on Skype a few days later, and I said sure. That's where I got to know and became friends with everybody on the team.


Do you have any hobbies? What sorts of things do you enjoy doing?
Web development doubles as a job and a hobby for me, so that would be my #1 hobby. Aside from that, I watch a lot of anime and occasionally read manga. I used to play a lot of video games as well, but I stopped doing that as much (for the time being). Does listening to music count as a hobby? I do that a lot. More often than not. I dunno.


Web development as a hobby and as a job? That's a surprise to me. It sounds like you do (or have done) professional development outside of Lake Valor as well; is that correct? If so, how does it compare with your tenure at Lake Valor?
That is correct! I'm a freelance web developer, so I've had countless web dev jobs and clients in the past. My past (and current) jobs are very, very different to my time on Lake Valor for various reasons.

The main reason would be that with other forums I worked for, I never really did anything except the described project, with the exception of forums I've actually co-owned. With Lake Valor, I do the tasks given to me, make forum posts/announcements, handle member-related situations, think up of new things that would be useful to Lake Valor (and then code them as well), and much more.

There's actually another community I actively work for, but I'm not nearly as involved with it as I am with LV. I haven't interacted with the community at all yet, and the things I've coded for them were usually very small, but there have been a few complicated things as well. But I only do that about 4 or 5 times a month, so it's more of a side-job if anything.


What did you first expect (or feel) when I approached you for an interview?
"Bout damn time" My precise thoughts were "Yesssssssss, finally". I always like being questioned because it's a fun activity to me. Questions are good ways to start conversations and getting to know someone better, so I guess that's why I like that.


Is there anything in particular that you do now, or have done in the past, that you're really proud of?
Online related, I'm very proud of a few things I've made for LV. As far as I know, the "Like" statuses feature has never been made for another IPB 3.x board (the forum software LV runs), and I've seen countless requests in the past 4 years about it, so for someone like me to be the first to do it, that makes me really happy. There are a few other things I'm proud of, such as the Save Drafts, Awards UCP, Adoptables Team, Guidance of Valor, and various other features. Those are all things I've worked hard on, and seeing a large amount of people using and enjoying them gives me a sense of accomplishment.

Offline related, I can't quite remember of many things I'm proud of. I guess being placed in "Gifted" classes ever since 5th grade is something I'm proud about. Gifted classes are similar to Honors/AP classes, but for Elementary/Middle school (that's why they are were I used to live, at least). Other than that, nothing too special.


If you could wish for any 1 thing, what would you wish for?
A small loan of a million dollars. No, but seriously, I'd probably wish for a large sum of money. Money is the root of a lot of my problems and stress, and I'm also one greedy bastard, so money is the first thing that comes to mind. Of course, I know that money doesn't solve all problems, but it sure does help. Quoting some lyrics by one of my favorite rappers, Logic, "Money can't buy happiness but that shit can support it, cuz what's a family of 5 if you can't even support it?".


Can you think of 3 to 5 adjectives you would use to describe yourself?
Kind, humorous, (extremely) childish, dank.


I think those are all the questions I need to ask right now. It's been a pleasure to interview you, and I hope this helps the Lake to get to know you a little better. Do you have anything else you'd like to say before we bring this to a close?
It's been a pleasure being interviewed, thank you for the opportunity!

I'd like to thank all of those who I've become close to during my time on LV so far. Thank you all for being such great friends (or more than a friend); my life would be entirely different without you guys.

To the members of LV, thank you all for sticking us for as long as you have! Each and every one of you is important to us, and we appreciate you guys keeping the site alive. We'll do our best make LV the best it can possibly be!

::::

So it seems like Sanctuary had just as many stories to tell as I thought he did - I certainly never would have known any of this had he not mentioned it; would you? I think Sanc was as pleased to receive and answer this interview as I was to give it, so overall I believe this was a great success.

See you all again soon, at the next interview!

◈◈ From the desk of Eclipse, the Pure-Black Dragon ◈◈