 There
are a plethora of web sites out there today dedicated to
celebrities, but none are as well put together as this month's
MySite Showcase client.
I recently got the chance to sit down and have a talk with
the Jim Ugi, from BuffettNews.com to talk about technology,
web hosting and of course the one and only Jimmy Buffett.
Q. What really motivated you in creating a website
dedicated to Jimmy Buffett news?
A. I first started doing the website back in July
of 1997 as a personal site on America Online. I decided
to do a fan site on Jimmy Buffett because I was such a big
fan of his music. At that time I just wanted to learn the
basics of HTML, posting images, using tables, and linking
to other pages. A year later I moved the site to a hosting
provider and obtained the domain “BuffettNews.com”.
That is when the site began to take off with fans coming
back on a daily basis.
With the popularity of the site come growing pains. I’ve
had to move the site to six different hosting providers
over the years. I recently moved it to Total Choice Hosting
because they have a plan that meets my bandwidth requirement
along with offering PHP and MYSQL. TotalChoice Hosting was
the only hosting provider that informs its customers ahead
of time of routine maintenance, has a discussion board for
it’s customers to find out what’s going on,
and provides current statistics on each of its servers.
Q. I noticed that you use phpBB as a backend in
operating your site. Do you like it? Is it any better or
worse than any other content management systems you might
of used or plan to change over to in the future?
A. I’ve used the forum software phpBB at BuffettNews.com
for the past two years since version 1.2. Prior to using
phpBB I used a Perl (cgi) based discussion board from Discusware.
Discus was really slow and used up a lot of the resources
on a shared server. I did an analysis of the different packages
at the time, and wanted one that was fast and didn’t
use up a lot of CPU usage. The only other package I was
considering was php-nuke. At the time php-nuke didn’t
offer good discussion board integration, and phpbb didn’t
have a news content add-on. So I decided to go with phpBB
and wrote a custom modification to display the news page
content from topics and posts.
I would recommend phpBB to other developers for their website.
It really has become popular with this version and the next
version will provide more features such as load balancing.
Q. Have you ever met Jimmy Buffett, or would you
if you had the chance? If so what was it like, or how would
you hopefully picture the event?
A. I’ve met Jimmy on three different occasions. I
shook his hand and had him autograph his book “A Pirate
Looks at Fifty” at one of his shows. The second time
we met I said a quick hello while he came around to do autographs
at the Today Show Summer Concert series back in 1999. The
third time was at a benefit show in East Hampton New York
back in 2001.
Q. What do you feel really brings people back to
your web site?
A. I think it’s a number of things including having
dynamic content, up to date information, the ability to
interact with other fans, and the ability to discuss set
lists and see pictures from recent shows.
Q. How long have you been a fan of Jimmy Buffett?
How would you describe and what is the earliest Jimmy Buffett
memory you have?
A. My earliest memory of Jimmy Buffett was listening to
his love song “Come Monday” on the radio back
in the 70’s when it first come out. The song is about
missing someone he loves while being out on the road performing.
A lot of people had no idea at the time that would be just
the start of a long time career that would follow.
I really didn’t start following Buffett until 1993
when I went to one of his shows at Great Woods. There is
nothing like being at a Buffett show, and experiencing the
tailgating that goes on prior to the show. Since then I’ve
been going every year.
Q. What kind of team do you have behind the site?
Is it just you alone, or Do you rely on a whole group of
users to give you content and substance to The site?
A. I have a number of moderators who help with the discussion
boards. They have helped out immensely so that I can post
updates to the news. News articles come from a number of
sources including fans, Internet news publications, and
anonymous sources that want to pass along information.
Q. What's your most memorable current Jimmy Buffett
memory?
A. I recently saw Jimmy on TV on the Today Show on July
11th of this year. It is amazing that his music draws fans
of all ages to see him. I watched the show at my fiancée’s
house with her four year old twin boys and they had fun
singing along to “Cheeseburger in Paradise”.
Q. Obviously to get people to come back, you need
to have something other web sites don't have. What do you
feel that you provide on your site that no other sites out
there for Jimmy Buffett fans provide?
A. BuffettNews.com has been known for providing fans with
the latest breaking news. The site often has tour dates
posted even before they become available on Jimmy’s
official web site Margaritaville.com. Most of the shows
sell out within minutes of going on sale. If you miss out
knowing when they go on sale you usually have a hard time
landing tickets.
Q. Who would win in a fight between Elvis Presley
and Jimmy Buffett?
A. I think the Parrot Heads are the most dedicated group
of fans and would agree that Buffett would win.
Q. Do you have any future plans for the site? Any
new additions or great content for us to look forward of
seeing?
A. I really don’t have any future plans right now.
I often visit other fan site and get ideas from them. The
available free time that I have to make additions to the
site has been limited because I got engaged seven months
ago.
Jim was really a really great person to talk to, and not
being a Parrot Head myself, I think I learned a little bit
more about Jimmy Buffett. I highly recommend you all check
out BuffettNews.com. It's
got everything from the latest news to photo galleries of
fans. A must visit for anybody looking for an entertaining
ride for sure.
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