Interlopers.net
The site was founded by me in mid 2004 and has grown significantly from then, both in content and members. Providing absolutely everything to do with Half-Life 2 design, the website has exceeded every expectation I ever had and also taught me a great deal in how to manage a large community site.
About the site
Interlopers.net is a large community based website that specialises in Half-Life 2 design, including level design, programming, modelling and many other aspects. The main page provides a constantly updated news page that keeps the visitors up to speed on all Half-Life 2 related news. As well as a huge amount of content the site also has a busy forum powered by the phpBB3 software, where users can discuss various topics and submit content to help the site grow.
The initial website design was drafted out as an image by a freelance designer who then provided me with sliced images which allowed me to create the pages with XHTML & CSS.
Interlopers has a lot of dynamic functionality which relies heavily on the phpBB software. This includes an integrated site login, latest forum posts, site news (fed direct from the forum) and a tutorial search feature. I worked closely with an experienced PHP programmer to bring these features alive.
Recently I underwent the task of upgrading the forum to phpBB3. Not only did this involve a huge amount of code changes, database upgrading and general troubleshooting, but it also required a custom forum template to allow the site to blend seamlessly.
I run Interlopers on a dedicated Linux server that uses cPanel & WHM to allow complete control. I fund the upkeep of the site completely out of my own pocket.
My responsibilities
My work on Interlopers is continued, so quite often the work involved can vary. Below are a few of my responsibilities:
- Collating relevant news articles & posting the information on the front page
- Daily checks of the forum and performing various administration tasks
- Maintaining a friendly presence on the forums and ensuring there is no disruption
- Reviewing and editing user-submitted content, then posting it on to the site
- Interacting with various mod teams to discuss news postings and also to arrange interviews
- Discussions with volunteer forum moderators over any issues they may have
- Applying forum software updates & responding to user problems
