Interviews with Stars of the Community Volume 28: Insane54

[Drizzy_Dan]

I'm very proud of this one guys, I got Insane54 to take some time out to bang out a very wordy but very worthwhile read of an interview. I don't want to waste any time so without further ado, I give you Insane54, Community Manger at HaloCustom's interview:
 

DD: "So Insane, how did you come to be Insane54?"
I54: "I started going by "Insane" when I started my first administrative/community management position at 12 or 13 years old, and ever since then I've never changed it. Long story short, I left my co-leader position at a large clan in order to make my own -- they called me "insane" (for making that move). Because I was a snarky teenager, I called myself "Insane" because I thought it was ironic at the time. I've been managing successful communities since then, and never changed my name -- it's good luck!"

DD: "I agree with you on that even though I'm not all that supersticious. It's also a cool name! So where exactly were you co-administrating at that age?"
I54: "I honestly don't remember the name of it, unfortunately. I think it was AoE? Something like that. The game was Jedi Knight II and III (Outcast and Academy) -- fantastic games, especially with the Lugormod and Euka mods. They're old but it really got me into running a community and creating environments for roleplaying games. The mods allowed you to place any items from the game into the server dynamically, so we built an entire world on top of that, where you pressed a button and a door opened and closed behind you, credits money systems, "renting" a place to live, food requirements, quests, jobs, just about anything you can think of, we made. So, I had a background in both running a community and making custom things, and that made my transition to larger custom-content communities that much easier!"

DD: "You have a long history in Site Administration and I think that's unkown to many people in the Halo Community. Where have you been Admin or any form of Staff on Halo websites before you became the Community Manager of HaloCustoms?"
I54: "For about 3 years between Halo 3 and Reach (2008 to 2011), I had the opportunity to run ForgeHub as one of three administrators and the community manager. That was a really awesome experience, because I got to see what it was like growing from a small number to something like 70K members. I got used to working with companies (including an official affiliation with Bungie), running events, and overall nurturing the community to its maximum potential; having that experience is invaluable when I'm trying to work on my own projects.

ForgeHub is where I'm "famous" from, so to speak; I got to know many of the big names in the Halo community and industry, I built some great relationships with several employees at 343i and Bungie, became one of the first Community Cartographers, got one of the first Bungie All-Stars, and I learned what works and what doesn't in large scale community management. Overall, I've found that I really enjoy connecting people who otherwise would have never met. I love offering resources that let you see the world in a way that had previously been blocked by restrictions, and opening up those resources for anyone to use. I love incorporating all of the different niches of Halo and bringing them together to an interface that they can all use -- that means that people from two different niches get to experience totally new things from each other!

I had a few projects in the time between ForgeHub and HaloCustoms: I ran a short-term experimental community for artists intended to be "self run" called creativeFloh!. I took a lot of the concepts that I used on that website on HaloCustoms. I've also set up communities for a local electronic music promotion company and a college counseling company. Lastly, I'm completing my degree in Software Engineering, so that takes up a lot of my time.

Personally, I almost always don't like being a staff member. I like having the power to shape the site, change things up, and actually matter; I find more often than not, communities just use their staff as moderation and bodies. That's why it was so important that I'm not only the guy running and managing the site, I'm also the co-founder and legal co-owner. As a perfectionist, I've built up a lot of frustrations about the ways different websites run themselves, and I've taken many of them into consideration when designing HaloCustoms. We really stepped back and took a long time to consider how we can best serve the Halo community, drew it all out on paper and whiteboards, and then we went and implemented it. I'm really happy with the results that we've been getting at HaloCustoms thusfar!"

DD: "That's all something I hope the readers take the time to read through. You really are such a huge name in Halo and it's almost a shame that there are so many people in the Halo Community that don't know you or what you've done for it. I've told you before and I'll tell you again, I love the way HaloCustoms works. What made you decide to make a site based off of custom games instead of going back down the road of Forge? I know the two coincide but why HaloCustoms and not HaloForge, let's say."
I54: "I considered a forge-based website, but there are several reasons I went for customs instead. First of all, Forge is a product of customs, not the other way around. That means that no matter how big forging is, it's only useful if there are people playing that map! In addition, there's not much to add to what's already in the Halo community. I mean, look at 343i.org's maps section, ForgeCafe, ForgeHub; everybody has maps.

HaloCustoms actually has a maps forum as well, and I have some huge updates coming to it in the near future, but I see that as an aspect to customs. Forgers come to HaloCustoms to test their map, then post it, then stick around and play it. It all comes full circle, and we're really big about being a *companion* site. I absolutely don't want to steal a single member from another site, I just want to offer a resource to as many Halo fans as possible. So, test your map on our site, use our resource, and stay active on your own site -- that's exactly what I hope people do. People who just host games can also find new awesome maps to play, etc. I think you'll be seeing us growing our Forge community because forge is so vital to customs and vice versa.

Most importantly, I wanted to offer something new. As far as I know, nobody has really designed a full-on open interface for creating, finding, and organizing custom games both short and long term. This resource means new people meeting new people -- it makes HaloCustoms almost a "waypoint" or "hub" where people from all over the halo community can come and play some customs with guys they've never met before. So, we're seeing AGL guys playing with Grifball guys, and they're sharing ideas and maps -- it's really heartwarming when a member says "I made a game and I had a full party for 4 hours and I learned all about X, Y, and Z", it's entirely the reason we made this website."

 

DD: "Excellently said Insane and you certainly have the right idea when it comes to bringing the Halo Community together by making use of both our sites. So one thing that I really love about HaloCustoms is the RSVP system. How did you get it to link to Xbox.com? Did you need any permissions to do that and if so, did any of your connections help you to get that?"
I54: "Everything you see on the site is normal permissions with a *LOT* of custom coding. When me and dev team were starting to build this website, we literally spent every waking moment online planning, coding, debugging, so on. I'd basically be waking up, making coffee, and getting back to coding until late at night, every night during my winter break. So we spent a lot of time making sure this website really works and feels as well as it possibly could. I firmly believe that if you're not moving forwards, you're falling behind; I'd rather fail 9 times and get it right once then not try something new at all. So we're always making big changes; always adding new features, removing things, editing things. Any given day you might see us release something big and awesome because we want to maximize how useful this site is. We place a ton of emphasis on focus and usability, but we want to have a strong, powerful engine behind all of that.

I really like the RSVP system because you can go to any game and go "this game has 20 RSVPs, it's probably going to be packed" or "this game only has 5 RSVPs? I should tell my friends!" In addition to the fact that by RSVPing you're automatically linked to the host's gamertag, we've also got functionality that lets the host connect to RSVPs, so that a host can send a message to those who say they're going to come. Another feature that's been big recently is our "rate" feature -- if you RSVP to a game before it begins, when the game ends you can "rate your host" good or bad. When a host reaches 25 (total) Good Host ratings, they become a Gold Host -- they get a shiny gold gradient on their games which helps highlight them as "a go-to game". 343i.org's own Spades N AZ is one of our new Gold Hosts, with nearly 150 Good Host ratings. His lobbies often command well over 30 RSVPs, so many people trying to get in a game just to play customs. It gives you an idea of how crazy custom games can get, and it really values those high-quality hosts. You can check out the game calendar here, where you'll likely see several Gold Host's games:  http://halocustoms.com/events/upcoming 

 

To be honest, most "connections" I've gotten are from people I've never met, they just see the site and they see its potential and how much it could mean for Halo's future. In this case, the best way to attract investors is to have a great product, not to know the right people. I've been in touch with lots of people, websites, and companies, and we've got a lot coming from that angle! Unfortunately nothing I can disclose at this time, but we will have some great free giveaways, contests, and tournaments coming up in the future"

 

DD: "Wow your site has had an invaluable amount of time and effort put into it and I gotta say, Insane, it really shows. It's great to hear about the fact that big news and events are coming and I've seen how many people RSVP to Spades's Custom Game Night, it's ridiculous! How did HaloCustoms come to be involved with 343industries.org?"
I54: "It was right after my site had launched -- we were like a week old and had something like 3,000 members already. I got a couple messages sort of randomly from Spades while I was playing in a custom game. So, after the game, him, Absolute Dog, and myself had some long chats on Skype discussing our sites, ideas, and possibilities, and now here we are with a great partnership. I'm really glad that we can be as close as we are with 343i.org, we share a lot of common ideas (warm, close knit communities), but have our differences (you guys focus on Halo overall, we focus on custom games and forge). We work together so nicely; gotta give Spades credit for making the first move on this one."

DD: "Indeed we Absolutely Dogly do, shoutout to our very own Staff of Promotions and Events' Spades N AZ! That was a very huge huge huge move on his part, and I had a feeling we had a connection to you through him when I saw how active he was on HaloCustoms haha. Had you ever heard of the site before Spades had brought it to your attention? Maybe stumbled upon it by accident, anything at all?"

I54: "As part of my job in being a community manager, I think it's vital to at least have knowledge of all the major players in the game. So, I did have a kind of vague understanding of 343i.org and had been stalking around every now and again, evaluating and considering options. However, I hadn't really thought of them as a worthwhile partnership until after Spades came to me and pitched the idea!

 

That said, I'm always open to partnering with websites and communities! I feel like by bringing together many communities by partnership, that means that we get to throw activity to our partners, and they get to tell their members 'hey come here to set up custom games!'. By doing that, it reduces their own requirement to organize custom games (let's be honest, forum boards or threads doesn't really work) and delegates it to us -- and we're more than happy to be that resource! In addition, the more places that partner with us, the more we bring communities with different traits together on our interface!"

DD: "I think with partnerships like the one we have with each other and the one each of us have with THFE, it's a HUGE stepping stone for the recollaboration of the Halo Community. Speaking of which what do you think of the Halo Community right now? Do you think people are too divided over Halo 4?"
I54: "I'm a really big fan of Halo 4, I think its a wonderful title especially for 343i's first real thing. I'm really excited for what Halo 5 will be bringing us; if it lives up to my expectations it *will* be the greatest Halo game ever made, no questions asked. That said, I'm seeing a lot of the community complaining about small issues and it's like "come on guys, chill out, it's a good game!" It's not perfect by any means, but I sometimes wish we could all just get behind 343i and encourage them rather than complain about every little thing that doesn't go as well as we feel it should.

I really do love the Halo community, if I didn't, I wouldn't have stayed as long as I have in it. I consider many of the friends I've made over Halo to be some of my best friends that I fully trust, which includes some members on my staff, the Halo Tricks cast, Xbox Live friends, etc etc. My only complaint of the Halo community is that we are so very fragmented right now. Everyone has a little niche that they belong to, and since their friends are from that niche, they only end up playing games of that niche's style and playing with the same group of friends. I'm really hoping with all this partnership that's been going on between communities that we'll be seeing more inter-community action going on to help combat that fragmentation in the Halo community and bring us closer together.
 

One big thing I have set up on HaloCustoms is that the staff is entirely self-run. They're actually directed to, and I quote, "put awesome things on the front page". The staff is a really chill, relaxed group that I've handpicked, and some member will go "hey, I found this article/event/video on X site!" and write a little feature for it and put it right up on the front page and social media (Twitter and Facebook) within minutes. We have tremendous flexibility, and we love to feature other website's content! Our only criteria is: make something awesome! Make something new, unique, or just plain neat and we WILL feature it, no matter if we are your partner, no matter if its beneficial to us, no matter if you came to us or we just found it trolling around. We want to encourage and reward doing awesome, unique things! I think if more Halo sites picked up on encouraging awesome behavior rather than strict guidelines, we'd see a much less fragmented Halo community that could really push 343i forward to making the best possible products that they can. There's a lot of fantastic talent on that team, and there's infinite potential for what they can do given a supportive community."
 

DD: "I really do enjoy seeing the way the Staff interacts with the community on HaloCustoms, you have quite a funny crowd haha. One of the articles I was extremely impressed with was the one Psychoduck put up of your Staff vs. Community Event. The idea of going through the footage and instead of just rendering it and putting it in the article he broke it down into parts using screenshots is just freaking brilliant and so creative. My hat is off to Psychoduck because that's better than any work I've ever done in News. It sure is awesome! Now, I have seen a lot of freedom on that site meaning no word censor filter and anyone can talk about anything in the shoutbox. What are a couple of the rules on HaloCustoms that members have to abide by if they can say or do whatever they want really?"

I54: "The overarching rule on HaloCustoms is 'use common sense'. That's the rule that I abide by, the staff abide by, and we expect every member of the site to abide by. So, we take everything in context. Is this guy clearly trying to troll? Does he know what he's doing isn't okay on the site? Has he had a previous warning?

 

I want to create a create a fun, warm community, and to do that we do need to do some moderation, but we try to limit that as much as possible. If somebody does something wrong, we prefer to edit or delete and then send a private message to say 'hey, don't do that man'. But if they're clearly just trying to troll or get around the rules, we'll be very strict with our moderation. For example, swearing is allowed, but if its offensive in context, we'll come to you and be like 'that's not okay man'; if you ignore us and keep doing it, we'll likely ban you. We want to make the site awesome for everyone, but at the same time, we don't go easy on people who try to break the warmness of the community. If you're not trying to troll, you'll have a good time; otherwise, you'll be seeing the back end of the banhammer very quickly.

 

Obviously this means that a lot of 'what's okay' is determined by the staff, and I'm blessed to have such a close-knit staff team. They talk amongst themselves when there's a difficult decision and make the best overall decision together. In addition, we try to create an interaction between the staff and the person who did the action; that way they can argue or debate their case. In the end, our system is loose but it works really well as opposed to an almost lawyerly list of 'rules.'"

 

DD: "I bet the members and Staff enjoy that very much . Insane, it's been an incredible interview. It's been awesome to hear your views on the Halo Community and our sites' partnership. Now I have to ask you, what are your words of wisdom for members in the community that want what you want?"

I54: "I think a lot of members want that same feel of solidarity that we used to feel in Halo 2/3. I see many, many people coming on to HaloCustoms and introducing themselves with "I really hope this brings back that Halo 2/3 feel in the Halo community". I do think that the site helps to make that a reality, and by connecting all of our talents together, we can help increase the popularity of Halo as well as connect all of these smaller websites. So, if you run a website or group or company or clan, come to me on the website, twitter, facebook, email me ([email protected]), whatever works. I will do anything I can to help you get interconnected with the HaloCustoms family. We have different ways that we work with different entities -- we have a restricted 'sponsored groups' section that is great for showcasing the great small groups in our population, we have partnership opportunities for larger sites, and we have opportunities for websites to work with us.

 

If you're just a single person (or a person with a few friends), join the site and get talking to us as well as playing games! We're all really friendly and every person who joins the community is helping us grow bigger and bigger. Also, word of mouth is hugely important to us. If somebody needs a map tested, or is looking for friends to play, or is otherwise just getting bored with Halo, point them towards HaloCustoms. We want to be what you think of when you think 'custom games'."

 

 

Everybody give Insane54 a round of applaue he was excellent in giving us an in depth look at his site, our affiliate, HaloCustoms. I advise checking it out. Check it out but remember this is your home . Just kidding really though give it a look. Thank you 343i Community Forum it's taken me all day to get this out it's been so busy, the editing glitch screwed me so bad earlier I basically did this twice . Oh man, well once again thank you all for supporting these and I hope you read all of it. HAIL
 

This post has been promoted to an article

[Sikslik7]

I do enjoy using Halo Customs. It's great to read the thoughts of some major people in the Halo community. Drizzy, you really found a great person to interview.

[BearClawsKiller]

Wow this is soo long! But couldn't agree more. I love HaloCustoms. It was such a great idea.

[SatanicBagels]

HaloCustoms was an ingeniously designed site. This interview really shows the technical genius of it's founder. He saw a void in the Halo Community and he created the perfect site to fill it with. Props to him for his excellent job on the site as well as to Spades N AZ and Absolute Dog for making the affiliate happen. HaloCustoms is a huge unstoppable machine much like 343i and as it looks right now the future of the Halo Community is going to be heavily impacted by their successes and failures.

 

Lets make those successes.

 

Good read Drizzy.

[♠ Spades N AZ ♠]

Just wanted to point out some key factors that struck me in this awesome interview:

 

 "First of all, Forge is a product of customs, not the other way around. That means that no matter how big forging is, it's only useful if there are people playing that map!"  Guys this is so true and wisely said from Insane54.  No matter how good of a forger you are, you'll never get noticed without a lobby to showcase it.

 

"It all comes full circle, and we're really big about being a *companion* site. I absolutely don't want to steal a single member from another site, I just want to offer a resource to as many Halo fans as possible. So, test your map on our site, use our resource, and stay active on your own site -- that's exactly what I hope people do.' 
For all of you who keep sending me messages of "I don't join other sites" or "I am loyal to 343I.org", this is what I have been repeating back to you.  It is using a great asset to our advantage.  The site at Halocustoms is amazing, use it.

"I really like the RSVP system because you can go to any game and go "this game has 20 RSVPs, it's probably going to be packed" or "this game only has 5 RSVPs? I should tell my friends!"  This system that Insane has created is not only ground breaking but has made it so much better for those, me, to host lobbys efficiently.

 

That said, I'm always open to partnering with websites and communities! I feel like by bringing together many communities by partnership, that means that we get to throw activity to our partners, and they get to tell their members 'hey come here to set up custom games!'. By doing that, it reduces their own requirement to organize custom games (let's be honest, forum boards or threads doesn't really work) and delegates it to us -- and we're more than happy to be that resource! In addition, the more places that partner with us, the more we bring communities with different traits together on our interface!" Finally the biggest reason I wanted Insane to meet Dog and create this partnership.  They are both about the Halo community and that is a vital ingredient to me.  I trust and respect both of these guys for there long hard hours they put in to make your Halo experience better.
 

This is an absolutely amazing interview!  Huge thanks to Drizzy Dan and Insane 54 for giving the 343Industries forum an inside look on what I have been ranting and raving about.

 

 

[Is not JL]

Halocustoms = Best thing I've come across in my online life since Halo.

 

No questions asked, it lets people share maps, showcase maps, ask for help with maps, easily test maps, and most of all be able to meet other people and consistently play with them (So long as they're consistent!)

 

It's through this site that I met a bunch of people who played during my timezone (Or, more accurately, 5am in 'Murica which is just about when I get home from school), and through this site that I met a whole bunch of other people, and even share some of my maps with great forgers who offered me their help (Although it was through an accidental 'I read the timezone wrong' ask for an invitation.)

 

I've never hosted a lobby as the timezone I would host won't have the ability to consistently be able to get players, unlike my friends who start playing about 6 hours before I join the lobby. Despite all this, I still find the site useful, and I've even been able to get some of my maps played by many other players by asking a friendly lobby host - it was only thanks to Halocustoms that I was able to actually get a map to presentable form (My second one in all of Halo; my first one I actually present), which I both have gameplay on and I have submitted on 343i.

 

In any case, Halocustoms is built around a magnificent idea, except it's the first time a whole site has been built around customs - and works, possibly because the people running it have successfully made the connections needed. 

 

Long story short, yay Halocustoms because without you I would have Halo 4 shelved from how boring it's matchmaking is, and would have been stuck being bored by the lack of people with mics due to the people in my timezone just....not being as open as westerners.

[Insane54]

Thanks for the comments guys! I appreciate all the activity and games that every member brings to the site!

 

Also, we're now fully decked out for St. Patrick's Day... St. Patties day banner, entire site turned green, members colors turned green, and our alerts turned into beer mugs! Check it out!

 

As a sidenote @Jl1223 X: as I assume you know already, all timezones are automatically calculated based on where you are! We're finding that a lot of people in timezones that aren't GMT or in America (basically the "weird" timezones) are actually finding matches. All of these people from Australia or New Zealand or Germany are getting online and seeing reasonable times from their peers, instead of everything being converted to EST or GMT, and it seeming all impossible to join. So, I'd definitely give hosting a shot sometime -- I think you'd be surprised what the results are like even in low activity times in America and England!

[Iɴsɪɢɴɪᴀ]

Absolutely brilliant interview here. When times allows I'll head over to HaloCustoms and check it all out, just can't believe I have never noticed it before lol. You're a great man Insane.

[Is not JL]

As a sidenote @Jl1223 X: as I assume you know already, all timezones are automatically calculated based on where you are! We're finding that a lot of people in timezones that aren't GMT or in America (basically the "weird" timezones) are actually finding matches. All of these people from Australia or New Zealand or Germany are getting online and seeing reasonable times from their peers, instead of everything being converted to EST or GMT, and it seeming all impossible to join. So, I'd definitely give hosting a shot sometime -- I think you'd be surprised what the results are like even in low activity times in America and England!

I'd give it a shot, but I rarely ever need it; I find a friend's hosted game nearly all the time, so I never actually need to find people myself. I'd give it a try some time, but the need? Not really. Maybe someday.

[Frankenzer]

Wow that was long.....