Interview with Aliensvortex

By Anna Molly

This week the Global-RS herald is bringing you an interview with Aliensvortex, the webe founder and brainfather. He has been called a "boy genius" by many the GRS forum member, and many have speculated that he will one day find a cure for cancer! Hopefully, through this interview, you will get a better insight into the mind behind Global Runescape!

Anna Molly: When you founded Global-rs, you were only 14 years old. What kind of complications did this have, and what made you want to start a runescape fansite?
Aliensvortex: As many of the Global-RS members know, English isn't my first language. I had problems writing guides and information in English at the time, but I realized that people don't care about grammatical errors, so I felt confident that it was good enough. I can't really remember why I wanted to start this site, but I didn't have much to do at the time so I had plenty of time to make a RuneScape site. Initially, we were 5 people who wanted to make a site. I did the coding, which was only basic HTML, but the others quickly lost interest and I did nearly everything myself for months.

Anna Molly: Why did you continue with GRS if though it seemed to be dieing a couple of times, and what kept you going through the times when the site was failing?
Aliensvortex: I really don't know. I think it was because I had a lot of time to work on the site, so it didn't bother me. Also, I learned a lot by working on the site. I only knew basic HTML when I started, then I started learning CSS to make layout updates easier. After a few months, I realized that I couldn't update every single page every time I wanted to tweak the menu or header, so I started learning PHP. Ever since I made my first web page when I was 10, I've loved to do that. Global-RS seemed to go quite well and it was really exciting to see the visitor numbers slowly increase. After I bought a domain name for the site and other people became active, I simply couldn't just shut down the site, so I felt responsibility towards the visitors and the site.

Anna Molly: Why create an Item Database? Are there any plans for a persons database?
Aliensvortex: Why not? It was a challenge to make something more advanced and I simply like to code, so coding an item database was perfect for me. When I had completed the code, I couldn't simply leave it, so I spent weeks adding items to the database. There are no plans to make a person database at the moment, I've never really used those and I think we should focus on other sections that are more important.

Anna Molly: Why don't you bring back the stat signatures?
Aliensvortex: Who said I wouldn't? The old code was really slow and overloaded the servers so I had to take the stat signatures offline, but I may start working on them again when I get more time.

Anna Molly: There have been rumours of new site renovations. What will these be like and what are the purposes and thinking behind these new additions?
Aliensvortex: I am a perfectionist - there's always room for improvement. Currently, there are hundreds of badly written lines of code for every guide section, so it obviously takes a while to update and the administration control panel is also poorly coded and inconsistent. I had many ideas for the site but realized that it would take a while to implement everything with the old code. So I've started from scratch - a completely new code which is much faster and smaller. For example, the new code will only need 3 files to display ALL the guides - contrary to the dozens that exist today. However, don't expect it to be something completely new; the new layout will be very similar to the current one. The biggest difference will be in the backend code and the administration panel - we will get the ability to give many people access to it once it's done.

Anna Molly: Where would you like to see the website like a year from now?
Aliensvortex: I have no idea. The site recode will allow having more people working on the content, so I hope the site's content will be significantly improved in a year.

Anna Molly: Any other future plans for GRS that you would care to share with the media?
Aliensvortex: I have a lot of ideas and plans! I am working on new calculators which are much faster and easier to use than the current advanced calculators, and most of the code is done, we just have to add all the items. We'll obviously add other great features in the future, but I feel that I've revealed too much already. Just keep in mind that the site will never be finished and I'll always have some great ideas, so be sure check back now and then!

Last update: 30-Dec-2007
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