Who's Dman - Issue 18A: Interview With Graeme

(editor's note: issue 18 has been broken into 3 parts to allow for easier readability -- Duncan)

Gearing up for D'Cathalon
Dspot woke me up Early in the morning. He licked my face and jumped off the bed before I knew what was going on. I looked at the clock and it was 4am. *whew* this was gonna be a long day. I got up, got myself streached out and ready to go. Dspot was sitting next to the door with his leash, ready to go out jogging. Dsun was still not up. I put DsunGlasses © on and started to run. Being the Dsun was not up and I had my Dsunglasses © on, it was difficult to see. I ran into several trash cans and a light pole. But when I ran into the cop down on 64th and vine, I broke my little bottle of... wait, that's a song..hmm.

I did run into graeme though. He was bright and chipper. I had to find out why. "It's a couple hours earlier here". Hmm, that's right, the Site Fights doesn't have a time zone. This could be trouble when we try to market Dwatch © . I decided to ask Graeme a few questions. Espically since he'd been the one to help get Dspot running. Here's what we Talked about.

	DUncle	When did you become involved with the Site Fights?
	Graeme	Oooh. Not sure. How does "a while ago" sound? =) Seriously, probably sometime around May '97. At least that's what the filestamp on my "Site Fights Approved" star says.. =)
	DUncle	How many hats (jobs) have you had around the Site Fights?
	Graeme	Have had? Hmm, let me start with what I do know, and then we'll work from there. Actually, there's very little I used to do that I don't do any more.. *Graeme goes to his CGI archive* *smile* DPatrol Deputy Dpatrol Deputy Webring Voting System Counter System Webring System DSpot (tech side mainly) Occasional birthday book setup Egg System (tech side only) Find new scripts for The Site Fights Other people's problem solving =D I think that's it for now. I used to: Maintain the DPatrol and Fairy banner system that we used to run at the bottom of each page. Can't think of anything else. I guess just the one
	DUncle	What has been your favorite project to work on?
	Graeme	DSpot by far. But boy did he tire me out fast, and I'm young too!
	DUncle	Are there any projects you're workin on that you can let us in on?
	Graeme	Let's put it this way. I have some ideas, but I haven't proposed them to DMan yet. I only dropped him a few hints last week to get some specifics. He (and Nick) have also sent a couple my way, and all I'll say is that they fit in with the counters..
	DUncle	Have Dman and Nick kept you busy (If not, I've got more ideas...hehe)?
	Graeme	Yup. No problemo there. =D
	DUncle	What do you do in your Spare time (do you have any)?
	Graeme	Spare Time? SPARE TIME??? Could you define that? =D
	DUncle	How many different scripts have you written in the Site Fights (what do they all do)?
	Graeme	Well, you see most of them above, since I maintain them, but I'll go over them again really quickly: Counters - obvious DSpot - see http://www.thesitefights.com/buttons/dspot.html Eggs - see http://www.thesitefights.com/buttons/eggs/ Voting System - counts all your votes so that the team leaders don't have to do it manually Webring - I duplicated the system at webring.org because they were having a lot of server problems back in March
	DUncle	How hard was it to potty train Dspot?
	Graeme	HARD!! Until that was done, I had to keep him on a real tight leash. Actually, we had him pretty much potty-trained before we put the signs up to his home, but even so, I'm still fine-tuning his manners. But seriously, to potty train Dspot required the co-operation of all of DFamily. Thanks for bearing with me on all those Spot Data files, you guys!!! =)
	DUncle	Do you have any ideas you're looking forward to putting into action in the Site Fights?
	Graeme	Yup. Not going to say more. =)
	DUncle	In your mind, Who's Dman?
	Graeme	How did I know you'd ask that? =) Well, I'll tell you who DMan IS NOT. He doesn't run a big company out of TSF, he doesn't make tons of money, he isn't some self-centered webmaster centred on copyright protection and such. I mean, there are plenty of imitation-Site Fights sites out there (but none as good as us, IMO! =) ). DMan is a guy with a dream. (Where have I heard that before). Just like any of us. Except that he acted on his dream, and made it come true. I guess simply put, DMan is just a simple friendly guy with an imagination. Of course, he's kind, caring, etc.., but so are (I dare say) all of DFamily (deputies, fairies, wee ones, spirits, team leaders and their assistants, etc..). I'd be hard-pressed to find someone in all of DFamily who doesn't have the same attitude as DMan towards all of TSF. And if someone doesn't have that attitude, chances are they don't know what the Spirit of The Site Fights is, and probably doesn't want to. To end off what is quickly becoming a book =), DMan is just an ordinary hard-working, caring, friendly guy who will listen to you when you need to be listened, and will point you in the right direction when you need it. Other than that, he doesn't interfere much.

As we talked I noticed the Dsun was starting to Rise. I put Dsunglasses © back on and I saw something I wasn't expecting. Dspot ran over to two ladies that were coming towards us. As they got closer I noticed that it was Odette and Dfun. From what I'd heard, these two were seldom apart. Dspot was jumping up and down and rolling over in front of Dfun. He seemed to know her well. Guess I was gonna have to start closing the windows at night.

In the next parts, Who's Dman? interviews Some spirits (18b), and Dwombat (18c)...

Click here for an index of the archive, or go on to issue eighteen-b.

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(This page written sometime in 1998 by DUncle. Layout updated January 2001, by Duncan. Enjoy!)