The Seventh Column has a rich history of game nights and community projects stretching back farther than many can recall. While the times have changed, and will always continue to, the Seventh Conflux stands as a vanguard; bringing the Seventh Column's rich culture and traditions into the new times. Today we bring you, The Seventh Column, a Community Joe interview to read through. [b]Q:[/b] Who are you and what do you do? [b]A:[/b] I am El Burninator. I'm the founder of the group [i]The Friends List[/i] (make sure to italicize that for emphasis on its awesomeness), the Supdate Extraordinaire, and a Bungie Community advocate. For the most part, I wander the forums and groups of the Seventh Column, looking for quality posts to put in the weekly Bungie Community Humpday Supdates. That is, when I'm not harrassing TFL or 7CX members. [b]Q:[/b] Sounds like you're quite the social butterfly. What's it like managing a group of that size? Any tips for the aspiring group builders out there? And how do you, in detail, create the supdates that we see every week? I'm sure it's no easy task. [b]A:[/b] At first, running TFL was a ton of work. Just to keep it alive, the other mods and I had to post new threads constantly to artificially boost the activity. Nowadays, however, TFL is pretty self-sustaining. I could honestly vanish for a week, and not much would happen. For those building a group today, I'd say the most important thing is to be genuine. Too many times, people start groups with the hopes of getting a huge number of people as a token of personal success. The important part of having a group is that you find it fun to participate in, and you put the best interests of your members before your own when making the difficult decisions. The other important thing to remember is that you can't make everyone happy, and the larger your group is, the louder the dissent is going to be, regardless of whatever decision you make. People will leave your group. It's unavoidable. The goal is to make it so that the people who choose to hang around don't regret it. As for the Supdates, that's just pure boredom being formed into something productive. It's the Stumble-Upon of forum news. When I first start a supdate, I look for ongoing community events. Contests, game nights, etc. Once I know which nonrepetitive things are happening, I put down the catagories that you'll see every week; Community Game Night, Underappreciated Gems, What's Going On?, the Group Spotlight, and a few more areas that are debuting soon. Then it's just pure, unadulterated linking. I type it sentence by sentence, using any verb or subject as a victim to my linking. If the sentence is "Welcome to the 6th Supdate," then "Welcome" and "6th" could be hyperlink victims. I link the living Hell out of everything. It gives it character, and it takes forever. Recently, I've made sure to keep a Microsoft Word tab open, where I copy/paste the supdate as I progress through it, because every week I end up deleting an hour of work when I hit an errant backspace. Normally, a Supdate will take between 1 and 2 hours, and be around 4-6 pages in a Word document. I'm hoping to increase that in the coming weeks with the addition of some new catagories though. [b]Q:[/b] Great words of advice, Burn. I'm sure even the more seasoned users appreciate the insight. You don't make a successful group and keep it running like that without the right idea of what you're doing. And that's one hell of a process for Supdates - not a lot of people could (or would want to) do that. Would it make it easier if people would suggest content to you for the Supdates? Or are you wanting to be more of a lone wolf? I'm sure many of your readers would like to get shout outs for the threads/events they make outside of what we do in Seventh Conflux. And I'm sure that you'd have DeeJ shaking in his boots if you were to run for Community Manager of Bnet. If you were given a chance to, would you? [b]A:[/b] As far as Supdates go, every little bit counts. If you have a well thought-out thread that you feel didn't get the attention it deserved, or you're starting up a group and want some free advertising, PMing me to put it in the Supdate will be mutually beneficial. Even if you're a story writer or artist, I'd be more than happy to put you in, and it would add content for the community to see. So yes, if people suggested content for the Supdates, that'd be a big boost for them. Now, if given the chance to be Community Manager, would I take it? No. Probaby not. I wouldn't be able to get away with my cheeky shenanigans nearly as often, and I get yelled at by enough angry users on a daily basis as it is. That, and Bungie couldn't afford me. [b]Q:[/b] Good! Maybe you'll get some help on that in the time to come. I'm totally not implanting the thought to do that in your subconscious right now, my dear reader. And I see your point, Burn. You're an exotic user whom attracts enough hate as it is... sort of like the Gjallarhorn. You know what they say, "they hate us cause they ain't us". Anyway, aside from the horrible jokes and/or references, is there anything else that you would like to share with us before I wrap this interview up? Perhaps if you lift or not? [b]A:[/b] The only thing I lift is food into my mouth. But really, the last thing I have to say is that if you really want to have fun on the forums, or anywhere in general, then you need to learn how to take things at face value, and be able to laugh at yourself. A lot of people try so hard to be right 100% of the time, when it's really not that important in the whole scheme of things. As one Joseph Dirte once said, "Life's a garden. Dig it." _________________________________________________________________________________________________ Wise words from a wise man. As with every interview I wish we could keep on going, but that ends our interview with El Burninator. From tips on mega group building to briefly thinking of what it would be like to replace the ever popular DeeJ, we learned a few things today. Be on the lookout for more Community Joe interviews from us in the future! If you haven't yet, be sure to follow our group to keep up to speed with our projects and/or join to take part in conversations with us. [url=https://www.bungie.net/en/Clan/Forum/520845]Seventh Conflux[/url]