Interview: Patrick Clinger

[Chase-AdEx]

Chase-AdEx submitted a new Article:

Interview: Patrick Clinger

If you have ever spent some time looking for a free hosted forum, you have probably come across the daddy of all free and hosted forum options - ProBoards. Now celebrating its tenth anniversary, and its upcoming v5 release, I got the pleasure, and honour to speak to Patrick Clinger, the ProBoards Founder about his baby..

So, for anybody who doesnt know who you are then, what is it that you do and what prompted you to start ProBoards originally?
My name is Patrick Clinger, I am the President and CEO of ProBoards, Inc. I had the idea for ProBoards in the late 1990s. At the time, I ran the web site HostedScripts.com. The site offered a variety of free hosted services (guestbooks, counters, and even a basic forum). I saw that forums were one of the most popular features the site offered, so I decided to make a new site where forums would be the main focus. That site, as it turns out, is ProBoards.

Whats a typical day like in the life of Patrick Clinger? Is ProBoards a nine-to-five job for you?
While I do work 9-5 during the week, I would not say that my job at ProBoards is just that. Being that ProBoards is a huge community, I don't just leave the site behind when the clock hits 5pm. I definitely go on ProBoards multiple times while at home to check on things or just to talk with people in the community.

With ProBoards celebrating its tenth anniversary this year, when you first started did you ever expect that a decade later, you would still be going so strong? Do you have any special plans to celebrate reaching double digits?
I didn't know from day one that we would get this far, but after a couple years in I was determined not to look back. I definitely think that ProBoards is here to stay and I am looking forward to the next ten years. Our sights are definitely set forward to the future. In proper ProBoards fashion, we had a thread on our support forum to celebrate.

What are you hopes and plans for the upcoming years? Where do you see ProBoards in another decade?
In the future, we see ProBoards as been more than just a forum host, but that aspect of our business will remain our primary focus. I don't want to tip my cards too much, so you will just have to wait and see what the future holds.

With the big v5 release around the corner, will you be hoping to celebrate your tenth birthday with the release of this? What most excited you about the upcoming release?
That is...

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[Lisa]

Nice interview, Thanks Chase and Patrick!

 

[Shawn Gossman]

Great interview. Pro-Boards was my very first forum ever. I liked it so much I had like 6 of them going at one time, LOL! I liked pro-boards more than phpbb2

 

[Mikey]

Proboards, ah, that brings back memories

Good interview

 

[Paul M]

Interesting. Ive never actually heard of ProBoards until reading this.

 

[Blind Bandit]

Interesting. Ive never actually heard of ProBoards until reading this.

lol I'm not surprised.

I don't know about others but I probably won't stick with proboards to V5 I will probably check it out but, I'm done with proboards I think. it was a good start but now its not working the way I need it too.

Good interview.

 

[Lynne]

Nice interview. What is with Staff asking this question:

Do you like long walks on the Californian beaches? Why or Why not?

Are you guys taking some secret survey or something? And he's listed as living in the UK, so I doubt he gets much of a chance to walk on our California beaches.

 

[MjrNuT]

@Lynne -- LOL picking out the interesting parts. So I will want to know which beach. Southern can be year round as opposed to northern ones, know what I mean?

 

[Lisa]

Nice interview. What is with Staff asking this question:

Are you guys taking some secret survey or something? And he's listed as living in the UK, so I doubt he gets much of a chance to walk on our California beaches.

No we're just desperately jealous because our beaches are so crap lol

 

[Wizzard]

No we're just desperately jealous because our beaches are so crap lol

Especially Blackpool beach, well the sea anyway

 

[Chase-AdEx]

Blackpool doesn't really have a beach, just a terrible coastline.

 

[Wizzard]

Blackpool doesn't really have a beach, just a terrible coastline.

The last time I walked on it, it was a large beach