Behind The Sites: A Mini Series Profiling Mac Webmasters
#1: MacTeens' Jonathan Claydon

by Joey Cooper

Welcome to our new series profiling the people behind many Mac websites! Today we've got an interview with Jonathan Claydon, the webmaster at MacTeens.

Q: MacTeens has been around for quite some time now. When did it launch originally and how did it come about?

Jonathan: The official launch date was Jan. 1, 1999, almost a year ago. The whole concept started about November of last year. At the time I was running a small little operation called SpreadTheMac. I got this e-mail from Neil (who, naturally, I didn't know at the time). Anyway, he wanted to have his rather small website merge with STM. The deal was done after after 2 months of playing around, we finally got MacTeens out of the whole thing.

Q: What's your job at MacTeens?

Jonathan: I'm the webmaster. I handle a majority of the online operations. Making sure that links work, images are placed just right and keeping the FTP server in some type of order. Neil and Jay help a lot with this too.

Q: What kind of computer setup do you have?

Jonathan: Right now I've got a Blue and White G3/400, 128MB of RAM, 12GB HD, CD, and Zip. I have a 17" Sony 200ES monitor, some Cozo speakers, a Stylus 740i printer, a DSL connection and plenty of games. I've got some grand plans to expand this though.

Q: MacTeens recently went through a redesign. How involved were you with making the new look? And can we expect to see this design stay for a while?

Jonathan: I did nearly all the work. I'm not complaining, I enjoyed doing it all. The site really needed a facelift and a simpler way to get things updated everyday. I also cut out some of the fat (like, incorporating the columns of the past with exclusives). Oh yes, this design is going to be around for a while and don't really look for any major changes for a good long while. Even if we do change, it's not going to be nearly as radical. I can't tell you anything else, because then I would have kill you :-)

Q: Who else works at MacTeens?

Jonathan: There's Neil Sroka who lives up in Chicago. He runs the management side of things, arranging things to get reviewed, and other things. Jay Zehngebot (takes a couple tries to pronounce that last name right) is our one and only minion whom we hired over the summer. I met Jay through working at the MacAddict Forums and eventually wound up working with him on MacTeens as well. Jay assists with web design but mostly just kills Neil and I in Quake 3 (he's been playing since the whole test started).

Q: How much time a week do you regularly spend on MacTeens?

Jonathan: It takes about an hour's worth of work a day to keep things going.. The update for the day only takes about 20 minutes or so. But, arranging exclusives and such to run for the next day takes a while, as most are written the night before they go up. Then you have to notify the proper people to ensure that lots of people get to see the exclusive that was worked on so hard.

Q: What's your favorite game right now?

Jonathan: I'd have to go with Quake 3 Arena on this one. My G3 makes the game look absolutely lovely. Plus its completely addictive. I have the Unreal Tournament Demo to, but I like the weapons of Quake better.

Q: And your favorite game of all time?

Jonathan: That's a real toss up there. I've played all kinds of games and loved them all. SimCity 2000 was my fav for a while. Then along came Myth II. Then I got a polygon crunching G3 and I discovered 3D gaming. StarCraft and Brood War were also totally addictive as is Quake 3 Arena. I love them all!

Go ahead and give MacTeens a visit... thanks for your time Jonathan!

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