Behind The Sites: A Mini Series Profiling Mac Webmasters
#5: MacAddict's Niko Coucouvanis

by Joey Cooper

Niko Coucouvanis is "Web Producer" for MacAddict. He took some time to answer a few of our questions, and here are the answers!

Q: As the Web Producer for MacAddict, what do your duties include?

Um, showing up every day... we're still hashing out the details. It'll be something like coordinating everything between the network affiliate manager, the tech gurus, art and editorial folks, and probably other people with more vague titles. Once we get everything worked out to run as a well-oiled machine, I'll be able to focus on actually writing for the site and taking care of site business in the Forums, the Art Gallery, and keeping other sections updated. I guess my duties are to do everything that I can't pass off to someone else.

Q: MacDaily and MacAddict's website recently merged, what do you like/dislike about the change?

I like it that now I have a team (Art Director, Web Guru, Content Editor, etc) where it used to be pretty much just me (and my dog) at home. We're still tweaking the new layout, but soon this teamwork thing will allow me to get down to the business of running the site and pumping out content like never before. I don't think there's anything I don't like about it - it's true there's no I in team, but there's an M and an E. There are some new concerns I haven't really had to deal with before, like Network Affiliates and getting my butt into the office every day, but I'm liking that so far.

Q: What kind of computer setup do you have?

Here at the office, I had a choice between a PowerBook G3 and a desktop G4, and I opted for the G4. Little did I know it's one of those Yikes jobbies I've been known to trash-talk - but I still like
it. That and a 17" NEC monitor and external floppy drive make up my work rig. Oh, and my briefcase - the VST FireWire hard drive I got to shuttle work stuff to my home-office and back. At the home-office, Bluto is still serving me righteously - that's my Blue G3 350 - the one I'm still perfectly content with, even though I've had it for over 7 months. In fact, I appreciate it even more now that I've had some face time with a G4 - my G3 (overclocked to 450 - don't tell) is noticeably faster than the 350 G4 for the non-AltiVec stuff I do (I haven't had this job long enough to start messing with the hardware).

Q: Do you have a favorite Mac author or columnist?

Lately, it's Rodney O. Lain. He tells it like it is.

Q: In an interview with MacAddict Readers Club last year, you were asked if you were going to drop the "Interim" from your title - you answered: "Not until Steve does." Do you think it's weird you were made permanent Web Producer at almost the same time Steve made himself permanent CEO of Apple?

Not in the least. Four-assed dolphins are weird - random coincidences are all lies. I figure Steve got word of my promotion and knew what he had to do. Now where's my private plane?

Q: Can you give us any hints of surprises coming in the future?

Oh, we've got all kinds of good stuff in the works: the iBorg is finally coming together after some dirty dog swiped the project iBook. Once I scrape together a machine capable of running the software, we'll get an office Webcam going. A Mac OS X-based Quake 3 server... that's just the whiz-bang stuff - we've also got big plans for the site's regular content, some new sections and tools, but I can't tell you about that yet.

Q: What's your absolute favorite part of working at MacAddict?

That's easy - I still love just working for MacAddict, being associated with the magazine that was my favorite long before I even dreamed of working here, getting a chance to spread the word and keep the addicts up on the latest developments and all that. Even better, now that I work onsite, I'm in the same room with the magazine editors - they're not only really smart, but also loads of fun.

Go ahead and give MacAddict a visit... thanks for your time Niko!

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