The Fluther Blog

You might know him as the moderator who doesn’t sleep, the one with the sexy Brit accent or even as the energetic and successful Designer/Software Developer. This is because richardhenry wears many hats.

He has played an integral role in Fluther for almost two years now. As an ex-community manager and moderator, he has put in countless hours into helping maintain the Jelly community. As a 19 year old computer genius, he has been interviewed several times for his popular projects, including Cursebird. It’s safe to say that we are very proud to have him as part of our community and this interview sheds some more light into his personal and professional life.

How did you find Fluther and what made you stay?

This really frustrates me because I have absolutely no idea. I don’t remember how I found Fluther at all. I think the conversation I had with Andrew and Ben in the chatroom was what made me stay. They were really honest about their ambitions for the site and how they felt about everything, and I thought it was pretty charming. I wanted to stick around to see how things grew. It turns out very well.

The Fluther women need to know. Are you seeing someone?

I thought me and you were an item?

You are known on fluther for your accent. Is there a particular accent that you really fancy?

Lily Allen.

What field in computers are you involved in? English, please.

I run a small company called Fantastic that recently became a partnership between me and someone else. We hire out to another developer on a project-by-project basis. Basically, we make things on the computer. Mostly websites, and more recently we’ve been working on an iPhone app for a client. These things on the computer are either useful or entertaining, sometimes both, and we make them either for ourselves and for other people. The latter is where the money comes from. Our most fun client so far has been Infinity Ward, the company behind the video game Call of Duty 4 Modern Warfare.

What drives you to be so ambitious at an age when many others are so unmotivated?

I want to earn money and to do fun things in the process. That’s it really. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with being either motivated or unmotivated, you can have a great lifestyle either way. I’ve decided what I want though, and I have a lot of ideas about how to get there and interesting things to do along the way. I’m so determined because I have a feel for how fun and interesting it can be.

When is Salt in Your Popcorn coming back?

For those unfamiliar, Salt was a “Last.fm for movies” I was working on early last year. In answer to the question, it died. I’m really sorry. We ran out of juice, and man time. I became too busy with other projects to give it the attention it deserved, and Austin (the guy I was working with) went to study some advanced maths course at Oxford. We simply didn’t have the ability to get it done. I’m working on other things, but I think about Salt a lot. It’s my baby, and it’ll happen one day. Watch this space.

Your podcast, “The Tea Talk” with Joe Ribbons, is no longer available on iTunes. If you are still doing it, where would we find it, and if not, any plans to do another podcast in the future?

Ha, we ran out of things to talk about. Maybe there’ll be some variety of podcast-type thing involving me again. More likely to be one involving Joe, though.  Follow him on twitter.

What projects are you currently involved in? And how can the jellyfish keep updated with your projects?

Follow me on Twitter. Be sure to introduce yourself.

Do you have any advice for other aspiring web developers since you have been so successful at it at such a young age?

It’s obvious when you think about it, but people know lots of developers and designers. Don’t just be a developer or designer. Make a niche for yourself. I built Cursebird, a real-time feed of people swearing on Twitter. It cropped up in Wired magazine, landed me an interview, being mentioned on the Twitter blog, and many other things. As a result, I’m a “real-time feed of things happening on Twitter” specialist. It’s what I do. It’s not all I do, but it’s certainly got my name out there. I get an email every day from someone asking something Twitter Search related, and a good portion of them are requests to discuss an idea they’ve had. We cherry pick the most interesting ones and see if there’s a deal in there somewhere. We’re working on a lot of things right now. Part of the success of Cursebird was luck, but if that hadn’t worked out I would have moved onto something else to try and get attention. The best businesses are novel and interesting, and they don’t just do what everyone else is doing. Designers and developers often fail to think of themselves as businesses that need selling points.

What has your experience been “working” for Bendrew?

Didn’t you see the article exposing the scandal?

Moderators live in dormitories on the site, 100 to a room, arriving with a few possessions and a bucket to wash their clothes. “The job here is so-so,” one moderator said. “We have to work too hard and I am always tired. It’s like being in the army. They make us stand still for hours. If we move we are punished by being made to stand still for longer. “We have to work overtime if we are told to and can only go back to the dormitories when our boss gives us permission. If they ask for overtime we must do it.”

Do you miss community management?

Community management was fun, and interesting. I wanted to get behind a reasonably sized community website to get some experience with that sort of thing. I’m glad I got involved. I do miss it sometimes, but I’m so busy now. I put in a year and a few months; I think that’s a good stretch.

Would you like to give any advice to the jellies as an ex-moderator?

The moderators aren’t out to get you. If lots of your stuff gets moderated, it’s because you suck.

You were in USA recently for the first time, what was your impression?

It was great. I’ve fallen in love with Andrew’s cat. Hollywood is crazy.

How cute is Andrew’s cat?

Not cute at all. Basil is a great cat that I like a lot, but he’s also a dick. He’ll bat you with his claws for fun.

What is your favorite life lesson?

More a business lesson than a life lesson. Don’t announce your products or features ahead of time. This is something I’m so guilty of to date, and am in the process of changing. So many things I’ve started have been aborted early on (or even mid-way on). It’s so important that you keep yourself flexible to kill — or shelve, to use a nicer word — ideas when better things come up. When people get excited, it makes it hard to say “we could be doing something better right now”. Remain agile.

Is there an annoyingly American slant to Fluther from a non-U.S. user point of view?

There’s an American slant, I don’t think it’s an annoying one.

You will be moving into your own place soon. Is there an update on that? Are you still planning to get a cat to move in with you?

I will. I’m moving into Leeds city, which should be fun. I know a lot of people there and it’s a fun place to be. I considered moving out to the States through one of my clients, but I don’t think I want to entertain that idea just yet. Plus it would make working sorta hard, because the hours wouldn’t sync up with the UK very well. Plus I love my friends here. The time isn’t right yet. We’ll see about the kitty.

Do you play any instruments? What type of music are you interested in?

Instruments? Nope. I played piano way back, and then I played guitar for a while. For some reason I just can’t get together the patience to learn an instrument. The music I’m most interested in is DJ-set type stuff, and electronica. Remixes. If I had to pick a favourite artist of all time, I wouldn’t be able to choose between Air and Justice.

What song is most often stuck in your head?

“Get a Move On” by Mr. Scruff has been stuck in my head recently. It changes all the time. Oh, and that stupid Mama Do song by Pixie Lott.

Are you still a Lily Allen fan?

The attached photo is just for you. You can use it as the article photo if you want.

What is one country you really want to visit or revisit?

Canada was amazing. I visited after I missed a flight home from LA. I want to visit New Zealand. Japan, simply because it’s so different. I pretty much want to visit everywhere.

Boxers, briefs, or commando?

Boxers. I wear Aussie Bums, or Red Torpedo. Comfy stuff. I hate going commando, with it slapping around and everything.

It was a running joke on Fluther that you would mod at the expense of sleep. How many hours of sleep do you get a night?

Anywhere between none and twenty. I do an all nighter probably once or twice a week, either due to working all day and then going out all night, or working all night and then going out all day. Or working all day and night. Feel free to take bets on how long it’ll be before I burn out.

What question did you want to be asked? Will you answer it now?

It was with a friend’s step sister, and it wasn’t that great.

Thank you for taking the time to answer these questions!

Congratulations to eambos, eponymoushipstr, shrubbery, whatthefluther, Marina and everyone else for contributing questions!