Matt Harvey Interview

Biglines: Name?



Matt: Matt Harvey



Biglines:Locations?



Matt: Born and raised in Ottawa, Ontario. Ski at random
hills in the area (Edelweiss, Mont Ste-Marie, Tremblant).



Biglines:How did you come up with
the idea of Newschoolers.com?



Matt: I came up with the idea of Newschoolers.com when
I was sitting at work one day, bored out of my mind. There really
wasn't anything to do, so I decided to make a ski site. At the time,
there were only a couple small sites around (Free Ride Zone, Freeski
Online, Eskimo Films). When I started, I really had no intention
of it becoming so large. I just wanted to have a site with a couple
of profiles to help promote some unknown riders. The traffic to
the site grew so quickly right off the bat, so I thought I'd step
it up a little bit.



I wanted the site to be totally interactive so people on it could
talk with eachother. I found that people on the forum were passing
around ICQ numbers and wanting to talk with eachother, so it was
a perfect opportunity to put together a community. The first version
of the community was totally ghetto. Members could have a profile
(which looked almost exactly like the current ones), they could
send messages to eachother, and post articles. I didn't even have
my own message board yet! As time went on, and I continued put hours
and hours of time into the site, I created a message board and a
lot of the features that you see today. Once the message board was
up, the site just went off. New members every week, hundreds of
hits and over 10 whole posts a day; it was a dream come true!



The site then got kicked off three servers for using too much
bandwidth, I re-coded the entire thing from scratch, and added a
couple thousand lines of code. Today, those 10 posts a day have
turned into over a 1000, and the hits a day are well over 250,000.




Biglines:What are the best and
worste parts of running the site?



Matt: The best part of running Newschoolers.com is the
great people that I've met around the world. Living in Whistler
for the summer gave me the opportunity to speak face to face with
the members I've been talking with online for the last couple of
years. It's really great to see that the site has had a positive
influence on the ski industry, bringing skiers from literally all
over the world to one central meeting place. It makes me feel really
good when I read people complimenting eachother's pictures and videos,
or when a well-thoughtout discussion takes place on the message
board.



Of course with the good, comes some bad. Almost every moment of
my spare time is spent working on the site, or dealing with issues
related to it. There are over 9,500 members, so of course there
are going to be feuds, complaints, and people who are just on the
site to cause trouble. Sometimes it gets really frustrating and
I ask myself why I don't just throw in the towel. There are days
when I'll get 20 messages from people bitching and it's totally
draining. But then you'll get a message from a new member who thanks
you for making the site and is so happy that they found it, and
it really makes it all worth-while. The amount of positive energy
flowing around the site outways the bad things ten-fold, and when
I look at the big picture, there's no way that I could pack it in.




Biglines:What's your secret to
success?



Matt: I think that the secret behind the site's success
is quite simple: common sense. When dealing with thousands of people,
both members of the site and people in the industry, I find that
it's vital to treat everyone respectfully, and act professionaly
under any circumstances. No matter how old you are, or how you look,
if you always act professionally, ethically, and don't allow your
emotions to get in the way of important decisions, you're guarunteed
to be successful in life. It's really quite amazing how far ethical
and professional behaviour can take you.



Biglines:Who are your heros?



Matt: That's a really good question. I'm not sure if I have
any definite heros, but I do look up to some people. This will probably
sound wierd, but I really look up to Kid Koala. He's a 'turntabilism'
DJ. I really like how he sees the light in every situation and his
music is happy and relaxing. When he spins live sets, he'll mess
up, and give this shy grin as if he's an amateur, even though he's
one of the world's best.



I also really look up to the 'people' behind Armada. Simply because
their marketing campaign is killing it. They really haven't done
a thing to advertise, and they're the biggest thing since boy bands.




Biglines:What are some of your
goals?



Matt: I would really like to see Newschoolers.com be the
global community of free skiing, while remaining positive. We've
all seen large sites go down the tubes because negativity takes
over. With our active moderation system, and quest for positivity,
I hope to be able to avoid that. Skiing is really all about having
fun, and I want Newschoolers.com to reflect that.



Biglines:Shoutouts?



Matt: I would really like to thank Chris K O'Connell for
all the work he's done with me. Chris (aka CK) came on board in
the summer to help me with the media kit, and as time went on, we
quickly realised that we work really well as a team. Since the summer,
he's been putting his all behind Newschoolers helping with everything
from graphics to making media contacts. I really owe a lot more
to him than I can put here, but it's safe to say that without Chris'
help over the passed several months, Newschoolers.com would not
be where it is today.



I also want to thank Ryan from Freeskier Magazine, Jim and Kudo
from the 3DO company, and Johnny, Dave, and Karl from Poorboyz Productions.
These are the first people who really noticed the site's potential,
and started supporting everything we did.



I'd also like to thank all the members and guests on Newschoolers.com.
It's really something that the site has remained positive over the
years. Thanks to all the old-timers on the site for keeping it real
through the ups and downs!









'Hahha, I like the humpie guy! He's funny. I forget his name again even though he told me. But I know he has a humping icon and is funny like pizza.' -SDot