Interview with Jonathan Wainwright (AKA Waindigo)

[The Sandman]

We've just published our Interview with Jonathan Wainwright (AKA Waindigo).

Here's a sample -

What is your full time occupation now, and what was it previously?

I now work full-time as a XenForo developer. When I left university, my first job was a training contract with an accounting firm. After nearly 3 years, things got a bit messy and I was threatened with legal action over some software that I had written that the company decided they owned. I had already decided that I wanted to do something more IT-based, so I left and went back to university. After a year at university, I applied for another accounting company in an IT role, but just before I was due to start the job they received a devastating reference from my old boss and said they had no choice but to revoke the job offer. At that time, I thought my life was effectively over because I would struggle to get a job anywhere.

Which single add-on of yours are you proudest of?

This is difficult because the ones that I am most proud of are the ones which I want to spend time on to make them as good as I can, and then they become the ones I am least proud of because I don't have time, so they feel unfinished. The one that I am really excited about at the moment is Tabs by Waindigo – I have so much planned for it, and will hopefully actually have some time to make it into something really amazing.

 

[AndyB]

I enjoyed the article. Thank you, Sandman and Jonathan.

 

[Allan]

Nice interview, Jonathan seems to be a good personn.

 

[yavuz]

I had the pleasure to work with Jon. He always was very polite and helpful, such a joy to work with him. Great interview as well.

 

[Sage Knight]

A very nice interview. Was a pleasant read.

 

[Jon W]

Thanks so much @The Sandman for giving me the opportunity to share a bit of my story, and thanks everyone for the great feedback. It really means a lot!

 

[borbole]

Nice interview, Jonathan seems to be a good personn.

I agree. Jonathan I wish you all the best with your business and all the other endeavors.

Sandman, thanks for posting it. It was an interesting read.

 

[TPerry]

@Waindigo, I know the first time (when I first started using xenForo) that I thought someone had misspelled Wendigo. Said to myself - Self, don't know if you want to use anything by someone that is half demon.... but then saw you were from the UK and probably didn't even know what a wendigo was.
Some of the most useful add-ons I use are from you and @Chris Deeming. Ya'll are my go-to guys for the good stuff.

 

[Jon W]

Yer, that is a little unfortunate. It actually took quite some time for me to get Google to stop saying "did you mean wendigo?".

But no, I'm not a half demon. Just a regular sinner like everyone else.

Glad you find the add-ons useful.

 

[Claudio]

Jonathan, thank you for give us the opportunity to know more about you. I like almost all the addons you've created and you have done a fantastic job. XenForo is what it is thanks to coders like you that contribute with free addons, the great community and of course XF developers.

 

[Carlos]

I'm not a half demon.

And that's a bad thing, how?

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(Yes, I know the video is both contrasted dark, and is a lil blurry, not a lot of good videos of this mission.)
Pro Tip: Crank that volume up.

Nice interview, it's nice to learn a little bit about the addon creators...

 

[Jon W]

Thanks again for all your great comments. Is an absolute pleasure working with everyone in this community.

 

[Lone Wolf]

Great interview, John is a very talented coder and gives great support for his addons too.

 

[Wildcat Media]

From the interview...this is just...wow...

...but just before I was due to start the job they received a devastating reference from my old boss and said they had no choice but to revoke the job offer.

In the US, labor laws are such that the only "reference" a company can give, if asked, is to verify that the employee worked at their company. A nice company will write a letter of recommendation as a reference, but by law they are not allowed to give out negative information. But you went on to better things, so it's all good!

Great interview!

 

[Jon W]

From the interview...this is just...wow...

In the US, labor laws are such that the only "reference" a company can give, if asked, is to verify that the employee worked at their company. A nice company will write a letter of recommendation as a reference, but by law they are not allowed to give out negative information. But you went on to better things, so it's all good!

Great interview!

Thanks.

I probably shouldn't comment on this any further, although it was pretty clear to me that they had spent some serious money on legal advice before sending the reference. It actually took quite some effort just to get a copy of the reference. So, as you can imagine, seeing how vBulletin were abusing the legal system to throttle the growth of XenForo touched a nerve for me.

 

[Digital Doctor]

@Waindigo - are you making paid addons yet ?
Time for you to make some money !

 

[Digital Doctor]

Resource Managers by Waindigo 1.0.1a
Create multiple instances of Resource Manager on a single XenForo installation.

Holy crap. That's cool. Sounds too good to be true.

 

[Jon W]

@Waindigo - are you making paid addons yet ?
Time for you to make some money !

While members of this great community are still willing to contribute towards the development of add-ons AND allow for that work to be released under the usual Waindigo license (which it should be pointed out only allows non-commercial sites to use the add-on for free), then I am happy to continue to subsidise that and we will never release an add-on that everyone has to pay for.

 

[Digital Doctor]

While members of this great community are still willing to contribute towards the development of add-ons AND allow for that work to be released under the usual Waindigo license (which it should be pointed out only allows non-commercial sites to use the add-on for free), then I am happy to continue to subsidise that and we will never release an add-on that everyone has to pay for.

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Ahem, can you snuff out the incense plz ?
Is your custom working going *THAT* well ?
... even if it is ... as a group, xenforo.com members have lots of money to go around.
Financially stable xenforo addon coders benefit everyone, whether they know it or not.
Make some good paid stuff would 'ya. It's time for you to make the leap.

 

[The Sandman]

Ahem, can you snuff out the incense plz ?
Is your custom working going *THAT* well ?
... even if it is ... as a group, xenforo.com members have lots of money to go around.
Financially stable xenforo addon coders benefit everyone, whether they know it or not.
Make some good paid stuff would 'ya. It's time for you to make the leap.

I don't think Jonathan is acting on a whim (or under the influence of "incense"). He believes in what he's doing and he's happy with the way things are - at least that's my take on it from what he wrote in his interview.