Interview with Josh Harmon from Quarterdown.com

A few months ago, a Redditor by the username of Jorsh started a thread inviting fellow Redditors to join him in creating a gaming website that would challenge the conventions of current gaming sites. Jorsh's real name is Josh Harmon, and this thread was the seed from which Quarterdown.com has sprouted.

Josh emphasized that he wanted the content of his site to not only be different and innovative, but substantial as well. To reach this goal, he would need the help of capable and inspired writers. I, for one, doubted that Quarterdown would ever come into fruition, but what I've seen this site accomplish during its short existence has surpassed my expectations, and will hopefully continue to do so.

I wanted to know how Josh accomplished this, so I asked =]

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Bold=Alphabet 1. Plain text= Josh Harmel

How hard was it to find the right people?

Fairly difficult, honestly.  Soliciting volunteer work for a site that doesn't exist yet may sound glamorous, but it's really a lot of trudging through writing samples and trying to pick out people with potential, even hidden potential.  There's a difference between having good ideas and being able to express them coherently, and there's also a difference between being a talented writer and having anything new to say about games.  Finding people who had both wasn't easy.

Do any of you guys know each other in RL?

No, but some of the writers are already building a great rapport.  I think you'll be seeing a podcast sometime in the near future.  We're either going to go for something that's super entertaining and humorously analytical or a 6 hour weekly discussion of pixel shaders.


What characteristics were you looking for in your team members?

Well, I think I already covered that above, but again: I wanted someone who had a unique perspective on games and a talented writer.  A good sense of humor helped, as well.

Do all of you have writing backgrounds, or is there an editor that makes sure every post is comprehensible?

Some of us have writing backgrounds, though none of us in an overtly professional sense.  My background's in academic writing, but I have some training in political journalism as well.  We've got a few people who work in the industry, and other people who come from a purely enthusiast standpoint.

I edit all the posts myself to ensure that they're presentable from a punctuation and grammar standpoint, and I'll occasionally solicit some further changes from the writer to improve flow and readability.


What is the biggest challenge of working with people over the internet?

Deadlines.  I don't have the hard-edge 1970s journalism advantage of calling employees into my office, shouting about deadlines, and then sexually harassing my secretary.  Times are changing.

Seriously, though, organizing everything over the internet across 6 or 7 different time zones can be a bit of a challenge, especially because I can't always get a hold of my writers when I need them.

Do you have any specific goals for this site?

Well, ideally, I'd like us to develop into a sort of side-dish to the bigger, news oriented sites.  The signal to noise ratio there is so high that I think it drowns out a lot of genuine discussion.  In terms of concrete things we're going to work on in the near future, we're going to be doing everything we can to empashize community and produce a wider variety of content.  We're adding a forum as soon as we can implement it, which will be a good place for the sorts of discussions that don't fit well into comments.

What was your inspiration?

Just a general distaste for how rare original, thoughtful content was on the bigger gaming sites.  Though if the night before launch was any indication, I also owe a great deal the fine people at Red Bull.

Who designed the site's layout? It rocks.

I mocked something up along these lines Photoshop, with a general sort of palette and layout, and then I sent it off to Ibrahim, one of our developers, who did some sort of voodoo that made it actually work and look better.  It was really a collaborative process for how things developed from there.

Clearly, this site shows how much potential the gamer community has. Have you had any other ideas for way of harnessing this potential?

Well, they're top secret at the moment, but I'll tell you that one of them has something to do with man-sized hamster balls.

Thanks for your time and humor, Josh. I wish you and the rest of the staff at Quarterdown.com the best.