Xantos: Off To New Adventures In 2009
At the beginning of the new year, Xantos talks about "creative melting pots", "friendly places", the life in Gibraltar and planned novelties on PokerStrategy 2009.
The interview was held by tivaa
PokerStrategy: Hello xantos! First of all happy New Year! Almost every community member probably knows you already, but please introduce yourself anyway!
xantos: Hello everybody, and a happy and healthy new year! My name is Lutz, I am 28 years old and responsible for the conceptional development of the website PokerStrategy.com
amongst other things. Since 2006, I have been a freelancer, and after completing my information science studies in the spring of 2007, I have been working for you "around the clock".
PokerStrategy: How did this happen?
xantos: In the past, I played a lot of Starcraft/Broodwar - that's where I got in touch with PokerStrategy in early 2005.
At first, my mindset towards the project and poker in general was very sceptical - which probably lead to me not playing poker myself until 2006. As the crucial phase of my studies and my beginning work for PokerStrategy came together at the same time, I still haven't played that much so far. However, thanks to ,
& Co., I'm at least up to date theoretically. 🙂
I started as a translator for the English site, but it rapidly became multi-faceted and colourful. Eventually, there was always too much to do rather than too little due to the rapid growth.
PokerStrategy:
What exactly does your working area include? Could you give us a few examples of your various fields of activity during the past year?
xantos: I mainly make sure that cooperation between education, community management and technical product development works smoothly, and try to identify early on where we have to improve most urgently.
In 2008, a lot has happened here. We started communities in new languages, put a lot of new content live, and the website has also improved in many different places.
The Community features which we included in the past weeks catch one's eye - however, we have already prepared a lot for 2009 in the background to considerably improve each area of PokerStrategy.com.
Expressed in numbers, 2008 has been very good of course: To add so much in the fourth year and to increase the number of members from less than 0.6 to over 1.4 million surprised us as well. Over the course of the whole year, there have been over 3.7 million new posts in the forum. We weren't even able to catch up with the expansion of the workforce, which resulted in things not always working out as smoothly as requested by the community.
PokerStrategy: Keyword community: How do you see the development of the communities of PokerStrategy?
xantos: Internationally, we have achieved a lot in 2008, for instance, we started our two Asian communities. For us it is important that everything still fits together with the expansion, and that every PokerStrategist profits from it: Only via growth are we able to afford the constantly increasing investments in content and promotions.
Our German community is still the most active one with 7,000 forum posts per day. It still delights me every day when I realise what creative melting pots of creative and intelligent people have joined us as active members of our communities.
However, I was also worried at times over the sometimes harsh tone in the German community, and the ensuing discussions. Nonetheless, I am very confident that the forum will not only become an even more active, but also a very friendly place, in which old dogs and newcomers can feel comfortable.
With a tidied up page and simpler handling, we also want to try internationally to get the rather passive members of PokerStrategy.com to participate more actively. This doesn't just help with the general activity, but also the players themselves: An active member is on average ten times as successful as a passive lurker. The knowledge from the hand evaluations as well as the motivation and the input of the other players in the forum seems to be a very important steppingstone for a successful career as a poker player.
PokerStrategy:
This sounds promising! Let's move to another of your fields of activity: Besides your job as a project developer, you also write on the Confidential-Blog - what is the goal of this blog?
xantos: The idea for the Confidential-Blogs came to mind as there is always a lot to tell concerning new developments. I write it in English so that members from other communities can read it as well.
Starting this year, I also hope to add pics from our daily office routine more often. Naturally, I am thankful for your suggestions concerning what I should blog about, and what interests you as a community. Maybe I can also get one or the other Confidential bloggers to write something again as well – a one-man-show is probably a bit boring for some readers.
PokerStrategy:
You mentioned the office routine: The company headquarters are in Gibraltar at the southern tip of Spain. This sounds rather exotic and far from routine - how do you live down there?
xantos: Gibraltar has definitely moulted in the past 1-2 years! If it has been "off the beaten track" for quite some time, you can feel really great here nowadays.
It might not be a second Monaco yet, but there are many beautiful places - and not five minutes away from the office, there is a wonderful new dock area with many nice restaurants and bars.
Being so close to Spain with its culture, the free time activities from surfing to skiing and the great food add to it as well.
PokerStrategy:
Keyword free time: What do you do down there in the South when you take a break from your job at PokerStrategy and poker?
xantos: I really enjoy spending a lot of time with a bunch of colleagues here at PokerStrategy, either for a coffee or a beer every now and then - although the choice is rather limited and you often have to fall back on Foster's. Chats about politics, economy and other exciting topics are part of a good evening for me.
My biggest hobby, however, is probably cooking. Thanks to the fresh Mediterranean ingredients I really get into it thoroughly. I hope we'll have a few more cooking duels this year as this goes along with my competitive nature and my love for cuisine at the same time.
Furthermore, I try to spend time with my girlfriend regularly, despite the distance as she studies in Aachen, Germany. Luckily, she is rather flexible as a student and is often able to visit me. In case she isn't around, there's time for a round of StarCraft every now and then. 😉
PokerStrategy: How did you celebrate the new year? Did you also spend New Year's Eve in Gibraltar?
xantos: After the community meeting in Aachen in mid-December, I unfortunately came down with the flu. Thanks to the treacherous sense of well-being from Wick Daymed (I advise against it!), I carried it with me so that I was still suffering from it over Christmas and New Year's Eve.
To be fit again in Gibraltar in the new year, I decided to have a quiet New Year's Eve session with my family. The first time in at least ten years I'd say – it was nice as well for a change. 🙂
PokerStrategy: Let's become a bit more "confidential" again at the end of the interview: How will the journey continue in 2009? What can we expect on PokerStrategy.com?
xantos: We definitely have planned a lot. This is for sure: Each single area of PokerStrategy should become stronger and easier to use. That this is desperately needed can be seen almost daily via the feedback, like, for instance, the video section.
Overall, PokerStrategy should become considerably more interactive with the changes. To list up a few keywords: It should be easily possible to e.g. navigate from a video to an appropriate article or coaching session, or to other videos by the same producer.
The comments will also be pepped up. You probably know it: Commenting on a two-week old video often feels pointless. Who will still reply? We want to get away from this, and towards an ongoing and meaningful communication between the members amongst each other, as well as the experts.
Besides that, we naturally want to improve our content: hand evaluations will become much more convenient thanks to cooperation between the Elephant and the website. Content like videos, coaching sessions and the quiz will be constantly developed so as to not just be the clear Number 1 in the overall package, but also in possibly every area, in German as well as internationally.
To implement this, we are definitely ooking for a few dedicated people for our team. A glance on our job offers page is always worth it!
PokerStrategy: So it will advance with great strides. 🙂 Do you have a few final words?
xantos: Sure! First of all I want to say thanks to the whole community for the great year of 2008. Your successes, but also your feedback and your criticism motivate greatly – and make our jobs special.
Then I naturally wish all of you a successful new year – and hope that PokerStrategy will take a few more big steps forward after its fourth birthday in January.
Another quiet wish is that more of those who began their poker career with us actively take part in the community, mainly in the forum. This does not just boost your poker game, but also helps PokerStrategy.com as a website and poker school.
PokerStrategy: Many thanks for the interview, xantos! We hope that you keep us up to date on the Confidential-Blog, and that you will remain as our staff member for a long time to come!
