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Lincoln goes to Montreal: A glimpse inside Vanilla Forums, Inc

LincLinc Detroit Admin
edited September 2014 in General Banter

A few times a year I show up at Vanilla HQ in Montreal. We do have a strong remote contingent: @lvez‌ (ceo), Jeremy (vp sales), and Cas (sales) all split their time between home and the office, while Laura & Patrick (support) both work remotely all the time like me.

But, most of the team is in the office all the time: @Todd, @Tim, @JohnAshton‌ & @beckyvb‌ (devs), @Adrian (marketing), @FreddyP & Terrance (sales), Julie (customer success), Derrick (project mgmt), and Jess (office asst).

Tuesday will mark the first time all current employees have been in the same room. :) I've arrived a bit early so I'm spending Sunday morning at the office. I'll grab some better pics when other folks are around, but I snapped my view of the Official Vanilla Timekeeping Center from where I'm sitting while I'm here. ;)

We're going out Tuesday night to celebrate a company milestone. It's not for me to share the exact milestone, but it will suffice to say: we're doing well and knocking out our internal goals. :D

And hey, we're hiring in Montreal currently: http://vanillaforums.com/hiring I don't think they're currently hiring technical folks outside the province currently. Either I've ruined it for everyone or it's just the generous Montreal tax credits that make it far more affordable for a small company to hire here. ;) Feel free to apply from anywhere, just setting expectations early.

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Comments

  • TimTim Operations Vanilla Staff

    The milestone is

    Vanilla Forums COO [GitHub, Twitter, About.me]

  • AdrianAdrian Wandering Spirit Montreal MVP

    @linc, great idea and thanks for the warning about the pics :p

  • businessdadbusinessdad Stealth contributor MVP

    A bit too far to apply, but it would not have been a bad idea. :)

  • vrijvlindervrijvlinder Papillon-Sauvage MVP
  • whu606whu606 I'm not a SuperHero; I just like wearing tights... MVP

    It's a good first step, Lincoln, but I always think that the key to Risk - the office version is the stationery cupboard.

    Secure that, and victory is virtually assured.

  • peregrineperegrine MVP
    edited September 2014

    @Linc said:
    Lo, I have arrived and claimed Developer Isle in the name of Lincoln.

    Current status: fashioning a flag out of rubber bands and juice boxes.

    A comment and few questions come to mind.

    • interesting statue on the table, looks almost life-like. :)
    • A statue in Lord Bracko's image maybe?
    • What room is the yak shaved in.

    I may not provide the completed solution you might desire, but I do try to provide honest suggestions to help you solve your issue.

  • LincLinc Detroit Admin

    A video of me scrambling from my positioned laptop onto that desk in the 3-second Photo Booth countdown would've undoubtedly been even funnier than the photo that resulted.

  • JulieJulie lincoln@vanillaforums.com Vanilla Staff

    Oh no, we have been invaded by the Americans! Is this revenge for the War of 1812?

    Send help! ;)

    Customer Success Manager at Vanilla Forums

  • LincLinc Detroit Admin
    edited September 2014

    A lot of the team gathered in the dev room for a social / working lunch today.

  • LincLinc Detroit Admin

    @peregrine This is where we shave yaks; the storage/network closet.

    I washed the hoof prints off the wall before taking the photo.

  • LincLinc Detroit Admin
    edited September 2014

    I just gave a half-hour presentation to most of the company on our open source community. I'll attach my slide deck if you're interested to see how we're thinking about things.

    It's a quick recap (most of the company doesn't have much knowledge of the community), a current status, and a look ahead. Unfortunately some context is lost without me talking of course but I think you'll get the gist of it. :)

  • hgtonighthgtonight ∞ · New Moderator

    @Linc said:
    It's a quick recap (most of the company doesn't have much knowledge of the community), a current status, and a look ahead. Unfortunately some context is lost without me talking of course but I think you'll get the gist of it. :)

    A++ would read again.

    Exciting times, glad to be here. :)

    Search first

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  • phreakphreak Vanilla*APP (White Label) & Vanilla*Skins Shop MVP
    edited September 2014

    @Linc: Thanx for the insights in the presentation. I love the sandfox. :)

    I have ben crucified more than once outlining and discussing why Open Source Matters. Interesting perspective change. I hope the whirlwind you set will act upon the community like a good dose of an transcended portion of LSD ;)

    Never say it's too late, but it will be hard to tell those who already left. :/

    • VanillaAPP | iOS & Android App for Vanilla - White label app for Vanilla Forums OS
    • VanillaSkins | Plugins, Themes, Graphics and Custom Development for Vanilla
  • vrijvlindervrijvlinder Papillon-Sauvage MVP
    edited September 2014

    I am glad Linc has been recruiting from the creme of the crop !! way to go @Linc !!!

    PS Yes bring more women, I feel marginalized ...

  • chanhchanh OngETC.com - CMS Researcher ✭✭

    Open Source is the way to go to grow!
    Cloud is the future.
    The presentation look good and hit all the right stuff.

  • phreakphreak Vanilla*APP (White Label) & Vanilla*Skins Shop MVP
    edited September 2014

    Sounds great, are there any plans you can share with us? I mean Open Source is not a top down thing, it unfolds perfectly if the community has access to a lot of things they can organize, think and code together.

    @vrijvlinder‌: More women would be great. Does anyone have access to women webmaster and coder-boards, blogs or news sites? Any possibilty proactivly introducing Vanilla there? I could dig the Vanillaskins theme buyers list for female names and invite them here probably?

    • VanillaAPP | iOS & Android App for Vanilla - White label app for Vanilla Forums OS
    • VanillaSkins | Plugins, Themes, Graphics and Custom Development for Vanilla
  • LincLinc Detroit Admin
    edited September 2014

    @phreak said:
    Sounds great, are there any plans you can share with us? I mean Open Source is not a top down thing, it unfolds perfectly if the community has access to a lot of things they can organize, think and code together.

    We have some really solid collaboration goals already:

    • A successful 2.3 release cycle with Editor
    • The addons directory gets a 2.0 version
    • Improving our feedback & patch cycle together

    We also have plans to do things like refactor Tagging & Reactions into core features in the near-term, and other revamp goals. For these kinds of tasks, there is a huge communication overhead to explaining our internal lessons learned and why things need to work a certain way in some epic explanation post. It's never going to happen here on the forum; you have to make yourselves part of the development process on GitHub, not wait for us to explain our roadmap in a slideshow. :)

    //revised for better clarity of goals & brevity

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