Forem: Howard

7 Hard Truths I Learned Running a Gaming Community for 13 Years

Howard — Tue, 09 Dec 2025 23:36:25 +0000

TL;DR: I started a gaming community in a dorm room in 2013. It grew to thousands of members, but I made massive mistakes. Here is what I wish I knew about leadership, culture, and burnout before I started.

I started my journey in 2013 in a college dorm room. Grand Theft Auto 5 had just released, and the online component was a mess—full of toxic teenagers and griefers. I didn’t want that to ruin the experience, so I started my own group.

What began as a small GTA crew blossomed into a full-fledged community hosting thousands of people, events, podcasts, and live streams. I’ve run this gaming community for over 13 years, and despite the hurdles, it is still kicking and thriving.

However, the road wasn't smooth. There were massive setbacks. If I could roll back the hands of time, here are the 7 major things I wish I could tell my younger self.

1. People Will Come and Go 👋

Sometimes members leave because of something you did. Other times, it has absolutely nothing to do with you. They get bored, they have a falling out with another member, or life just gets in the way.

This was the hardest lesson for me in the beginning. I would develop genuine friendships with members. Then, I’d wake up one day, and—poof—they were gone. No explanation, no warning.

💡 The Lesson:
As a leader, you have to take a step back. Don't become so entangled that a departure ruins your morale. Not everyone is in it for the long haul. If someone wants to leave, let them go. Never coerce someone into staying.

2. Community Leadership is a Thankless Job 📉

When things are running smoothly, people won’t say much. They will join, assimilate, and have fun. But if one thing goes wrong? Be prepared for a barrage of comments telling you exactly how you should be doing a better job.

I have spent an unfathomable amount of hours building, tweaking, and perfecting everything from video promotions to game servers. People will often join, take what serves them, and bail. You will be lucky to get so much as a "thank you."

Case in point: A few years ago, a couple met on my server and eventually got married in real life. They lived in my area. I didn't get a "thanks for creating the space where I found the love of my life," nor was I invited to the wedding. It sounds pessimistic, but it is human nature. They are there for the utility you provide, not necessarily to celebrate the builder.

3. Everyone Thinks They Can Do It Better 📢

Over the years, I’ve seen members take the blueprint I built to start their own groups, only to fail. I’ve had members lie to sabotage my reputation so they could poach members. I’ve heard statements like:

"If I ran this community, I would do X, Y, and Z."

People always underestimate how hard running a big community actually is.

💡 The Lesson:
Don’t let armchair quarterbacks convince you that you’re doing a bad job. If they could do it better than you, they would already be doing it.

4. Recognize "Consumers" vs. "Producers" Early ⚖️

You can generally break your members down into two categories:

The Consumers: They are here for a good time. They show up to events and participate in chat, but they are generally there to take value from the community.
The Producers: These people naturally help out. They go out of their way to welcome newbies. They find ways to contribute value without being asked.

Recognize the Producers FAST.

I dropped the ball on this in the genesis of my community. I was so wrapped up in being friends with the guys I played with—choosing people I liked over people who contributed—that I ended up with 15 staff members who were just there for the vibes. This completely backfired later on.

5. Have an End-Goal (And Align Your Staff) 🎯

I started my community as a GTA Online Crew with no real vision other than "I want something greater." I spun my wheels for years trying to capitalize on new niches just to keep it all going.

Because there was no ultimate goal, my staff had nothing to work toward. It was an aimless, and sometimes reckless, journey.

💡 The Lesson:
Always ask yourself: What do you want this community to become? What should it produce? Without a North Star, you are just drifting.

6. Culture Matters: You Set the Energy ⚡

The biggest mistake I made was not paying attention to the energy I was projecting.

At one point, I became bitter about the gaming landscape. I was pessimistic, and that bled into my interactions. I remember saying, "I don't bother welcoming new members because they will just leave anyway."

Guess what happened? The members adopted that mentality. The group became unwelcoming and cliquish. New members would join, get ignored, and leave.

It got so bad that I felt like an outsider in my own group. I eventually had to take the nuclear route—I wiped my staff completely and let chaos ensue to reset the culture. It was an extreme measure that could have been avoided had I cultivated positivity from the start.

7. Ask Yourself: "What Am I Getting Out of This?" 🤔

I poured time, money, and energy into this group for 10 years before I realized that everyone was benefiting... except me.

If you are building a community, you need to be selfish for a moment. Why are you doing this? What is your return on investment (whether that's joy, money, connections, or career growth)?

Moving Forward 🚀

Today, I am rebuilding. This time, I am intentional. I have clear objectives, a defined culture, and I know exactly why I am doing it.

If you are planning on building a group, learn from my 13 years of mistakes so you don't have to repeat them.

If you are curious about what we are building now, check out The Vice Community.

Learning Next.js by building my own project

Howard — Thu, 09 Oct 2025 15:47:29 +0000

After what felt like an eternity of doodling, wireframing, and debating which framework to pick (seriously, it was like choosing a flavor at an ice cream parlor), I've finally birthed my new portfolio website into existence!

Check it out at: https://howard.codes

It all began with a critical evaluation of my old portfolio #website, prompting me to contemplate an upgrade.

Originating a decade ago in my college dorm room amidst computer science classes and my role as an IT specialist, it was time for a fresh perspective. Opting for a theme that mirrored my expansive thinking, I settled on a space-themed design, aiming for a slightly unconventional approach.

Following my typical workflow, I started with rough sketches, transitioning from paper to my iPad using Procreate.

Then came the Figma wireframing phase. Let's just say, me and Figma? We're still in the "getting to know each other" phase. Like a Tinder date that lasted several weeks.

There were Three Major Roadblocks:

After wrestling with React.js for a while and doing a not-so-quick flip-flop between Tailwind and Bulma CSS, I settled on the winning combo of Next.js + Tailwind + TypeScript. It was like finding the perfect pizza toppings after a month-long debate between pineapple and pepperoni.

So, turns out Tailwind is a "mobile-first" framework. Who knew? Certainly not me, because I dove headfirst into desktop development like it was 2005.
Grappling with Git added extra days to the development process, as I had to familiarize myself with its functionality to maintain my codebase efficiently.
Deployment posed unforeseen challenges, particularly deploying a React app on an Apache server with cPanel. Pulling code from GitHub, configuring domain redirection, and ensuring secure connections tested my perseverance. I even delved into Nginx briefly to grasp its reverse proxy feature

Conquering Challenges:

Despite all the hiccups, glitches, and downright hilarious mishaps (looking at you, mobile view), I emerged victorious! Sure, there are still a few bugs lurking in the code, but hey, Rome wasn't built in a day.

In the end, this wild ride taught me more than I ever wanted to know about coding, design, and the art of gracefully navigating through tech-induced chaos. Cheers to the next adventure! 🚀

And I picked up a lot of values skills and tools along the way:

Procreate (iPad)
Figma
Adobe Illustrator
Git
Apache
Nginx
Javascript
Typescript
React.js
Next.js
Npm
Linux and Bash (since this entire project was done in Ubuntu)

Links:

Github - https://github.com/FullStackHoward

Website - https://howard.codes

My Dev Journey Began with a Music Site

Howard — Thu, 09 Oct 2025 15:38:02 +0000

I've been immersed in music creation since my teenage years, and by the time I hit 18, the itch to establish my own online presence and storefront had become undeniable. But here's the kicker: I was as clueless about web development as a fish out of water, and my wallet wasn't exactly overflowing with cash. So, like any determined soul would, I barricaded myself in a room for weeks on end, teaching myself the ABCs of HTML and CSS until I could stitch together some semblance of a web page.

Here's my first attempt (try not to laugh). It was 2006, and it was acceptable back then, or at least that's what I tell myself.

Two years later, armed with more web knowledge and some Adobe Flash and Photoshop skills, I revamped the site with an interactive Flash hero and a cool music player from SoundClick. People loved it in 2008.

Then, in 2011, fresh out of college, I realized it was high time for a complete site overhaul to keep up with evolving standards. Enter #Wordpress, my trusty sidekick, chosen for its user-friendly management and seamless integration for selling music directly on the site. But here's the kicker: I decided to roll up my sleeves and build the entire theme from scratch, diving headfirst into the realms of PHP, MySQL, and mastering HTML and CSS like a boss. It was a solid month of trial and error.

Life threw a few curveballs my way, leading me to take a hiatus from music for what felt like an eternity. But as they say, you can't keep a good musician down. So, with a renewed sense of purpose, I plunged back into the musical abyss—cue yet another website overhaul.

With a plethora of hosting options now at my fingertips, I found myself swimming in a sea of out-of-the-box solutions. Ultimately, I opted for a music-themed website template, albeit with hefty customizations and tweaks to both functionality and style. And voilà, behold the current iteration of BigNotch.com!

How I built a HUGE Gaming Community

Howard — Thu, 09 Oct 2025 15:17:32 +0000

Unfortunately, none of my real-life friends shared my enthusiasm for joining my digital escapades. So, I turned to Reddit and other platforms to recruit members. After several months of effort, I had amassed a dedicated group of around 10 members.

This led to a flurry of promotional activities, including the creation of our first recruitment trailer on YouTube:

Our efforts caught the attention of Rockstar Games, the publisher of GTA, who featured us on the front page of their website not once, but three times! Here are some of the articles:

https://www.rockstargames.com/newswire/article/398a455252ko13/Crew-Noticeboard-The-Bomb-Squad-NNA-Live-It-Wild-Vice

https://www.rockstargames.com/newswire/article/89k8a554581ak9/crew-noticeboard-pc-crews-rally-for-new-members

With our membership skyrocketing from a mere dozen to over 1000, I needed a way to manage the growing community. Thus, I utilized my Photoshop skills to design and launch a forum:

As the community continued to flourish, I realized I didn't want it to fade away with the game's popularity. So, I took the bold step of founding a new community: The Vice Gamers. This comprehensive community included its own forum, Discord server, and a subscription service offering premium benefits.

Managing such a large and diverse community came with its fair share of challenges, including personality conflicts and disputes. It required patience, deliberation, and a lot of learning to keep the community thriving.

In 2020, amidst the pandemic, it was time for another website overhaul. This time, I opted for a more streamlined approach, beginning with concept art that was well-received by the community. Utilizing the usual front-end tools and languages – HTML, CSS, and JavaScript – I was able to develop the new website in about a week:

Lots of years were spent building and perfecting the community experience. Everything from video promotions, custom development for the community, esports, podcasts. We did it all! Today, despite facing various setbacks and mass exoduses, the community remains intact as excitement builds for the release of the next Grand Theft Auto game!

Link: ViceGamers.com

I Built a Small Community for Creatives

Howard — Thu, 09 Oct 2025 15:08:50 +0000

This little venture of mine started out of boredom during the height of the global pandemic. While running my gaming community, we saw a spike in people who were creatives, such as my self, sharing their amazing work. It inspired me to have a separate group for them to share their work and discuss their crafts.

It took a while, but settled on the name “Vice Creators” because I wanted to have it tied loosely to my gaming community. And the fact of the matter is that most digital creators are also gamers. So it made sense.

The website you’re looking at now was initially built to serve that community. But unfortunately, the group lost some key support members and was no longer able to sustain itself. So priorities shifted for me, and I could no longer pour into the group the way I wanted to.

I did create a webpage for it, which currently borrows from the ViceGamers.com website with it’s use of structured html, css, and javascript.

However, the group still exists. And there are a few loyal members who still frequently chat there. So, feel free to stop by if you’re on discord and say hi!

Website: https://vicecreators.com
Discord: https://discord.vicers.net

The Highs and Lows of Building One of the Biggest GTA Communities

Howard — Thu, 09 Oct 2025 15:00:21 +0000

This led to a flurry of promotional activities, including the creation of our first recruitment trailer on YouTube:

Our efforts caught the attention of Rockstar Games, the publisher of GTA, who featured us on the front page of their website not once, but three times! Here are some of the articles:

https://www.rockstargames.com/newswire/article/398a455252ko13/Crew-Noticeboard-The-Bomb-Squad-NNA-Live-It-Wild-Vice

https://www.rockstargames.com/newswire/article/89k8a554581ak9/crew-noticeboard-pc-crews-rally-for-new-members

With our membership skyrocketing from a mere dozen to over 1000, I needed a way to manage the growing community. Thus, I utilized my Photoshop skills to design and launch a forum:

Link: ViceGamers.com
GitHub: https://github.com/FullStackHoward/vicegamers

How I helped Revamp an Organization's Online Presence

Howard — Thu, 09 Oct 2025 14:39:13 +0000

As much as I'd like to take full credit, I must acknowledge that none of this would have been possible without the support and encouragement of the organization's leaders, who entrusted me with the responsibility of revamping our online presence. A huge shoutout goes to them for their guidance and trust.

That being said, let's delve into how I contributed to the transformation of LifebridgeHealth, a prominent player in Baltimore, Maryland's hospital medical corridor.

Initially hired as a digital marketer, with a strong emphasis on web development, I quickly noticed that our organization was lagging behind competitors like MedStar and John Hopkins. Recognizing the need for a strategic overhaul, I was tasked by my manager, Justin Leggett, to propose a revamp.

The website was using an older #.net cms, which meant the mission would be tough considering I was not too familiar with dotNet at the time, but I had a background in java development, so it wasn't too much of a learning curve to adapt to the syntax. The next challenge came in cleaning up all of the data from old pages, forms, and data modules that had accumulated on the back-end for over a decade. I put together some pretty creative/complicated sql queries to pull the data I needed on which pages were actually being utilized vs ones that hadn't been touched in ages. This was particularly a challenge because the table structure was a complete mess.

Original:

My Concept:

Drawing inspiration from the company's existing design, I pondered how to modernize it effectively. However, my initial concept was met with resistance as it was deemed too similar to the current design. It became evident that a complete reimagining of the website's functionality was required.

Over the course of the next year and a half, I collaborated with colleagues, iterating on designs and ideas until we arrived at a solution deemed worthy of implementation. Simultaneously, we undertook overhauls of our patient and physician portals to ensure a cohesive digital experience.

Finally, after much deliberation and effort, the new design was implemented on our dotNet-based platform. This endeavor demanded extensive custom development, leveraging JavaScript, MySQL modules for data retrieval, and various tools to ensure smooth operation on our Azure server.

Eventually, our organization decided to migrate to Drupal as our CMS for hosting the website due to the need to delegate tasks to less technical team members. This required several additional months of brushing up on php and learning the Drupal code base and how things worked. Several custom custom Drupal blocks and modules were built and decoupled. And as a result, we have a much more robust and extendable platform to continue building and improving our digital front-door experience.

Here's the final result:

[Link: https://lifebridgehealth.org]

That Time a Fraternity Asked Me to Revamp Their Website...

Howard — Thu, 09 Oct 2025 14:32:31 +0000

During my time in college, I had the privilege of being a member of the esteemed Business Fraternity "Alpha Kappa Psi," an experience that left an indelible mark on my personal and professional development. Through this fraternity, I not only cultivated invaluable business skills but also found a vibrant community of like-minded individuals, fostering friendships that endure to this day.

One aspect of my involvement in Alpha Kappa Psi that stands out is the opportunity I had to contribute to our promotional efforts through our fraternity's website. However, upon closer inspection, it became apparent that the website, residing on a server and domain associated with a defunct campus relic from the 90s, was sorely outdated. Recognizing the need for a modern digital presence to reflect our vibrant fraternity, I took it upon myself to advocate for a much-needed update.

After rallying support from fellow members and faculty, we successfully secured a new domain, TTUAkpsi.com, signaling a fresh start for our online presence. With this crucial foundation laid, I embarked on the arduous task of redesigning the website from the ground up.

Drawing upon my background in Computer Science and development experience, I swiftly crafted a sleek and user-friendly design that encapsulated the spirit of our fraternity. Presenting my proposal to the fraternity's leadership, I was met with enthusiasm and unanimous approval for the new direction.

With the design finalized, I delved into the coding phase, employing a blend of CSS , HTML , and Javascript to bring our vision to life. The result was a dynamic and responsive website that not only showcased our fraternity's activities and values but also allowed for seamless updates and maintenance.

As time passed and my graduation approached, I knew it was essential to ensure the continuity of our digital presence for future generations of fraternity members. Handing over the reins to a promising young officer, I recognized the need for a more user-friendly platform that would accommodate varying levels of technical expertise.

Thus, we made the strategic decision to transition to a template-based system, providing a solid foundation for future administrators to build upon. While this meant departing from my original design, it ensured flexibility and scalability as our fraternity continued to evolve.

Today, our fraternity website stands as a testament to the collective efforts of past and present members, embodying our shared values and commitment to excellence. It looks like my efforts to revamp the chapter's website was not in vein. As the chapter quickly quadrupled their membership numbers due, in part, to an easy-to-navigate website now at their disposal for marketing. I invite you to explore our online home and discover the vibrant community that is Alpha Kappa Psi. You can visit it here: AKPsi TTU - Eta Theta Chapter

Building a Custom Health Provider Search Engine Using Kyruus API and JavaScript: A Drupal Integration Project

Howard — Thu, 09 Oct 2025 14:06:11 +0000

I had the pleasure of working on an on project involving pulling health provider data from Kyruus API using Javascript to build a little search engine. At the time of me writing this, it is completely outside of the scope of my current role with my employer. But I took the project one with no problem because I love this stuff.

I had never worked with a closed API before, so getting setup was a challenge since the process involved a lot of back-and-forth emails and roadblocks in terms of getting the proper access to documentation. But once it was all settled, I was pretty amazed at much I could do with their API.

I was able to build this quickly and use it quickly to display how the unified search feature worked. This is ultimately a part of a much larger project that i'm working on involving Drupal integration.

Github: https://github.com/MrHowardCodes/kyruus-search-thingy/

StopTheIronPipeline.org

Howard — Thu, 09 Oct 2025 13:58:47 +0000

I am excited to talk about the my journey to help Lifebridge Health launch their online campaign for the Stop the Iron Pipeline campaign.

We worked with the agency Planit to come up with a design scheme and all of the visuals for the campaign. I initially wanted to use Drupal as the CMS for standing up the website, but this agency only had experience with WordPress, so I begrudgingly agreed to host the website with Wordpress.

From a technical perspective, this makes it much easier for an external team to manage as we have several tools in place that are no-code solutions and people who are not well versed in web development are now easily able to get in and make changes as needed.

Outside of the other campaign tasks, I was solely responsible for the development and implementation of the website. And this is probably one of the most important projects I’ve worked on, as Gun Control is a topic that is personal for me.

We launched the website over 2 weeks ago. And you can visit it here:

https://stoptheironpipeline.org/