Unraid Community Rockstars: Hoopster

One of, if not the main reasons why the Unraid community is so great is due to our many Community Rockstars who go above and beyond to help others out. 🤘

In this blog series, we want to spotlight key community members to get to know them a little better and recognize them for all that they've done for the Unraid community over the years.

This blog features Hoopster: A long-time Unraid user and extremely helpful forum member who has helped out countless people over the past decade plus!

Where do you live? What do you do for a living?

I live in Utah in the USA. I am a Senior Product Manager for a Digital Marketing company.

Previously I was a global consultant/training specialist in the television broadcast industry.

How did you discover Unraid originally?

I discovered Unraid while researching Synology and QNAP devices when I came to the realization that I needed a NAS. I was unimpressed with the specs for the price. Since I had always built my own computers, I started looking for a way I could build my own NAS and discovered Unraid in December 2011. I have been a satisfied user ever since and have built a few NAS systems with Unraid for friends and family.

What is your most liked feature of Unraid?

When I started on Unraid (version 5.0 beta 14, I believe), it was a NAS-only OS. NAS functionality will always be at the core and Unraid does that extremely well; however, my favorite feature is now support for Docker and the variety of available docker containers provided by the community.

In general, I am very happy that Unraid is not a locked-down UI and technology platform and allows for some degree of "tinkering" and customization since I like to tinker.

What do you like most about being a part of this community?

The knowledge that any question can likely be answered or any situation addressed by an expert is the best part of the product.

Sometimes, the best someone can do is offer an educated guess, but it is a guess based on experience and not just a typical "tech support type" answer based on a shot in the dark from a script. I have never been steered wrong by the community even if an answer is not a direct solution. When I answer a question, I do so only if I have some applicable experience or can offer an educated guess based on what I do know.

What feature would you most like to see added to Unraid?

I would like to see a version of Unraid that is ready to go out of the box with popular plugins and docker containers preconfigured (as far as possible) and is more "fool-proof" for some new users. I personally would never use it as I like things just the way they are; however, I believe a "NAS-newbie friendly" version of Unraid would broaden its appeal. Building a server in the first place requires some technical skill but some prefer a more locked-down OS that does not allow them to make many mistakes.

Is there anything else you’d like to share with the community?

The community is the best part of Unraid as it is the most helpful technology forum with which I have ever been associated. No question is too basic to ask. If you have a question, it is likely someone else has the same question and will be helped by the responses. 

Do you have a donation link you’d like to share?

I am not a developer so none of my contributions need to be compensated in any way.