Hello everyone,

As some of you may know, there are several members of our community who are deeply involved with ManiaPlanet, who have worked long and hard as both advocates of our games and for the people who play them.

That’s why, starting today, we’re going to begin highlighting some of the most dedicated community websites and members, all of which have been helping to promote ManiaPlanet and our players for years.

We’ll be starting with ManiaActu and Jonthekiller, who was kind enough to answer some questions about himself and his site.

Can you briefly introduce yourself?
Hello, I’m Jonthekiller. I’m a 24-year old engineer who lives in Paris. I’m also the Head Admin of ManiaActu, a member of Drakonia, and a Moderator on the ManiaPlanet forum. I’ve played TrackMania since 2008, and ShootMania since Alpha.

Can you give us an introduction to your website, ManiaActu?
ManiaActu is the successor of TM-Actu, a news website dedicated to TrackMania since 2009. With the release of ManiaPlanet, we made ManiaActu to be a more all-encompassing and dedicated website. Our objective is to grow and promote the community, as well as covering the eSport side with news all year long.

What are the services provided by ManiaActu?
We allow each member of the community to write their own news and promote their own competitions, game modes, blocks, etc. following the same conditions of our dedicated news team, though we need to validate the news for content and formatting. But we are not just a news website – we also support a lot of things, like highlighting user streams or promoting their ManiaLinks. We also have a forum, TeamSpeak, and a server browser.

What do you like the most about ManiaPlanet?
I like how close Nadeo is with the community, and the fact that we can learn something new about and around the game every day. ManiaPlanet is the only game were we can learn programming (ManiaLinks + ManiaScript), design (skins, mods), 3D Models, and working collaboratively.

What’s next for the future of ManiaActu?
We’re working on different features for the next version of the website, though some of these projects will take time before they’re ready. We want to grow along with the community in the upcoming months and years. We have a lot of ideas to develop in different fields, and so we need to recruit motivated people who want to help us. Whether you are a graphic designer, programmer, writer, translator, or looking to learn something in a specific area, we are here to help you.

Is there anything else you would like to add?
I would like to thank Nadeo for this opportunity, their proximity to the players and for their games, our readers and all the people working their hardest for ManiaActu. For anyone interested in learning more about ManiaActu, you can contact me by private message on the ManiaPlanet forum or talk to me directly on our TeamSpeak. I would to add one last thing – volunteering may take a lot of time and effort, but you gain experience, networking, personal satisfaction and in some cases can even lead to a career.

You can find us on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/ManiaActu) and Twitter (https://twitter.com/maniaActu).

Thank you very much to Jonthekiller and ManiaActu for their years of commitment to the ManiaPlanet titles!