There’s a new sticky topic in the General Discussion forum called Introduce Yourself, which is serving as a way for people to say hello to the community and reveal a little about themselves. If you’re new to Criticker or to the forums, this is a good first step in meeting a great group of users and active community.

It’s our turn to take the mic, I suppose.

Hi. We’re Mike and Juergen.

I’m an American and Juergen is German. We met in Boston about 8 years ago, and since then have lived in Berlin (Germany), Western Ireland and currently Valencia (Spain). I’m a native of Minnesota, but did most of my growing up in Ohio where I studied Computer Science at Ohio University, in Athens. Juergen grew up in Darmstadt, Germany (close to Frankfurt) and is a professional photographer.

We started Criticker when my then-employer began laying off its workers without restraint or remorse. With time on our hands, we embarked on a project with the aim of matching users that had the same taste. The idea actually came when my mom appeared to me in a dream, complaining about the fact that no critic shared her taste in movies, so “why should I listen to them?” Then she turned into a vampire and bit my head off. Over a period of months, we developed and eventually released Criticker.com — albeit a version barely unrecognizable to users today.

Criticker 1.0

Currently, we spend a ton of time on Criticker, but we’re also at work on other (more lucrative) projects, such as Lastminute-Auction.com (an Ebay tool and our true breadwinner), Random-Good-Stuff.com (Juergen’s entertainment blog, peppered with his unique German humor) and HolaValencia.net (a blog dedicated to our new home town).

Juergen and I have extremely similar taste in film, owing to the fact that we spend way too much time together. We tend to most enjoy contemporary European cinema, but aren’t afraid to drop huge scores on big budget action flicks. Outside of movies, we’re both into travel & hiking, and Juergen still gets work as a professional photographer.

Phew! So, that’s us: the founders of Criticker. Now it’s your turn! Get to the forum, and introduce yourselves… we love finding out more about the people who make up the Criticker Community.