With almost 5,000 posts on the forum, let us introduce you Tomer, serial contributor and US moderator! Thanks a lot for accepting to answer our interview!
Hi Tomer, can you tell us a bit about yourself?
I am a New York City based developer with an extensive background in Machine Translation and Context Based algorithms.
In recent years I’ve concentrated on developing web platforms and e-commerce. Since discovering Prestashop (almost 3 years ago) it has
become my preferred choice for my web agency, and my modules store.
How did you discover PrestaShop?
Like all good things, by chance…
I had started researching existing shopping cart platforms, when I got in contact with an old work colleague who started using Prestashop for a project (PS V0.8 I believe). He needed help customizing it for a restaurant’s online ordering system, and that’s how I was introduced to Prestashop. If he reads this interview, thank you!!
What made you feel like joining the Community?
When I first started using Prestashop, I had some questions about how it worked, and how to do some of the modifications I needed. I found my way to the forum and started asking for help, it wasn’t too long before I got to know Prestashop better and started helping others with their questions.
I decided to become a moderator not long after, as I was fed up with spammers preying on the forum, and having spent so much time on it already, I wanted to help keep it clean.
What are, according to you, PrestaShop’s assets?
As a developer, the very clean and organized code, the whole module structure and the flexibility to easily attach code and functions wherever need thanks to the hooks and the MVC structure.
As a user, the back-office organization, ease of use and good logic, it’s very easy to find pages and settings, and all the basic needs are answered.
What software do you use alongside PrestaShop?
Wamp (a must), Eclipse for PHP (development), Filezilla, Photoshop and every browser except IE 6 (R.I.P) 
What PrestaShop features do you love the most?
The Ajax based “add to cart” which provides a nice effect when the customer adds something to the cart, is quite fun. I also like the One page checkout, I use on it on my store too, and this has helped me to increase my sales since customers don’t have to visit a lot of pages to validate their order. It’s really more efficient.
I love Hooks too, which allow to add features wherever you want, it’s great to customize your shop.
Which advice would you give to a new member of our Community?
First I’d say “Congrats, you’ve made a great choice!” The Forum is a great resource for all kinds of information regarding PrestaShop. So before posting your question, search the forum, you have many chances to find your answer very fast!
If you have to post, to have the best chance of getting your question answered quickly, make sure to be as specific as possible, provide a link to the page with the problem, attach a screenshot of the error, and make sure to mention your PrestaShop version and related info.
You have a great number of contributions on the Forum, how much time do you spend on the Forum per day?
I try to spend at least an hour a day in the forum to help merchants and developers from the Community. My pleasure!
Something you would like to add?
Big thanks to the Prestashop team for making such a great platform, and to the other members who contribute to the community.