Dear All,
Forum member and Staff Team member @theblackwatch will be stepping down as a member of the Forum team and be handing in the ban hammer. He has a message for you all which follows:
I'm sure you'll all want to join me in thanking him for his tireless efforts over the years and wishing him well for the future.
We will make a separate announcement regarding any other changes to the Forum Staff in the near future.
Regards,
The Forum Staff
Forum member and Staff Team member @theblackwatch will be stepping down as a member of the Forum team and be handing in the ban hammer. He has a message for you all which follows:
When I first informed the other Forum Staff that I was planning on stepping down, I was advised by Mojo that is was back on September 23rd 2006 that I joined the staff team - 13 years ago. I suspect most people don't stay that long in a paid job! The forum has changed beyond recognition since then - I think we now have more posts in an hour or two than we did in a day (or even a week) back then. Having found our feet in the early years, our specialist areas are now well-established.
With such a busy forum, keeping every member happy when doing moderation is an impossible task - so if I have ever upset you by deleting a post or whatever, please don't take it personally! There are all sorts of different things we have to deal with, from simple ones like moving a thread because it's in the wrong area, to more complex ones involving transferring a load to another thread. The strangest thing I can remember us having to look into was the (ex)member who faked their own death online. We've also had numerous people who say they're leaving the forum, and a week or two later, they are back.
There is much more to running the forum than just keeping an eye all the posts. We need to ensure we have the software which suits our needs, and then there is the cost of hosting - which is why we have some unobtrusive adverts to cover the costs of these. One of the great successes of the forum has been that we've been in a position to give away surplus revenue on occasions. It was fantastic to be in a position to make a sizeable donation to the 125 Group's depot appeal earlier this year - this goes down as one of the highlights during my time in the staff team.
Over the years, I've made many friends via the forum, both within the staff and the wider membership - I'm sure these will continue and I will see you out and about. Another success has been the forum pub crawls, which I've often been involved in arranging. These aren't major drinking sessions, just leisurely days visiting an line or area, combining transport interest with a few pub visits, and I realised we'd hit on the right formula when we started having non-drinkers who regularly turned up for them! Hopefully, such events will continue.
Anyway, now I've decided, after my 13 years, it's time for me to take a bit more of a back seat - it might even give me time to contribute a bit more as an ordinary member! Thank you to everyone for your support.
I'm sure you'll all want to join me in thanking him for his tireless efforts over the years and wishing him well for the future.
We will make a separate announcement regarding any other changes to the Forum Staff in the near future.
Regards,
The Forum Staff