Today, I am very pleased to announce that the Moderator of the Year Award, 2019 has two very deserving winners.
Ravinder Singh (RavinderSingh13) and Victor Berridge (vbe)
Victor (vbe) has been a member of unix.com close to 15 years (first joined the site in 2005) and has been moderating most of those years and continues to moderate, mostly quietly in the background, humbly and without fanfare, also supporting and promoting the mission of the site.
Ravinder Singh (RavinderSingh13) has been a member of unix.com for nearly 7 years (first joined the site in 2013) and has been moderating only since January 2019. So, it is truly remarkable that Ravinder was named moderator of the year in his first year as moderator.
Both vbe and RavinderSingh13 share many of the same traits as forum moderators at unix.com:
- They both show an unwavering passion for the mission and noble cause of helping others at unix.com.
- They both work tirelessly in the background editing and formatting posts and working to insure the integrity of the community by enforcing community standards.
- They both are humble in speech and are always promoting the mission of the site without being seduced by "the dark side" (they do not push their personal agendas ahead of the mission of the site).
RavinderSingh13 is always available to discuss unix.com issues by either voice or text, at any hour of the day or night, seven days a week. In fact, Ravinder has such a passion for unix.com that one day, as we were discussing a forum moderation issue, he send me a photo of himself walking waist deep to work in the muddy, dirty, and dangerous flood waters of India. He asked me to never share that photo with anyone, but I will never forget that photo of Ravinder walking to work in waist deep flood waters; knowing at the same time he was just as eager to help out on any topic at unix.com. How could he not be Moderator of the Year?
As if that was not dramatic enough, Ravinder is one of the nicest people on the site. In a personal manner which is rare in our social media "look at me" dominated world of today, he does not understand why anyone would develop a "big ego" because they are technically talented or experienced, as he would never be seduced by this worldly illusion. Ravinder, always mindful of the teaching of his family and community in India, cares about unix.com as a part of his extended family. He is totally behind our mission to always be helping others, without creating a forum hierarchy of "who is top dog" or "the big subject matter expert". Ravinder often talks about how, at the end of the day, we are all here for helping others and not to promote ourselves or our personal agenda(s). unix.com is a noble cause, as Ravinder always reminds us, above the day-to-day worldly condition of "look at me" (or at least we aim to be that way).
In addition (as if that was not enough), Ravinder is full of good ideas about how to continue to evolve and improve the site. For example, the badging system we have today was mostly Ravinder's idea. But more than just having ideas, Ravinder is also kind, gentle, patient and understanding, even when it takes me a year or more to find the free time to code and test his good ideas. Ravinder even offers to help code new features, but this is an almost impossible superhuman task for a dedicated family man who sometimes works seven days a week, walking in flood waters to get to his work, supporting his wife and mother while at the same time moderating unix.com as well as taking time to advise me whenever I would like a second opinion on some forum "user related" moderation topic. He is always available for a voice call, even if he is walking to work in waist deep flood waters.
vbe has been moderating for many years even thought French is his native language. Victor works passionately and tirelessly, mostly in the background, to insure user's posts are formatted correctly and nicely for everyone. Victor works as a moderator without any fanfare or a personal agenda to be "the top tech dog" of the site. The last time I reviewed the moderator statistics for 2019, Victor had the highest total of moderating actions for any "non admin". vbe performs these myriad moderating actions, mostly invisible to us all; without thanks or any "thumbs up" recognition. His attention to unix.com and to the formatting quality of the site is remarkable. Victor has consistently and quietly moderated unix.com, not only in 2019 but for many years prior; and he has done this without seeking any personal recognition or promoting any individual technological agenda over the site's overall mission.
In addition, Victor actively debugged and tested our new "computer trivia" application module, providing valuable and precise feedback helping me debug the trivia code and over 1,000 entries. He has answered close to 180 computer trivia questions to date; and as a side note, Victor is the current reigning champion with a whopping 92% overall core, nearly 20 precent higher than the average of all member scores combined and close to 30 precent higher than the average of all the guest trivia scores. Victor provided more feedback during the development stage of the trivia application code than any other unix.com member. Victor's debugging skills made the computer trivia app a better experience for both members and guests, who have answered nearly 75,000 computer trivia questions to date.
Victor and Ravinder will receive the following award prizes for MOTY:
- Ravinder and Victor with split the $250 USD cash price for MOTY 2019.
- They will both be the first recipients of "The Order of the Hippo Badge" honoring the strength that consistent, egoless, background moderation bring to the site ( more on this new badge later ).
- They will both receive a shiny, colorful MOTY certificate from unix.com
Please and kindly join me in congratulating both Victor and Ravinder for their well deserved "Moderator of the Year, 2019" awards.
Most of all, a big thank you is in order to all our moderators, who all do a great job promoting the "noble cause" mission of unix.com and for all their often unnoticed and under appreciated moderating tasks and infinitely valuable contributions to unix.com members.
Thank You, Everyone!
, its always an honor to be a member of this GREAT site 