Meet the New Moderators!

Hey everyone, the news is out and we have three new moderators! Congratulations to Sathya, DMA57361, and studiohack!

I have asked each of them to give an introduction as they pleased (well with a few probing questions).  Here are their answers:

Sathya:

Hi! I’m Sathya ( well, that’s my short name at least – the full name expands to well over 25 characters :p).  I work as a full time Oracle Forms & PL/SQL developer. In my spare time, I moderate Chip-India forums, contribute to Techie-Buzz, play some games & of course spend some time at the Stack Exchange network of websites, amongst other things. I was born & brought up in the coastal town of Mangalore, Karnataka and right now working in Chennai, Tamil Nadu in India.

Why did you join Super User? What brought you to Super User?

Before joining Super User, was a passive participant on Stack Overflow – passive because I was still learning the ropes as a PL/SQL developer and I was not confident about posting an answer with authority that I had noticed with most Stack Overflow participants had with their answers. At that stage, I wished that there was a Stack Overflow-like site for power users & computer enthusiasts.

My wish came true when Jeff Atwood tweeted about Super User being in private beta. Been on Super User since then  – asking questions, answering, voting them and eventually helping in keeping Super User squeaky clean!

What suggestions do you have for new users?

I’d suggest new users to understand that Super User is not your traditional discussion forum. Spend some time (probably few days to a week) getting to know the system and how the community works. Lurk a bit. See how most questions are answered. A single line of text may be considered as “enough” for discussion forums – over here a neatly formatted para with some screenshots will go a long way in helping the person asking the question, other visitors and hey – you’ll improve your writing skills – and as a bonus – earn some nice rep!

What is your favorite question/answer?

There are some awesome questions and answers that have been posted over the course of past couple of years, but my pick would probably be this question on email address obfuscation and whether it actually works. As someone who has never bothered with email address obfuscation – that question has cleared by doubts on the usefulness of the techniques used ( though I still won’t bother with it).

What common Super User habit is a pet peeve of yours ?

Without a doubt, it’s the “Thanks, it works” or “I have this too!” sort of post which really irritate me. Use the voting buttons, people!

Thanks Kronos for the space! Do drop by chat if you want speak to me! Else my email id is present on my profile if you wish to get in touch with me!

DMA57361:

My name is DMA57361, but you can feel free to call me DMA. I’m British, a part-time Computer Science student, and a full-time IT tech / database admin who occasionally gets to pretend to be a database dev.

Why did you join Super User? What brought you to Super User?

I found Stack Overflow quite difficult to “break into”, particularly as I’m not really a professional developer.

I’d been a reader of SO for a few months; it kept coming up on searches during my Uni course, and eventually I started to have a look around the site. You quickly notice how much better the SE sites work compared to a “normal” forum (and even competing Q&A style sites), and this is what encouraged me to join in. However, I couldn’t find anything I could really answer and couldn’t come up with an original question, so continued to be just another lurker.

Eventually, I found an original question, signed up, stuck my title in the box on the ask page … and found that it wasn’t original. I was mildly annoyed about having gone to the effort of setting up an Open ID and having nothing to show for it, so I decided to make use of that effort, the result of which ended up with me throwing in a few answers on SU, and then my usage has just continued from then in.

I happen to have joined at a very interesting time for the network – shortly after getting involved, they started up Area 51 and the first betas came online, they’ve also introduced the chat and SU’s own Meta.

What suggestions do you have for new users?

First get to know how the site works, it is quite different from most other forum type sites, and if you enjoy the site and want to get involved, remember that Rep really isn’t everything – get on Meta and Chat, get to know the “regulars” and moderators, get known and have your say.

Why did you select the name that you did?

I’ve been using the same name for over a decade now and I can remember the circumstances of its selection quite well… (cue flashback)

It was the first time I needed an “online” name, which was the first time I played an internet multiplayer game (I’d played a few by direct connection before, which don’t count). Specifically, this was probably 1998/99, and it was a WW2 plane combat sim game called “Air Attack” via a multiplayer service called “Wireplay”, which I believe was sold off or rebranded, because the game stopped being available at some point. I can’t remember the specifics of what happened but me and a few friends still occasionally reminisce about the game… (exit flashback)

Anyway, the meaning behind my name is pretty dull – which is why you got the random back-story above – it is simply my initials (DMA) followed by a pseudo-random number that I generated by literally hitting the num pad on my keyboard with my hand. That’s really it, sorry, but there is no meaning behind the numbers whatsoever.

Finally, thanks to everyone for giving me a ♦, it’s great privilege to have this opportunity to help out such an awesome site and community!

studiohack:

Hello, my name is studiohack and I was recently elected as a ♦ moderator for Super User.  As I’ve said before, I’m honored and privileged to be entrusted as a “human exception handler” and I hope to prove worthy of the community’s trust!

Why did you join Super User?

I joined Super User because I had found a computer enthusiast-specific Q&A site that was extremely high quality and much more straightforward and less cluttered than Yahoo! Answers.  I had looked into Yahoo! Answers, but the entire system just seemed hard to get into and get privileges.  My biggest problem was that everything was so cluttered and disorganized, grammar and people’s questions kept repeating, etc.  Super User lets the community edit for the common good, vote to close duplicates, and rewards those who put honest effort into the system.

What suggestions do you have for new users?

New users: before doing anything, please, please read the Super User FAQ!  When new users post without knowing the context of the site or whether their question is on/off-topic, they will open themselves up to all kinds of frustrations – they will be frustrated for reasons they could have prevented (in most cases).  So read the FAQ, be open to suggestions and edits from the community, and lastly, if you have any concerns, feel free to raise them by a) letting a moderator know (by flagging your post and explaining, we will get back to you), b) opening a question on Super User Meta or Meta Stack Overflow, or contacting a user directly in chat or comments, etc.

What is your favorite question/answer?

Probably my favorite answer ever on Super User was “Virtualization. For your girlfriend.” I recommended using Windows Steady State to restore the original poster’s computer to its original state before his girlfriend used it.  Check it out!

See you on Super User! 🙂