Thank You, V2Blast

Question

V2Blast is one of those folks who - to me represented a rare mix of skills. I knew him before he was hired and I often found he was a tireless advocate of the places he community managed at and someone with deep reserves of passion. I'd often see him tweet about Nova Drift (where he was a community manager before here) and often about rooster teeth.

He is also one of the few folks who brought in community experience and professional CM skills to the team - as a former moderator on RPG.SE.

In a period shortly after, quite a few big mistakes - I'd say his hire was something they got deeply right, and yet here I am writing a farewell post for a community manager who had it all.

I'd say good luck wherever you go, but they're the lucky ones to have you.

Answer 1

The thing I'll remember about V2Blast (besides that classy avatar) is that he didn't neglect the boring work: editing tags, cleaning up links, jumping into heated comment threads not to try to argue or even persuade but simply to drop a factual correction and let folks chew on it while he went on to myriad other tasks.

One of those people who makes everyone around them look more competent by association.

And sure, he was also one of Those RPG Folks who both impressed and irritated me by apparently LARPing a job I didn't particularly want to have to do at all but grudgingly did for some combination of love and money. I'll never understand why someone would gather a group and make up scenarios so that they could resolve the inevitable conflicts, but it takes all kinds - and V2Blast showed us daily what this sort of training could do when brought to bear in the real world.

Answer 2

I have had quite a few interaction with V2Blast over my time as a mod, and all have been positive. He has always been friendly and helpful, and was a great advocate for the community.

Whether it was editing 90% of posts on teams/meta to fix spelling, links, or tags, helping with CM escalations, jumping into chat to provide info, or helping facilitate mods communicating with the rest of the company, he did it all.

Thanks for all you did V2Blast. You will be missed.

Answer 3

As one of his coworkers, I just wanted to take this space to say thank you for all of the ways V2Blast helped me and that I am really gonna miss having him around.

V2Blast and I were in the same new hire group two years ago. As a community manager from the outside, it was splendid to start alongside someone who had in-depth knowledge about the community and, throughout my training, could always add some context to the things I was trying to understand.

I will miss his lightning-speed ability to always locate the relevant link for anything. I don't know how he operates at the speed he does, but sometimes, I think nearly all of the network's history exists in his memory. I never beat V2Blast in sharing the appropriate link for something being discussed; he always beat me to it.

Whenever I had questions about best practices moderating on the network, of which there were many over the years, V2Blast has been one of my go-to for checking in.

None of this addresses what many of you already know about V2Blast, and that is his incredible skill as an editor. Arguably the best on our team, sorry Philippe. The fact that I have to be better at double-checking my work now is a bit daunting because V2Blast's skill and speed are unmatched. I am confident he could put most editors anywhere at anything, out of work.

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Thanks for everything, and I hope to see you around here or elsewhere.

Answer 4

V2Blast, thank you for the work you have done to keep meta posts about the site mechanics up to date (and I sure hope someone else is taking up that mantle). It's always struck me as a curiosity how you'd copy edit and fix problems with your colleagues' posts- almost as if there wasn't a systematic process of CM peer review before posting, and that you were doing it on your own accord. If that's the case, you're awesome. Even if that's not the case, you're still awesome.

I think I've hardly interacted with you, but your good work and cool avatar have always made me think you're a cool guy, and that hasn't changed. Thank you.

Answer 5

So many people have said this but I need to say it too. V2Blast makes everything better. I never had to worry about my posts because I knew V2Blast would check it before and after I hit the button. Part of me wants to post this full of errors just so I can see his screen name next to mine again.

V2Blast exemplifies what this site is at its foundation – collaboration. And I was honored to collaborate with him for the last two years. Thank you for every edit, every link, and every laugh during our time together. I will miss you, but know I will see you around.. Thank you, V2Blast. Like I always said: you are the best!

Answer 6

My strongest memory I associate with V2Blast actually comes from before he was a CM - as one of the most prolific editors across multiple network sites that I had ever seen.

With the sort of energy and investment he displayed it came as no surprise when he was hired as a CM, and that energy remained a constant driving force. It was not uncommon to see V2Blast's name popping up everywhere, from performing all sorts of (very appreciated!) cleanup efforts (tag synonyms on meta sites, editing, retagging and organising info on the Mod Q&A), to being a constant presence in mod chat rooms, even for minor discussions. Just an dedicated, committed, professional and awesome person all around.

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I cannot thank you enough V2Blast, Stack Exchange will be worse off without you :(. Best of luck with everything the future holds.

Answer 7

I came across the news when checking a private chatroom; instead of seeing something like the first screenshot, I was struck by the second one:

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From maintaining tag wikis, providing feedback on feature requests and bug reports, popping to a chatroom, or even editing out typos in the comments, I have known V2Blast as one of the very few remaining CMs, who cared about the quality of the network and the community and represented the now fading memory of good relationship and clear communication between community and CMs.

I cannot agree more with Philippe:

...folks we laid off ... they are some of the best folks I have ever had the chance to work with...

Thank you for everything. I am sure you'll have a blast :)