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For some time now, I’ve been looking forward to announcing the following news. Our dedicated team of Community Managers has increased today with the addition of Shodipo Ayomide! Please help me welcome him to our communities!

Shodipo, who goes by Ayo (pronounced “I-O”) brings 5 years of professional experience working as a full-stack engineer between companies. He was more of a JavaScript & PHP fan for those years but he has 9 years of experience in technology. While growing this experience, he worked many jobs both full-time and a number of contract jobs as an engineer. This eventually led him to notice online communities.

SHodipo Ayomide

Ayo began developing a feel for dev communities when he got an offer as a software engineer from Techpoint, a Nigerian-based technology news publishing platform. He was able to attend events, learn and grow. He found himself appreciating the camaraderie with other developers. Ayo’s first event was actually a “Women in Tech” conference in Nigeria that he says was so much fun! When he realized that he deeply appreciated developer communities, he joined Developers Circles Lagos from Facebook as a co-organizer and that started it all. He now leads unStack Africa, a workshop-based community now present in 6 African countries, and co-organizes Open Source Community Africa, the largest open source community in Africa with chapters across all technically active countries in Africa. They’ve raised $73k for their Open Source Festival in February 2020 and flew top-level execs from Google, Facebook, Microsoft, GitHub, SAP, and more down to Nigeria for NaijaHacks, the largest hackathon ever in Africa which raised a total of $120k in sponsorships in 2019. As you can see, Ayo loves the developer community and that will help him to be a phenomenal contributor and leader of the Stack Overflow community.

Ayo believes as we do, that online communities are the future. Connecting everyone all at once in a community without traditional barriers like expensive entrance fees or travel expenses means that more people can be reached and conferences/meetups for larger audiences can be planned. We have various kinds of people in our online community and the fact that our focus is the online community means that we can effectively plan for each kind of community member without thinking about venues, halls, food, and more.

In his personal time, Ayo enjoys watching movies - think “Netflix party with friends & co-workers,” playing games, reading, building side projects, trying new food, traveling, meeting new people, and yes, spending time with his family. I’m sure we’ll be seeing lots of him around the network so when you run into him, please say hello and help him feel welcomed.

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    How long does it take to the "staff" indicator to appear on the profiles? (e.g. on SO) – Shadow Wizard Wearing Mask V2 Feb 16 at 14:53
  • @ShadowWizardisVaccinating That's the first task: add the staff indicator to your profile. Trial by fire. – Chindraba Feb 16 at 15:05
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    @User777088 I think the first task will be to create more then the current 5 site accounts ;) – Luuklag Feb 16 at 15:09
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    @Luuklag final task: post a question here on MSE and maintain positive score for three days. :D – Shadow Wizard Wearing Mask V2 Feb 16 at 15:23
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    'more of a JavaScript & PHP fan'....despite that handicap, I wish you all tbe best in a job I would not touch with a bargepole:) – Martin James Feb 17 at 1:04
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Welcome to the CM family and I'm happy they now have two more hands to share the workload.

Let us know when we demand too much of you and your colleagues.

As you seem to like movies:

  • What was the last movie you watched?
  • Which movie do you recommend we should all go see?

Do you know we have a Movie & TV site? Are you planning on participating there?

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    Thanks @rene! Haha, it's not a new movie but it's a great one, I'm currently seeing "Altered Carbon". Before Altered Carbon I saw "LUPIN", you could check that one out, it's really cool. Yes, I'm aware of that, I'll definitely be around there. :) – Ayo Feb 16 at 16:31
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    @ShodipoAyomide Assuming you're talking about the Netflix adaptation Altered Carbon I highly recommend you read the source novel (if not the whole series). It's one of the best things I've read in a while! – Edlothiad Feb 16 at 18:06
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Welcome, Ayo!

Your history seems to be jam-packed with community organizing where you live, and it's really awesome to see that. With all of that history backing you up, I'm sure you're going to fit in just fine here. Looking forward to seeing you in action, Ayo. You seem perfect for the role. :)

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Welcome Ayo, and good luck! (You'll need it :P) Great to see a community manager who will (probably) be working during European African office hours, for a change.

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    Are you complaining not all of us follow your 20 hours working days? – rene Feb 16 at 15:03
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Welcome Ayo!

However, I do have a small concern.

Ayo does not appear to be involved in Stack Exchange, he was brought "from the outside". Did you (the existing Community Team) make any special efforts to explain how things work in Stack Exchange?

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    Thank you for your concern, it's a huge part of our onboarding regardless. However, as a long time software engineer, Shodipo is aware of our ecosystem. It's how he found us! – Sara Chipps Feb 16 at 14:59
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    Let's remember that we were all on the outside at some point before becoming part of the inside. He will learn (as we all have) the intricacies of the network with time. Ayo's not new to large communities nor to community management. We'd love for the community to help and support our new CMs when possible. Maybe you can help with that too! – Juan M ModStaff Feb 16 at 15:00
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    @Sara I did look on his SE accounts. Only bunch of posts on Stack Overflow main, which is nice, but no posts on any meta site, hence the "does not appear to be involved in Stack Exchange". – Shadow Wizard Wearing Mask V2 Feb 16 at 15:00
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    @JuanM of course, but most (all? Didn't check) recent CM's came "from the inside" after being very active members/moderators in at least one site. – Shadow Wizard Wearing Mask V2 Feb 16 at 15:02
  • @ShadowWizardisVaccinating I've always considered Stack Overflow part of the network. How do you think about it? – Sara Chipps Feb 16 at 15:02
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    @Sara asking and answering questions on a main Stack Exchange site (including Stack Overflow) is not being active (aka "involved" which I've used in the question) in the community, for this one have to take part on the meta site(s), that's what I mean. Sorry if it wasn't clear enough. – Shadow Wizard Wearing Mask V2 Feb 16 at 15:04
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    New blood could be good. Doesn't have the baggage of "what was" to deal with. Both with regard to stuck in the old ways and the past many months of firestorm(s). – Chindraba Feb 16 at 15:15
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    @User777088 without knowing "what was" might fall in pits others fell and learned how to get out from, or not fall in the first place. – Shadow Wizard Wearing Mask V2 Feb 16 at 15:24
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    @ShadowWizardisVaccinating that was only true of the old school CMs, I think. I am not certain, but I believe Catija was the last mod -> CM move and that was a few years ago now. – terdon Feb 16 at 15:34
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    I'm gonna give it 6-8 and see where it goes. The new CM gets to wear a stained and torn mantle, yet has clean hands. A few moments of angst could lead to a few hours (days?) of Meta reading. If he's worth his hire he'll be able to discern the currents without needing to jump into the river. – Chindraba Feb 16 at 15:34
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Congratulations and welcome, Ayo! Nigeria has been a growing hub for tech & innovation for years now; it will be awesome to get some representation from that region and all the cool stuff happening there.

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Welcome to the CM team Ayo. I hope we will see a lot of you around the network. If you ever feel like saying "Hi", and have some (informal) chat, do drop by at the Tavern, all others are welcome as well ;).

Seeing that recently it was discussed in this blogpost that the CM team will be divided in threefold, what (sub)team will Ayo become a part of?

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    Thanks for asking. Ayo will be starting off on the Curator Support team. – Sara Chipps Feb 16 at 15:05
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    Good to know @SaraChipps, will we get an update on who will be on what team somewhere in the future? – Luuklag Feb 16 at 15:07
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    as this is an initiative we are iterating on, we left it up to the CMs if they want to share their specific team they are on. – Sara Chipps Feb 21 at 21:08
  • Fair enough, thx for the reply @SaraChipps. Is there any timeline for when you'll be done iterating? – Luuklag Feb 21 at 22:06
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Welcome Ayo!

I hope that your time with Stack Exchange will be long and fruitful.

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    After he survives his first 6 - 8 weeks he'll be fine ;) – Luuklag Feb 16 at 15:08
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A warm welcome to you, Ayo!

I hope your stay at Stack Exchange is a happy one (give it 6-8 weeks, you'll be fine;).

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Welcome Ayo!

While I haven't been to Nigeria, "Things Fall Apart" by Chinua Achebe and "Half of the Yellow Sun" by Chimamanda were two of the major works we had to study in the "African Literature" course I took when I was a student at Oxford. I also regularly cheer for Nigeria in the FIFA World Cup.

I look forward to the opportunity to get to know you, whether here on Meta.SE or in the various chat rooms!

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