Congrats, Garrett Fitzgerald, on being made admin!!!

[Kathy Li]

Just in case you didn't notice in chat, we have a new moderator/admin on the board! Garrett, it couldn't have happened to a nicer guy. And thank you thank you thank you thank you for saying YES!!! They were ready to break me. I tried not to crack! I tried!!! [Collapses, clutches Garrett's knees, sobbing in gratitude].

Ahem.

Welcome to the joys of modding the YW board. I'm gonna go take a month-long vacation in Bimini, now.

[Garrett Fitzgerald]

Heh. Thanks for asking me -- I was honored.

For those of you who don't know me, I've been a Diane fan since college, when my next-door neighbor got me started on the Star Trek novels. I don't remember if she actually gave me The Wounded Sky, but if not, it was one of the first I read. Shortly thereafter, I decided I had to read everything else she had written, and quickly found the Middle Kingdoms books, and then SYWtBaW and DW.

A year or two later, I attended the Trek Platinum Anniversary Con in Boston, where I heard Diane speak, telling us about her upcoming YW book, High Wizardry, and got her to sign everything I had, including a printout of "Enterprise, Starship", parts of which appear in TWS. I also saw her in a panel discussion called "Why do you step on the accelerator when the light turns yellow?", which dealt with the complexities of writing from an alien point of view.

Sometime in this obsessive cataloging of Diane's works to date (1989-ish), I posted on Usenet a bibliography that was as extensive as I could make it: it included a couple of things I hadn't yet tracked down. Shortly afterwards, someone else contacted me with some things I had forgotten. You might recognize the name from somewhere or other...

In any case, I continued following Diane's books over the years, and her posts online. When my elder daughter was born, I named her Ael, after the protagonist of My Enemy, My Ally (actually, the whole Rihannsu series, but I decided on the name early).

When her website announced the forming of YoungWizards.com, I jumped on, and got my "First 100" users avatar. I dropped in and out over the years, until Kathy recently asked me if I could help with the mod duties. I told her I'd be happy to, and here I am. Nice to meet you all. :-)

[Kathy Li]

Actually, Lee asked you, she just mentioned to me that she hadn't heard back from you, and i passed the word along.

Man, I feel old. I remember that USENET posting.

[Garrett Fitzgerald]

Originally posted by kli6:
Actually, Lee asked you, she just mentioned to me that she hadn't heard back from you, and i passed the word along.

Ah, yes, sorry. I still don't know what happened to that email... I hope I didn't delete it thinking it was spam, like half of the rest of my inbox...

[Sean L.]

Props, Garrett

[Mel]

Wow, congrats Garrett! You really are a nice guy, and I think a there's a better person here to be an admin.

So....Good job!!

[Dragon Writer]

*cheers new admin* i just wish i could get into chat to see you there. well, i COULD, but it might cause the untimely demise of my computer...so it's probably best i don't try. So congradulations from over here!

[marina salem]

Congratulations and felicitations, Garrett! The orange head in chat looks good on you.

[EricG1793]

Garrett, I know that you'll be a wonderful admonerator, or whatever we want to call it....

Yes, Kathy I could tell that you and Lee were overworked... and having another around will really help them!

And I know that you will not abuse your moderator powers... you're always great and forgiving to everybody! Although I know that you will take action if there's something bad going on that impacts more than one or two people.

I haven't seen Lee post or participate in chats for a while, several days anyway... is she on vacation? Or is everything going so well that she doesn't need to post?

Oh, Marina, you did a one-liner! I don't care about one-liners, though... there really isn't that much to say about this topic, but I do manage to make big long speeches out of things if I WANT to....

[wildflower]

Er, has anyone ever seen Lee participate in a chat? :P She doesn't come in, even to the DD chats, and she'll only post if it's really needed. Lee isn't quite the same as Kathy as an admin, either- it started out being just Lee for a while (although DD has always had admin powers as well), and then Kathy and PM were appointed as moderators; Kathy's adminship is recent.

I've already congratulated Garrett in chat, but I'll say it again, along with a brief warning of certain people who wish to ask the new administrator if he would please lock or hide ToGR as a joke...

[Kathy Li]

I've seen Lee in chat a couple times, but usually it's just when she's testing something out on the board,and needs someone to help kick the tires from a user POV.

[Dragon Writer]

I'm not surpised lee isn't posting or talking...when it comes to mods and admins, kli is more the exception then anyone...(she posts, where mosts eventually get swamped with backround work, and stop posting after the first few weeks) except for the forums i'm an admin on, but that's mostly just cause i'm in love with having the highest post count. :P *tries to think of more then two times i've seen a post by lee anyways, and fails*

[Gatemage Stardragon]

Congrats Uncle G!! you know I'm just going to call you that now, right? *hugs* you rock!