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It is with much excitement that I present to you our newest members of the Community Team: V2Blast and SpencerG! These Community Managers - including one who comes from the existing corps of moderators - are joining the Curator Support Team and will be reporting to me. It’s great to see our team continue to grow and these new additions are going to add much needed experience and energy to our team. Let me tell you a bit about each of them.

SpencerG

Spencer started out in his professional journey after studying business management and psychology in college. He finds both pretty interesting but never loved either enough to pursue them to higher levels academically.

His professional career, however, started with managing call center teams in fintech and e-commerce. After several years of this, he began professionally managing communities in the blockchain space after dabbling in community-related projects at past companies. After he got comfortable in the community management role, he started advising and consulting community operations within his own organization as well as privately with other popular blockchain projects.

Years of working in the fast-paced blockchain space have allowed Spencer to bring experience in strategy execution, scaling, conflict resolution, and an additional wealth of outside perspectives. Spencer works remotely from his home in the American Southwest, which he is growing very tired of living in, and plans to move out of soon. He enjoys reading, video games, evaluating blockchain projects, and spending time with his family and friends.

We’re excited to have Spencer join the Curator Support Team where he’ll be working on projects focusing on our moderators and high-reputation users.

V2Blast

V2Blast has been a user on Stack Exchange for several years, so he’s no stranger to our network. He discovered the network via the Role-Playing Games Stack Exchange, where he has asked and answered many questions about various tabletop RPGs (including Dungeons & Dragons), and edited many more. He was elected as a moderator of the Role-Playing Games Stack Exchange in 2019 and is excited to pursue his passion for community as he now joins us as an Associate Community Manager for the Curator Support Team.

Previously, V2Blast worked as a Community Manager and Localization Manager for the game Nova Drift. He also worked as a contract YouTube Moderator for the online media production company Rooster Teeth. In addition, he has served as a volunteer moderator for numerous communities across multiple platforms over the past decade. On the rare occasions when he’s not moderating a community, he enjoys playing tabletop role-playing games (he plays in multiple D&D campaigns a week). He also enjoys watching a variety of TV shows and movies, and is a big fan of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

For us, he’ll be focusing on moderator and high-reputation user projects. We’re so glad to have another moderator join the CM team!


There you have it! Please say “Hello” to them if you see them in the halls and don’t be afraid to ask them a question or two. They’re both ready to interact and to continue to learn all about the wonderful communities we have here. We’re also taking this opportunity to remind you that we still have two CM positions for which we are actively recruiting - you can read more about them here: Community Manager, Trust and Safety.

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  • 37
    Good to see a familiar face. Hi V2blast! Commented Aug 31, 2021 at 13:24
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    I thought you'd be pleased with that one, JG. :)
    – Philippe StaffMod
    Commented Aug 31, 2021 at 13:58
  • 3
    Is there any difference between Associate Community Manager and Community Manager?
    – apaderno
    Commented Aug 31, 2021 at 14:13
  • 4
    Different grades - associate is slightly junior to a plain vanilla cm Commented Aug 31, 2021 at 14:24
  • 2
    @JourneymanGeek Thank you!
    – V2Blast
    Commented Aug 31, 2021 at 14:29
  • 2
    Congrats @V2Blast and SpencerG!
    – TylerH
    Commented Aug 31, 2021 at 14:52
  • 3
    @TylerH Thank you! Excited to have joined the team.
    – SpencerG StaffMod
    Commented Aug 31, 2021 at 16:49
  • 1
    @Philippe well - I'm happy with every active CM, and CM from the community we get. Already thinking of stuff I'd like to re-poke the curator support team about, and a few process changes :D Commented Sep 1, 2021 at 2:30
  • 1
    What does it mean "he’ll be focusing on moderator and high-reputation user projects."?
    – Dharman
    Commented Sep 1, 2021 at 11:59
  • 3
    @SpencerG "high-reputation user"? OK, then. Hi :) Let me know if I can help.
    – VonC
    Commented Sep 1, 2021 at 12:19
  • @JourneymanGeek I meant on Stack Exchange. It's the first time I hear of Associate Community Manager, but I have read Valued Associate many times. Do those terms have the same meaning?
    – apaderno
    Commented Sep 2, 2021 at 14:22
  • @apaderno: I believe "Valued Associate" is a term applied to all employees of the company (hence "Valued Associate #[X]" in the titles of all these hiring announcement posts) :)
    – V2Blast
    Commented Sep 2, 2021 at 14:24
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    Every single hire is referred to as such, and you will find 'Valued associate' going back to every hiring announcement going back to valued associate #2. I don't think Jeff had one cause there was no site then. Commented Sep 2, 2021 at 14:25

7 Answers 7

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Thanks for all the well-wishes! I'm not one for long speeches (most of the time), so I'll try to keep it short and sweet.

Hi, everyone! I'm V2Blast (sometimes shortened to "V2"). I use he/him pronouns. I've just joined Stack Exchange, Inc. as an Associate Community Manager on the Curator Support Team. As my bio mentions above, I've worked in community management and content moderation for the last year or two, and been a moderator for various communities across a variety of platforms as a volunteer for most of the last 10 years.

I've been around the Stack Exchange network for a few years, and a mod on RPG.SE (which is where I've spent much of my time) since 2019. I think many of the mods will recognize me from the Teacher's Lounge (a chat room for all diamond mods across the Stack Exchange network) and other mod-only spaces already - I'm sure I'll be seeing more of you all soon. And to those who haven't seen me around before, or who are meeting me for the first time... Nice to meet you!

I'm excited to be here, and looking forward to seeing what I can do with the Stack Exchange community! :)

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    (waves) Congratulations and good luck in your new role!
    – Mithical
    Commented Aug 31, 2021 at 15:59
  • 5
    This is fantastic news. Commented Aug 31, 2021 at 23:44
  • 2
    Congratulations V2Blast!
    – illustro
    Commented Sep 6, 2021 at 11:09
  • Thanks, everyone! :)
    – V2Blast
    Commented Sep 7, 2021 at 13:44
  • Congratulations! Can we get dragon hat for the winter event?
    – Vylix
    Commented Sep 10, 2021 at 4:34
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Fine, just take our most prolific editor.

Jokes aside, you're getting a good one with V2Blast. Since joining RPG four and a half years ago, V2 has made 18,000 edits, 6,000 edits more than our second most, and 13,000 more than our third. Of course, not all edits are created equal, but V2Blast has a nasty habit of consistently making high quality edits for readability, accessibility, and providing links to citation materials.

My favorite memory was the first time I had multiple posts edited by V2Blast, when I was very new to the site. It was right before I went to bed, and I got several push notifications from the app saying "answer edited". I was like "who is this guy editing my posts?" I checked and some guy named V2Blast made some decent looking edits, so I went to bed. I woke up having hit the daily rep cap from those posts he had edited, and since then, I've been a little superstitious that V2 edits attract more upvotes (probably because of the quality improvements).

Congrats V2Blast! (And SpencerG, I just don't know you).

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    Haha. Thank you! Hopefully I'll still be making my usual edits on occasion ;)
    – V2Blast
    Commented Aug 31, 2021 at 15:06
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    @V2Blast it's so weird and pleasing to see the "staff" label by your name! Commented Aug 31, 2021 at 16:58
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    @Rubiksmoose It's weird and pleasing to see your name :P Miss you, buddy. Commented Aug 31, 2021 at 17:00
  • @Rubiksmoose: Thank you! I'm glad you're still around. Hope you're doing well :)
    – V2Blast
    Commented Aug 31, 2021 at 17:11
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    I've already witnessed a couple of V2 edit storms. They're quite beautiful...and humbling at the same time. :D
    – Juan M
    Commented Aug 31, 2021 at 17:25
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    I have over 100k rep on RPGSE and I still get quality edits from @V2Blast ... Quality first, and a class act. Commented Aug 31, 2021 at 23:46
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    Sorry to leave you short-handed, @ThomasMarkov. But your loss is my gain. :-)
    – Philippe StaffMod
    Commented Sep 1, 2021 at 10:53
  • 2
    Can they put @V2Blast on proofreading duty for the SO blog? Seems like that would drastically reduce the number of complaints and criticisms of new blog posts :-) Commented Sep 14, 2021 at 7:13
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Thank you for the warm welcome.

I am really excited to be working with the community here on the Stack Exchange network.

I have been around community management for quite a few years in just about every role in the space and am truly excited to be joining one of the OG community brands.

I am admittedly relatively new to the Stack Exchange network. I have some experience with Stack Overflow while I was learning web development but otherwise am pretty new to all of the other sites.

I am thrilled to start working with you and for you guys to help accomplish some really cool stuff!

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Great to see more new blood, and more focus on projects for high-reputation users and moderators. I'm really excited about that! A warm welcome to both of you and good luck!

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    Thanks! I'm excited about it as well :)
    – V2Blast
    Commented Aug 31, 2021 at 15:09
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Good to see more CMs hired from the community, and to see fresh faces! "Focusing on moderator and high-reputation user projects" also bodes well - did you have the 30K privileges post in mind?

I hope your stay in the CM team is a good one; good luck to you both!

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Congratulations to both of you!

SpencerG: Your array of past experiences looks very awesome!

V2Blast: I'm delighted to see another CM with significant real-life experience (i.e., Stack Exchange experience). Your reputation on RPG.SE is very impressive!

Both: Hopefully I'll see you around, and hopefully not because I've been misbehaving :) Maybe I'll see you some time at the Tavern.

Juan: I'm excited to learn more about the Curator Support Team and the projects focusing on mods and high-rep users (though I don't know if my 57.7k rep across the network counts me as a "high-rep" user, since there's plenty of people at > 100k on just a single site!).

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    Not to speak for Juan here, but I can safely say that you'll be hearing a lot more about the work of the curator support team. I'm excited for the work they have upcoming!
    – Philippe StaffMod
    Commented Sep 1, 2021 at 10:55
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    You're absolutely right, but your phrasing of SE experience as real life experience has me cracking up laughing :) Seconding your congratulations and best wishes to SpencerG and V2Blast!!
    – auden
    Commented Sep 3, 2021 at 18:08
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Great to meet 2 new CMs- V2Blast and SpencerG. Best of luck to both of you.

Also I am very excited for projects on high-reputation users and moderators. Can't wait to see the launching of these projects.

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