DB Moderator Notice: Changing of the Guard

[Chris Fitzgerald]

Forgive me if Paul has already made an announcement and I missed it, but I just wanted to make official what many of you have already noticed: That Sam Sherry has stepped down as a moderator of the DB forums for reasons having to do with the need for less responsibility and more free time (who among us can not relate?) Sam will protest if I get too gushy about this, so I'll simply say that I greatly enjoyed working with him and the "mod hang" involved, and that I learned a hell of a lot about bass playing, evenhandedness, and diplomacy from watching him do what he does.

Sam, you did a fantastic job as a mod, and while I'm going to be really sorry to see you go for selfish reasons, I also must admit that I envy you that freedom a little bit already. Someday that time may well come for me, and if and when it does, I hope to follow your lead in stepping down gracefully and quietly while making the search for a replacement mod as easy as possible by staying on until the job is done. You're a class act, and it's been my pleasure hanging with you.

I'm also proud to announce that stepping into Sam's somewhat oversized moderatorial shoes is a person that Sam, myself and Paul all unanimously agreed on - Jon Packard, also known as "Pacman". Jon's been around TB forever and a day, and is one of the site's "Supermods" (i.e. - don't mess with Jon ). I rememer a few years back when he was an accomplished plankist just beginning to get into the Double Bass, and then one minute I looked up and noticed that all of a sudden he was an accomplished professional DB player! Where he finds time to make huge leaps of progress like that I'll never know, but in any case, we're lucky to have him.

Last, almost overlooked by all because the forum is getting bigger and busier all the time, I'd like to welcome Francois as the new moderator of the "Strings" forum. Sam and I have been bugging Paul for a while now about handing "Strings" over to someone who knows and cares more about strings than we do, and I'm not sure there's a bigger strings freak in the whole world than Francois - or, for that matter, a better one. Welcome aboard!

So it's goodbye and hello all at once. Aint that the way?

[Ed Fuqua]

But it ain't like he's gonna stop posting, right?

You done good, SAM'L.

[Wil Davis]

Thanks Sam - nice job!

Thanks Jon…

- Wil

[Steve Killingsworth]

Thanks for the service Sam. You have always been the voice of reason in the middle of low frequency chaos. And to echo Ed, I hope you aren't going to disappear as other highly respected folks have recently done.

[jazzbo]

Thank you Sam. I've often thought about stopping, good to know at least one person had the cojones to do it.

[Sam Sherry]

Thank you each and thank you all. You don't need to say more, really. There is no doubt in my mind that I haven't done anything that anybody else would not have done.

That said and meant, moderating the double bass bulletin board has been a tremendous growth experience for me. Generally you are a bunch of decent, thoughtful, helpful people except when your A0 gets out of synch with your B0.

Working closely with Chris has been the best part. Chris deserves your thanks, not me: He built this place and established a focus on knowledge, generosity and civility. He has become a friend and I kneel down when considering his tremendous progress as a musician over the past several years. Simply put, he's got what we all want, and he got it by working his tail off.

This is also a good time to acknowledge the contributions of our former moderator Don Higdon. As for Mr. Pac, if moderating here helps him focus on the double bass than the world is a better place. I'm proud that my taxes now pay for moderating TB/DB!

I'll still be around. I won't be reading every post of every thread. Imagine that!

Keep it tight, ladies & gents. Easy,

BEST,

SAM

[Chris Fitzgerald]

Originally Posted by Sam Sherry

I'll still be around. I won't be reading every post of every thread. Imagine that!

Which brings up a good point - thanks to Sam's diligence, I don't have to imagine that since I haven't been reading every post of every thread for some time now, and I plan on continuing to not read every post of every thread (I hope that Jon feels the same way as well). While I do scan the DB forums every day to a certain degree, I'm counting on the rest of you villagers to help discipline the children - remember that the little " ! " icon at the upper right of every post is a "report this post" button that you can use to help us do our jobs. If you find spam, profanity, or trollish behavior, please help us out by using this forum feature to give us a heads up. Thanks in advance.

[Pacman]

Glad to be here - I'm in agreement with everything that's been said here (especially the 'don't mess with jon part ). Sam and Chris have made this a great site, and I'm honored to be a part of it. My day job doesn't give me a lot of opportunity to dig into the doghouse like I used to (note the avatar), but I still play it often - and this will probably inspire me to practice more! I'm excited!

First rule: No comments about my avatar!

[Ed Fuqua]

OK, but doesn't that necklace make your neck tired?

[Paul Warburton]

Sam....you've been just great! This'll take some getting use to. I just got through yellin' at you for calling your end-pin a foot. So, be sure to make appearances as often as possible. We old folks don't deal with change as good as we use to!

Jon...We know you'll do a great job.
Can we talk about your avatar?

[Wil Davis]

Originally Posted by Pacman

<snip…>
First rule: No comments about my avatar!

Oh dear - I was going to say, nice head-style…

Thanks again for taking up the slack, Jon - I'm sure you'll do a great job!

- Wil

[mchildree]

Thanks a bunch, Sam...hope to see you around as much as you can manage.

And Jon...welcome! Nice haircut!

[Marcus Johnson]

Originally Posted by Pacman

Glad to be here - I'm in agreement with everything that's been said here (especially the 'don't mess with jon part ). Sam and Chris have made this a great site, and I'm honored to be a part of it. My day job doesn't give me a lot of opportunity to dig into the doghouse like I used to (note the avatar), but I still play it often - and this will probably inspire me to practice more! I'm excited!

First rule: No comments about my avatar!

Hey, Jon I like your avatar...got kind of a WWF vibe to it.

[Damon Rondeau]

Hope you're doing chin-ups and not hanging by your thumbs, Pac.