Whether SAP Employee or not, here on SDN we try to treat you all the same. One big SDN community (of course the same is true for BPX). Until today there was one difference, only SAP employees were able to be selected to be forum moderators.
In the early days, when nobody knew us the selection process used to go like this:
Me: "Please, please, please would you be so kind to help us out with this SDN forum? I know you have so much on your plate already, but we really need someone to cover the area xyz."
Developer: "Mmmh."
Me: "I take that as a yes. That is awfully nice of you. We, and I think I can speak for the whole SDN community, are endlessly grateful for your participation."
Now that we found our way out of Obscuristan, the process is a lot easier:
Developer: "I need a forum for this hot new development area xyz."
Me: "Mmmh"
Developer: "I'll take that as a yes, when will it be available."
Me: "You know what Linda Evangelista said: "For under $10K I am not even leaving the bed.". Without two motivated moderators there will be no new forum on SDN."
Developer thinks: "I can't believe this guy is comparing a stupid forum application with the life of a super model."
Developer: "Yes of course we will provide you with two moderators."
Nevertheless there are areas like BI where within the flood of posts a helping hand from the SDN community is very welcomed. For the longest time we didn't have that capability. Remember when Craig joined us and I made him a moderator before he even was an SAP employee? All in a sudden not only the moderator M, but also the SAP icon was showing next to his name. Now only about one year later we fixed it including some background authorizations and are ready for a new era on SDN:
Please welcome our first SDN Community Moderator: Bhanu Gupta.
Time and again she showed us that the well-being of the community is of utmost importance to her. Just check the /thread/120151 [original link is broken]:
Doniv Ramuk: ... Your support to the BW community here on SDN has been immense and I believe I am speaking for everyone here when I say that you have gone out of your way to help us out with any kind of problem we have had, no matter how trivial.
We are confident, that she will use her new capabilities to further foster the health of the BI forums, help reward good contributions here and there by giving points where they are due and haven't been given by the original author and also weed out the threads that ask for copyrighted material.
By the way no one on SDN, not even Craig, Marilyn or I can give points to ourselves. A security mechanism that works out quite well. ( What I do is send Craig some root beer, because you don't get good root beer in Germany, and then he takes good care of my points 😉
Bhanu is our woman at the community forefront going into new uncharted SDN territory and has the full support from us the whole SDN Team. Please welcome her in her extended role.
If you want to nominate someone to be a moderator for a forum, please send us an email first name last name at sap. The candidate has to have at least 50 points in the particular forum and a track record of putting the health of the community before her or his own interests.
P.S. If you want to get a glimpse of Bhanu's enthusiasm and general joyfulness check out her SDN TV interview (In Web 2.0 speak that would be a video-cast.)
P.P.S. The great thing is, she will not only be at TechEd in Las Vegas, but also at the SDN Day the day before. A great chance to e to thank her in person.
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