Welcome to our new community manager, Taylor Whaley!

Hello all!

For some time now, I've been looking for someone who could step into a community and social media role at HonestGamers, a bit like we saw from Germ previously, but with sustained focus on social media promotion.

That search finally went someplace, and the result is that we now have a new member on the team, Taylor Whaley (PoeticPaladin). As you might have noticed, this post is an introduction.

Taylor will not have staff privileges, at least at first, because those aren't necessary to perform the tasks the position requires. Taylor's goal is to:

* Post on various social media platforms to let people know when new staff/freelance reviews go live, and also to promote various reader reviews
* Spread the word when we have review contests that other writers around the Internet might find interesting
* Help ensure that more reader reviews receive feedback and discussion, as possible
* Make sure people know about giveaway contests the site might run periodically, so we can justify running more of them
* Occasionally let people know about any of the site's crowdfunding efforts, so more people who love what we do can support us and help us to do it better

Taylor also has experience writing, so you might see additional freelance reviews, as well. And I'll be continuing to seek out new talent, to hopefully ensure that the site continues to grow and can cover a wider variety of games in the months ahead.

Welcome to the team, Taylor!

Jason

Welcome aboard!

Welcome!

I hope this goes better than it did over at GameFAQs.

Welcome!

Greetings, new employee of Venter Enterprises.

Thanks for the warm welcomes, everybody!

I'm very much looking forward to getting to know all of you.

As a side note - what happened at GameFAQs? I'm slightly concerned now. :P

Welcome aboard - and good question: what did happen at Gamefaqs?

http://wikifaqs.net/index.php?title=Krystal109

http://gamefaqscensorship.blogspot.com.au/2014/10/tales-from-ce-krystal-in-decline-from.html

I don't know how much of the latter is true or not.

Thanks for sharing the interesting links, Jerec. I hadn't heard about any of that drama, but that's no surprise given that GameFAQs is a separate site run by other people. ;-)

For the record, I don't anticipate any similar issues occurring here at HonestGamers. I believe in Taylor's capabilities and I anticipate that soon others will have ample reason to feel the same way.

Growing our community while encouraging and rewarding regular activity in the months ahead is important to me, and so is letting people know that their contributions are appreciated. Taylor has come on board to ensure that we can do those things while also producing a steady supply of high-quality content that reaches people beyond our current sphere of influence.

I think it's a mistake to try and perfectly clone what one might call our "glory days" of 2004 and 2005 or thereabouts (too many of the people who made that era special have long since disappeared, unfortunately), but I also believe there's a lot more we can do in 2015 while remaining true to the values that helped the site to establish itself in the first place. I appreciate all of you who have stuck with the site through thick and thin, and I hope that the months and years to follow will be some of the most exciting in its long history, with help from Taylor and any others who might join us in the weeks ahead.

Wow, that sounds like quite a kerfuffle.

I'd like to take this opportunity to set some of your concerns at ease, Jerec.

Jason and I have discussed the expectations and responsibilities that come with the position through email and I feel that we're very much on the same page.

My position as HonestGamers' Community Manager is essentially to promote the content posted here by HonestGamers' staff and the community through social media platforms and here in the forums, as Jason already mentioned.

At this point in time, I don't even have moderator privileges. Policing the community isn't what I'm here for, nor would I feel comfortable coming into your lovely community and starting to tell people what to do. I'd rather leave that to the excellent moderation team that's already in place :).

I'm not discounting the possibility of taking on more responsibilities here in the future, just letting you know that my primary goal will always be to promote the awesome community here and the content you all create.

As a side note, I'd like to open things up for feedback. If you see something I'm doing that you don't like, or have some kind of idea for me (possible community activities or events, etc) I'd love to hear them. Just send an email to Taylor(AT)honestgamers(DOT)com and I'll be happy to chat.

Thanks to everybody for the warm welcomes, I can't wait to see you all around the site :).

Hello, sir. I've become a bit lurky in recent times but hopefully we'll have the chance to interact a bit!

Edit: Or hello ma'am! I actually have no idea! Taylor could be either.

Hello there!

Thanks for taking the time to introduce yourself!

I'm a guy, but you really don't need to call me sir xD. You can just refer to me as "PoeticPaladin" or Taylor. :)

Welcome!