"In Good Hands"

General
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Ahoy ICP folks,

I take great pride in having been one of the original moderators of this DFINITY forum and part of that pride comes from this community always forcing me to be a better version of myself. I genuinely believe this forum has made me a better thinker, a better colleague, and better person. From day one, I always tried to be intellectually honest and transparent because trust is an important ingredient in creating a good forum, and ultimately a good community.

With that in mind, I want to be transparent and announce that after 6.5 years at DFINITY (only 1/millionth of the distance between us and the age of dinosaurs ), I have decided to leave the foundation. This also means that since this is the DFINITY forum, I will go back to being a regular user of this forum, and not a moderator.

What changes for you

I don’t expect much to change.

In truth, we have pretty good mods who fight the trolls armed with AI tools. And we also have good leaders at DFINITY who routinely write on behalf of the foundation to communicate with the community (Dom, Jan, Manu, Bjoern T, Bjoern A, Lara, Sam, Lomesh, Rudiger, Jason, among many others). No longer am I the main voice of DFINITY in the forum… nor have I been the main one for a while. This is good and healthy for the forum and community as a whole.

Why I am leaving

First of all, I want to stress that I would never leave if I felt the foundation or community needed me.

I was there when times were tough (pre and post launch having their own distinct versions of tough), and I can finally say. The adoption is at its peak and growing, cycles usage is astronomical, the network has never been more stable, more performant, and more powerful. This seemed like a good time.

Now, why am I leaving? The reasons are simple: I genuinely feel that I have accomplished what I set out to do (and much, much more) when I first met Dom in Palo Alto in the summer of 2018. I am ready for new things. To put it in context, I left graduate school at 26. I joined DFINITY at 35 (as a newlywed). I am now 41 (with two kids). 43% of my professional life has been at DFINITY. I am ready for a new adventure.

How I will be involved

As I have mentioned publicly a few times, I am an 8 year staker and a proud member of this forum. So you will likely hear and see me here, but the main thing different is that I will be representing myself. I will have less context in upcoming topics and threads, but I look forward to what kind of new clarity I will get being on the other side of the fence.

This is not goodbye because I will still be present in the forums, socials, etc… but like all changes of the tides, it comes with some bittersweet combination of gratitude, nostalgia, and excitement for the future.

Thank you to everyone for the great years as a moderator.

Diego

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special props to @Ang @Severin as our new mod overlords

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Thank you for all the great work! You were one of the first DFINITY voices I was exposed to over 3 years ago and I’ll be forever grateful for your support. Best of luck on your future endeavors, and looking forward to reading your perspectives as an outsider in the future!

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thank you @dostro ! that means a lot

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Make a neuron so that we can follow it :slight_smile:

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That’s a good idea. I do usually manually vote anyways.

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Such a thoughtful note and great to hear you’ll still be a close part of the community. Thank you for everything @diegop, your work was the best thing to happen to this forum in keeping it productive.

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It was excellent working with you the past few years! Good luck in your next endeavor.

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Good luck @diegop! We will see you around.

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Thanks @diegop and best of luck with everything!

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Thank you and good luck on your next journey @diegop

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These messages are so heart warming. Thank you!

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I read the article you posted a few days ago, “What’s so hard about AI on the blockchain?”
Very helpful, anyway, thanks for your contribution to the dfinity forums.

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Good luck at your next adventure!

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You’ve been a model of moderation in my opinion. That is not easy to replace.

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As someone that’s known you personally since Jan 2019, I look forward to this version of @diegop emerging, at last.

I hope the Dominator culture of DFINITY wears off sooner rather than later.

In particular, I’d like to eventually meet an authentic version of you. I still don’t know that side of Diego.

Take care, old “friend.” :heart:

PS: Some info via ChatGPT

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