Sorry if I seem a little late to the party - was away from my office yesterday after hearing the news, and honestly, couldn't compose myself enough to try and write anything coherent on a bloody phone...
Over the 15+ years i've been first a member, then a moderator on here, Chris was a constant friend, mentor on the moderation side in the early days, and sounding board throughout my time on here. As some of you are aware, I've a "typically yorkshire" attitude and my messages on all the incarnations of this forum have had ongoing threads where I basically "vented" over one transgression or another - where he "talked me down off the ledge" multiple times - i'm sure a few members on here are realising that they owe their continued existance on here to Chris...
But he was much more than that - he was a mainstay of organising meetups - the mid-winter trips to zoo's spring to mind - but also was behind a lot of the TP Meets - it's to my shame that in both cases I was unable to make it "darn sarf" to attend due to other ties.
As to general "being around the forum" - look no further than the message counts (although I seem to remember those MAY have been tweaked at some point) but more tellingly the reaction score - almost double almost everyone else on the list...
And of course, when TP was in danger of closing a couple of years ago - Chris was instantly "on the case" in terms of keeping things going, to be joined by
@sirch and
@lindsay our current benign dictatorship
So, when I heard the news it's fair to say I was actually pretty much stopped in my tracks - the loss of a good friend and work colleague of such long standing is never going to be an easy thing.
But we've also got a good team still here - and, I'm sure we'll cope - hard as it may be - but I would ask you all to just behave with a little more "decorum" at the moment - we're having it tough keeping going - if people do misbehave, then they should expect us to be firm and decisive - it may often be that there isn't more than one staff member on duty, so initial treatment of any issues may be to lock threads or give temp bans until we can get together to discuss. Please, Please don't put us in that position.
But to end on the important things...
Chris - we're going to miss you - you're going to leave a massive hole in this forum, in this community, and for some of us at least, in our hearts...
@Cobra - Chris.
Gone too Soon.
