[Mahip]

September 25, 2005:
I registered on PaGaLGuY as "newbie" Mahip.

September 25, 2009:
I am a Certified PaGaL, an inactive Moderator with 3800+ posts, 800+ groans & 9500+ thanks.



Today I complete four years at this forum and each time I have encountered something new, exciting each time I logged in here.
I would go back in time and recollect few threads [out of a total of 81] which I started on this forum and how they helped me as a person.

After joining the forum in Sep 2005, I understood the working of the forum for two odd months before starting my first thread. Started in Nov 2005, the thread was called "MUMBAI Exam Centres Address Help". I now realize that unknowingly or knowingly the intention of the thread was to help community members. This feeling among its members is something on which PG has grown over the years. As expected I got no replies on the thread and was demotivated as a newbie. Shows how much your online credibility matters in a discussion and giving a direction to a thread.

After few months of spamming here and there, I arranged one PG meet at Mumbai in Jan 2006 along with denish.It was a pretty successful meet with all active members including gnrs, Apurv, puneet, KK, shyam, attending the meet. I came to know the importance of offline meetings and how that can build your reputation and make lifetime friends in PG meets.

Being a very active member in my initial days, my interaction with moderators increased immediately. MavericK was one of my favourite mods and he was also working with TCS in 2006 working for GE client.
We even discussed PG threads on Sametime messenger and Infinity Messenger. The sarcastic way in which mods used to lock threads was very fascinating for me and thereby I started a thread called "PG MODS' greatest hits!!!"
This one got a good response though it eventually got locked on the argument that it was a thread for buttering mods and stay away from being banned.

Meanwhile, the friend circle kept on growing at a rapid pace coz I was only active on The Lounge section. I was so fascinated my meets that I had the first PG Goa meet where the invited puys could not come and hence I had to manage the meet alone. PG Goa Meet! (PG Goa Meet! ;))

Over the years, it feels great to have attended meets at Ahmedabad, Bombay, Pune, Hyderabad, Delhi, Indore, Bangalore and above all Goa.

The Annual Event of Coolest Avatar gave me an opportunity to showcase my MS Paint skills with "poster wali" posts.The Beagle Boys are still remembered for their campaign and all the awesome posts on the elections. "Ring De Beagle!" post was one of the best. rani_das, anuragxp adn PsychoD taught me a lot of things during all the campaigning and encouraged me to think more creatively.

One fine day I was promoted to the role of a sectional moderator at Chit Chat. This was probably one of the PG HQ strategy to control my spamming. Things became serious thereafter, I tried to change the way discussion happened in The Lounge Section with few threads like:

PG Survey: What will you do if you become a Moderator/Administrator on PaGaLGuY.com?

This one invited feedback from puys and we came to know what the members think about moderation on PG and how do they want to change the same. I can admit that I did not keep a track of this thread for making changes in the way we work, but definitely it provided useful inputs to PG HQ & other mods.

Before the concept of OMPA and OMPACT came into pictue recently, this topic was discussed earlier in one the threads called:
How can PG retain its currently active/old members? (How can PG retain its currently active/old members?)

The conclusion of this thread was that there is nothing value addition which PG offers to B school students and alumni, hence they would not be part of the forum forever. OMPA is trying to break this opinion and only time will tell how things work out.

Shoutbox was part of life few years ago with a daily competition among regular SB people to top the no of shouts. Few threads were started to utilize the full potential of SB and how can it be used to help puys.

All about Shoutbox! FAQs, discussions & more...

Counselling Sessions for CAT2007 on Shoutbox! - Discussions & Planning. (*Counselling Sessions* for CAT2007 on Shoutbox! - Discussions & Planning.)

Counselling Sessions for CAT2007 on Shoutbox! - Gyaan (Gyaan from *Counselling Sessions* for CAT 2007 & other exams on Shoutbox!)

GK Session on Shoutbox! :-)

Counselling and GK sessions were hugely successful with full support from PG HQ. But this was never continued later coz of time constraints.
Hope someone can take this forward this year for CAT 2009.

Quizzing has always been one of my focus areas and I found a great quiz partner on PG in grondmaster. We have created lot of quizzes on PG, for PG - be it PG Trivia (PG Trivia - 3!), Kya Aap Certified PaGal se Tez Hai?, and the most recent quiz "Seven" on PG 7th anniversary. All these are rich facts on PG and should be part of History section in few years.

Before joining full time MBA at Nirma Ahmedabad, I created a visual guide for newbies.
For Newbies: Mahip's Visual Guide to Navigate Around the Forum (For Newbies: Mahip's Visual Guide to Navigate Around the Forum)

The most common complaint among new joinees is that they get lost in the forum and do not understand how-to-post, where-to-post, etc etc.
This thread was started to help such junta and I think it served its purpose. The delivery of images on the thread is definitely not the best way to put this on the forum, but anyway something is better than nothing. Now we have a new guide based on the new-look forum. So happy that the trend is being continued.

Remembering old times of coolest avatar and posters inspired me to create our very own cartoon. Mr. Green Tales! Our own Cartoon ... (Mr. Green Tales! Our own Cartoon ...)

Some of the them very really cool, rest were okayish. But sad that I cud not give time to this. May be in future we have our very own comic book.

One more thread which I started before joining Nirma was about the IT sector and its frustrated e-Coolies
Growing frustration among IT professionals in India! (Growing frustration among IT professionals in India!)

This thread is still relevant and I am also back in IT sector post MBA, but I loved it then and I am still loving this.

Being in a B school, you get this responsibility of promoting your institute in public and talk all good things about the same. Life at Nirma thread (Life@Institute of Management, Nirma University, Ahmedabad) aimed to do the same and good to see that junior batches are continuing the trend:

Being a moderator I was always seen as someone different in my B school. I gave a presentation in the HR club Imprints of our college on Managing online community in front of all faculty members. Such opportunities only came coz of PG and that was one of the most satifactory incident of my life.

Being a moderator it always helps when you can easily track down a clone user by his/her activities and the way the user chats/posts.
Having created one clone thewebdon helped me later when I became a mod.

Moderator bashing was also fun and one of the best threads (What's the problem ?) on this was started by owr very own harshadk. There was a lot of drama involved with me retiring from PG and lot of things. Finally you have to come back coz of the love of the members.

Since MBA in 2007 I was not very active on the forum but never missed chance to sell PG tees in my college and organize meets/events on and off the forum. Most of my posts are now on Bday threads and i always try to be more regular on the forum and help as many puys as possible.

Though there are lot of other things to share and talk about but have to stop here. I want to thank all the support I got from seniors Mods and PG HQ over these 4 years.

Please note that this ain't any retirement speech!
I was active on PG. I am active on PG. I will remain active on PG.

Keep rocking!

PS: Some interesting thing on being a mod of an MBA commnunity and my knowledge on cracking CAT.

One of the very few threads related to CAT which I opened was "What's your CAT Center?!"
Probably shows that I was never part of CAT cracking strategies, etc etc. but always tried to learn from all brainy puys.
Hope I have not ruined my chances of an OMPA dinner