[Martin Elster]

Congrats, Mark!

[Cally Conan-Davies]

You little ripper, Sharkey!

And thank you for the joy and the honesty and the intelligence and the humour and the sheer open-heartedness/mindedness you bring to the Sphere, not to mention the bloody good poems!

[Ann Drysdale]

Congratulations, Mark. Everything Cally said, with knobs on.

[Michael F]

Splendiferous!

[Mark McDonnell]

Thank you all so much for these kind words. It came as a surprise, a nice one, to be asked. The sphere and the people I've met here have made such a positive impact on my life in the last couple of years. l'll try my best to do a good job, so bear with me as I work out what all these new buttons do...

Mark

[David Callin]

Noooooooooooooooooooo!

Oh okay. I'll get used to it. Go placidly amid the noise and the haste, now, young feller.

[Mark McDonnell]

Nothing will change, Mr C, certainly not for you. You never need to be moderated, epitome of moderation that you are. And I promise to use my powers for good. (Have I already made that joke?)

Jayne, what do all the new buttons do?

[Matt Q]

Hey Mark, well done for stepping up! And good luck with the unruly mob in non-Met, you know how averse we are to rules and regularity.

[James Brancheau]

Big congrats, Mark. Non-met (also) has a pretty strong tradition of moderators. One in particular helped me out quite a bit when I first joined. Do I have to salute you now? (I will if you drop a completely inappropriate Pixies reference into a crit here and there.)

[Erik Olson]

Mark, congratulations on this more than moderate new appointment!