I'm honred to introduce our new Moderator Spotlight prashanth.kishan . Moderator Spotlight is our way to thank and high-light significant moderators. Kishan moderates the SCN Career Center and has a lot of experience in this topic. Read the interview below for insights and to learn more about him.
Please share with the community a little about yourself:
For those who know me only as pk or Kishan P, my full name is
Prashanth Kishan. I was born in Kerala(India), brought-up in
Hyderabad, spent my working years in Bangalore and currently settled
in Pittsburgh, USA with my lovely wife and adorable two-year old.
I'm an ABAP Consultant who also dabbles a bit in BW and ITS
and whatever technology my projects throw at me. Outside of my
professional life, I love travelling and spending time with my little family.
When did you join the SCN community?
I joined SCN (or should I say SDN) back in 2007. But I wasn't active
in the forums until mid-2008.
What motives you? Why did you join?
When I started working as an ABAP Consultant in my first job, SDN was often mentioned in senior consultants discussions.
Apparently it was the "go-to" place for all solutions related to SAP.
That's when I decided to give it a go. The fact that I also hate
to relay on others for solutions/guidance was a good motivation to
check-out SDN.
Why do you moderate? What spaces do you moderate?
Contrary to popular belief, Moderators (including myself) moderate
their respective spaces aiming to
keep the knowledge in the community relevant and easily accessible. We don't do it
for our selfish "visibility" or "popularity". In the past I've
moderated the ABAP Forums, the BW Forums, Coffee Corner and Career Center.
With time-constraints and availability of active Moderators I
currently stick to Career Center forum.
What do you think is most important in your moderation?
Moderation requires a lot of patience and astute thinking. Members
get very offended and take it personally when their content gets rejected. As a Moderator, I often provide insights to members on how to improve their content and better their ways in the community.
What are the differences between moderating a small vs. large community?
In a large community (none larger than ABAP) the challenges are:
- To align with all moderators round
- Covering all time-zones
- zero-tolerance towards copy-pasting, do-my-work and other lazy posts,
It sometimes very challenging but constantly monitoring your space really helps.
Moderation tasks that consume a lot of times is explaining to people why content is rejected, investigate point gaming.
In a smaller community like Career Center, you have the luxury
to read through all the threads and all the
responses and then take appropriate action. The tricky part however in
a forum like Career Center is that there is no absolute right or wrong
so its extremely important to read through all the responses
and decide whether they are appropriate or not. Also, most contributors do not
come back close their thread.
If you could offer one bit of advice to new members or new moderators
what would it be and why?
SCN is like the proverbial goose that lays the golden eggs. Members
should use it right by reaping the benefits of the golden eggs in the
long run rather than thinking of killing it for getting the short-term results.
The RoE are meant to ensure the golden eggs never stop. Bypassing or over-smarting the RoE does not help anyone.
A good Moderation team should be like a well maintained car. It shouldn't matter who's
driving it but that's runs well and unnoticed.
How has the SCN community helped you?
SCN is still my "go-to" place for all things SAP. I use it
frequently from time to time. This community also gives an insight into the professional world of
SAP consultants, their professional backgrounds, respective cultures
and practices. All those insightful discussions in Coffee Corner on a
multitude of topics is an eye-opener. The community also shows you the
good and shady side of the IT industry in general. It is also a place
where you meet people who think like you or you look up to. It's even more
fun when you meet them in person.
Have you ever attended TechEd?
Yes. I did attend TechEd Bangalore 2012. What I loved most was the
JAM session and of course a chance to meet one of my favorite sportsman,
VVS Laxman. I've also attended the last "SCN Community Day" conducted
in Bangalore back in 2009.
Is there another moderator or community member that you've found
incredibly helpful?
As community members and Moderators, I owe a lot to Julius, Matt,
Thomas Zloch, Rob Burbank, Vijay Babu Dudla and Amit Gujargoud. Posts
from them have been a guiding light in my ABAP career.
If you were 20 again, what would you study?
Journalism. Being a journalist has been my childhood dream. I even
attended a couple of interviews with print and online media (without
the knowledge of my parents). Obviously, the media did not think I was
good enough 😄
Share a fun fact/story about yourself that people don't know
During a phase (which involved me opting a class in encryption and
assisted by a good measure of WWII movies) I devised an encryption
technique which I proudly named the "Red Herring Encryption". Although
I neatly wrote a white paper on it, it never saw the light of the day.
What is your personal life dream?
Travelling. I wish I could take a year off (or two) and just walk around the world.
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