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My idea of a proper pioneer. Technically, he leads a team of pioneers. There’s an ambiguity there I know will not be missed… And you are such a genuinely lovely person. I salute you, Sir Ifan of Baines!!
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Just to add my own word of thanks to a great friend of SSIW.
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Exactly! But Aran mostly pronounces it exactly like “cyborg”. 
I can tell even when we’re typing, because I always write “yr SSiborg” and he always writes “y SSiBorg” 
Oh yes, that was fun wasn’t it! There was more than a little confused blending of languages for the first little while after we switched, wasn’t there. 
Thanks again for the generous lift to Meifod that day by the way!
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Wwww… I want to be Ifan when I grow up
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I admire you as a “tech” person @Kinetic. Maybe because I have one of such in my family. You all are so special people, somehow unique and a bit hard to understand and tricky to approach sometimes …
Yes @lewie, I’d like to be (like) Ifan when I grow up too. He is obviously tallented in everything I like - music, languages and techy stuff. …
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Seren yr Wythnos #8
Kev Smith
Language learning is my thing - I never expected to have anything to do with any kind of software development.
So when Ifan decided bravely to come on board with us because it had turned out that the only way to build the kind of courses I wanted us to build was to develop our own piece of software, we had an interesting combination.
Ifan had never worked as a frontline developer before - he’d been a sysadmin who loved coding - and I had never tried to manage a software project.
Two things saved us from the inevitable ‘Oh-my-God-it’s-all-going-up-in-flames’ scenario…
One was the fact that Ifan and I were friends who both cared hugely about making SSiW a success.
The other was Kev.
Kev, you see, is an actual software manager - a coder used to managing other coders - and from the very beginning he could see that Ifan and I were going to have a struggle on our plates to make the project work.
So he basically started coaching me - spending serious time in our Slack chat channel and telling me stuff about software development. You know, the kind of career development stuff that would usually cost tens of thousands of pounds… He’s also been a brilliant sounding board any time we’ve needed to talk through technical decisions - and he’s ridden to the rescue in very practical terms on a number of occasions when the website has decided to explode while Ifan is asleep/in a different timezone/both of the above…
I can’t really begin to tell you how much I’ve learnt from Kev. I’m far, far better now at knowing what is most difficult for coders, what helps them, what hinders them (and I hope Ifan has seen the difference in our work!).
I’ll never forget Kev telling me at one point, in his inimitably dry way, that it might be helpful for me to understand that I was essentially asking Ifan to do something that was somewhere between phenomenally difficult and straightforwardly impossible…
Oh, and in the meantime, Kev’s turned himself into a Welsh speaker, survived two Bootcamps with his catchphrase ‘But I can’t speak Welsh’ (in Welsh, of course), been an incredibly caring and supportive and thoughtful moderator of the forum, and (perhaps most lovely of all) introduced us to Cath…
Ladies and gentlemen, please doff your hats in the general direction of Kev - without whom there is a very real chance the SSiBorg would have died in infancy.
Diolch o galon i ti, Kev! 
Iestyn ap Dafydd
Catrin Lliar Jones
Cat Dafydd
Dee McCarney
Spenny
Jeff Lewis
Ifan Baines
Kev Smith
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If Kev is who I think he is, I thoroughly endorse this nomination and add my thanks to him.
(I wonder rather sheepishly if we are deliberately separating forum names from actual names in this thread?)
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oh ho ho ho… Huw you sneaky …
Do SSiBorgs dream of wonder sheep …?
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Yes, huge hat’s off to Kev for all the valuable counsel he as given!
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I have to say that software seems like some kind of wizardry and I am very unmagical! So thank you for your massive contributions casting your spells Kev!
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Indeed, thanks to Kev for all the work behind the scenes.
I’ve shared two bootcamps with Kev and Cath (or Cav as I like to call the inseparable pair) and apart from Kev’s loud screeches and wailing it was an absolute pleasure. 
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The “quiet” moderator with warm face and attitude (as much as I could establish from “meeting” him on here). The man who actually taught me (through edits of my posts) how this forum actually works. The first thing I remember was his edit of category of my topic which made me aware there’s something more then just writing the post and starting the topic with it. I started to organize the topics I’ve created into right categories and started to pay much more attention to everything what this software on which this forum is based has to offer…
Only later on, when I was invited to Slack as a Video team member, I became aware of he’s much more then just moderator on the forum and for this reason I respect him even more.
Since I never met Kev in person and actually never “spoke” to him through the forum or Slack either (unless in some forum thread occassionally, I don’t know him but I know (somehow) what significent role in SSiW he plays even now.
Thank you Kev for everything you’ve done and still doing for SSi and all of us with this.
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Thanks, Kev, for all you do and have done for SSiW!
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Oh, gosh, no, just my general forgetfulness. Of which I’m now rather proud, since it gave us your wondering sheepishly…
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That’s why I always start the post with seren’s forum username. I think it’s right for all to know under which nickname the seren is hidden. (I hope you don’t mind I do this though. )
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I don’t know @wondersheep , so I don’t know the story behind his forum name, but I must admit that it always makes me picture a sheep wearing a red cape flying across the sky like Superman…sorry, Kev! 
Although you certainly are an SSiW superhero from Aran’s description! So please take it as a compliment!
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The question is, is Kev who he thinks he is?
According to The Beard, he isn’t…
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Llongyfarchiadau enfawr to Spenny - @ianspencer Jeff - @lewie Ifan Baines - @Kinetic and Kev - @wondersheep , or SJIK as I like to call them…
It’s often very difficult to truly understand and appreciate the depth and breadth of what these guys have done over the years, so quietly, diligently and incredibly professionally behind the scenes to bring SSiW to a screen near you.
A personal thank you to the four of you for helping to build and maintain what we see as just the tip of the iceberg here.
Thank you also for bringing a plethora of mind boggling technical jargon to my living room on an almost daily basis. I appreciate greatly, what I more often than not, fail to understand. Aran tells me animatedly and with great enthusiasm, of the technical advances, the clever little fixes, the next layers, the tools, the buttons, the filters, the, whatsits, the thingymybobs and the whatchamacallits. In return I listen eagerly, and though I don’t always understand what the SSiBorg he’s talking about, the look on his face and the tone of his voice relays beautifully the excitement and satisfaction he feels and for that I am forever grateful.
Iechyd da to the four of you for being super techie people with big hearts and an interesting sense of humour. 
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Oh nooo … !
Is this “beard fashion” nowdays?