Hi everyone! My name is Dylan, and I'm a new Community Manager on Fandom's Community Safety team. I joined Fandom in December and am excited to say that I just finished my first AMA with the community on the Fandom Discord channel to get to know everyone. Now felt like a good time to introduce myself through my first staff blog too.
So who am I?[]
Great question, thanks for asking! Like I said, my name is Dylan. I'm 25 years old and I live in the icy tundra that is Minnesota, in the upper Midwest of the United States. In my free time I'm usually watching, playing, or reading all of my favorite fandoms, which I'll talk about later on, and also hanging out with friends and working on personal projects.
Most of my background has been in customer service and technical support, and I'm excited to bring that background to my new role here at Fandom.
What do I do at Fandom, exactly?[]
I'm on the Community Safety team, where I report to Tim and have the pleasure of working with Sannse, Jenny, and Marc-Philipp. Our focus is on platform trust and safety, and my specific area of that is in technical safety. A lot of times when we think about trust and safety we think of brand safety (like making sure there's no inappropriate content on the site) and user safety (making sure that people aren't having to deal with harmful behavior from other people), but tech plays a big role in it too on a platform like Fandom.
I'm responsible for overseeing and supporting the members of the SOAP team, who monitor and protect against vandalism and spam on the platform. I also oversee the JavaScript review process to protect users and wikis against any malicious code potentially being added onto the site. JavaScript is an incredibly powerful tool, so by reviewing what users add we can make sure you're able to customize your wikis without worrying about someone trying to cause trouble.
My favorite fandoms[]
Where do I start? I'm a big fan of shows, and love comedies like The Office, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, and Community. Anime's another big fandom area for me, particularly Attack on Titan, Fullmetal Alchemist, and The Disastrous Life of Saiki K. Avatar: The Last Airbender is another favorite. Not technically an anime, I know! But still one of my favorites.
I love video games, like Fallout (except Fallout 76, not my favorite), Cyberpunk, and pretty much anything from Paradox. There's so many more that I could mention, typically RPGs, indie, open-world, and the occasional shooter. And it's not just video games for me, I also really like the board game Twilight Imperium. I'm looking for more board games to try, so please post any suggestions! In the musical world I love pretty much anything and everything, particularly Pouya and Taylor Swift. If I'm feeling like reading a book, it's usually anything historical, Sci-Fi, and fantasy.
And though these aren't technically fandoms, these are some fun facts that I enjoy:
- Ratatouille was one of the most popular films in France
- Napoleon’s height was British propaganda
- I once had a pet squirrel
And now you know too.
I can't wait to get to know the community more[]
Between getting to know SOAP and my colleagues, doing the AMA, and now this staff blog, I’m really glad to have had the opportunity to start meeting the community and can’t wait to work with you even more. I’ve always been a user of Fandom and have admired its ethos for a long time. I tried applying for a position a few times in the past, and I’m extremely grateful for the opportunity to provide a new perspective and be part of user safety.
Safety to me means you feel safe to contribute, browse, and engage with the community without being attacked, harassed, bullied, or forced to deal with any other bad behavior from bad faith users or code. Trust to me means you feel you can trust me, the Community Safety team, the Community team, and Fandom as a whole to promote a safe, open, and collaborative community. If you have an issue, you should feel confident that there’s people at Fandom you can turn to who will respond appropriately.
To that end, feel free to get into contact with me! Feel free to leave a message on my wall (my preferred method), tweet me (@thedtoast), or message me on Discord (DToast#2834). In the meantime, I’m happy to reply to any comments here on the blog.
I'm a huge fan of Fallout, History, and Star Wars.
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