Mod of the Month – April 2016

The beautiful month of April is nearly over. And although we hate how quickly time moves these days, we do love that the end of the month brings about our favorite time for celebration — naming our official Mod of the Month for April 2016.

We are delighted to bring to you our newest honoree, an expert chemist, gamer extraordinaire, family man, and most notable Canadian, Mr. Marcel B!

Marcel has been with us for five years now. He started with ModSquad in the late summer of 2011.

“I remember because I had moved into my new house the year before and, when I had my initial Skype interview, I was thinking how lucky I was. My old house had, due to some significant rainfall and poor sewer drainage, about 6 or 7 feet of water in the basement, where my office was. Now, I have spent some time in the Canadian Military (30th Field, Royal Canadian Artillery) so I am able to adapt to most trying situations, but I am not sure my military experience would have enabled me to deal with ‘Skype interview when under 6 feet of water.'”

Prior to his time with ModSquad, Marcel had been a long-term volunteer for the Wizards Of The Coast forums. He started as a super-engaged (and helpful) forum member, and when they rolled out the 4th Edition of Dungeons and Dragons, he was approached by their Community Manager to be a VCL (Volunteer Community Lead). After a time, he was recommended to the moderation team. Unfortunately, as Marcel lives in Canada, it turned out he was ineligible for the position. So luck, location, and the community manager at Wizards of the Coast brought him to ModSquad.

“I looked at the website and was impressed with the *extremely* wide range of companies that they work for, so applied there. The rest is, as they say, history.”

With ModSquad, Marcel is part of our elite Scan team. He also an important mod for a few of our top clients. His projects range from console game companies, to eCommerce businesses, community forums, and social platforms for large destinations.

“[Within my work] the most important task I do for my projects is the ability to rapidly switch from one persona to another. As a part of the Scan Team (*cough* ELITE *cough*), I have clients with wildly different ‘personalities.’ Some clients allow us to engage with the customers/communities, showcasing a brand’s tone/identity or ‘my’ personality in our responses. For example, social media and community moderation is all about knowing the tone that the client wants AND the experience with the brand the customer should have. Determining these factors and crafting the best content response is key in our role as mods, and what makes us ultimately successful in the end.”

And even though he is often found working in customer support and community moderation, he feels most comfortable with social media.

“I spend a lot of non-work time on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat, as well as some more specific topic-focussed communities like Gamers with Jobs.”

On the more personal side, three words Marcel uses to describe himself are: “silly, junk food, and jogging.” Clearly, he has a good sense of humor.

Marcel seems to have quite the busy offline life these days. He has a beautiful family (note his lovely daughter in the photo to the right). He spends his daytime hours in another field of work (chemistry). Summertime in Canada means training for the Canada Army Run 1/2 Marathon. He loves reading (science fiction and fantasy, especially urban fantasy like the Dresden Files and The Iron Druid). His bookshelf is almost ready to collapse under the 4 feet of roleplaying games he owns (mostly Dungeons and Dragons versions, but also FATE, Dresden Files RPG, Pathfinder, Nights Black Agents, Spycraft, d20 Modern, Numenera, The Strange). He also owns a large collection of barely-played games on both his laptop and XBox 360 (which he’ll dig into when he gets a free moment).

Marcel’s dedicated to his teams, projects, clients, and ModSquad shows in the pride he has for his work.

“My proudest moment comes from a very specific project: ReachOut. This was a project that involved forums moderation of kids (14-24) who needed to talk, for any reason. Some kids were there because they were being bullied. Others had been abused. Others had attempted suicide. Others were confused about their sexuality or gender. Still, there were others that were very sure of their sexuality/gender, but had problems with people not accepting things in life, or about them. Some kids were just having a rough day. And while there were extremely tough moments now and again, it was also wonderful to see notes from our PM or from the community saying things like, “Thanks to the mods, I am still alive right now and am getting the help I need.” (Dammit, there are some serious onion ninjas hiding in my office right now.)”

Thanks to mods like you, Marcel, who keep the midnight oil burning for our communities and clients. We couldn’t be more proud!

Marcel is one of those rather quiet mods that just go about their daily routine with excellence, and never need much guidance or help. But that is one of the reasons he is so awesome. He is so knowledgeable, and so dependable, that you never have to worry about a thing when he is working a project. He is one of the first to help another mod with a question, and he’s been fabulous with our newest Scan Team members, coaching them, joking with them, making them feel a part of the team. I think Marcel is an outstanding mod that deserves to be recognized! 
– Teresa Moore, Project Manager

No matter what, he is always there to help everyone, any time of day. He is extremely knowledgeable and always on the ball with everything, including how to use different programs. If there is ever a problem, Marcel is right there letting us know. He is an exceptional mod. Very lucky to have him on my teams!
– Nicole Mohr, Project Manager

He’s always been a rock star on projects he worked for me. One of the best Scan team Mods: notices and reports trends, most dependable, quick learner, picks up urgent coverage requests, helps out the rest of the team with questions and what-not, and he has been with ModSquad a long time. You can rest well at night, knowing Marcel is on your team.
– Cathy Brown-Mort, Project Manager

Last month I thought, “Marcel joined a new project while on vacation, received training, has not worked a single shift, but has helped out his fellow Mods with second opinions, guidance and overall awesomeness on his down time. If that isn’t MotM material, I don’t know what is.” And now, a month later, he continues to help out his fellow Mods with second opinions, guidance and anything else they need on his downtime. He is fantastic. FANTASTIC.
– Michelle Ramage, Project Manager

Marcel always does a great job for my project on the Scan Team. His QAs are always spot-on, but this week he had some particularly difficult cases and did a great job handling them and escalating them.
– Suzie Owen, Project Manager

In addition to him being an excellent mod, a great reason for Marcel to be MotM is because his last name contains every vowel in the alphabet.
– Susie South, People Ops

Marcel B is wonderful… he originally was chatting with Pinkerton on Twitter… we hoped he spoke french but we loved him anyway! He’s been a mainstay since Sept 2011. A LONG TIME!! He was also part of the 30th Field, Royal Canadian Artillery Regiment AND if that wasn’t enough, he has a PhD in Chemistry…. he does this job in his “downtime” to “have fun”!!!
– Gina Miller, Director of People Ops

Izzy Neis
Director of Engagement & Strategy

Jason Ferguson
Director of Client Services