Hi, all. I'm Harvey, long time AnandTech Moderator/Admin who posted <a href="
http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview ... id=2194924"]
http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview ... 94924>this tribute thread on AT's For Sale/Trade forum</a>. I think Mike created an account for me a long time ago because, when I tried to register under my usual nick, I got a message that the name was taken so I started this account as Harvey R.
Sorry I haven't posted, here, before now, and I'm even more sorry it's on this sad occasion.
I hope you don't mind that I wanted to post the same tribute, here, so here it is.
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Michael Lee Valley, 1957 - 2008[/align]
My good friend and Internet hero, Michael Valley, aka blade is gone. <a href="
http://www.legacy.com/salisburypost/Obi ... bituary</a>
I don't know where to start with this. It's a long story. I hope you'll stay with it.
When Anand made me the first AT Mod, and I needed a Mod crew, I started with guys I knew and trusted to have the desire, the temperment and the personal integrity to do the job, some of whom are still with us to this day.
Michael was one of our earliest additions to our original mod crew, and he aquitted himself admirably. Later, while I was talking with Anand and Jason Clark about setting up a closed forum on AT's server where our crew and mods and admins from other forums could share info about trolls, Michael stepped up to the plate and established the Troll Hunters' site to do exactly what was needed without having to deal with the politics of it being under the auspices of one major forum site.
AFIC, that, by itself, would have been enough to put Michael in the Internet Forums Hall Of Heros and Champions.
I had my hands full as lead Mod/Admin, here, which left me little time to participate, there, but our Troll Hunter mods know how I shared info from our database to help the cause from our end, and mods from other trading forums knew about both of us long before our Mods' identities were made public.
But Michael didn't stop, there. He was an avid troll hunter. Even after outside demands forced him to cut his time on AT way back, I kept his mod account active so he could monitor our troll discussions and contribute as he could... and DID. He and I worked hand in glove to keep our TTA list on FS/T and his TTA list on PCA in sync and up to date. Even most of our most senior veteran mods may not know how close we worked through back channel e-mails to nail and jail some of the worst troll thieves on the web.
One day, Michael told me his mom was very depressed because she was losing her sight due to macular degeneration, which also afflicts my mom. I recall being in the shower one day with the radio on NPR news and hearing a piece about a new treatment called Macugen that had just been approved that day, that, for the first time, not only halted macular degeneration but, in some cases, actually restored the victim's vision. I finished my shower, immediately booted up and searched Google for info, sent him as much as I found, and suggested he should ask his mom's opthamologist about it.
He did, and the first pleasure was when he got back to tell me the news had raised her spirits, and it was one of the greatest pleasures of my life to learn that her doc checked into it and put her on the treatment, and IT WORKED! She actually got some of her vision back. My mom did the same, and her doc put her on another, similar developing drug which also stopped her macular degeneration. Sometimes, miracles really do happen. Sometimes, the good guys win one.
There are no words that can come close to describing how good it felt to know that one news article and one e-mail achieved so much good. I still tingle all over just remembering it.
blade -- You were a good, good man. I will remember. You will be missed.
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