In 1997, Anand Lal Shimpi was a fifteen year old highschool whiz kid whose tech review site and forums were just bursting to prominence online, which was all the more exceptional because of Anand's age. I was a member of his forum - singular - because it was a single threaded discussion board.
At the time, Russ Stringham and I were part of a small group of self-appointed vigilante "good guys" who participated on several forums, including our favorite, AT, and, on one forum, we would discuss means of combating habitual a-holes on another forum that was currently under attack. One webmaster even set up a genuinely secret, unlisted forum for us, just for the purpose. We called ourselves "T.S. (for Top Secret) Rangers," and that secret forum was the forerunner of the Bat Cave, even before we had mods, here, and it was only known by, and open to, others by invitation and consensus of the group.
Anand knew of our activities, and even before we had a mod crew, he trusted and enabled us by giving us special links that would show a poster's IP address, which we used to great advantage back in 1997.
When Anand invited me to become the first AnandTech Mod/Admin, the forums were already too big for one guy to handle, and it took all of a couple of minutes to ask Russ to join me as co-admin, and he and I chose the first full crew of AT Moderators.
I never met Russ face to face, but since 1997, he was my very good friend, and we stayed in touch after he stepped down as an Admin. Others considered us a study in contrasts. He considered himself to be politically "conservative," and, as most of you know, I'm a raging lib. I would always tease him that he was really a "closet liberal" because, although we disagreed on specific policy issues (mainly economics), he was as honest, fair, caring, sharing and giving a soul as I have had the pleasure to know.
Beyond chasing bad guys on the forums, when it came to compassion, sharing and caring, Russ and I collaborated in helping others, including privately collecting and donating parts and even whole systems for deserving friends in need, both on and off of the forums. Politics was never an issue.
When it came to imperatives of right and wrong, there was no daylight between us. Thieves were thieves, bigots were bigots, and gratuitously mean, abusive people were assholes. When other forums were allowing the worst (for the time) of rude and mean comments, and when forum trading was dangerous and not for the faint of heart, we determined that, to the extent possible, we would make AT different, that we would be the forums for "white hats" and good guys (gals included).
Lots of other forums laughed at us as being naive... while we became the most popular English language computer oriented forums on the planet, including one of the safest trading forums.
Occasionally, even today, we discuss applying "Harvey's Rule Against Assholes." The label suggests humor, but the meaning was not, and it never would have existed if Russ and I had not agreed to establish that as our central goal and found a crew who were willing to follow that path.
And of course, we could not have done it without Anand's explicit knowledge and permission. In those days, our mods were anonymous, which gave us a lot of power and a lot of responsibility to be right. Beyond dealing with bad actors and social disputes, we took down a good number of thieves, including catching them, contacting appropriate law enforcement agencies and providing evidence that was used against them in court.
With that anonymity and that much power in our hands, our only responsiblity was to be absolutely right. Never more so than when we had to answer to Anand when he asked about complaints and threats, regarding our actions, including threatened legal action. And we had the right crew to do it! And Anand stuck by us because we had done our homework, and we were right.
I only have around twenty years of history with AT forums so I could go on for awhile. I just want to let everyone know that we lost a good man and a truly heroic founding member of the AnandTech Forums Mod/Admin crew.
Russ Stringham - Above all, I salute you for a life well lived and as the good friend and human being you were as much as for your contributions to the forums. I won't forget you.