And now for my public apology to the Galaxy Nexus Watering Hole. I never meant to publicly question someone or their past status on the forums. I obviously stepped out of etiquette in asking about someones previous status and that was pointed out to me. I was merely trying to highlight someone who had a great impact on turning me from a noob to someone who is able to contribute to the forum, and my execution was flawed. jbdan, I apologize. But as is said in an earlier post, I do want to give you a long overdue thanks.
I don't know about others, but I didn't mean to imply that you crossed any boundaries. All I was saying was to check with jbdan privately if he's interested before forwarding endorsement requests to Frisco.
And personally, I don't think it's ever wrong to publicly express appreciation for fellow forum members.
And asking about past status is ok if not taken to a personal level - whether Guide or Mod, we're just members like you doing a voluntary, temporary job. There have been literally hundreds of staff members over the forums' lifetime, but longer tenures have been held by only a handful - the pace and commitment required isn't small, and so the temporary part of the gig is more than perfectly natural. Example, some real life stuff hit for me, so I stepped down as mod so someone could fill the slot and protect the site. When things turned around, I was given another opportunity to serve. And that's not an uncommon story for staff, Guides or Mods.
All members here are held in equally high esteem. Unlike Animal Farm, around here, some animals are not more equal than others. So, there's no loss of esteem when someone steps down from staff.
So, based on that, there's really no harm in asking, hey didn't I see you on staff before?
I appreciate your sensitivity on this issue and your desire to do what's right, but I'd say it's all good, I didn't see you stepping on any toes, so - go have fun.