Drinking the poison cup

Socrates drank a cup filled with poison because he stuck to his principles. This post is much like that, in the sense that I’m sticking to the plan I originally had, although I feel that my chances of surviving the writing of this blog post are actually a lot better compared to the odds Socrates was facing.

Not so long ago, there was a contest where people could choose the most influential SharePoint community person in Europe. The winner was Gokan Ozcifci, the SharePoint Pirate: https://harmon.ie/sites/default/files/images/docs/Top25EUSPInfluencers-Final.pdf. This was a big surprise to me, as Gokan managed to get more than two times (342 votes) the number of votes than SharePoint-dino Michael Greth (152 votes, he doesn’t know this, but he was actually the reason I wanted to become MVP) and well-known SharePoint figure Spencer Harbar (153 votes). So, congratulations with that, Gokan, an amazing feat!

I was also nominated for this contest, and before I disclose the position where I ended up, I want to share two little anecdotes with you.

The first anecdote is this one: every year, a couple months before New Year, in the Netherlands we start baking “oliebollen”. If you don’t know what these are, you’re missing out, and here’s a picture:

I live in a small town and I usually buy oliebollen at this cute little shop. At the end of 2011, I started noticing that these oliebollen tasted better and better, and it turned out others agreed with me. A national newspaper holds an oliebollen contest every year and my favorite shop came in 4th. So, they bought this huge banner stating: 4th in the contest! Score: 9.5 out of 10. At the end of 2012 they advertised with this excellent score. Then, the newspaper held a new contest. I don’t know what place my favorite shop ended up with, but I do know that soon after they removed the banner and the place became significantly less busy than before.

The second anecdote is this: There’s a coffee shop in my little town and they participated in a “Best Coffee Maker of the Country” contest. They ended up at the 17th place and advertise proudly with this fact. To me this is an ambiguous thing. On the one hand, it’s not bad to be 17th; on the other hand, I feel you should at least end up in the top 3 before celebrating.

As you may have guessed by now, I didn’t make it in the top 25. But that’s not the reason I’m writing the blog post.  I’m writing it because I was actually touched by the fact that other Wiki Ninja’s took the effort to vote for us: https://blogs.technet.com/b/wikininjas/archive/2013/01/10/community-win-vote-for-gokan-and-margriet-top-25-sharepoint-community-influencers-in-europe.aspx

Thanks guys, regardless of the outcome, I did really appreciate it!

Comments

  • Anonymous
    February 17, 2013
    Congratulations Gokan! You are doing a lot of great work for the SharePoint community. Your work reaches far beyond Europe (I am writing this from Bermuda). On behalf of the SharePoint community worldwide, thank you for what you do and keep it up :) Cheers, Craig

  • Anonymous
    February 17, 2013
    Margriet, your community efforts and contributions are valued by all and are very much appreciated. You have also helped many in the SharePoint community worldwide - we are grateful :) Thank you for all you do.

  • Anonymous
    February 17, 2013
    Thank you so much Craig .. it was a real surprise for me .. Danje wel Magriet .. !! Hoop U te ontmoeten, om een guru te leren kennen. Thanks to all !

  • Anonymous
    February 17, 2013
    What are oliebollen? =^)

  • Anonymous
    February 18, 2013
    Those tasty bits on the picture. They taste quite nice, and look like a party!

  • Anonymous
    February 18, 2013
    Ridiculous, Thanks for your feedback. We'll make sure that doesn't happen (copying articles and rewriting articles). Please let us know when you see the specific articles so that we can take care of them.

  • Anonymous
    February 18, 2013
    Margriet, Or as Wikipedia calls it... Dutch Doughnuts: en.wikipedia.org/.../Oliebollen They do look tasty!

  • Anonymous
    February 25, 2013
    Dutch Doughnuts, I like that one.

  • Anonymous
    February 25, 2013
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    February 25, 2013
    Yeah, not so appetizing. =^)

  • Anonymous
    July 17, 2014
    thank you

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