Once a Mahaloian reaches 8000 points they become eligible for their Brown Belt on Mahalo. However, that belt is only presented after Mahalo staff consult the members recent history and activity to see if that Mahaloian is in fact ready to become a Brown Belt. Today we test: @chriswingate

Max Lance: Pass
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Although he hasn't totally justified the superhuman powers of his Green Lantern avatar yet, chriswingate has established himself as the kind of active Mahalo user that is becoming increasingly involved as the site grows.

He is currently ranked twenty-second for questions asked and best answers, and nineteenth for overall answers, which is a very good accomplishment for a purple belt. He does very well with technology and internet questions, scoring many of his best answers with questions like, "I sang along with Doctor Horrible, joined the Guild, broke a leg and rode with the Bus Pirates... what online series should I watch next?" "How will Apple Stock be effected sic when Steve Jobs dies?" and "I have an out of print book which I would like to get converted into a word document. What is the best way of doing this?"

What I really like about chriswingate's participation is that he revisits questions after he has already answered them. He comments on other answers and even comments on his own answers when he wants to clarify something, as all the above examples show.

Like all brown belts, he has room to improve. For example, for all the answers he gives, he only gets best answer 42 percent of the time. Plus a lot of his best answers are when he was the only answerer. Everyone on Mahalo could always go into more detail, but it becomes more important for each belt level you hit.

Looking forward to more of his contributions, because I definitely think he passes his brown belt test.

Camilla Andersson: Pass
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Chriswingate is an active and helpful Mahalo user who has answered over 800 questions on Mahalo. He contributes by offering informative and helpful answers, asking questions on various topics and managing several pages on the site. He also participates in the Mahalo community by offering suggestions and assistance to other users and participating in community threads such as belt tests and Answer of the Day. We appreciate his contributions and congratulate him on his brown belt.

Jeff Hoard: Pass
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Chriswingate represents part of the newer guard here at Mahalo, he joined in June and we got to know him over the summer, during his time on Mahalo so far @chriswingate has answered over 800 questions and has received best answer on 42% of them. Although chriswingate could do more in the arena of Mahalo Tasks and Page Management, he makes up for it for being a vital member of the Answers community. I got to know chriswingate best from his daily participation in the Answer of the Day Contest; he has a good eye for finding quality answers and his respect and complimentary nature helps make the AOTD thread enjoyable everyday. Congrats on your Brown Belt!

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