If you missed it the other day, we’ve added a new member to our group of Pure Capsaicins : @alexw ! If you’re unsure what a Pure Capsaicin (also called a PC or Pure Cap), it is the highest level of engagement in the Spiceworks Community. It’s an achievement only a handful of SpiceHeads have reached, and this is because it takes commitment, tenacity, drive, determination, IT intelligence, and, most of all, a genuine desire to help their peers to reach the required 250,000 points it takes to achieve such a level.
It is no surprise that we now add our recipient of the 2017 Spicies Hero Award to this list! Neally has made over 14,000 contributions, over 1,500 of them being Best Answers and 3,500 Helpful Votes from his peers. And the majority of those are in our Powershell group, where he’s constantly helping out other SpiceHeads.
We reached out to Neally to congratulate (and thank) him and shine the spotlight on him and have him answer a few questions.
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You’ve just hit Pure Capsaicin; how does it feel?
…spicey? ¯_(ツ)_/¯
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How did you initially get into IT? Was it always an interest of yours?
I wasn’t great at school and French was my arch-enemy, so I was looking for schools that did less languages and more math and science and I ended up at a vocational high-school equivalent for IT. Studied some Computer Science from there and have been working in IT ever since.
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How did you discover Spiceworks?
After moving to the US, one of my first sysadmin jobs was for a SMB, the boss wanted an Apple-only call center and that took some googling and while trying to scrape information together, I stumbled over Spiceworks. I never used the Spiceworks products a lot, but mainly the community.
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After moving to the US? Where did you move from and what brought you here?
I originally moved from South West (Black forest) Germany to Seattle (Lynnwood) and then straight to hell… I mean uh Phoenix Arizona. We shall see what’s next.
I moved to the US after winning the lottery… yeah no, not that one, the Diversity lottery (Green Card)
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What inspires you to offer so much help to your peers?
We all started from scratch at one point and it’s always nice to eventually find an answer to things you need to get done. And sometimes I learn a thing or two myself in the process.
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You’re quite active in the PowerShell area of Spiceworks; what draws you there?
I guess I’m a masochist? I love PowerShell and sharing and helping people, yet at the same time, I’m starting to get more and more jaded with people who just want an answer without putting any work in it. “Please help write a script to do X”. Come on, I’m happy to help out but you’d have to buy me many more coffees if this would be a script writing service… anyways. It’s a love-hate relationship. It’s complicated.
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Have there been times the Community has helped you solve a problem?
Yeah, a few times. So many smart and diverse people and skillsets here.
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What’s your favorite thing about the Spiceworks Community?
Sharing similar hobbies and passions, a wide variety of people and experiences and options, and just having people that understand how taxing working in IT can be.
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When you’re not at work or on Spiceworks, where can we find you?
Out on 2 wheels (motorcycle), in the great outdoors, but let’s admit it with COVID and working from home and it being already 100+ F out, mostly at home fiddling on my lab, studying, or reading a book, it’s been sadly mainly textbooks lately…
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What’s in your home lab?
Nothing fancy, it’s a tiny M700 with an i5 and 32GB Ram, Hyper-V host, if I need more there is always AWS and Azure.
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Any plans on how to celebrate hitting Pure Capsaicin?
You tell me, where is my cake? ;¬)
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What kind of cake do you like? Maybe we can get a pool started 
Marzipan Torte von Coppenrath & Wiese
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Now that you’ve hit Pure Capsaicin, what’s next?
Extra Pure Capsaicin? Not sure, collecting more badges?
We might have to invent a few more, you’ve already collected so many!
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Any shout-outs to individuals who’ve helped you in the Community?
There are so many but, to name a few, @jitensh , @martin9700 , @thomaslee , @mike9019 , @techadmin8 , @francishagyard2 , @garygreenberg , @dbeato , @big-green-man , etc etc lots of good folks
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Do people really buy you a coffee ?
Every now and then someone feels generous, but usually not. I cold brew at home, you wouldn’t want to deal with me without coffee ;¬)
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I have to ask, do you like crunchy or creamy peanut butter?
Crunchy
Let’s all not just give a big congratulations to Neally, but also a big thank you for all the help he’s given!
Congrats and thanks, Neally!
@robdunn @peter @billkindle @rod-it @akp982 @davison @yasaf @larryg-profile @garydwilliams
132 Spice ups
I wondered what that was coming down the mountain… Turns out it was Neally in Pure Capsaicin form. Congratulations!
15 Spice ups
jimmy-t
(Jimmy T.)
6
Congrats on the accomplishment!
4 Spice ups
clutka
(MAINSTRIKE)
10
Congratulations on the achievement.
… hard work, perseverance, and hard work.
YARN Story: Flying takes three things: hard work, | 883a4a20-f66a-4c54-a393-8d06a11e92f4 (Sorry, couldn’t find a better clip.)
2 Spice ups
Welcome to the PC club @alexw ! Very well deserved.
4 Spice ups
Evan7191
(Evan7191)
13
Congrats! I’ve learned a lot about Powershell from Neally.
2 Spice ups
test4echo
(Test4Echo)
14
Congratulations. I’ll need to check PowerShell more often, especially as my job gets more automated.
2 Spice ups
“It’s an achievement only a handful of SpiceHeads have reached, and this is because it takes commitment, tenacity, drive, determination, IT intelligence, and, most of all, a genuine desire to help their peers to reach the required 250,000 points it takes to achieve such a level.”
Well, I’m not too sure about the highlighted one because I am getting close and have shown very little of that. 
Anyway, congrats Neally!
2 Spice ups
Congrats Neally! Most of the time when I go to a PowerShell post where I recognize the problem, Neally has already beat me to it. That guy is unstoppable.
2 Spice ups
dimforest
(ᴅɪᴍꜰᴏʀᴇsᴛ)
18
I personally am taking 100% credit for this achievement:
9 Spice ups
mr-burnz
(MR.Burnz)
20
That cake looks nice. Here I got a you a picture of one.
6 Spice ups
