welcome, erik - manager of community, slayer of trolls

Erik doesn't have an alien avatar yet, but he's the newest member of team reddit and the first whose sole job it is to please you, redditors. That's right, he's our new community manager, who'll be responsible for helping reddit-creators promote and grow their sites -- no matter how much bacon it takes.

He'll also be keeping abreast of noteworthy developments within communities (like sending wrecking bars to CERN, more on that next week) because as reddit has grown, it's much harder for the five of us to keep track of everything while still getting some work done.

As with all of our hires, he's a long-time redditor, who we first worked with on the YourWeek TV show. As an active member of ImprovEverywhere, you've no doubt seen his work before: the Best Buy project, need I say more?

You can find him posting as hueypriest, but send your reddit-domination plans to him at erik@reddit.com and we'll look into getting the sharks with laser beams attached to their heads.

Free Flip camera to document this historic U.S. election

We've just learned that our friends at WETA have a pair of Flip video cameras they'll give to redditors who want to document their election day. The best video collected nationwide will air on "The NewsHour" and other PBS election day coverage.

So, in < 50 words, email Erik why we should send you a Flip video camera to record your friends, family, neighbors, favorite alien, or whomever about why this election is important. For more info, go here: http://www.weta.org/videoyourvote