I am Handlebars.   I live where I was born in North Carolina, USA.   My hobbies include horses,  Xbox, family, friends & music.    I have a 3 year old niece that I just adore,  I can’t wait to show her the world of Xbox.   I love all types of music.  I have been playing a banjo for about 5 years and just started playing guitar awhile back so I’m still learning.  Not great on either one but I love to play them.  I have a very busy schedule w/ lots of irons in the fire so I have to break up my time inbetween it all. 

Well if you see my pic then my gamertag is self explanatory.  I wax my moustache and turn the ends up thus Handlebars.  Oh yes,  it will always be a great tag because I will die w/ my moustache.

Well first off there is no balance.  There are always more good post then bad.  But if you post something that isn’t allowed then I will edit, move or delete it Period!  I don’t put up w/ anything that shouldn’t or isn’t suppose to be on the forums.  I do not tolerate stupidity,  attackful or inappropriate behaviour. 

I don’t like profanity on the forums or explicit wording due to the younger viewers that we have.  I just want the forums to have a nice clean atmosphere.  You just have to take care of each situation as it arises and handle it  because they are all different. 

I see myself as just another gamer/user except I have the ability to correct anything that is wrong or inappropriate.  Now as far as how others perceive me.  Hmm well I guess that depends on whether you are a good poster or not. 

If you are good forum member and enjoy some of the same games as me and enjoy reading my FAQ pages then I guess you probaly like me just fine.  If you are a bad forum member and I tell you to straighten up and then you end up getting yourself banned,  well then probaly don’t like me very much.  LOL

Hmm,  I really haven’t had any kind of real bad experiences on the forums.  I mean besides somebody sending me a nasty PM because I banned them for doing something that they shouldn’t have done and they were warned but continued.   There however is never going to be a stop to it.  People will never change.

I think that the new Rewards program is one of the newest and most upcoming thing.  I can only see it getting more and more popular in the future.  I think the program will only get better in the future just as our games do.

I don’t’ really know of any changes that I think would be better.  I think the dev team has done an outstanding job w/ the forums.  I guess just as on any forum the search feature could be a little bit better.  There are a couple other small changes that I would like to see on the moderating teams side but I can’t elaborate on those.

Yes.  The entire staff that works in Xbox developing, Xbox support,  Major and then entire launch team,  and each and every MVP and/or Moderator.  We all hear the criticism from forum members but nobody on the outside really knows what all of these people have to put up with and listen to. 

If we ban someone we are accused of abusing our powers,  if the support team doesn’t have an immediate answer to your issue then they don’t know nothing, etc.  I have never seen a group of people that work as hard as they do for the Xbox LIVE community.  I also want thank my good friend Surly Duff.  I have known him since February 2003.  We have worked on my projects together and always have fun playing games online together. 

Last but not least I would like to thank my pal Ybike.  I have much respect for this man and I hope that when I get to be his age I am still enjoying Xbox LIVE and moderating on these forums.

My wife and I are into horses.  We do horse boarding,  give lessons  & also horseshoeing at home on the farm.  It keeps us busy and there is always something to do.  There is always something that needs to be fixed, sprayed, fed, shod, cleaned, patched, built, moved, mowed, etc.

I play on LIVE almost daily.  Usually starting around 9:30 or 10:00pm est. lasting until 12:00 to 2:00am est.   Unless my internet is down or I fall asleep early I am on and its 96% of the time.

Right now it would have to be RB6 Vegas.  I love that game online and off.  It was a difficult game for the achievements but there aren’t impossible to get.

The Ghost Recon series is by far my favorite service of all time.  Ghost Recon was the very first game I ever played online and after that I was hooked!!

Hmm,  a very good question.  I don’t really see too many changes that need to be made but connectivity seems to be an issue but in the computer age I don’t see any way much around it.  I would have to agree w/ Mr. Campo that we need to be able to have multiple party chat sessions.  There have been times when that would be a very nice addition.  The other thing I would like to see added would definitely be a larger friends list.  At least 150 friends but 200  would be very sweet!

I think it will be a huge step in the gaming industry.  Imagine being able to go up to any PC running Windows Vista and sit down and start playing games via LIVE.  It is going to be a huge leap into the techno industry w/ more and more gaming devices becoming available. 

I can remember when 2.5” screen TV’s came out in the 80’s and there weren’t that popular because they were so small.  Now it seems as if size doesn’t matter whether you are browsing the net or gaming.  Nintendo proved that w/ the famous gameboy.

Well basically when it comes to the Xbox.com Forums:  Come in and learn, talk, meet people and just have a great time.  Leave all of the attacking, profanity and hate at the portal.  I think everyone should play games as a means of fun, entertainment an d relaxtion.  I love to game,  it is the cheapest form of entertainment out in the world today and I can do it anytime I want to.  Just remember it is a game,  not real world.