I go as Para-Noid on the Vivaldi forum but my real name is Craig. I like to spend time with my dog, playing chess, going for walks, and going on the interweb. I live in my adopted state of Oklahoma but I would rather be in Iowa.

Why Para-Noid? I have Generalized Anxiety Disorder and when I have a major anxiety attack I go nuts. While having an attack some people have told me not to get “paranoid”. Thus the moniker.

As an Ambassador, I spread the word about Vivaldi to whoever will listen. Some have read about how Vivaldi is for power users. I explain to them I am anything but a power user. I am an everyday, average user who wants a browser that can be used by anyone. I show them how easy V is to set-up and customize. The relief I see in their faces when they learn Vivaldi does not collect, use or sell their personal information is priceless. Once somebody sees how powerful Vivaldi is they are hooked.

How did I find Vivaldi? I was fed up with intrusive Chrome and was less than thrilled with Firefox. Both are fine browsers. Just not for me. So, one afternoon in August 2016 I went hunting for a better browser.

I saw a relatively new browser named Vivaldi. Thought I’d give it a try. After a few days of using V, I knew I had found my browser. Only on v1.3 Vivaldi was still “new” and under construction. Next step was finding a place to ask my newbie questions. I located the forums where there is no such thing as a (whew) stupid question. The forums, like Vivaldi, is community driven. Where the developers post new releases both stable and snapshots. Input is given and the devs listen. Where users post their own feature requests and the developers put those requests into action. A community like a community is supposed to be.

My most used features? Tabs. Tabs. And more tabs. Even more so since the user can now auto-stack. It would be difficult to live without pinning and tiling tabs. Bookmarks and how V handles them. Notes have become a handy tool to have. Having several standalones plus my stable install sync is almost a necessity. Can’t forget how any user can customize Vivaldi to their personal delight. Vivaldi once advertised itself as “a million ways to make it your own”. I believe them.

What do I dream of? Like so many, a mail client. The ability to edit menus. The ability to drag and drop individual bookmarks within the bookmark bar. A fully configurable toolbar. As long as the developers listen there is hope. They listen. I hope.