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It's time for us to consider holding an election for moderators for Space Exploration.

The last election we held was back in 2020 when we elected one moderator.

So: we should hold a new election to get ourselves back up to a more regularly-available and active moderation team. To avoid finding ourselves in a situation where an election would fail due to an insufficient number of candidates, though, I'm posting this to try to assess the community members' willingness to step up and nominate themselves, when the actual election's nomination period starts.

Please leave an answer if you'd be willing to run for a moderator position, should we decide to run an election.

NOTE: This is not an official election nomination thread, just a "pulse check" to get a notion of how many people here would be willing to step up.

Currently, March 21st is the tentative date for such an election, starting with question collection, but only if we can get enough people willing to run for moderator positions.

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    $\begingroup$ -1 for "get ourselves back up to a more regularly-available and active moderation team" I don't recall any complaints about this wonderful moderation team being regularly unavailable nor inactive. I don't understand this wording at all. It suggests "It's time for us to consider holding an election..." because the current moderators are bad and need to be replaced. Can you elaborate on your complaints, or perhaps consider rewording to avoid pre-casting shade on our beloved moderation team? $\endgroup$
    – uhoh
    Commented Jan 24, 2022 at 22:07
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    $\begingroup$ You might consider the possibility that the Space SE community is above average in good behavior and self-moderation, and so there may simply be less work for moderators to do here? $\endgroup$
    – uhoh
    Commented Jan 24, 2022 at 22:08
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    $\begingroup$ @uhoh My mod load on this site is currently about 70%. On Astro it is about 28%. This site could use more moderation to balance out the workload. $\endgroup$
    – called2voyage Mod
    Commented Jan 25, 2022 at 19:31
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    $\begingroup$ @uhoh Before we added a fourth mod at Astro my workload was similar to over here. The fourth mod has really made a huge difference for the better. $\endgroup$
    – called2voyage Mod
    Commented Jan 25, 2022 at 19:36
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    $\begingroup$ @uhoh Also, worth noting Vanny asked us (the mod team) if we'd be interested in an election before posting this. $\endgroup$
    – called2voyage Mod
    Commented Jan 25, 2022 at 20:16
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    $\begingroup$ @called2voyage why don't you acknowledge though, that uhoh is correct? The statement "we should hold a new election to get ourselves back up to a more regularly-available and active moderation team" suggests that we are currently sub-par and that we have to "get back up" and that the current mod team is "not regularly available" and "not active". $\endgroup$
    – user1271772
    Commented Jan 25, 2022 at 22:39
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    $\begingroup$ @called2voyage as currently written, the premise of the question is that the moderator team is not "regularly available", not "mods have a high work load and could use some help in the form of a fourth moderator". Based on your comment I'm all +1 and 110% ish about more help and bringing on an additional mod. Perhaps the unavailability premise of the question can be adjusted? $\endgroup$
    – uhoh
    Commented Jan 25, 2022 at 22:40
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    $\begingroup$ I learned a new phrase today: "110% ish" $\endgroup$
    – user1271772
    Commented Jan 25, 2022 at 22:52
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    $\begingroup$ I certainly agree, we could use another moderator at least. Part of the possibility discussed is having fully elected moderators this go around, meaning that us moderators would also have to put our names in the ring. There is no doubt that another moderator would be quite helpful, to say the least, or at least work towards getting more active ones;-) $\endgroup$
    – PearsonArtPhoto Mod
    Commented Jan 28, 2022 at 2:33
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    $\begingroup$ @uhoh While you weren't given credit for this, and the words "to get ourselves back up to a more regularly-available and active moderation team" weren't removed from this post, it does seem that the CM team (or at least Vanny?) has at least listened to your comments and changed the wording slightly in today's announcement at Operations Research SE. I absolutely love it when CMs listen to feedback from the community and allow it to improve the Stack Exchange experience for everybody. Thanks Vanny! $\endgroup$
    – user1271772
    Commented Feb 3, 2022 at 23:13

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As the existing moderator team have suggested this election is to add another person to help with the load, I'm happy to throw my hat in the ring.

I have been a member of Space Ex for 8 and a half years, and am on the first page of users by rep as an enthusiastic amateur - I am very interested in space, astronomy, exploration and research.

I have been a moderator on various SE sites, big and small, for over 11 years, and am currently moderator on 7 sites. Workload-wise, I have a fairly robust process that allows me to do this in a couple of planned chunks of time at start and end of day (GMT timezone) as well as ad hoc.

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    $\begingroup$ +1 Nice to see you running, you would make a great moderator given your experience. How would you think about giving someone new to moderation a chance to learn? $\endgroup$
    – WarpPrime
    Commented Jan 26, 2022 at 15:07
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    $\begingroup$ Moderation is generally learned through the tasks anyone can take part in - flagging, editing, voting etc., which is why candidate stats show how you have moderated prior to standing for a mod role. That said, I hope we do get a few candidates - that leads to a better outcome. $\endgroup$
    – Rory Alsop Mod
    Commented Jan 26, 2022 at 16:50
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I'd be open to be a moderator for Space SE: I am passionate in space and astronomy. I would probably be active on most days to help moderate the site, probably intermittently active throughout each day, which probably would help reduce the load on the other moderators on this site. I'm an active reviewer on both the Astronomy SE and Space SE sites.

I'm new to moderating, so I probably would need some guidance in the beginning, but I'm a fast learning so I probably would get accustomed to this job in a week or two. I think being a moderator probably would let me learn more about responsibility on the SE sites.

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    $\begingroup$ you're certainly knowledgable and engaged/engaging both here and in Astronomy SE, but being a mod would mean reading questions and comments and choosing the action to take or not take way more carefully than you do currently. $\endgroup$
    – uhoh
    Commented Jan 25, 2022 at 22:58
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Imho the site is fine and no new mod is needed. Although I don't think that having yet another mod would be harmful. In my opinion, our current important task is to preveserve the general welcomingness of the site. If there will be a new election, I ask you, voters, to consider it as a top prio.

Instead of increasing moderation, I think we should think about to improve the popularity and content. Here, I think, the only major problem what I can see is the lack of growth, and the low-activity period of the second half of the previous year.

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