Moderator Nominations

Question

If your meta site does not have a post to nominate Moderators, start one now! Pro Tem appointments will begin about two weeks after the site is created. The more guidance we receive, the more informed our choice. Moderator Pro Tempore

• Each nomination should be a separate answer. Link the name to the user’s profile (parent and meta) so we can see their activity.
• The nominee should indicate their acceptance by editing the answer, adding that they accept the nomination. Optionally they can write something about themselves.
• Self nominations are okay, and even encouraged. Most sites have not had sufficient time for many users to stand out. Self nomination is simply a way to say, “I’m interested. Let my record speak for itself.” Links to other activities may be helpful: Area 51 participation, participation in other sites, blog posts reviewing or announcing the site, etc.

We're looking for members of this site who:

• Have a reasonably high reputation score to indicate active, consistent participation.
• Show an interest in their meta’s community-building activities.
• Lead by example, showing patience and respect for their fellow community members in everything they write.
• Exhibit those intangible traits discussed in A Theory of Moderation.

It's also good if the moderators:

• Are members with participation in both the meta and main site.
• Participated in Area 51, generate social network referrals, or blog about the site.
• Are members who have already shown an interest or ability to promote their community.

Answer 1

I'll officially throw my vote in here. Here's why I think I would be a good moderator here.

• I have worked as a student for a space mission (HiRISE Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter), worked with building 2 student satellites, and currently work as a satellite engineer for a commercial satellite communications company. I know Space Exploration.
• I have been a moderator at two sites previously. If I am asked to be a mod, I will drop one of those sites to be able to devote attention to this site.
• The Stack Exchange site I am most involved with is Science Fiction and Fantasy, which I have been a part of since day 1, helping to form it in its early days.
• I proposed the site, had 5 questions be accepted as a part of the A51 definition, and edited several that were close, but not quite, to a level where they could be qualified.
• Helped to define the scope of this site from the beginning.
• Referred quite a few users to the site to commit them.

My Site Profile, and Meta Profile.

Answer 2

I think I'd be a successful moderator, so I'll add my self-nomination

• I have a bit of experience as a moderator (I help look after 3 other sites as a mod - have helped one grow to graduation from early beta and am working with two others) and am hopefully considered as a fair moderator when solving issues, helping guide new visitors who have got the wrong end of the stick, while being firm with troublemakers
• I have been a vocal publicist of the sites under my remit, running the Security Stack Exchange blog, and ensuring we are marketed at as many events as possible in Europe (and occasionally the US and beyond)
• I understand the load moderating a new site implies, but to be honest, I have changed my day job from 100 hour weeks to 55 hour weeks...I have a lot more spare time :-)
• I have considerable experience over Stack Exchange as a whole (have been a member of Stack Exchange for 2 and a half years, have a site-wide rep of about 116k and am active on 14 sites over 2k)
• I was active on the Astronomy beta which was swallowed up into Physics (which I have over 2k rep on), and while my useful maths and physics tuition stopped at some university study in the use of Fourier transforms in communications, I have always been fanatical about space flight and space habitation and the long term prospects of getting humans into space permanently

Forgot to add my profile links:

Main and meta accounts here

Answer 3

I would like to nominate TildalWave. No idea if they are interested. They have been here since the beginning, have contributed smartly, and are not overly interested in impressing people. All the comments and answers here have been appropriate and well within scope.

Active in both meta and main, with what looks like a long and respected history on many sister sites.

This is my first nomination in the SO family, so if I have made technical errors in this nomination please feel free to edit/correct.

Thanks James, much obliged!

Being encouraged by James' nomination proposal and a really helpful conversation with @Manishearth regarding responsibilities of moderators on Stack Exchange websites, I've decided to accept the nomination and put my name in the hat. This is my first nomination for a moderator position on Stack Exchange, so I don't want to overthink this. Here's a few items I'd like to achieve as a moderator:

• Help put Space Exploration safely into a stable orbit out of beta. We started well, and lifted out of private beta, but need to keep this up and strive to become even better. I would like to help quality shine in this community, and as one of the most frequent voters, I believe I'm doing a small part of this already, removing weed from the seed. I prefer the upvoting method (reward quality, giving credit where it's due, and a no-vote is a vote too), but am not a timid downvoter, and vote to close when warranted. I read posts in their entirety, and I always comment with reasons for my rejections.
• Help establish a true community feel to SE, and help out as much as possible in a friendly atmosphere. I'm a frequent commenter in Q&A section of the site, but also active in chat rooms. I will try to make myself as available and easy to reach as possible. I will delete my own comments that are no longer needed, regardless or the number of upvotes, but will see to it that other comments are preserved, unless the complete thread is no longer relevant. Offensive contributions might get edited to remove the offensive part, or deleted altogether without prior warning, though.
• Communicate the urge for specificity to all members, be it to those asking questions, or those answering them. I will gladly help with my own contributions whenever I can, but yours will be my top priority. I genuinely despise poor quality, FGITW, link only one-liners, and will actively work with posters to make contributions more widely applicable, or otherwise interesting to a wider user base when possible. If I'll feel you've forgotten to mention something, I will comment with a request for completeness, or add missing but essential information on my own. We do need more than a single answer per question, as there will always be alternative solutions to one's problems, or differences in opinions, but I would like to see the top rated answers be the best thought of replies, and not on top due to popularity votes and sockpuppeting.
• Deal with disputes detached of personal opinion on the matter, and act on behalf of the community as a whole. This is a sore point, but there will be bad moments, and they need to be dealt with without disrupting the purpose of our website and in a timely fashion. We all have bad moments, and as community grows, we'll inevitably get a few members that will intentionally act against the community. I will try to be the voice of reason and engage wrongdoers in a constructive discourse, preferably in site's main chat room with support of other members. It has been mentioned before, that I seemingly have endless patience, and while I'd like it that way, I'll have to protect the community from needless headaches first, and assess how much of patience you have to deal with disruptions, not me.
• Participate even more in meta discussions, learn the ways of the best moderators Stack Exchange has to offer, mediate sane user requests and ideas that might help the community to website developers on Stack Overflow Meta, or through other channels. I will try to dedicate some of my time for site promotion, help write our blog posts, and if requested, help @Jin (Stack Exchange's Creative Director) in refining our website's custom design, when the time comes for that. Number of my posts in the Q&A section might inevitably suffer as a consequence, but so be it. I will then need to find ways to communicate my competence as a moderator differently, than through gathered reputation points.

That's about it. I'm quite certain I've left out a lot of points to moderating a website, but I wouldn't be the only one doing it, and I genuinely didn't want to go into discussing sitewide, community policies. Those are for all of us to decide on, I'm just a single individual of it, and will respect them regardless, if I'm elected as a moderator, or not. Thanks for your time, and don't hesitate to ask any questions you might have, either in the comments below, or in The Pod Bay (our website's main chat room).

Answer 4

I would like to nominate AlanSE for the moderator post. I'll let him indicate if he is even interested. I'm not going to say a lot here as I think AlanSE's record speaks for itself. That's good, since that's the only thing I know about AlanSE.

All of his questions and answers here (and on other SE sites) are fabulous. I don't see anything that remotely represents reputation fishing. Finally, I like that his SE "resume" is quite diverse. It seems to include some experience with a previous SE site launch failure too. I think I value that over experiencing success.

Good luck Alan!

Answer 5

main | meta | a51 | meta.SO | combined

Area 51 profile for Undo http://area51.stackexchange.com/users/flair/83418.png profile for Undo on Stack Exchange, a network of free, community-driven Q&A sites http://stackexchange.com/users/flair/1703573.png

Why should I be a mod?

I love the community here. It's a vibrant community with great people. I want to do more for the site. I can already do a lot with my current tools, but I could do more with a Diamond. To prove that I know the system, I earned 6k mSO rep in 6 months and am currently second for Space.SE meta participation. I'm also one of the top editors for the site.

I'm a fan of SPAG (spelling | punctuation | grammar), and it drives me crazy to see a post where 'I' isn't capitalized.

Also, I had a nice chat with ManishEarth about my ability to moderate - I think that it shows that I'm willing to take advice and criticism about my abilities. It's a great read, and I highly recommend it!*

From one of Robert Cartaino's mSO posts, these are the criteria for PT mod selection:

About a week into the public beta, we will look for members who are deeply engaged in the community development; members who:

• Are currently a registered user in good standing (I'm registered, and haven't been yelled at yet)
• Have a reasonably high reputation score to indicate active, consistent participation (#3ish for rep)
• Exhibit patience and fairness at all times in their questions, answers, and comments (Yep - see my main profile)
• Lead by example, showing respect for their fellow community members in everything they write (I believe I do)
• Want the responsibility. Moderators volunteer a lot of time and work. It can be hugely rewarding experience but it isn't always a popularity contest. (I've talked to mods about it and believe I can handle it)

Bonus points for:

• Site proposers (Nope)
• Members who referred a lot of followers/committers on Area 51 (I did refer one)
• Members with participation in both meta and the parent site (i.e. interest in both community building and expertise in the field) (#2 for Meta, #3ish for main)

I've never had a Diamond before, and I'm ready to learn. Working alongside whoever else is chosen would be an honor, and would greatly increase the good I can do this site. Thanks for considering me!

If you have any reasons that you believe would inhibit my ability to moderate, please post them in the comments! I'd like to improve!

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_{*Especially if you're the Community Manager who's picking mods. It should enlighten you about a lot of my different aspects.}