2013 Moderator Election

On Stack Exchange, we believe the core moderators should come from the community, and be elected by the community itself through popular vote. We hold regular elections to determine who these community moderators will be.

Community moderators are accorded the highest level of privilege on our community, and should themselves be exemplars of positive behavior and leaders within the community.

Our general criteria for moderators is as follows:

  • patient and fair
  • leads by example
  • shows respect for their fellow community members in their actions and words
  • open to some light but firm moderation to keep the community on track and resolve (hopefully) uncommon disputes and exceptions

Every election has three phases:

  1. Nomination
  2. Primary
  3. Election

Please participate in the moderator elections by voting, and perhaps even by nominating yourself to be a community moderator!

The current limit (1200 characters) per nomination candidate

This election ended Apr 30 '13 at 20:00.

Download the election data and use OpenSTV to audit the results.

1,138 voters were eligible, 575 visited the site during the election, 344 visited the election page, and 195 voted

7 Candidates

Hello everyone I'm Nathan Woodrow an active contributor to gis.stackexchange and have been around since the beginning. I am developer on the QGIS project and humble to be part of such an awesome growing project and community, much like gis.stackexchange.

I started in the GIS field around seven years ago and have loved it ever since. As I have a strong developer focus, although I do love making maps and solving GIS problems given the chance, I have a small selection of my own open source projects, some active others not so much.

I believe what makes a good community is the people involved, even the people right at the top, the leaders of the community. Leaders should show compassion to the new people unfamiliar with the sites running, but also help people learn in order to help others.

I would love to be a moderator for this site to help maintain the professionalism, yet friendly nature, that we all love to see here.

Plus I'm an Aussie, who doesn't love an Aussie ;)

link | history
meta answers: 4 / +18
helpful flags: 55
3  
That's a pretty nice commit history you've got there on github. –  Chad Cooper Apr 22 '13 at 12:45
    
In addition to your association with QGIS and your developer focus, I think your previous exposure to a number of commercial tools and your previous focus as an analyst gives you the well-rounded exposure necessary to maintain the flavor and tone of GIS.SE. One of the big strengths of this site is that it is a fairly hyperbole-free forum for people of various backgrounds. I think that is important and I think you'd be good at helping maintain that tone. –  Bill Dollins Apr 22 '13 at 14:44
4  
Moderators love Aussies because you sit in just the right time zone to fill gaps in coverage when mods in the US and Europe are sleeping :-). –  whuber Apr 22 '13 at 15:13
comments disabled on deleted / locked posts

This place matters. Let's keep it that way. I've been part of many online fora, and this one has something special.

Hello Folks, my name is Matt Wilkie and I've an abiding interest GIS.se's well being, having been actively involved in all aspects of the community since its inception, including a previous stint as interim moderator.

I started in geographic information systems in 1992, trading time on the digitizing table for video games after hours ("after" occasionally transmuted into other tenses). All the while continually learning more of this GIS thing. Eventually it turned into a paid gig and I've not looked back, to the point I rarely even game any more - the other stuff is more interesting.

After sinking uncounted days into learning and mastering a now defunct GIS, PAMAP (never heard of it right? ;-), I've a fondness for open source software and an interest in things that last. I'm most familiar with the gdal/ogr family. My job and bulk of expertise is in the Esri world, from Arcinfo Workstation to ArcGIS Desktop and, lately, a smattering of ArcGIS server and Online.

Altogether this allows a blended, balanced view; at least that's what I continually strive for.

link | history
meta questions: 29 / +162
meta answers: 83 / +380
helpful flags: 29
7  
This is rather modest: you were moderator pro tem for some eight months and IMHO did a great job at it. I am particularly impressed with your ability to provide great answers (including some very highly upvoted ones) and great questions. This is evidenced by the many badges you have accumulated, which exceed those of almost everyone in this community, even those having two or even three times the reputation: their numbers reflect both your activities on behalf of our community and the quality of your work. –  whuber Apr 19 '13 at 12:52
    
I echo @whuber post you were a very good moderator in the 'beta' stages and start of GIS-SE even before I was on the GIS.SE scene. Well I remember Tablet digitizing back (workstation arc/info masking tape and tic-marks) in the early/mid 1990's along with Pegasus Mail and Netscape (cutting edge at the time) –  Mapperz Apr 19 '13 at 13:32
2  
You have an impressive meta history as well. –  Chad Cooper Apr 19 '13 at 14:24
    
I always assumed matt was a moderator, based on knowledge (both specific to this site and in general), reputation and conduct. –  user3461 Apr 19 '13 at 17:42
comments disabled on deleted / locked posts

I am motivated to serve as a GIS.SE moderator for two reasons:

  1. I believe it is important to give back to this community
  2. I would like to contribute to maintaining a positive and welcoming atmosphere for novices and experts alike

I have a strong background in utilizing remote sensing and GIS technologies for ecological research. My current research includes habitat mapping for threatened species, ecological change detection using multispectral imagery, and RS-based accuracy assessments. My first GIS course was in 1998 and I have been using these skills in the field and in the office ever since. I am a huge advocate for open source software and programming languages, particularly QGIS, R and Python—tools which I use on a routine basis.

link | history
meta questions: 1 / +6
meta answers: 2 / +15
helpful flags: 173
5  
Good to have more potential moderators with programming knowledge/backgrounds, your helpfulness is appreciated with your helpful flags to the GIS SE community already. –  Mapperz Apr 18 '13 at 21:34
comments disabled on deleted / locked posts

I'm Ian Turton and I've been hanging out here since the beta days. I've been hacking at geography for the past 20 years (or so) when I started the GeoTools project with James Macgill at the University of Leeds where I used to work. I have researched and taught GIS (in many of its forms) over that period at Leeds and at PennState University, where I taught a Web Mapping course. Since leaving the states in 2011 I have worked at Envitia helping to integrate proprietary and open source software for a variety of clients.

My area of expertise is open source software and I have at least compiled from source many of the packages that are commonly used and have contributed fixes to many of the Java ones. I think this allows me to answer many of the programming type questions we see on GIS.SE and gives me an understanding of the issues involved on the others.

link | history
meta questions: 1 / +15
meta answers: 11 / +47
helpful flags: 107
8  
Your record of helpful flags for moderators attention is honourable to this community. The Open Source GIS is very community driven and good source of innovation, this is helping everyday users (and students) get into GIS at little or no cost. –  Mapperz Apr 18 '13 at 13:56
9  
I am pleased to see you have posted a sizable number of highly upvoted answers (+10 or more). Moderators continually have to assess the quality and fitness of material posted on our site, so the proven ability to actually produce respected answers is a real plus. –  whuber Apr 18 '13 at 16:55
    
I find it interesting that you consider compiling from source a skill worthy of mentioning. –  lynxlynxlynx Apr 21 '13 at 16:30
comments disabled on deleted / locked posts

I'm Graeme Browning and you can learn more about me from my SE-GIS, Twitter, LinkedIn and/or PolyGeo pages.

I would like to take on the role of Moderator for SE-GIS but am not keen to run an election campaign based on strongly marketing myself because I believe assessing someone's body of work over previous years is the best indicator to future performance.

As a former national Esri support manager and ArcGIS Beta Program participant during most of the past 20 years, I will be most qualified to moderate Esri questions but I also have much interest in Open initiatives.

link | history
meta questions: 20 / +99
meta answers: 66 / +251
helpful flags: 274
9  
I notice you have as many badges (of all three colors) as many people with almost twice your reputation. Although individually most badges don't mean much, collectively I believe they manifestly document the "body of work" to which you refer. –  whuber Apr 18 '13 at 16:59
4  
Hi Graeme! I didn't realize it was you. I'm a baby GIS.SE contributor compared to most, but just wanted to say that I worked with Graeme for many years and it was always a pleasure. He's knowledgeable, helpful, and just a great guy. –  mkennedy Apr 19 '13 at 19:03
comments disabled on deleted / locked posts

Why would I be a good/ideal moderator on GIS.SE?

  • I love helping people.
  • I don’t like link only answers. Minimal examples can help.
  • I’m patient and open-minded so I know my responsibilities for being mod.
  • I can handle the problems about people who tend to be complicated or new/inexperienced.
  • Up to the present, I have answered questions, reviewed posts, voted to close duplicated or irrelevant questions/answers and raised flags rather than asking questions.
  • I know my helpful flags are so little, but my main purpose is that not to alienate audience from this community. I will be careful for what is wrong and not proper for this community.
  • I am visiting site everyday, so I can keep the site clean and tidy.
  • I will take all people’s decisions very seriously and objectively.

Finally, I would be polite, professional and would maintain to think good and new things for this site as best I can. Whatever the outcome about elections, I love GIS and I still help people to inform them for aught I know on this site. The last word is that there is no feeling better than helping people about their problems.

link | history
meta questions: 5 / +20
meta answers: 7 / +20
helpful flags: 20
8  
Can you tell the community a little about yourself, GIS background and other interests? –  Mapperz Apr 16 '13 at 23:15
3  
I have updated my profile page. –  Aragon Apr 17 '13 at 7:03
2  
Please see the previous Election for Ideas 'Introduction, Approach and Credentials' - gis.stackexchange.com/election/1 –  Mapperz Apr 17 '13 at 14:04
    
@Mapperz, there is character limit policy in this election so you can't write as your mentioned style. –  Aragon Apr 17 '13 at 14:37
1  
Have sent request about 'character limit ' to stack exchange administrators –  Mapperz Apr 17 '13 at 15:21
1  
The current limit (1200 characters) per nomination candidate. This not going to be changed. –  Mapperz Apr 18 '13 at 14:08
comments disabled on deleted / locked posts

My primary aim of being nominated for editing is that to give my hand as a support for those users that may have a question in mind, and are trying to express it in a personalised way; to help them for fearless questioning and finally to help our community to improve a nicer culture of sharing knowledge.

I believe in that any question is worth to be asked. And any answer is worth to be shared. I believe that this community "is not" for marking or scoring people or people's knowledge but "it is" for helping each other for making new moves, fresh ideas and excitement as dominant part of GIS community / science.

link | history
helpful flags: 0
18  
Your record of highly-upvoted questions is commendable; good questions are appreciated here. But I couldn't help noticing you haven't been around much: just two days the entire year. How can you demonstrate to this community that you are able to and want to dedicate the time needed to moderate this site well? –  whuber Apr 16 '13 at 21:59
4  
@whuber I take this nomination serious, and may be this is my time to do more. –  Developer Apr 17 '13 at 8:08
1  
Please see the previous Election for Ideas 'Introduction, Approach and Credentials' - gis.stackexchange.com/election/1 –  Mapperz Apr 17 '13 at 14:04
comments disabled on deleted / locked posts

This election is complete.
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