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!


This election ended Mar 5 '13 at 20:00.

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


8,282 voters were eligible, 3,139 visited the site during the election, 1,880 visited the election page, and 867 voted

3 Candidates

Hello everyone, I'd like to nominate myself as a moderator for this community which I hold dearly. As a frequent user, I am very much in touch with the community. I'm not a heavy meta participant (except when I see questions that prompt insightful responses getting closed to quickly). In a few cases, I've been able to convince mods that a question can be salvaged via an edit that makes the question more clear and/or aligned it better with the community.

Like some of my fellow nominees, I do believe that there has been some heavy handed abuse of the close button. And would use discretion on whether or not a question should be reopened (such as upvotes on the question itself and even if the question isn't that great but has provided some insightful answers judged via upvotes).

I believe that the programmers community is more ephemeral and conceptual than stackoverflow. For me it has been a place to think more about my profession and to not just get on a soapbox and profess my thoughts but also listen to others thoughts on the topic. That is my view of the community. If you agree, vote for me.

link | history
meta questions: 7 / -5
meta answers: 6 / +21
helpful flags: 12
    
In what sense, if any, have you seen votes on questions be a reliable indicator of suitableness for this site? How do you propose to handle "bikeshed" questions? –  Caleb Feb 22 '13 at 12:39
1  
If elected would you make yourself available in The Whiteboard for discussion on the sites maintenance? –  Jimmy Hoffa Feb 22 '13 at 17:31
    
"Bikeshed" questions are tough. What for a more advanced professional might be a "bikeshed" is an advanced topic for others. I remember being accused of being a troll for asking what I felt were legitimate questions about O/RM and Persistence Ignorance as I was learning about them. Sometimes the gap between experience is so great it's really like explaining to a blind person what a sunrise looks like. Where do we say the bar is set? I don't want to put off potential contributors by being elitist. –  Mike Brown Feb 22 '13 at 21:10
1  
@JimmyHoffa I would definitely make it a point to become more involved with the behind the scenes aspects of the site. I did not mention in my nomination, but I was a Moderator for the MSDN WPF forums. In addition to patrolling the primary boards, I also participated in maintenance/preview/UAT activities to help advance the platform. I enjoy both aspects of the community. –  Mike Brown Feb 22 '13 at 21:13
    
@MikeBrown I like that you will take an Edit First/Close Later style approach. Is this what you mean when you say "heavy handed abuse of the close button" or are is there a particular example of a type of question that you see closed but would rather stay open? –  maple_shaft Feb 22 '13 at 23:20
    
Mapleshaft I had composed a response but it looks like the internets ate it. Your first option is correct, especially in cases where a question has seen several quality, upvoted answers. –  Mike Brown Feb 25 '13 at 4:51
3  
You have minimal Meta participation, less than a handful of flags and only one (!) review, it doesn't really seem that you are interested in the janitorial aspects of the site. Nothing wrong with that, but it does raise the question: What exactly do you think a moderator's responsibilities are? The only thing the diamond is useful for is cleaning up faster, it's completely useless if you don't really clean up at all. –  Yannis Rizos Feb 25 '13 at 11:30
1  
I've thought seriously about whether I should nominate myself and did not take it lightly. As I mentioned in my nomination, my community participation speaks for itself, I am an active member of the community and believe I could serve the community better through moderating. My past focus has indeed been on "normal" participation, but I have the experience (elsewhere) and reputation within the community to be a good moderator. –  Mike Brown Feb 25 '13 at 16:23
    
You are an active member, and your participation on the main site is impressive. That, however, was not my question. Let me clarify: At 10K+ reputation, you already have access to an arsenal of tools which you could use to moderate the community. Insofar you haven't showed much interest in using them. Will that change, if you are elected? Will you, for example, scout the first posts review queue every couple of days looking out for new users that might need some friendly guidance? And if yes, what's stopping you from doing that now? –  Yannis Rizos Feb 25 '13 at 17:07
    
Ignorance...for example...you mentioned that I did one review. That was the first time a review ever popped up on my dashboard. I didn't know about the first post review queue. If the tools are available to me already, I'm more than willing to withdraw my nomination and put in the effort to show that I'm vested in the community's growth :) –  Mike Brown Feb 25 '13 at 17:18
1  
Ignorance is something we can easily fix, you can start by familiarizing yourself with the review queues and the 10K tools. If elected, you'll get access to a few more toys, but you can already do a lot with what you already have. –  Yannis Rizos Feb 25 '13 at 17:29
comments disabled on deleted / locked posts

Hey everybody!

I'm Dynamic, and I would like to nominate myself for the position of moderator on the site. Since I started using this site, I have been trying to help the site in any way I can whether it be asking and answering questions, editing posts, voting, and more!

Some of the things I do on a regular basis include editing, closing, and reopening posts. I'm an owner of the blog and "Whiteboard" chat rooms. I help run the blog along with World Engineer. I also played a major role in kicking off and organizing Programmers first contest!

On meta and in chat, I sometimes see complaining about moderation that was too harsh such as a question being closed too quickly. I will strive to limit this event. We've lost great users because the site was not run the way they thought it should be, and they didn't think they had enough say. I understand that decisions have to be made, but the general community should have just as much, if not more, say as the moderators. My goal is to please the majority of users, but to keep others from getting angry.

Please consider me in your vote for moderator, and if you have any questions please don't hesitate to ask.

link | history
meta questions: 25 / +202
meta answers: 21 / +75
helpful flags: 97
3  
You have my vote. I definitely like that you want to limit the too-quick closing of questions. I like your contribution, and appreciate your enthusiasm and sense of balance. –  funkymushroom Feb 20 '13 at 15:59
    
@funkymushroom Thanks you! If I'm elected I''ll be sure to bring those traits to the table. –  Dynamic Feb 20 '13 at 20:36
2  
How do you plan on achieving this balance? If users regularly close questions they feel are off-topic or not a fit for the site, do you just plan on reopening them all? –  Glenn Nelson Feb 21 '13 at 12:48
2  
Sounds like a good idea @GlennNelson, I wish people would put as much effort in to correcting bad moderation (community or mod), unjust closes, invalid edits, etc. as they do shutting things down. Reopen is important and rarely used. –  Orbling Feb 21 '13 at 14:38
1  
@Orbling I'm not necessarily suggesting that as the solution. I'm wondering what Dynamic's idea(s) for handling "moderation that was too harsh". –  Glenn Nelson Feb 21 '13 at 14:43
2  
@GlennNelson: Yes, I was jumping on your slightly sarky remark, as it is an area I think important. I use to be a regular, but got fed up with the iron fist of moderation. –  Orbling Feb 21 '13 at 14:49
    
@GlennNelson There's got to be a sense of balance in the moderation process. When posts are closed, people tend to think it's harder to get reopened, but that isn't the case. It's in fact just as easy, you just need to draw attention to the question. My goal is to try and draw that attention, as well as being much more cautious with the "vote to close" button and les cautious with the "vote to reopen". –  Dynamic Feb 21 '13 at 21:52
1  
@Dynamic How do you plan to bring about this change on the site level? It's one thing to vote in such a manner yourself, but this is a site-wide issue. –  Glenn Nelson Feb 21 '13 at 23:14
1  
@GlennNelson First of all, I'm going to lead by example. That's the most important step. Secondly, you cant force anybody to follow this change but you can definitely advertise it enough until it becomes second nature. Whether that means dropping a friendly reminder in the chat room or ushering in a new culture to the site. For example, when I was new to the site I followed some of the more active users example, especially mods. So mods were unconsciously showing me what to do. If high profile users do this purposely, we can solve this to an extent. –  Dynamic Feb 22 '13 at 2:08
    
@Dynamic: I assume that you are aware of the /review reopen vote queue - so you don't really need to draw more attention to the question. –  jrg Feb 22 '13 at 17:37
    
@jrg I believe the review queue is only open to users over a certain rep limit no? I may be wrong. –  Dynamic Feb 22 '13 at 19:55
    
@Dynamic It's open to anyone who can cast a close or a reopen vote. –  jrg Feb 22 '13 at 19:58
    
@jrg Sometimes a simple flag does the trick, and people with much lower rep can do that. –  Dynamic Feb 22 '13 at 20:53
    
You have my vote, but I have to ask from viewing your profile - are you really 14 years old? –  l46kok Feb 24 '13 at 5:23
1  
@Dynamic You sir, are a 14 year old prodigy then........ –  l46kok Feb 25 '13 at 7:21
show 1 more comment

Hello, I am World Engineer and I nominate myself for Moderator for Programmers.SE

Why vote for me you ask? I am one of the most active users on the site. I've earned the Fanatic badge several times over. I've run the blog for the better part of a year and while it's been somewhat sporadic at times, I continue to push forward with that project, no matter the odds.

No matter the odds is a good way to describe me. I've worked my way up into the top 50 despite being a student for all of that time. I've learned more here than I have in school in terms of practical, actionable information. I'd almost count it as a kind of internship.

Learning is what this site is about. There are challenges. It can be difficult to balance holding the hands of those who are new with trying to maintain the quality of the site. A careful mix of forgiveness and firmness is necessary for a just moderation policy, I will do my best to adhere to that line. We have a great site and by electing me your next moderator, I will do everything in my power to judiciously balance the helping hand and the firm hand to drive this site to be even better. Will you help me?

tl;dr: Balance is Key, Vote for Me.

link | history
meta questions: 18 / +91
meta answers: 36 / +164
helpful flags: 104
    
I vote for you World Engineer –  Prototype Stark Feb 19 '13 at 3:36
2  
@PrototypeStark I appreciate your support but it is not yet time to vote. That comes later as detailed in the various meta posts on the subject. –  World Engineer Feb 19 '13 at 3:48
1  
Well. I think that he just meant that you'll get his vote when it's time for that part.. –  jgauffin Feb 19 '13 at 5:40
5  
@jgauffin That seems more likely but best to cover the edge case as well. –  World Engineer Feb 19 '13 at 5:43
8  
I like the quote "I've worked my way up into the top 50 despite being a student for all of that time." Odds in my perspective are you're more likely to work yourself up there while you're a student... After having a full time job and a family to look after, you'll probably swap "dispite" for "due to" or so :-) –  Louis Somers Feb 19 '13 at 18:24
3  
consider pointing nomination readers to your activity in Programmers blog; your contribution to it looks valuable to me: 1) author archive, 2) meta posts, 3) one of blog chat room owners –  gnat Feb 19 '13 at 18:46
    
@JimmyHoffa sorry, forgot to fix that. It has been fixed. –  World Engineer Feb 20 '13 at 1:38
3  
@JimmyHoffa What's wrong with hereby? It's a suitable word. –  deadly Feb 21 '13 at 9:45
1  
@JimmyHoffa: It can be seen to mean that the declaration that follows is being done so, for the first time, by the speaker or document. –  Steve Evers Feb 21 '13 at 18:34
1  
@JimmyHoffa What it actually means is "as a result of this utterance". Reducing unnecessary complexity is good, but let's use the correct meaning. I could not, for example, use "hereby" if I wanted to say, "The grass is green", as it is a statement, but by stating it there has not been a result. The above introductions are the candidate nominations - whether you highlight that fact or not is a matter of style. –  deadly Feb 22 '13 at 9:14
comments disabled on deleted / locked posts

This election is complete.
http://programmers.stackexchange.com/election/3
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