Ask a Super User Moderator

The Wild Speculation service is START_PENDING, but I wouldn't be surprised if they have a switch to flip that disables unregistered answers, to use if things get out of control

bwDraco

You a Windows sysadmin?

Ben N

1:38 AM

Yep ;)

bwDraco

So much to learn...

START_PENDING (NOT_STOPPABLE, NOT_PAUSABLE, IGNORES_SHUTDOWN)

lol

Journeyman Geek

@AdamLear heh, yeah, he's slightly improved from "hey, I recognise this IP. Its from <location>? Oh, go fly"

even then I see enough commonality that I could tell who it was from just the posts and no special mod powers.

bwDraco

It's obvious that this user is a sock.

The question is, is there some way we can stop it in an automated fashion?

DavidPostill

@bwDraco This user is a schizophrenic sock :)

Journeyman Geek

@bwDraco do we need to? Seems like a lot of effort for someone I suspect is a bored teenager.

bwDraco

1:44 AM

Bored teenager? This user is hopping across different IPs.

Adam Lear

It's not like it's that hard to hop through IPs.

Journeyman Geek

yup

Adam Lear

@JourneymanGeek That depends. We have a couple tricks (one is deployed now - requiring registration to post anything). The amount of effort depends entirely on how much we feel like babysitting the site late at night on top of a full day of work instead of doing literally anything else with families. ;) (Which is how, I'm sure, y'all feel as well.)

Ben N

Heh, so my wild speculation wasn't so wild ;) It's great that SE is handling this so smoothly

bwDraco

Thank you very much.

Adam Lear

1:46 AM

Not our first time at this rodeo, unfortunately. :)

bwDraco

Well, you just need to know when to call in the CMs.

Journeyman Geek

@bwDraco well, in theory I had it mostly under control once I'd taken care of my morning walkies.

Ben N

I wouldn't be surprised if they have instrumentation that tells them when above-normal deletions are going on

Journeyman Geek

Probably

and we have our own mechanisms to let CMs know things are up

besides, its a known troll, and we're aware he was active

bwDraco

Not a mod and not eligible to become one for at least eight more months :(

(prior suspension)

Journeyman Geek

1:52 AM

@bwDraco not that different from dropping a message in the tavern or using the contact us link

Ben N

Eh, don't worry, the current mods are doing great. You already put in a lot of good work :)

bwDraco

I think my behavior is finally starting to change for the better.

Journeyman Geek

(and most of the 27 flags this morning 0_0 were not related to this)

Ben N

27 flags that don't go through queues?

Journeyman Geek

Yeah, there's a seperate mod queue

bwDraco

1:54 AM

121

Q: Let's disallow nominations from people who've been suspended in the past year

Well, it's election season again. On sites all over the network, moderators are being selected from among the good folk willing to volunteer their time to help guide and support their communities. I'm proud to be part of a system that governs itself in this manner; for all of its inherent messine...

discussion election account-suspension feedback nominations

Journeyman Geek

its usually in the low teens until someone handles it.

er

Ben N

Also, sorry to keep pestering you about the weird serial upvoting toward me, but has anyone else publicly reported receiving batches of upvotes?

bwDraco

I'm wondering that if things change enough, that you might be able to exercise discretion here...

@BenN No unusual voting patterns on my account.

Journeyman Geek

@BenN Not really

Ben N

I may be tinfoiling, but it's possible that someone is serially upvoting multiple people including themselves from a sock to hide from the normal tools

Ah, well then. I guess someone just really wants me to have a few more points

Journeyman Geek

1:56 AM

tbh

smells like tinfoiling.

;p

Ben N

Heh, as a security person, it's my job to think about the worst ;) No problem

bwDraco

Things are changing fast enough on my end that by the time the next election comes, you may want to consider an exception...

Journeyman Geek

Er. Only if someone else says so.

Adam Lear

Gonna still keep half an eye out on things for a while, but otherwise it's video game time. Have a great $timeofday wherever you are, y'all.

bwDraco

@JourneymanGeek ?

Ben N

2:02 AM

Thanks for your time, Adam :)

DavidPostill

@AdamLear Thanks Adam. It's late here in the UK so I will be off soon as well ....

bwDraco

(I understand this must go through the Community Team, but you should have some level of discretion.)

I suppose you mean "when the community says you're ready" but I've implemented some of the most significant changes yet to my behavior and conduct.

I know there's still a lot of work to do, but I think I'm moving forward.

Adam Lear

Existing moderators don't really influence the election much. I don't think we put in any code changes preventing nominations (though don't quote me on that, I haven't looked), so it'd probably be a matter of petitioning the community on meta to see if they'd be cool with you running. However, you're putting the cart before the horse - elections don't run on a timer, so this may well be moot by the time the next election happens anyway.

Ben N

Shog9 was very strongly considering it. And I'll say again: SU mods are doing great, we haven't needed elections for years and we might not for more years

bwDraco

I played my role in handling this incident here in a sane fashion and while I didn't do it perfectly, I managed to stay calm for the most part.

Adam Lear

2:06 AM

I don't know your history, Draco, but my advice to anyone running up against this new rule would be to make the changes for the sake of making changes and being a better user. Let your actions speak for themselves, and save asking for an exemption to anything until there's actually time for it :)

Journeyman Geek

yup

bwDraco

I care about the community first and foremost. That's why I'm here.

Adam Lear

Excellent. Keep it up :)

bwDraco

See you soon.

Adam Lear

(And now I'm really going.)

Journeyman Geek

2:08 AM

@BenN we don't really know stuff in depth but you have a very wide spread of voters/votes. Also, the whole serial voting script. I donno if there's any changes cause of that whole thing on AU

Ben N

I was really surprised that the serial voting script didn't catch anything. There may be a future reversal event from the new AU-induced script if it ever runs again. I guess it doesn't matter too much. Thanks for checking :)

bwDraco

The serial voting script is supposed to err on the side of not reversing votes in borderline cases.

Journeyman Geek

@BenN you quite literally have a pretty close to ideal vote spread ;p

DavidPostill

@JourneymanGeek What is an "ideal vote spread"?

Journeyman Geek

@DavidPostill lots of different voters with a relatively small proportion of votes for you compared to overall votes

DavidPostill

2:13 AM

@JourneymanGeek ah. ok. Not something mere mortals can see then ...

Journeyman Geek

Nope

and tbh, I usually don't look at that unless asked, or I'm know something specific is up

and if we did find anything we wouldn't tell you ;p

(that's CM level intervention)

bwDraco

It's private information protected under the Privacy Policy.

If a mod did tell you, he/she'd probably get the ♦ revoked immediately.

DavidPostill

@bwDraco I was asking out of curiosity not fishing for information.

bwDraco

Just saying... :)

Journeyman Geek

That it exists is on meta somewhere :)

bwDraco

2:26 AM

The most he can say is something like "I found an anomaly with your vote patterns" or "you have a good vote spread".

Can't say who or on what posts. That's private information. Who votes on what is protected under the Privacy Policy.

stackexchange.com/legal/privacy-policy

Voting patterns associated with an account could be considered "sensitive personal information" as they can reveal a lot about the user's likes and dislikes, well beyond what the user's publicly visible activity would show.

DavidPostill

@bwDraco You are over analysing my question which was: "What is an "ideal vote spread"?" and has been answered to my satisfaction. I know about the privacy policy and the moderator agreement ... and I think I've been around long enough to know that votes are anonymous.

bwDraco

Sorry.

DavidPostill

Accepted

Journeyman Geek

@bwDraco this is an example of moderator soft skills. I need to let @BenN know nothing is wrong, while revealing almost nothing and letting him know I take his concerns seriously

2

bwDraco

@JourneymanGeek I would have said something like "I don't see any issues with your vote patterns. I can't reveal specific details, though, as that's private information."

Journeyman Geek

2:40 AM

See, that's kinda mechanical sounding

bwDraco

in Root Access, Jun 7 at 14:14, by bwDraco

Also: Is there something I can do with my lack of a sense of humor? In some situations (including dispute resolution), I could come across as very cold for this reason (even if I can fully avoid making incorrect moderation decisions due to emotion or otherwise).

...just answered my own question.

Journeyman Geek

eh. Humour dosen't help me be a better mod. it helps me be a mod ;)

bwDraco

Is this teachable? Any ideas for role-play?

I'm a stickler for precision. I don't willingly post content that is grammatically incorrect or even has a single misspelling.

Does this hurt me more than it helps here?

Journeyman Geek

yes

bwDraco

Do I come across as very cold?

Journeyman Geek

2:51 AM

eh, you lack a certain sense of nuance.

bwDraco

I have a scheduled appointment tomorrow. What should I bring up with my counselor?

Journeyman Geek

Quite literally humour helps me be a mod since there's days when its just too damned annoying.

And you need humour to get on and do things

bwDraco

What can I do now to address this?

Journeyman Geek

I don't mean stuff like today.

bwDraco

...and I think I might have identified the root cause. I take things too seriously.

DavidPostill

2:55 AM

@bwDraco IMHO you need to stop over analysing your behavior. Just be yourself (warts and all). Nobody can claim they are perfect and life is too short to spend all of your time trying to be perfect.

bwDraco

Thank you very much for helping me understand what's wrong with myself.

Well, back to the drawing board, armed with new information on what needs to be fixed...

DavidPostill

Accept (and love) yourself for who you are right now. Other peoples opinions don't matter. They have their own agendas. You are perfect just as you are.

bwDraco

in Root Access, Mar 13 at 15:29, by bwDraco

Well, "Y SO SERIOUS" is definitely an issue. It is impacting my ability to contribute gracefully.

in Root Access, 2 days ago, by bwDraco

...wait. I knew full well this was a joke and I tried to ruin it.

in Root Access, Jul 8 at 3:23, by Journeyman Geek

@bwDraco erm, it was a joke.

DavidPostill

Nothing needs to be fixed. It is how it is. Anybody telling you you need fixing should first look in a mirror.

bwDraco

in Root Access, Feb 17 at 16:35, by bwDraco

Sorry for blowing the joke. I will step away from the room briefly...

in Root Access, Feb 18 at 23:48, by bwDraco

@qasdfdsaq Please don't spread bad advice. I was very tempted to raise a mod flag on that.

in Root Access, Feb 18 at 23:48, by Bob

@bwDraco That was very clearly a joke.

It's very obvious that I have a history of problems with jokes and humor that at one point almost got me in trouble (e.g. for falsely raising a flag).

As recently as two days ago!

DavidPostill

3:01 AM

Please stop focusing on what happened in the past. It is no more. The future hasn't happended yet.

Journeyman Geek

@bwDraco humour isn't something that can be taught

its something you learn over experience, and its something that changes

And well, its a direct result of how you grow and learn as a human being. Everyone's sense of humor is different, and time changes that too.

DavidPostill

I already advised you (several times) to read "The Power of Now". It teaches you to be in the moment (the only thing that matters). The past has gone and the future hasn't happened yet.

bwDraco

12 mins ago, by Journeyman Geek

Quite literally humour helps me be a mod since there's days when its just too damned annoying.

Journeyman Geek

@bwDraco someone posted shock porn in an answer 2 days ago.

bwDraco

^^^ well, that certainly impacts my ability to get things done under stress.

If I just took it easy, it wouldn't be an issue.

DavidPostill

3:04 AM

"According to the book, only the present moment is important, and both an individual's past and future is created by their thoughts. The author maintains that people's insistence that they have control of their life is an illusion "that only brings pain".

The book also describes methods of relaxation and meditation to aid readers in anchoring themselves in the present.[ These suggestions include slowing down life by avoiding multi-tasking, spending time in nature, and letting go of worries about the future."

Journeyman Geek

@DavidPostill so, be like a dog? ;p

DavidPostill

@JourneymanGeek Yep. Works for me :) Cats even more so than dogs ...

bwDraco

I ought to be a more carefree person...

Have some courage and enjoy the ride :)

roar

DavidPostill

@bwDraco Exactly!

Journeyman Geek

@DavidPostill hmm the idea of pushing trolls off a ledge disdainfully ....