We'll get started in 20 minutes. (:

What is the topic of the chat?

Heh, yesterday I held a talk about the Chernoff product formula and some of its corollaries.

o:

Thanks.

Probably pin that?

your wish is my command (;

What's the point of registration? :P

@ElendiaStarman it gives you a reminder notice so you don't forget

Suppose I should setup the Google doc now, whoops.

you should probably go register right now so you get a notice and don't forget! (;

Everyone ready to boogie? (:

We have the candidates in here yet?

@GraceNote I spy @ZevChonoles

Hi everyone!

Hi.

Hello!

Hello there!

Welcome to the Math.SE Town Hall Chat

We're just here to get to know the candidates and ask questions regarding the candidates views on moderation that may help in voting.

A few notes about the format:

The format is open, feel free to ask your question(s) unprompted, however please be mindful of whether or not candidates have answered the previous questions so that they don't get behind and start missing questions. Other than that, feel free to jump in.

Candidates, please use the reply feature so that questions and their answers are linked together. (Hover your mouse over the left of the message, click the down arrow, click reply)

When a question is asked, I'll star it - please star it yourself also to help! Please save stars for the questions so that candidates can refer to the star list to make sure they haven't missed a question.

We will be creating a digest version of the town hall chat after it is completed. This digest will take the form of a question on meta, containing all the questions asked as well as their answers for easier reading.

There's a system message up on the site, so we may get some stragglers joining us.

The candidates I see here are: well, @ZevChonoles. Hopefully others will be joining us!

How to star?

@amWhy hover over the message and there is a star on the right

got it, thanks

With that, I think I've got all my initial messages, so I open the floor to y'all. I guess @ZevChonoles is in the hot seat. q: Who has a question to start us off? (:

@ZevChonoles What is your opinion on the fact that users "guess" that something might be homework while it might be not. Do you think we should tag things as homework when we suspect it is?

(other candidates will be able to add responses to the digest if they wish)

What timezone are you / what hours of the day do you expect to be available during?

(please don't star candidate responses, just the questions)

(I hope I didn't set a bad precedent by asking my question before Jonas' was answered...)

@TheChaz No, no worries on that

@GraceNote ok

The reason we star things is so that the candidates can find the questions. The candidates can then reply directly to the question.

Thanks to the reply mechanism, it allows us to maintain a mechanical link between the question asked and the answers provided by each candidate.

@JonasTeuwen @Jonas: I think that if there is strong reason to think that a question is homework (e.g. imperative mood, nothing in the post other than the question) and after some amount of time, the OP still has not responded to people asking them whether it's homework, I would not be opposed to adding the homework tag; however, I don't think it's essential. It's more important that questions have the right tags identifying their subject matter.

Thanks.

@JonasTeuwen Besides, if it's obvious enough that it's homework, the people who already would be concerned about not giving the OP a full answer will make sure that they don't; the people who would give a full answer regardless of whether it was homework or not are going to ignore the tag anyway.

@GraceNote I'm on the East Coast, which is currently UTC-04 due to daylight savings, and UTC-05 normally. I expect I would normally be on in the evenings, somewhere between 6-10 PM (and, knowing my sleep schedule, I would additionally be on often much later than that...)

Woo East Coast!

pffft q:

any other questions? speak up! (:

I might have to start stealing questions from a previous digest, heh.

otherwise I'm gonna ask questions q:

Moderation requires decisive action. You may find yourself in a position where you're unsure of what action to take, but can't immediately discuss the situation with a fellow moderator. Are you more inclined to act swiftly or wait for additional input, and how would you decide where to draw the line?

@ZevChonoles: Good luck! I've gotta run.

@TheChaz Thanks! See you around the site.

(for after @TimStone's question):

What do y'all see as the biggest challenge when it comes to moderating Math SE?

@RebeccaChernoff is that directed only at the candidates? ;)

not sure asking non candidates would help people decide how to vote (:

@TimStone That's certainly a good question :) I think that in a situation where I'm not sure what to do, the best thing would be to wait and see. In addition to having the time to potentially get advice from a fellow moderator, I would also want to see how the community is reacting; presumably, if it's a contentious matter, soon enough flags will be raised, comments will be posted, and maybe votes to close will be made.

Hi @EricNaslund (:

@RebeccaChernoff (it might inform candidate's answers to that and other questions.... or scare them off.)

Hello, sorry I am late. I am away in quebec city at a conference so things are not as they normally would be.

@TimStone I would never act swiftly if I weren't confident in what I was doing (e.g. deleting spam). As I made the point in this meta thread, if the +2k (or +3k, or +10k) users have the power to do something, they should be the ones to do it (again, excepting only the most clear-cut of cases, in which case the moderator might be proactive if they so choose).

@EricNaslund Welcome. If you're unfamiliar with the format of a Town Hall Chat - we star the messages that are questions. Simply reply to them with your answer.

(If you want you can just reply to the new questions and catch up after if that's easier)

any other questions? (:

@TimeStone: I would be more inclined to wait for additional input. Acting swiftly usually feels like a much idea then it is. The few cases where it is pertinent to act immediately tend to be very clear cut.

Relations between Math and the rest of the Network are occasionally in rough spots. We don't get to see much of you outside of your own Meta site. So my question is, how interested are you in the capacity to be more active in visiting Meta Stack Overflow, the mod chat room, and to enhance associations and improve relations with the rest of the Network's moderation staff, employed or otherwise?

@RebeccaChernoff I think the biggest challenge would be those (hopefully very) rare occasions when users need to be contacted about their actions privately. I think it's pretty uncomfortable to have to tell someone they're misbehaving, and it can definitely be difficult to do so in a way that's respectful while firm.

Note that we do have some templates for moderator messages based on common situations, and moderators also have access to a chat room where moderators from the entire network hang out, so you can always ask advice from them. The site topics may be different, but the same issues pop up across the network.

Those sound like some excellent resources! Great to hear.

@GraceNote: I would definitely be interesting in visiting Meta Stack more often, I think it is a good thing to do. I was unaware that the relations between Math and the rest of the Network were in "rough spots," but if true, this is certainly not desired, and should be improved. I don't know what the mod chat room is, but I would definitely like to try it out.

@GraceNote: Lastly, I believe it is a given that it is very important to have good relations with the other moderators and stack exchange staff. Otherwise, it would be near impossible to work together, act as a team and help improve the site.

(@GraceNote is referring to the chat room I mentioned in my reply to @Zev)

we're almost at the end of the hour, anyone have a final question?

@RebeccaChernoff: My answer is similar to Zev's for this one. Dealing with users, and the arguments arising from user actions would be the biggest challenge. From my experience with meta and the arguments which appear there, the most heated are always about a particular users actions on a particular thread.

Alright, we're out of time, final thoughts from @Eric and @Zev?

@GraceNote Also a great question. So far I've mainly only been lurking on meta.stackoverflow, but I think it's incumbent on a moderator to keep up with what's going on with the SE network as a whole, and if I'm elected moderator I would certainly do so. I'm also very interested in maintaining good relations with the moderation staff, and between Math and other SE sites - these are essential to keeping the site running effectively.

@RebeccaChernoff I can't think anything else off the top of my head. So, I'll just say, thanks for all the great questions everyone!

@RebeccaChernoff: I can't think of too much either. It was good chat, and hopefully it was helpful for the voters.

Perfect

Thanks everyone for participating!

Good luck to the candidates!

For candidates that couldn't make it (or partially made it), feel free to respond to the questions and we'll make sure they're on the digest.

The digest will be posted on meta in the next day or so.

Thanks, Zev and Eric!