@Josh I wasn't spying. ;p I was interested in why @BenBrocka didn't get an email. :) I figured he was already selected so no need for the email. ;p

@StevenJeuris Oh I was totally joking when I said you were spying ;-)

All SE chats are public. Well except for one but we won't discuss that one

@StevenJeuris "I figured he was already selected so no need for the email." this is a possibility I never even considered

@Josh Woops, hijacking this chat. Didn't notice it was a different one.

i what?

wait wait you've all been talking about the protem emails?

We should take this chat somewhere else :-)

yes. so that i can interject freely.

K .. better.

← 10 messages moved from CogSci Chat Help

room mode changed to Public: anyone may enter and talk

^^^ That's what we're discussing @Aarthi

:(

I was talking to Ben directly in here:

oic.

If this was out of line, I completly apologize

no it's fine

He seemed hurt and I was very surprised to say the least

we pick our protems for specific reasons, and we like ben being a committed user of the site. we think being a mod would actually get in the way of that.

if you listen to the robert-rebecca podcast, they talk a bit about that

I suspected that was a possibility, in fact

;____;

@Josh Was just going to point that out. I'll however have to check out that podcast because I don't fully understand that reasoning.

@StevenJeuris Ask any mod of a site -- when you take on Mod Powers, suddenly you'll find yourself using the site less.

Using it as a user, I mean.

@Aarthi I totally understand that logic

And there are some users whose contributions to the site are worth more than any policing they could/would do.

Suddenly you have a lot more work to do managing flags, helping users like ben, etc

It's like how the best and brightest don't go into government.

@Aarthi and I believe I am the opposite, I can contribute more as a mod than a normal user in this case

@Aarthi LOL

:D

@Aarthi Okay, that might be a valid argument, but does that weigh up against the fact that somebody who properly grasps the subject of a site can make better decisions about it?

Which I find to be especially important in its forming stage.

goes AFK for a moment

@StevenJeuris I'd like to believe that even slightly-less-rep users are intelligent and versed in this work enough to police. Policing is less about the content itself, most of the time, and more about the quality of the content. Cleaning up messy text, converting/deleting answers that aren't answers, trimming comments, deleting/closing questions that are off-topic. Those are things that one can do without understanding the subject matter as well as the #1 #2 or #3 users of a site.

Also, iirc, you're a PhD candidate in this subject.

You discount yourself, sir!

@Aarthi I've been invited to apply for an open Human Computer Interaction PhD position. That doesn't mean I could get it. Furthermore, although we decided HCI can be on-topic here I don't recall any HCI questions. (I will ask some in the future though.)

Ah.

My mistake, I apologize.

@Aarthi No problem. :) But I'm going to have dinner now. Will pick up this conversation after. Be right back.

/waves

Okay @Aarthi my apologies for leaving mid-conversation like that, my CEO needed to speak with me

No, that seems like a legit reason :P

haha if I want to keep my job anyway ;-)

@Aarthi your explanation makes perfect sense.

I was a little shocked since Ben is our #2 user and has put such great effort into the site. If he was overlooked for some reason that bothered me. But, as I suspected, you had good reasons for your choices

It wasn't personal by any means. If anything, it was a vote of confidence! We like Ben and we value him -- that's why I didn't want to curtail his awesomeness with responsibilities that would take away from letting him do awesome stuff on the sites.

Great explanation @Aarthi!

My concern was only motivated by a desire to help the community's users was all :-) Hope you understand!

Nope, you were totally within the right. Feel free to link him to this conversation; he deserves to know that the offer was not extended to him for reasons that were in good faith.

That said, he is on the shortlist.

We considered him for the position!

@Aarthi great, thanks. Political issues like this can be... tricky.. to handle properly :-)

If things change, he may well find himself diamonded.

I oneboxed some of the relevant messages from this room to him

right on.

@Aarthi he also stands a great chance in the real elections, at least at this point!

jcolebrand thought your reasons were exactly as they were :-)

laughs

jco is a wise bear.

He is!

but not a pedobear :P

am i bad person for thinking pedobear is kinda cute?

like, it's aesthetically adorable

ROFLMFAO!

Maybe you should ask a Cog Sci question on that topic, lmao

i think it would get closed pretty quick :P

LOL true :-)

Well I greatly appreciate you taking the time to chat with me about this @Aarthi!

@Josh no problem! :D

it's my job, and I'm happy to spend a little time to make sure a user doesn't feel slighted.

our users are always worth my time. :)

Well thanks for all you do! :-)

Aww, thanks for being awesome.

:-D

I suppose I should just....linger until Steven comes back?

@Aarthi I guess so. He's good about @-notifications so I'd just wait for one of those

I'm working, but monitoring chat simultaneously

@Josh That's good. I mean, I picked @StevenJeuris because he was doing all the right things even though he wasn't a high-rep user.

Basically, @StevenJeuris was already doing a lot of the types of things moderators would be doing without having a diamond.

Yeah I have been very impressed with his dedication to the site. And Jeromy of course, but he's the #1 user now... so he's going to remain a user at this point I presume?

@StevenJeuris has been active on our meta, which is great

It's funny, my comparative lack of experience and lower rep have actually helped me, and I was interested in being a mod yet very concerned those two factors would be a problem, LOL

I started a chat with Robert about it before, asking him if he thought I should even volunteer because I only had 400-ish rep (at the time)

It doesn't surprise me in the least, he's extremely dedicated to this site and is basically doing mod tasks already (approving edits, acting on flags, etc)

That's a big part of it; he has also basically asked like 90% of meta questions.

He's already acting like a mod.

@Aarthi tis is true, lol, he is the most active meta user

to use an SO analogy: Ben is Jon Skeet. Jeromy is Bill the Lizard

That is a great analogy

Makes perfect sense to me anyway

:D

I wonder what @StevenJeuris is eating for dinner. Since we're on Stack Exchange I picture him eating a giant Belgian waffle ;-)

:9

yumm.

I KNEW IF I MADE STEORTYPICAL JOKES ABOUT WHERE YOU LIVE YOU'D COME BACK @Steven! ;-)

laughs

@Josh Haha! :) I had a waffle earlier today. But dinner was just a hamburger cauliflower and potatoes. :)

Yum

nice.

I've just read through the conversation history. @Aarthi, as I've pointed out in my email reply to you, I'm expecting hectic times ahead of me. I'm in my final 3 months of my thesis. Of course, I most likely won't entirely disappear from this site, but I expect to take less initiative and more a monitoring role.

@StevenJeuris From our perspective, that's fine -- you'll also have two others to rely on and cover for you

As an example, Ben could suggest moderator issues in chat, but I figured it would make more sense to give him the power to handle those issues himself directly.

if you're going to be on an extended absence, just letting us (that is the Community managers) know about it is enough. and your colleagues, of course.

@Aarthi If anything, I'll be on line more often. :O :)

@StevenJeuris Hmm.

@StevenJeuris ahahaha.

if that's your only concern, I can tell you that I don't anticipate it being an issue.

That said, whether you moderate or not is a choice you need to make, independent of Ben's feelings, imho.

Also, when do the rep requirements return to normal? I.E. Ben has the "10K tools" now, does he keep those through the end of the beta? (I've forgotten)

@Aarthi Well, my second concern is I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings. If Ben feels he's perfectly up to the job and still .... I was just typing that. You psychic?

@StevenJeuris that was my primary concern when Ben mentioned he didn't get an email, was that his feelings might be hurt

@StevenJeuris laughs

I think @Aarthi said some very complementary things, Ben should not be hurt based on this

Also, he didn't seem hurt in my conversation with him, just... confused and dissapointed? IDK, I shouldn't speak for him

@Aarthi Well I never said I wasn't interested. I love SE and helping out where I can is fun.

@StevenJeuris Certainly I'm happy to hear that. :D

@Aarthi: Out of curiosity, where did you get the % questions asked on meta metric from?

@StevenJeuris blind guessing, and total exaggeration

It wasn't meant to be literal, haha

I've seen Ben's name pop up often there as well so I would be surprised he doesn't have a 'high' percentage either.

Ah, Okay. I figured you might have had some script hidden somewhere we don't know about. :)

@Aarthi Oh I was about to guess that there was some mod tool which did that, LOL

Because I know the mod tools provide "more statistics"

Hahaha, no no. In my notes, I pointed out that Ben is basically Jeromy's other half in meta; Jeromy asks, Ben answers.

Jeromy has 25 Meta questions, Ben has 8

@Steven you have 8 questions, 12 answers on MEta. More than Ben

@Josh Surely we aren't taking 4 answers into consideration when deciding on this. :)

By that I mean, a difference of 4 answers ... just to clarify. ;p

Sorry, coworkers talking to me again, pesky work interfering with mah chats!

@StevenJeuris No, I was just giving metrics for reference

Especially with regard to " I would be surprised he doesn't have a 'high' percentage either", your percentage is technically higher. Just saying...

@Josh Haha, ... not when taking standard deviation into account. ;p

Oh you scientists and your "accuracy", pffft ;-)

....Now I'm wondering if @Josh is the right choice after all.... :P

hahaha, I kid, I kid :-)

@Josh definitely is, I figure a good balance between SE experience and subject experience is needed. So I'm all for Jeromy and Josh. I once stated in chat for some further unclarified reason that I feel we should at least have an equal balance in moderation.

Can't we just have 4 protem moderators? :)

@StevenJeuris thanks!

I'm just getting all the snarkyness out of my system now, LOL. If I am a mod I have to keep any snarkyness to MSO ;-)

laughs

@StevenJeuris Soooo can I take it that you're in? That you'd be happy to pro-tem?

I'll assuage Ben's concerns, if he has them. And hey, if the site grows, we may just need to add one more pro-tem oh darn /deadpan

I do totally see how being a mod can prevent one from asking/answering. Like, this morning I spent a majority of my time just corralling sam. Which I'm happy to do, especially on a site like this where that's a skill I can bring to the table to complement my lack of a career in teh field

I love helping people; on StackOverflow I can help best by answering questions. On CogSci I can help best by being a moderaror and helping the community that way. Conversly, Ben can help us most by asking great questions/giving great answers, and getting us more users

Does that make any sense @Steven?

@Josh It does, and @Aarthi, yes I'd be happy to. It also would allow me to get to know SE even better, which is a useful thing given that I'm not planning to leave the SE network any time soon.

@StevenJeuris \o/ sweetness.

Both of you: expect the longest email ever very soon.

in the interim: i have 8 things on my plate to handle. So, I need to skedaddle. If y'all need anything from me, just @Aarthi and I'll come swooping in.

@Aarthi Can you beat this? :)

Or, @Josh, make jco come shake me until I come in.

@Aarthi hahaha, yes, I know how to get ahold of him or Tim Stone :-)

Or Sathya

laughs

I'll keep my eyes out for the email @Aarthi and thanks again for your time!

@StevenJeuris oh my goodness. mine's much more concise, at least

@Josh anytime, like i said: it's worth my time to make sure you guys understand where I'm coming from :)

@Aarthi In that case, bring it on! :) Cya later!

/waves~!

@Aarthi mwahahahaha I love it. Awwww, ty Aarthi

@jcolebrand LOL