RPG Town Hall Chat

Brian Ballsun-Stanton

1:39 PM

Hello all.

DForck42

@BrianBallsunStanton ohla

C. Ross

@BrianBallsunStanton hello

Jadasc

@BrianBallsunStanton Morning.

DForck42

insert obligatory vote for me message

Grace Note

1:55 PM

Let's get all the pre-scripting out of the way early, shall we?

DForck42

@GraceNote ?

Grace Note

@DForck42 Technically, it's "shall I", haha

DForck42

@GraceNote ahh

Grace Note

This isn't anyone's first townhall except for @Brian and @Jadasc, correct?

TylerShads

insert obligatory @DForck42 is an amazing mod on movies.SE and you should vote for him because he'll make your site sparkle like a fantastical unicorn

Grace Note

1:57 PM

(Well, obviously, since the loty'all either attend everyone else's or had their own and that's why they're blue)

DForck42

@GraceNote my first one

@TylerShads lmao

Brian Ballsun-Stanton

What does the pre-scripting entail?

And I'm an hour early, right?

Grace Note

Correct, you're an hour early.

At the start of the actual Town Hall, I have to give a long shpiel about "Oh, this is what happens, this is what you should do". Pre-scripting is where I put all that into an easy format for me to repeat in here.

C. Ross

@GraceNote I've lost a couple, actually

Brian Ballsun-Stanton

@GraceNote Cool.

Grace Note

2:00 PM

Eheh

DForck42

@GraceNote how many of these have you done and you still don't have it scripted out? ;-)

Brian Ballsun-Stanton

In that case, brb.

Grace Note

This is the second one I've personally run, DForck

DForck42

@GraceNote i figured, i was jsut teasing you ;-)

Grace Note

Heh

DForck42

2:02 PM

which was the first one you did? please tell me it wasn't SO

Grace Note

I think it was the most recent Gaming one

Tim Stone

That sounds right.

DForck42

cool. how many candidates ran for that one?

TylerShads

THey had one that was much pro

Kalamane

This is my first townhall.

Tim Stone

2:07 PM

He didn't show up for the Town Hall though, (un)fortunately.

Grace Note

There were 12 candidates in total for the last Gaming Election, though not all of them made it

wax eagle

we've got 6/7 in here right now :)

DForck42

@waxeagle 85.7%, that's a B. High expectations asian father wouldn't be happy

TylerShads

@DForck42 Memetastic

DForck42

@TylerShads :-D

Rob

2:36 PM

No bribes or kickbacks yet, what kind of election/town hall is this?

Grace Note

One that hasn't started quite yet

We send out the message about half an hour early and for half an hour into the event, just to help spread word

C. Ross

2:49 PM

Wow observers

Brian Ballsun-Stanton

I know. Insane chat for around here.

C. Ross

I was afraid it'd be just us candidates, talking to ourselves.

Like politics ...

wax eagle

shall we roll intiative?

DForck42

d20

Dice Service

18

Brian Ballsun-Stanton

2:50 PM

1d20

13

d20

13

d20

14

2:50 PM

d20

2

1d20

2

Tied with C. Ross

Brian Ballsun-Stanton

Okay, so... looks like @DForck42 won init.

Jadasc

2:51 PM

Doesn't care for it when I do it.

Kalamane

What's your dex?

DForck42

@Kalamane 0

Jadasc

Probably about ••; my Wits is pretty high, though.

Kalamane

@DForck42 Zero?

DForck42

@Kalamane modifier of 0, so the score would be 10

Kalamane

2:53 PM

I thought you were saying a score of zero.

Grace Note

d20

Dice Service

18

Grace Note

Tied with DForck

Brian Ballsun-Stanton

Aah, grace, you're the DM. Looks like the monsters go first :)

DForck42

@Kalamane no. then i wouldn't be able to walk without falling over

Kalamane

2:54 PM

@DForck42 Exactly.

Brian Ballsun-Stanton

@DForck42 so that's what I've been doing wrong!

Grace Note

You've got 5 minutes to get your character sheets ready for today's session.

Brian Ballsun-Stanton

@GraceNote Easy enough :) ::cracks knuckles:: System?

DForck42

@BrianBallsunStanton lmao

Grace Note

...great, you tempt me to rewrite my opening words as a cliche dungeon entry description

wax eagle

2:56 PM

@GraceNote please?

Brian Ballsun-Stanton

@GraceNote then I'm doing my job. Don't forget the treasure chest and the orcs. ... Friend Computer.

Kalamane

@GraceNote I second the begging.

wax eagle

with 5 minutes looks like it'll be um...L3 dwarf warden

DForck42

can i be a L1 penguin fighter?

Rob

@BrianBallsunStanton Rolemaster ;)

Brian Ballsun-Stanton

2:59 PM

@Rob Always with the fiddly bits.

Grace Note

You have now entered the RPG Stack Exchange Town Hall Chat

6

Rob

Time to find a good heckle pew

Grace Note

In this realm, we will be learning about the candidates for the times that shall soon befall us. Your quest is to siege them with questions about their views on moderation, to aid in your selection of the right candidates.

Some advice as your steel yourselves for battle:

There is no initiative order; feel free to ask your question(s) unprompted. Do be mindful of whether or not candidates have answered previous questions - if they get bogged down, let them have some respite. Beyond that, feel free to jump in at any time.

Candidates, use the reply feature to link questions and their answers. Failure to do so may have harmful consequences. (Hover your mouse over the left of the message, click the down arrow, click reply)

When a question is asked, I will star it - please help by starring it as well. Going forward, please do not star anything other than questions, lest we lose our in this labyrinth of text.

Once this journey is completed, we will record our efforts in our Meta site as a digest version of the town hall chat. It will detail all of the questions asked, and the responses we all received

There may be reinforcements coming in with more questions, as a warning message has been posted on the main site.

A group of six enter this land, waiting for questions: @AceCalhoon, @BrianBallsun-Stanton, @CRoss, @DForck42, @Jadasc, @waxeagle

2

Let the games begin!

DForck42

"And may the odds ever be in your favor"

Brian Ballsun-Stanton

So, I've got a question for us all. One of the big problems was the "physics question" category. How would you have dealt with those slew of questions?

9

Grace Note

3:03 PM

(That's the signal that people should start asking question)

Rob

Free for all questions is it?

Brian Ballsun-Stanton

@Rob looks like

Grace Note

@Rob Yes

DForck42

@BrianBallsunStanton i'm going to need a little bit of a background on these.

Rob

My question: What do you see as the biggest problem at the moment for RPG Stack Exchange and how will you tackle/deal with it

9

Anna Lear

3:04 PM

You might want to also bold questions to make them easier to see.

Brian Ballsun-Stanton

@DForck42 Set of questions like "How far do you fly and what happens if you invert a pouch of holding underwater?"

wax eagle

@BrianBallsunStanton I was for them initially, but at this point my stance on them is similar to my stance on other setting questions. If you can relate them actual mechanics then they are ok (land speed record builds etc). But if they are just speculative, or purely joke questions they've gotta go.

Brian Ballsun-Stanton

@DForck42 With 3.5 and 4e tags that made it functionally unanswerable without huge initial sets of assumptions.

@waxeagle I'd agree there. Standing is very important to me: do you have a real reason to be asking this question.

AceCalhoon

@BrianBallsunStanton "Real world stuff" seems to be where things get trickiest. They're best when they are tied to a concrete scenario.

C. Ross

@BrianBallsunStanton If the question is essentially "solve a physics problem in RPG trappings" it's off topic, and should be closed as such, deleted if necessary. If the question is "How do I model X aspect of reality in Y game", that's ok, and probably just needs a little comment nudge to keep it focused and on topic.

wax eagle

3:06 PM

@Rob how we deal with campaign research and system recommendation questions. I think we need to renew some meta discussion on campaign research specifically. (I've got a post floating in my head, but haven't put it down to screen yet)

Brian Ballsun-Stanton

@Rob The huge numbers of edge-case games. Part of the way I'm solving the problem is making sure we're actually running games (and a high proportion of indie games too) to build expertise and attract non-mainstream gamers. Functionally, we need to make sure to not be "all D&D all the time." and the best way to do that is to have activities that appeal to those players to attract experts to generate and answer questions with real standing.

wax eagle

@Rob Also the fact that we didn't get a Lawful Evil moderator candidate.

AceCalhoon

@Rob Finding ways to get people to explain the context of their problems, rather than having them try to "purify" the questions into blandness.

DForck42

@Rob going through the review queue, one major thing that i've noticed is a tendacy towards keeping shorter answers, even awarding them as the accepted answer, even if there's very little context to the answer itself. My solution would be to encourage the community to encourge more detailed answers, such as many that @brian-ballsunstanton usually provides

Brian Ballsun-Stanton

@DForck42 I agree. Short answers, especially ones that aren't grounded in the literature, aren't particularly useful. Comments (and the occasional downvote) are a great way to motivate people to cite.

C. Ross

3:08 PM

@Rob Bringing in new users in a friendly and productive way. We're starting to be a little bit known, but there's a big difference between being a positive contributor here and on your generic RPG forum. We need to welcome new users actively, and gently point them to the FAQ and good examples. We need to close/delete bad examples when encouraging the user to change doesn't help. We can't turn away new users, and we can't allow new users to change what makes the site work.

Tim Stone

Two highly respected members of the community get in a comment war on a question. They both flag each other's comments and are cussing and it is clear that this is beyond a heated argument. What do you do, what don't you do?

7

DForck42

@BrianBallsunStanton I agree with Brian's answer, if they're practical and actually serve a purpose, keep them. The rest is junk and too localized.

Grace Note

How would you deal with a user who produced a steady stream of valuable answers, but tends to generate a large number of arguments/flags from comments?

7

AceCalhoon

@TimStone At that point, winnow the comments, and ask them to knock it off.

wax eagle

@TimStone I'd nuke the comments, lock the question, then try to snag them both into individual private chats, failing that probably a very polite mod message with a 24 hour cool down attached.

Brian Ballsun-Stanton

3:10 PM

@TimStone Good question. Lock down comments and bring them both to a (probably private) chat. This is something that needs moderation and cooling down. By changing the situation and being able to have people state grievances, it takes the problem outside the public eye. If that persisted, I would impose cooling off periods (equitable) for both of them, with an attempt to have dialogue in the venues that were still open. Engaging in their comment stream beyond a simple...

C. Ross

@TimStone Do: Delete comments, protect contentious posts. Talk to both of them about it, and suspend if necessary. Don't Take sides, or give the appearance there of. Don't suspend people out of hand.

Brian Ballsun-Stanton

@TimStone "Let's take this to chat." or "We're getting off topic." only adds to the problem.

Rob

(As a side note I think a starred link to the voting forum would be good so people can see the candidates pitches easily)

DForck42

@TimStone i wouldn't jump into the argument for either side. I would comment that both need to take their argument to chat, then clear the comments. If they both get too heated and start to actually take it out on eachother (downvoting, etc.) then they'll both get suspended (probably for a day).

Brian Ballsun-Stanton

@GraceNote Valuable is a function of acceptance by the community. The best recent edge-case of that was the rash of backticking proper nouns. While the highlighting is somewhat useful, the edit-spam and the... "let's code-indicate everything" eventually caused me as normal user to comment with a "hey, can you only format according to our recent meta discussion?"

Grace Note

3:12 PM

@Rob rpg.stackexchange.com/election/1?tab=nomination

Jadasc

@BrianBallsunStanton I'm in favor of allowing them to remain open, so long as the question has applicability to more than one game and it doesn't seem like they're simply thought-experiments or "whittling."

F. Randall Farmer

In order for any online community to thrive, it must grow, which means retaining new users. As a moderator, you play a huge role in converting a first-time contributor into a recurring one. What actions will you take to nurture our new users?

9

C. Ross

@GraceNote Delete the comments. Send them a message stating what the problem is, while recognizing their contributions. Make a point to upvote their valuable, non-flamy comments.

Kalamane

@DForck42 You were a mod on Literature.Stackexchange which failed. What did you learn from this that you can apply to this site? This applies to other candidates that have had similar situations.

8

wax eagle

@GraceNote Figure out what the problem is and ask them to address that part of their posts. Either in the comments or in chat. Failing either of those two a message outlining what I think is the problem

Grace Note

3:14 PM

(Yes, it is permissible to ask questions directed as a specific candidate or a specific subset of candidates - other candidates do not need to answer these)

DForck42

@Kalamane the first thing that i leanred is that, there has to be community involvement with the site when making decisions. part of the issue we had was that we couldn't get anyone interested in the meta discussions after the first couple of months. the second thing i learned is that the fun questions (the one's that arent' very deep) are good to attract traffic, but you have to have deeper questions to keep most of yoru traffic

Brian Ballsun-Stanton

@FRandallFarmer Immediate positive and negative feedback. Beyond voting, comments are a great way to shape behaviour. An "attaboy" comment immediately after a good first post links the validation of the comment and the rep with the quality of the post. Just like in education, reward the actions you like, punish the actions you dislike. Comments are one of the best ways to do that. Beyond that, expanding the reach of the site through recommendations in appropriate venues and game stores is a job ..

@FRandallFarmer for all users

C. Ross

@FRandallFarmer Get a welcome in as early as possible, and try to point them to the FAQ and good examples. It's important with new users to give positive re-inforcement for things that are even basically good (upvotes, positive comments). You have to make clear the rules early, or set the site up for a more painful breakup later.

wax eagle

@FRandallFarmer I think an initial welcome comment is key, even if that comment isn't exactly positive towards their question and is accompanied by a down or close vote, a friendly welcoming "hey this is why this is good" or "hi, this is why this is bad" is key.

AceCalhoon

@FRandallFarmer This is one I've not entirely figured out. My main response at the moment: 1. Communicate as much as possible (whys, specifically, especially if a close or clarification is needed); 2. Go the extra mile to make their posts shine; 3. Weight upvoting a bit higher for new users.

DForck42

3:15 PM

@GraceNote talk with them personally about what's going on by trying to get them into chat.

C. Ross

@FRandallFarmer Also in the past, we've had some success inviting people who make it to 20 rep, but are confused to chat to talk about it. It tends to give people a better view, and a quicker intro into the culture. We should probably bring that back.

wax eagle

@Kalamane I'm a mod on Chrisianity stackexchange, and we had a huge turnout initially with some serious quality issues, however the way we handled it knocked our traffic off rather dramatically. One of the things I learned through that was that you have to address major site issues carefully and effectively.

Tim Stone

When you see a question with major issues (poorly-written, argumentative, etc.), what tool do you reach for first?

7

Brian Ballsun-Stanton

@CRoss I agree with this. The use of chat as a behavour shaping tool is excellent.

C. Ross

@TimStone Comment, followed by close.

Brian Ballsun-Stanton

3:18 PM

@TimStone Major issues is defined as "I can't edit this into shape." So therefore the comment function. I tend to request for clairification often, especially when the requirements are unclear. We should have a discussion on meta, however, about preemptive closing to avoid getting bad-answers that then lock the question into a bad form.

AceCalhoon

@TimStone Edit if reasonably possible (usually for quality), comment, then close.

wax eagle

@TimStone This is a tough one. Major issues are a comment followed by a close. If the issue is easily fixed then I might edit instead of closing, but mostly the user needs to come back and learn from their mistake so closing is the right call

C. Ross

@TimStone The corollary to this is often when the mods see it, one of the site grognards has already left a great constructive comment, and we don't need to pile on.

F. Randall Farmer

Jeff Atwood, co-creator of Stack Exchange, suggested that this platform isn't a perfect fit for all communities. Personally, I see some clear differences between this community and the IT-related communities, such as Stack Overflow. What differences do you see and how would you work to adapt our policies (and possibly suggest technology improvements?) to improve the "fit"?

7

Rob

How often do you expect to be able to do moderation stuff for RPG Stack Exchange?

6

Brian Ballsun-Stanton

3:19 PM

@Rob Functionally every day. I find that this site provides significant validation for myself, and therefore I'm engaged every day.

C. Ross

@Rob At least half an hour a day. Some days obviously a bit more.

wax eagle

@Rob nearly every day. I'm in front of a computer 9/10 work days and often on weekends

Jadasc

@TimStone If argumentative, the comment button; if poorly written, the edit.

AceCalhoon

@Rob It's in the background most of the day during the week. I check in a couple times on the weekends (when it isn't as busy anyway)

Eight Days of Malaise

@TimStone Would go for an edit at first attempt. If that's still a mess, close as NARQ and leave a comment after. Also mention that it's not the end of the world if they can improve the question

DForck42

3:19 PM

@FRandallFarmer one of the big issues with retaining new users is that, their first question or two usually sucks, or iust off-topic for the site. just closing their question saying "blargh this doesn't belong here!" will immediately upset them. what i liek to do is to take a personal approach, being nice and saying that i regretfully have to close their question (and i honestly do hate doing it), but i also give them guidelines on what to do and where the resources are.

i also encourge them to visit our meta if they don't understand why their question was closed

Brian Ballsun-Stanton

@FRandallFarmer As a tech improvement, getting a gaming venue more integrated will help build an active chat community. (though this is something that's solvable with various other apps out there, it means that people aren't on the site gaming.) One of the best ways to generate questions is to have active-games with a mindset towards question asking. As a policy improvement? We've actually had great success with the good-subjective/bad-subjective policies from parenting. It helps us to define...

@FRandallFarmer what gives a question standing.

wax eagle

@FRandallFarmer Every community is different, and the stack model isn't right for everyone. But at the same time we've adapted it to our community fairly well. It works exceptionally well for rules question. Less well for sys-rec/DM advice questions. But with the Good Subjective/Bad Subjective criteria that have come out thanks to sites like programmers, it's much easier to run a more subjective site like this

Aarthi

@waxeagle you are already moderator of two other, growing sites on the Stack Exchange network: Gardening and Christianity. Why do you believe adding a third, RPG, will not be overburdening yourself?

8

DForck42

@TimStone if it's poorly written, i'll just edit it to clean it up. if it's argumentative, i'll usualyl close the question (and edit it if necessary) saying why it was closed.

casperOne

@Aarthi Could you indicate which two sites? It will help for the transcript, probably.

C. Ross

3:22 PM

@FRandallFarmer It definitely isn't a perfect fit for every community, but I think one of the main advantages of RPG.SE is the blending of the RPG community and the SE community, it provides a community with the wit of the RPG community, but is results and format oriented like the SE community. As far as tech improvements, the biggest thing I'd like to see is more flare like gaming has. RP'ers are big on our achievements, and I can see some of the Gaming contests going over well here.

Aarthi

@casperOne done.

Tim Stone

Do you feel like a representative percentage of the community participates in your site's meta? Based on that, how strongly do you think feedback presented on meta should factor into your decision making as a moderator?

7

wax eagle

@Aarthi Great question. Does the answer "anything ChrisF can do I can do" work? ;). Seriously though the moderation load on Gardening is fairly light, and while C.SE is heavier it's not overwhelming. I'm already on RPG more than the other two sites I moderate so I don't see a disconnect here

DForck42

@FRandallFarmer the first major difference that i've seen is that a lot of RPG users are very chatty. that's to be expected since you ahve to talk to explain all of your actions in your game. Honestly to help cut down the chatter I thinkwe need to push more users to chat.

AceCalhoon

@TimStone Meta is visited dramatically less than the main site. What's really important about meta is that it gives people a place to articulate their sites, and make a case for or against something.

Brian Ballsun-Stanton

3:23 PM

@TimStone No, but it's the closest thing that we have to a policy consensus. If there is an answer with ten or more upvotes with few competing answers, I like to take it as "policy until future discussion."

Kalamane

What will you do when you come across a question that has been edited to ask something completely different than the answers are answering?

3

Eight Days of Malaise

@FRandallFarmer They're not really that different if you look at it from the angle of getting direct answers to questions. The main difference in the social aspect of other communities mean softer questions/discussions tend to creep in a little more with the thinking they're okay. Wouldn't really change anything other than to keep vigilante and suggest chat when such questions try to breach the walls

casperOne

One of the things that moderators on smaller SE 2.0 sites play a key role in that moderators on larger sites don't is promotion. With RPG being classified as one of the "smaller" sites, how do you envision your role in growing the site, and what are your current specific strategies, if any?

4

AceCalhoon

@TimStone When I participate in Meta I pay much less attention to the votes (because a "huge difference" is, like, ten people) and much more to the arguments presented.

DForck42

@Rob i usually spend about 2-3 hours on movies a day. if i start covering rpg it'll probably be about 2 hours for movies and about 3-4 hours for rpg (depending on how things are going)

Brian Ballsun-Stanton

3:24 PM

@Kalamane Revert, comment, and ask the poster to post the edit in a new question.

Rob

casper got to my question 2 seconds before me :)

wax eagle

@TimStone meta participation (like on many SE 2.0 sites) is not as good as we'd like it. However it's the only place we have for deciding site policy. If people don't like it they need to come to meta and participate. One of my goals will be driving more meta participation.

DForck42

@Kalamane revert. if the asker changed the question, prompt them to ask their new question as a seperate question.

C. Ross

@TimStone No, but close enough. Still, this is not a pure democracy. I think the history of Gaming.SE shows that you can't govern based on whatever happens on meta. I also think we have seen RPG.SE's culture change from the early days, and not every two year old post on meta is an indicator of current state.

Brian Ballsun-Stanton

@casperOne I'm already running weekly games. Getting what amounts to a constantcon for us would be a fantastic win in terms of a question generating resource. I'm also asking game-authors of indie games when questions explicity concern their games. We've had good success with Vincent Baker answering questions with dogs in the vineyard, and the various references to blogs I've posted seem to reflect question-visiting rates.

Eight Days of Malaise

3:26 PM

@Kalamane Revert, fix up any lingering typos, leave a comment about how to ask a new/followup question and lock for a day

DForck42

@casperOne Asking questions, especially for the lesser covered questions. That's the easiest way to cover our search engine footprint. I've also been promotoing the site amongst friends. I've actualyl gottena couple of them to join the site, even if they aren't very active.

wax eagle

@Kalamane . I think the question that must be asked is "do the answers hold any value" if they do then attempting to return to the original question is the right thing to do. If they don't then either closing and asking the Op to start over or removing the answers and starting with a clean slate is the right thing to do

C. Ross

@Kalamane There's a fine line there. Sometimes the "new question" is the one the poster obviously intended to ask all along, and the answerers are confused. In that case comment on the answers to encourage them to get in line, downvoting if necessary. In teh other case it's a new question b/c they thought of an additional one. I would encourage them to post it separately, reminding them they can get more rep for it ;-).

AceCalhoon

@casperOne I'm not that great of a promoter, unfortunately! :) Mostly, I just try to participate and set a good example.

wax eagle

@casperOne I see the role of moderators in this as both instigators and facilitators. On gardening right now We are working on an anniversary contest, one of our moderators instigated that and is following up on it. On C.SE however one of our users really wanted to get a blog kicked off, I'm currently facilitating that by writing the monthly topic posts and helping with scheduling etc.

Brian Ballsun-Stanton

3:29 PM

@casperOne However, that kind of infrastructure (for constantly running games) would take some involvement in other platforms and active solicitation of integration. Still, that solicitation of tools will, itself, lead to more interaction.

AceCalhoon

@Kalamane I think one of the purposes of closing questions early is to prevent this (although communicating that is a challenge). As C.Ross noted, if the "new question" is a refinement, poke the existing answers for an update. If it's a secondary question, encourage splitting it into a new question.

C. Ross

@casperOne I'm one of the more active promoters of the site (see my badges). I've had the most success by sharing some of the great link-bait question the site has. I would continue to do this, and attempt to organize this activity as well. I also think it's well past time that we move some of our promotion out into meatspace, but that needs some more details worked out. The important thing is to keep people positive and motivated, and have fun with it.

Brian Ballsun-Stanton

@casperOne In an academic sense, I'm using the site to provide research material for myself (thereby promoting it among academics) and plan to make a book on the philosophy of rpgs from my answers on this site.

F. Randall Farmer

"-1 votes" are anonymous and discourage new users. Agree/Disagree? If you agree, what would you counteract/fix this?

7

Grace Note

We're halfway through this realm. Make sure to doublecheck if you missed any questions from earlier.

Brian Ballsun-Stanton

3:31 PM

@FRandallFarmer They certainly discourage me. But a good comment of what's wrong or a positive comment and upvote can help mitigate the problem.

DForck42

@casperOne also on this point, we're running a topic of the week event on movies to encourge users to ask questions about either current topics, or to help fill in some of the holes the site has. right now it's mostly run by us mods, but it's open for anyone to provide input. it's too early to tell if it's had a positive effect, but i think it has

Rob

As a moderator what do you consider your special attack and special weakness, so to speak; how do you counter the latter?

6

AceCalhoon

@FRandallFarmer Yeah, I'd say a -1 discourages anyone. I do my best to explain downvotes (even if they aren't mine) if I can and encourage the user to edit their post.

wax eagle

@FRandallFarmer I agree wholeheartedly that we should protect the anonymity of the voting system. However, I almost always leave a comment when I downvote (unless there is already a negative comment I agree with). It can be hard for a new user (which is why usually for a new user I'm more likely to flag and answer/cast a close vote)

Jadasc

@Rob Right now, the biggest problems for RPG.StackExchange are the perceptions that it's not open to new members or new players and that it's actually the D&D Stack in disguise. The first part is covered by a later question; the second, I think, can be handled with active curation of other games by interested posters.

Brian Ballsun-Stanton

3:32 PM

@Rob Special Attack: wall of academic text. I can generally cite at whatever depth of recursion necessary to provide necessary argumentation. Special Weakness: People who don't care. If there are people who don't respond well to reasoned-arguments or discussion... I don't really like bringing down punative measures save in extremis.

C. Ross

@FRandallFarmer They are anonymous and can discourage a new user. They can also help tweak the behavior of experienced users. As already discussed, we need to be leaving active feedback on new users posts, explaining what they're doing for good or ill. I do not see any reason to make downvotes not anonymous.

AceCalhoon

@Rob Special attack: blather; Special weakness: borderline posts. I try to counteract that weakness by talking through the issues.

DForck42

@FRandallFarmer drive-by downvotes are discouring to almost everyone. but, a couple of upvotes vastly outweight a single downvote. i like to get people to upvote good questions. if people are voting on good questions, and that question is indeed a good one, then the new user shouldn't be as discouraged. also, comments to help the user make their question better are also good.

Tim Stone

(related to casperOne's earlier question) Your site has relatively low traffic compared to most other graduated sites on the network, though it also has an excellent answered rate. In light of this, do you feel like your site is experiencing any growing pains, and is there any aspect of how the site is currently run that you feel negatively impacts continued growth?

6

C. Ross

@Rob Special attack: "Calm down guys", helping bring a situation under control. Special weakness: questioner. I'm personally heavier in the questions than I am in the answers, and this sometimes creates a weird dynamic as moderator.

wax eagle

3:34 PM

@Rob special weakness: over aggressive closer. Something I'm working on here as a normal user, and I regularly think twice about when I'm running around with a diamond. Special attack: trolls bane flame strike - Moderating C.se I've become adept at dealing with trolls.

DForck42

@Rob i think my special attack is my editing abilities. my weakness is indecisiveness on closing some questions. i counter this by talkign with fellow mods to get opinions (that's why my trouble is devil's advocate)

Brian Ballsun-Stanton

@TimStone Growing pains? Not really. We're niche. Our questions cover products with a very long release cycle. This is something that we've learned to deal with. Dealing with D&D next will prove to be a very interesting time, especially considering their modularity. I see nothing wrong with how the site is currently run.

AceCalhoon

@TimStone I think most of the negative light on the community right now is the echo of past growing pains. I think right now we're in a very good place, with some room for improvement (mostly in terms of communication). We do show steady growth, just not in terms of massive spikes.

Jadasc

@FRandallFarmer I agree in part; I think it's important to separate "this is a bad answer" from "this is a bad answerer." (And, also, "a bad answer" from "a wrong answer.") I try not to downvote answers from new posters into the negatives; I also ask leading constructive questions in the comments to help steer the question in a better direction.

wax eagle

@TimStone I think the SE learning curve might be the only growing pain we really have. Our recent promotion with Obsidian Portal brought us a wealth of new users. But most RPG types are very used to the forum model and have to be indoctrinated into the SE way of doing things. This was rather evident with teh new users who came in from OP

Jadasc

3:36 PM

@Kalamane If possible, edit the question to include the original request. Otherwise, revert with commentary.

DForck42

@waxeagle agreed

@Jadasc agree with this as well

C. Ross

@TimStone Growing pains? Not really. how the site is currently run: We've been in an awkward space for a while with many moderators, of varying styles and levels of commitment, some new, some old. I think the election will firm that up, and help us get on the same page with a new staff all dedicated and engaged.

wraith808

My first time in chat... so I'll try not to bollix this up too much.

C. Ross

@wraith808 well, welcome, and you can edit a post if you need to (I often do)

Brian Ballsun-Stanton

@wraith808 Welcome! (And stop by our main room sometime. We need more blood)

@CRoss +1

F. Randall Farmer

3:39 PM

Point of order: How many moderators do we get to vote for?

wax eagle

@FRandallFarmer 3

wraith808

It seems that there is a focus on reputation not equivalent to it's true function related to the community rather than the individual. How will you emphasize the community aspect as opposed to the individual aspect- or do you see that as a problem?

6

DForck42

@FRandallFarmer three

@FRandallFarmer you select your first, second, and third picks

Brian Ballsun-Stanton

@wraith808 Could you unpack that, wraith? I'm not quite sure what you're asking.

Jadasc

@FRandallFarmer Positive reinforcement through comments. Asking leading questions to help improve imperfect but solid answers.

wax eagle

3:41 PM

@wraith808 I don't see these as competing interests most of the time. Gaining reputation can only be done through posting content. This is a positive feedback loop. You post good content, the community benefits and rewards you, making you want to post more good content and improve the community.

Kalamane

What would you do if you had real life circumstances prevent you from accessing the site for any extended period of time? (Say, over a week)

5

Brian Ballsun-Stanton

@wraith808 Reputation is a function of community acceptance and trust of your answers. It has a personal validation function (as @waxeagle pointed out) and a community-measurment function. From a game-theoretic behaviour modification point of view, I see absolutely nothing wrong with it.

Jadasc

@wraith808 I don't see it as a problem. We are a community of people with diverse interests — which means that, often, we don't have the ability to measure the value of a given person's contribution to the group as a whole. Instead, we trust that highly reputed individuals are qualified and generous in their areas of expertise, and generalize from there.

Brian Ballsun-Stanton

@Kalamane Notify my fellow mods and try to hop on with my phone when and if I can.

Jadasc

@Kalamane As with @Kalamane, although I'd be happy to appoint a deputy to serve in my stead, if that were legal.

wax eagle

3:43 PM

@Kalamane a quick note in the TL and (do mods have a private room here? if not hten main chat) a mod room here letting mods know of my absence.

C. Ross

@wraith808 I've not seen that as a particular problem. I see problems with community stemming from the clash of our two community sources, and the usual flaming that goes on in forums (You're playing the game wrong man, you're ruining my life!). The clash of the community sources happens when we have people with RPG forum experience and SE experience disagreeing on usage.

DForck42

@Kalamane same as @BrianBallsunStanton, let my fellow mods know what's going on, usually with some time before i will be gone.

AceCalhoon

@Kalamane Notify other mods that I'm away, check in when I can.

Brian Ballsun-Stanton

@DForck42 Just to amplify that. Consistency and communication are critical to both alliteration and good governance. Having protocols in place and back-channel communication methods for the mods, as well as a common understanding of what the issues of the day are makes for individual mod "absence" unnoticeable or less problematic.

wax eagle

@BrianBallsunStanton double alliteration score :P

C. Ross

3:45 PM

@wraith808 Rep is there to help us improve content. We have to work to improve community in the usual ways (working together, sharing, communication, etc).

DForck42

@BrianBallsunStanton mmhmm, completely agree. if the mods aren't talking... then we've got problems. that's part of what happened on literature, us mods never talked with eachother, but not from lack of me trying.

Kalamane

@DForck42 The avatars of @CRoss, @BrianBallsunStanton, and @waxeagle all show men with nice beards. Do you have a beard, and if not - if elected will you grow one?

4

Grace Note

We draw near the close of this ceremony. Again, double-check the starred list and ensure that you haven't missed any questions.

Brian Ballsun-Stanton

@DForck42 Above all else, mods must have mental prediction models of the others' behavour in their heads, so that we don't get one mod just reversing another mod's decisions in public without a very clear and important reason.

@Kalamane Yes, yes I do. And it's now less... gorse brushy. The ability to clean pots with my beard is not necessarily a feature.

wax eagle

Please describe your moderation style in a rpg game mechanical term

7

DForck42

3:47 PM

@Kalamane the reputation is a system that allows users to express what content they approve of and disapprove of. it also shows which users are providing valuable content to the site. i honestly think the rep systems works as it should. are there bugs? sure, but for the most part it works.

F. Randall Farmer

... stepping out ... I quietly thank the candidates for their courage, commitment, and desire to do this important community service for us...

Rob

+1 @waxeagle

DForck42

@BrianBallsunStanton yup. if i see something a mod did and don't agree, i'll usually hash it out with them first becasue maybe i'm wrong?

@FRandallFarmer thank you!

C. Ross

@waxeagle I'm a 20th level Cleric with the Law and Community domains. Happy?

Brian Ballsun-Stanton

@waxeagle I'm a gamist/narrativist DM. I believe the rules exist to provide structure and inspiration. The rules should never be ignored on the spur of the moment, because that weakens the ability of players to function within the world by imagining future outcomes. At the same time, as a pragmatist, use the right system/tool for the job. There is no one "holy" system above all others. From an in-game PoV, I'm a highly pre-constructed character designed to meet specific goals.

wax eagle

3:48 PM

@CRoss perfecto :)

Jadasc

@Rob Special Attack: Subtle Cut. Weakness: Soft-Hearted. (I ameliorate that through conferring with colleagues to see whether the harder approach is warranted.)

Rob

Also +1 @Kalamane

Jadasc

@waxeagle Conditioning (Dominate ••••)

Brian Ballsun-Stanton

@FRandallFarmer My pleasure, mate.

Grace Note

Final thoughts from our brave candidate party?

4

wraith808

3:50 PM

The function of .SE sites tends not to foster community in a lot of cases because of the focus on answer the questions, rather than learning about each other through conversation. Someone asked earlier about promotion- but do you have any specific ideas in terms of helping to build the community around RPG.SE?

4

C. Ross

@Jadasc awesome

DForck42

@waxeagle chaotic good. the rules are there to give us reference points, but they're not perfect and cover every aspect of life, so we have to make judgement calls to promote the greater good. also, consistancy is key.

Brian Ballsun-Stanton

@waxeagle Best to describe me as a Bonisagus Trianormii with a specialization in Intellego and Mentem.

wax eagle

@waxeagle I'm a fighter. I lead when I have to, but prefer to be on the front lines dealing with things myself. I value rule of law, but try to be mindful that sometimes you have to throw the rule book out the window and just hit things with a sword.

C. Ross

@GraceNote I'm very pleased with everyone who is running. Best of luck to everyone, and thanks to everyone for the great experience so far!

Brian Ballsun-Stanton

3:51 PM

@GraceNote Thanks for hosting this chat, oh brave DM. Also, drop by my game sometime, we need more people :)

@wraith808 Running games and making sure chat is a good and welcoming place.

C. Ross

@wraith808 Chat!

AceCalhoon

@waxeagle Mystic Theurge. All ways of doing things are interesting.

Jadasc

@casperOne I believe that moderators can play a role in growing the site through curation of tags — expanding the scope and breadth of the knowledge available. The recent blog post on self-answering offers some cues in how this can work.

@GraceNote I'm pleased and privileged to have undergone this ritual. I feel like I've learned a lot today.

Rob

Noone described themselves as a kobold, always a good sign

Brian Ballsun-Stanton

@Rob Eep! ::shifts::

wax eagle

3:52 PM

@wraith808 I think regular gaming either in chat, on vid conf and others is a good way to foster that community. SE doesn't do "community" all that well, but it can through chat. More chat participation can help with that feeling of community

Jadasc

@Kalamane I do not have a beard, or plans to grow one. However, I believe the length of my head-hair more than makes up for this deficiency.

Brian Ballsun-Stanton

@waxeagle To ampilfy, mods should always be available in chats for informal questions and concerns that may not merit a meta post.

wax eagle

@BrianBallsunStanton yes

Kalamane

@Jadasc As Weird Al has proven, this is an acceptable exchange.

wax eagle

@GraceNote Very excited to see who wins.

C. Ross

3:55 PM

@Jadasc +1

wraith808

Thanks to all of the candidates and your interest and help in RPG.SE, no matter who wins!

Rob

+1 @wraith808 We've got a great set of candidates

DForck42

@wraith808 :-D

Rob

Damn, forgot my bribery question ;)

Brian Ballsun-Stanton

@wraith808 Excellent, my bluff check was high enough. ::rubs hands... goodly::

@Rob You still have 2 minutes.

C. Ross

3:58 PM

@Rob /kick

wait, wrong syntax ...

Rob

What is your preferred bribery currency/medium/foodstuff?

Brian Ballsun-Stanton

@Rob Coffee.

wax eagle

@those of you who aren't current moderators. Becoming a moderator means you have chat mod powers across all SE chatrooms. Will you use this power for good or ill?

3

Jadasc

@BrianBallsunStanton +1. We should have a kaffeklatch or something.

Brian Ballsun-Stanton

@Jadasc You near rochester? Let's take this over into main chat.

@waxeagle For good, of course. Just like my alignment.

Kalamane

4:00 PM

Buzzer Sound!

Grace Note

Time ticks on forwards, and so our quest comes to a close. As mentioned, the proceedings from this journey should turn up in a dedicated digest Meta post sometime in the near future. Keep yourself alert for its arrival. Candidates are free to continue any answers which were not yet finished.

Most of all, good luck to all of the candidate party! Let's have ourselves a great experience this election!

C. Ross

@Rob pizza will work just fine.

Grace Note

(For @mxyzplk - feel free when you get a chance to scour the stars in the transcript and answer the questions denoted. Remember, use explicit replies in the process.)

DForck42

4:16 PM

vote for me!

:-D

Kalamane

@DForck42 Okay. :) Since you're the only one that asked.

DForck42

@Kalamane :-D

mxyzplk

11:46 PM

@GraceNote Can do. Yeah, work didn't allow for chatting this morning.

@BrianBallsunStanton Generally agree with @CRoss' answer - physics for the sake of physics or as a joke or an intellectual exercise is off topic. I was strongly for closing the goblin-bag of holding question for example, despite later protestations of "well it could happen...". Relevant to real gameplay is fine.

@Rob Attracting new users and not scaring them off. Our stats aren't all that good and aren't growing consistently, which means we are not attracting and keeping people effectively. I think reaching out to game stores, advertising on gaming sites and gaming con bulletins will help get eyes and then balancing enough moderation to not have total junk with being friendly enough that a new guy doesn't ask an honest question and get mod-closed in 30 seconds and driven off will keep them.

@TimStone Delete comments, lock the question temporarily, try to get them into chat. Most folks cool down when the comments start disappearing and further intervention is seldom needed.

@GraceNote Start by pruning comments and posting the standard "this isn't a discussion forum, comments are for clarifying answers only, please post your own answer and let voting work if you have a strong opinion" verbiage. If it persists, send them a mod message explaining the problem.

@FRandallFarmer As mentioned in my previous answer I think this is the #1 issue for our SE. I make it a goal to spend as much time constructively improving questions as I do closing them/arguing about whether they should be closed. I also wait for community close votes before mod-closing (except in egregious cases). Being welcoming - not just by saying "hi" but by shepherding questions and answers short of closing and deleting - is the way to do this IMO.

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