Before we begin, I have a big opening text. Please withhold all of your commentary and questions until after I clear through it all.
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, be sure to 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)
It's a good idea to bold your questions (use ** or __ around it) to make them easier to see. 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.
@TimStone 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 if they're around.
We have both of our candidates here today: @ElendilTheTall and @Jefromi
So, without further ado, let me start. And as a note, I can't star my own stuff so my questions won't be starred until someone does it.
@GraceNote I think the best quick summary is doing the few cleanup-type things that can't be accomplished entirely by the community. All the various voting mechanisms (and even potentially flagging) can handle most things, but there are bits and pieces that can't really get done that way for various reasons.
Sometimes obscure questions can't accumulate community close votes fast enough, it'd be tricky to allow comment deletion by non-mods (especially deletion of connected groups of comments), and so on.
@GraceNote In terms of Seasoned advice - as little as possible. I find the community-led nature of SE, coupled with a core of regulars who take a real interest in the quality of the site, tends to mean Seasoned Advice is almost self moderating. However, there is obviously a need for a few (hopefully) trusted and willing users who are responsible for overseeing those efforts and setting an example for newer users - the mods
Along with that, sometimes it's helpful to have a more canonical response, like when questions are closed and there's a lot of discussion in the comments muddling things up.
@Mien Well, I don't know Jefromi all that well, so I can't list his faults (though they are no doubt few and trivial), so I will simply say that I am around a lot, I have been an active user for 2 years, I like to think I know the site and its regulars (Belgian or otherwise), and I'd like to help out.
@Mien I'm going to have to answer along the same lines as Elendil here: I think he's a great candidate. In terms of differences that I'm aware of, I think I may have a tendency to be slightly more outspoken, and would be in chat less often, but I don't know if those are reasons to pick one or the other of us.
@GraceNote For practical reasons, I think it may just be the culling of the really bad stuff, be it spam, offensive, or just wildly off-topic, however rare it may be. A lot of that can be on posts that a lot of users are seeing (new or popular questions), so it can look really bad for the site, while at the same being slow or impossible for normal users to remove. A lot of the other jobs are important too, but this one strikes me as less replaceable.
@GraceNote I would say the most important mod job is also the most common one - checking every flag that pops up and dealing with it appropriately, whether that's duplicates, off-topic posts or spam.
@GraceNote I'd hardly call it low - it obviously doesn't look anything like StackOverflow, but we've got a decent amount going on. I do think the present mods have things pretty well in hand, nonetheless; they're all great. The biggest thing I can do that other mods can't, honestly, is practical: I'm in Pacific time (UTC-8) so I'm often around later than any of them, and could deal with a few things that would otherwise wait til the next day.
And of course, it's always nice to let mods who've been doing this a long time take it a little easier if they'd like, and pick up some of the slack.
@GraceNote I think that's perhaps more a question for SEHQ than the candidates, but I guess it's a matter of redundancy and 'keeping things fresh'. Users come and go, and the time they dedicate to a site varies for various reasons, and that includes mods. So it's good to have some backup. Many hands make light work. Also, I'm not entirely sure that the activity on SA is all that low, it's just a fairly civilised, well moderated site.
@GraceNote Well, given that our tasks would be identical, I'm not sure I'd bring anything majorly different per se. I am a fairly active chatter, especially in UST daytime, so I am generally around to be called upon if necessary.
@rumtscho Firstly, I would consult with my fellow (more experienced) moderators to see if they agree with my deletion. If they do, then I would reply to the accuser in a professional manner stating clearly and politely the reasons for the deletion. If it was decided the deletion was unreasonable, I would stand corrected and reverse it.
I suppose while size is fresh on the mind, What can be done to bring more people to the community? Do you feel that's part of your responsibility as a moderator?
@rumtscho It depends a bit on the circumstances. If we're talking about a really obvious case, like spam by a new user, then there's not much to do besides a straight-up explanation of our policies.
But I suppose the most likely people to complain on meta are people who've been around for at least a bit, so I'd have to go back and make sure I did the right thing (asking others if necessary) and then write as polite as possible of a reply, with references to faq or other meta posts to avoid excessive discussion. If appropriate, I'd also include some reasonably summary of the content that was deleted, so that the community can see what happened and voice their opinion by voting.
@GraceNote The main thing that anyone, not just mods, can do to grow the community might be better described as turning one-time users into members of the community, rather than just anonymously posting or even just reading. There's a lot that contributes to this: having lots of high-quality content, responding in a friendly way (to bad questions as well as good), having interesting questions that people will want to answer, and so on.
A mod can generally contribute to this in all the same ways that a normal user can, and I already try to do what I can in this department, so I'd naturally continue. But I don't think there's necessarily much of a special role/responsibility here, beyond obviously that mods should set a good example, doing the kinds of things hopefully many others do as well.
Imagine that you have a user who contributes valuable information (his/her answers are very good, in-depth, get high upvotes) but is also disruptive to the site, picking up flags for rudeness, starting flaming discussions, etc. What is your reaction?
Perhaps the most critical place to set a good example is in responding to bad posts; that's the place where the community can normally get the least friendly.
@GraceNote To answer this in reverse, I think any user who is active in the site and enjoys using it should try and spread the word, on and offline, if they can. I would like to see more networking being done with other, relevant sites to drive users our way. Photography, for example, has links with Gawker, running competitions occasionally. Given that food sites are so popular, there should be any number who would be willing to work with a prestigious site like ours.
But since we get most of our completely new visitors from search engines, the place with the most bang for our buck is in keeping those visitors around.
@rumtscho I would initially ask the user (i guess via e-mail, I assume that's the policy rather than in chat) to stop flaming etc. If it continued I would warn them of the consequences (which I assume is a ban), and if it still hadn't stopped, I'd consequent those consequences.
@Mien As much as it takes to get the job done, I suppose. I don't think it'll be all that much more time than I currently spend; I already visit most questions, trying to vote liberally, editing, and so on. There'd be a bit more to accomplish as a mod but again in the vein of community moderation, I feel it's more of an extension of being an active, attentive user.
@rumtscho There are built-in protections to some degree, right? If I recall right, the system does things about users who get flagged sufficiently often, so normal moderation taking care of the flags would help. I don't remember details there, though, so assuming that doesn't happen for the user in question, I'd try to have a private discussion to avoid escalating things further.
This has always been really frustrating to me, because with a user like that, ultimately if they can't be persuaded to be less hostile, they are bad for the site, and we'd have to give up good content, so I'd really try to diplomatically avoid that.
@GraceNote Going back to my first answer, it wouldn't be a huge difference. High-rep users can do an awful lot - and that's why Stack Exchange sites look so great. But it does exist, and those little things can be pretty valuable. Rather than flagging an obviously offensive comment and waiting until a mod happens by to deal with it (and hoping not too many people see it in the meantime), I can just take care of it right then.
@GraceNote Essentially the extra abilities such as migrating and immediate closing of off-topic posts etc. simply means I would be able to 'garden' the site more efficiently
And even the little things can be a big deal in terms of making the site polished and welcoming. I think there are a lot of perfectionists around here who appreciate the difference it makes.
@GraceNote If I thought it was a misunderstanding, I might respond on the question. Otherwise, depending on how big of a disagreement it was, I would either post on meta like I would today, or discuss privately with the mod. There's a bit of a balance between open discussion and community decisions on one hand, and avoiding public arguments between mods on the other hand. (We place a lot of trust and authority in our mods, so that's not so great for the site.)
In any case, the key element would still be discussion and attempting to reach consensus about what should be done. That's what I hope anyone would do if they disagreed with one of my decisions.
@GraceNote I would hope that no chef would use a microwave, but for the home cook on a budget with leftovers to defrost or baby food to warm? It's acceptable. It may be worth noting that I don't have one - make of that what you will.
@GraceNote Useful tool. I'm not snobby about my cooking. If it works, use it. And microwaves are great for plenty of tasks, like melting butter, cooking single servings of some things, and so on.
@GraceNote Having a diamond next to all of my comments, particularly when disagreeing with someone, does make me a little nervous. I've always seen that as a meaningful little symbol, and so I'd feel it even more important to be careful not to offend.
But it wouldn't stop me from saying what needs to be said!
@GraceNote I'm excited to be running, because I love the site and would like to do what I can for it. I'd of course be honored to be chosen and would do my best at it, but I'm also happy that no matter what the result is, we'll get a good mod and the site will continue growing and being generally awesome.
@GraceNote Jefromi evidently knows what he is talking about, and I think I do, so I am sure that whoever wins, the site will be in good hands. Viva Seasoned Advice!
This marks the end of our Town Hall. Thank you to all of the candidates for their time, and to all others who came here to ask questions and to support the candidates. Good luck to everyone as this election approaches its close!
As mentioned, @TimStone will be making a digest of this that will be available after this at some point. Candidates who haven't finished, you are free to continue answering in here until you reach the end - this end only signifies the end of new questions, not the time you have to answer.
