We're reusing the room from the last election? Interesting.

@Keen Yeah, that's our general methodology here.

No need to bust out a new room every year, after all.

@GraceNote Should I clear that starred message from last year? It'll be confusing having it there.

@Keen I was going to get around to it, but since I'm doing Programmers right now, if you could assist in here, that'd be lovely. ♪

Hah, you wrapped it all up just as I got back in here. Fancy fancy~

Happy to help.

Thank you much

Hi.

Hihi.

:)

Pizza is on the way!

Curses, now I want pizza too.

Yeah I love pizza so much.

And now we see if Grace can juggle ending the Programmers.SE Town Hall and get this one started.

do we get a cowndown or something?

No, I just start it.

There'll be some announcment-ey rules for the chat.

It's the final countdown (na na na na na, na na na na na na)

Welcome to the Science Fiction & Fantasy Town Hall Chat

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 still up at this hour.

For candidates, I spy amongst us: @Beofett, @JackBNimble, @DavRob60, @Kevin, @NathanC.Tresch.

Let's get this SHINDIG STARTED!

In your opinion, what do moderators do?

If you had one minute to explain this site to someone, what would you say that it is?

What SFF books have you read in the last month? Please list as many as you can

From @Gilles What was the last SFF book you read, and when was it?

@GraceNote They help to maintain the rules and community consensus on what is appropriate for the site. They make mitigating decisions on flags and other criteria that the community thinks requires attention.

What specifically do you think that the current moderators are doing well, and what do you think could be improved?

Hey @PearsonArtPhoto ^^

@PearsonArtPhoto Earth Unaware - Orson Scott Card.

@Keen LOL, sorry, it's almost my bed time and I wanted to make sure I got my questions asked...

@PearsonArtPhoto You can dump them on the thread (just like Gilles did), and I'd be able to ask them, haha.

@GraceNote Moderators keep order in the community, ensuring a pleasant experience for all. They gently enforce the community consensus.

@GraceNote They are the "human exception handler", mostly dealing with the flag queue. Also keep the site clean from clearly unwanted stuff.

@GraceNote Primarily moderators help facilitate. They facilitate discussion on policy, scope, etc. They also serve as the peace-keepers for disputes/flags.

@PearsonArtPhoto A place where you could ask and answer questions about science fiction and fantasy.

@PearsonArtPhoto This is a site where one can ask a concrete, finitely answerable (not open-ended, not a list) question and get a great response from a group of enthusiasts.

@PearsonArtPhoto Primarily this is a great place to answer any question on sci-fi or fantasy works that nag at you after watching/reading, and an even better place to find out about aspects of the material you never knew about, or even entire new works to check out.

@PearsonArtPhoto Unfortunately, I haven't really been reading much, I don't think I've read any full book in the last month.

What are your three favorite scifi/fantasy works, and your three least favorite?

@PearsonArtPhoto Hyperion, Fall of Hyperion (currently reading), The Order of the Stick: Snips, and Snails, and Dragons Tails, Vor Games, and I can't remember what I read before Vor Games....

@PearsonArtPhoto Fall of Hyperion by Dan Simmons (reading currently)

@PearsonArtPhoto I think the last SFF book I read must have been Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets, this past fall.

@PearsonArtPhoto Currently reading The Lost Symbol, from Dan Brown, read Scott Orson Card's Shadow of the Giant and Iain M. Banks's Excession lately

What is your position on story-identification questions? Should they be allowed or banned?

As a moderator, you will have to moderate on topics that you haven't read/watched. How will you accomplish that?

@PearsonArtPhoto They do an excellent job of steering the community towards debating issues with the site.

@PearsonArtPhoto Currently reading The Lost Symbol, from Dan Brown, read Scott Orson Card's Shadow of the Giant and Iain M. Banks's Excession lately

@PearsonArtPhoto The current moderators do a good job of keeping track of current policy, providing expert assistance and guidance, and generally monitoring the flow of questions/answers. I feel like the current team is a solid mix of all the primary elements of moderation.

@Keen I've noticed that many of the unanswered questions are story-identification questions. It was decided early on that these questions would be allowed. It is my opinion that there is a real quality issue with these questions, but until the community changes their mind on these questions, they should continue to be allowed.

Which tag do you wish to see grown the most on this site?

@PearsonArtPhoto I think the current moderators are doing well at handling flags in a timely fashion, and keeping the community consensus. I can't identify anything they particularly need improvement on.

@PearsonArtPhoto Magic, and possibly divination. And whatever the internet can spit out to gain a cursory knowledge in a short time frame.

@JackBNimble Hard question... I'm going to have to say my favorites are: A Fire Upon the Deep, Dune, and Stranger in a Strange Land.

@PearsonArtPhoto Doing well : Keeping the site clean. Could be improved : (not only the moderator but the community as a whole) better guide the new users.

Why do you personally want the power and responsibility of being a moderator?

@JackBNimble Top are the LotR trilogy, Silmarillion, and Ender's game. As for the bottom, I can't recall any SFF I particularly disliked.

@JackBNimble Favorite : The Tron universe as a whole, probably the reason why I'm a programmer right now. Least favorite : I don't like horror in general.

@JackBNimble My least favorite: The Saga of Seven Suns, the Dune prequels, and Twilight (although I have to admit I haven't read/watched it)

@PearsonArtPhoto I live for power. Responsibility, what's that? I kid people. It is the next step in the involvement of the site.

@Keen Story identification questions are fine. They have a concrete solution, as long as the OP keeps giving feedback on answers. My main complaint about them is how they are voted on. I think the questions should only be upvoted if they seem to contain enough to identify a story, and answers only if the asker comes back and affirms a guess correct.

@PearsonArtPhoto I would love to see more fantasy questions at large. Harry Potter may be the top tag on the site, but you have to go a long ways down to find a second place (LOTR).

@Keen I continue to be a large fan of story-identification. The questions do an excellent job as a way to bring in new users, which is important for us to continue to function as a community. While the core regular users are important, a constant influx of new participants is essential. Plus I get a lot of great ideas for new content to read/watch as a result.

What SFF TV series/ Movies have you watched in the last month?

What would you do to encourage more community self-moderation? That is, high-rep users making use of their moderation powers to close, edit, reopen, and delete posts.

@Keen Allowed for now, but I'm a mostly indifferent to those question.

Hi

Sorry I'm late folks

@PearsonArtPhoto Getting to chat when exteriors expertise is needed.

@NathanC.Tresch No worries. Just head to the instructions starting at the pinned message, then you can follow the stars to see what questions have been asked.

@PearsonArtPhoto DS9, Phineas & Ferb, Escape from Planet Earth, and some others.

@PearsonArtPhoto The Walking Dead

What have you personally done already to help moderate this site?

@NathanC.Tresch Please be sure to use the reply-to function to help tie the response to the question it is answering.

@PearsonArtPhoto Moderating topics you aren't familiar with isn't usually that hard. The community response (VTCs, flags, comments, etc.) is usually a good indication of whether or not there is a problem. Wikipedia can be of surprising help, but the biggest resource is asking opinions in chat, either of the regular members, or other moderators (or both).

Speaking of fantasy, how would you approach supporting and encouraging growth in the fantasy genre on SFF.se if it's not your cup of tea or you are hardcare sci-fi?

@aSlytherin 'hardcore'?

@PearsonArtPhoto Flagged, VTC, reviews, editting, and reading through a lot of the questions.

@PearsonArtPhoto There's not one particular tag I'd like to see grown. However, I think there are a ton of great titles out there that have very few questions. I'd like to grow those tags: the ones that are on works widely regarded as "classics", yet which have received little attention on our site so far.

@aSlytherin I would love to see more fantasy questions on the site.

@Keen I think it's clear what I mean. Use whatever vernacular you prefer. :)

@PearsonArtPhoto I always enjoy tron questions. But there is also classic Sci-fi author that could be more present (arthur-c-clarke, frank-herbert, etc)

@PearsonArtPhoto Most of a moderator's work is topic-agnostic. In most cases, one doesn't need to know the particulars of a work to see most problems with a post, and the community members who are familiar with it will point out when action actually does need to be taken.

I am trying to watch the Miami Heat/Sacremento Kings basketball game also. :

@PearsonArtPhoto Just wish to help. I sincerely care for scifi.stackexchange

@PearsonArtPhoto I care a lot about this community. Its a great resource for me, and it is about a subject that has been a major influence throughout my entire life, on a platform that I have really grown to appreciate throughout my time here. Mostly, though, because I think I'd be good at it, and because I feel it would increase my ability to help out.

@PearsonArtPhoto I don't have a particular preferred tag, I want to see whatever tag grow that will bring in new users that stay around and become productive members of our site.

@Keen I'm not sure what could be done to encourage the community to self-moderate beyond giving positive attention and feedback to people who do.

@PearsonArtPhoto I don't get to watch nearly as much TV as I used to, but I believe I've watched Walking Dead and Misfits in the past month.

How do you encourage more participation in meta?

@PearsonArtPhoto I want the power to take action when needed to keep the site clean and welcoming, and for that I am willing to take the responsibilities of a moderator.

@PearsonArtPhoto Because I think that this is an amazing forum for genre enthusiasts to discuss what they're passionate about and I want to do whatever I can to help.

@Keen I'm generally pretty impressed with how many people respond with close/reopen/edits. However, I would continue to do what I have done in the past on this site: point out through comments and meta discussion when I think action needs to be taken.

Man, it is way nicer to be asking questions instead of frantically answering them. :3

@PearsonArtPhoto I personally edit my answers to make certain that they are concise and answer the question at hand, and as well I delete my questions and answers that are deemed unworthy by the community.

@PearsonArtPhoto Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Insurrection.

@Keen Yeah this is hard, my wife and child are here and they also want my attention. :)

We're at the halfway point. I'm probably going to start throwing in all those questions I have from the thread.

@PearsonArtPhoto Aside from voting/closing/flagging/editing, I've been very active in meta. I have started quite a few discussions on policy here, including the discussions that resulted in community consensus that General Reference was not a good fit as a close reason for our site.

@Keen When a question is generating lots of debates in comments it is usually recommended to move the discussion to meta.

@Keen For starters I think that just advertising it exists would help. I was on here for a long time before I knew what it was.

@Keen As a frequent user in chat, where most of our high-rep users hang out, I would remind people there to use what privileges they have accrued.

@GraceNote Be warned, I asked one of Gilles's already... Didn't realize it was there, so...

@PearsonArtPhoto Many thing: The Masters of Time, The Total recall 2012 remake, the Métal Hurlant Chronicles series, My little pony friendship is magic (with my daughter). And I probably forget some...

@PearsonArtPhoto I know. It'd be poor form of me to not pay attention when I'm running this shindig. ♪

@aSlytherin I find that difficult to speculate on, since I tend to mix both genres pretty evenly. However, I think the best way to encourage content on particular topics (barring the return of "Topic of the Week" contests) would be to post bounties.

@Keen I'm actually having a lot of fun grilling them;-)

@JackBNimble The Solar Cycle by Gene Wolfe, the Robots series by Asimov and anything by Phillip K. Dick. My least favorite is any space opera from the early 20th century.

@PearsonArtPhoto As my badges indicate, I have been very active editing posts and I went through the review queues before they were popular, and I flag posts when warranted; I also vote to close and re-open, and I keep an eye on the 10k flag queue much of the time. In essence, all a 10k can do.

@Keen The best way to promote participation in meta... is to participate in meta. Start discussions based upon issues that come up in comments/chat, then link the meta discussion and ask people to chime in. The biggest problem with meta is that people forget/don't know it is there. Frequent reminders are the best remedy to that.

Gilles asks: A genie grants you a wish: you may change one site policy (e.g. make a type of question on/off topic, change some tagging habits, …) (SE policies remain). What is your wish?

@GraceNote To ban the why didn't X recognize Y in the original work when they had encountered each other in a prequel.

Everyone, I did my best to be here for this and I hope that what little I was able to answer helps you form an opinion about my qualifications as a moderator. I have to excuse myself now, my 1 year old daughter's bedtime is 7:30. I hope I've left the impression that I would be a level headed and a good moderator and that I want the position because I want to help, and that I'd be a great help also. Thanks for your consideration.

@NathanC.Tresch Don't worry. You can always show up later to answer all the questions you couldn't at this time. Thanks for making the effort to show up for some portion of this.

@NathanC.Tresch You can come back later and add more responses.

@Keen It's hard to directly communicate with users that don't come to chat. I think the best way is to make the community feels responsible for the site, they need to care for it. Soliciting the opinion of user and showing you respect them is a good way.

How would you deal with a user who posts lots of quality content, but also generates a large number of flags?

@GraceNote Honestly, I can't think of anything I'd want to change by fiat. Recommendations are always fun, but they are such a poor fit for the platform I wouldn't want them on-topic. I can spot inconsistencies in tag usage, but I'm not invested in them enough to feel comfortable declaring a blanket change. I do think the tv situation and related issues is a mess, though, so perhaps a complete rework of how they should be used.

@PearsonArtPhoto All sort of thing. Voting to Close/reopen question that deserve it. Flagging really inappropriate stuff and discussing in meta /chat when I'm not sure.

@aSlytherin The same as I would for scifi. It's not for the moderators to decide to drop support for half the site's topicality. That said, I do like fantasy just as much as scifi.

DVK asks: What is the threshold at which you consider something as a community imposed general (non-question-specific) policy based on Meta Q&A? E.g. if there is a consensus answer with +3 vote margin, do you consider it a policy? +8 vote margin? No specific threshold aside from your own opinion?

@Keen Try to communicate the issues that come up in their posts with the user. I know we've had a few users who meet this criteria and I've seen the moderators try to work with them. I think that has positively influenced the quality of these users posts.

@Keen As I mentioned, I'm quite active in chat, along with most of our high rep users, so I discuss things there with them, and point them at the appropriate meta posts.

@Keen This is never a fun situation. The first thing I'd do is just talk with them. Make it clear that their contributions are valued, but no one contributes enough to exempt them from the rules, particularly the "be nice" rule. If needs be, I would have no qualms about suspending a user, regardless of the quality of their contributions, if their behavior is problematic.

@aSlytherin I have more interest into Sci-fi than Fantasy, but I have read both TLOTR and Harry Potter. However, I think Fantasy have his place here and should be encouraged.

@GraceNote I don't have a specific threshold, as it varies depending on the circumstances. Generally, though, for non-question-specific issues, I think time is a bigger factor than vote margin, although vote margin is definitely still a component. I think discussions should be up long enough to allow sufficient visibility. For a major policy change, a full week would be the minimum. If the voting is close, I'd give it more time

@GraceNote When I determine if I feel voting is close, I factor in the number of down-votes. E.g. after a week, I might consider an answer with 5 upvotes and no downvotes as indicative of consensus, but an answer with 10 upvotes and 5 downvotes I'd leave for another couple of days, at least, since it is clear that a significant portion of the population disagrees.

We're at the 15 minute mark. This is normally when I ask people to wind down on questions to let the candidates catch up. I've still got 4 more to ask for others, though, haha.

@Keen Inviting users to ask question on Meta though comments when needed. Directing them there when there is information they need to know and be kind and respectful when they come to meta to keep them there.

DVK asks: Do you take into account the "Leave open" information from Review queue when applying moderator-binding-close-votes (as opposed to only existing close votes and flags) to obtain a more balanced picture? If such information isn't available, WOULD you have taken it into account if it was?

@GraceNote Generally, though, once sufficient time is allowed, I think a 10+ margin is pretty clear, even if there are a fair number of dissenting votes. If there are only one or two dissenting votes, I think a margin of 5+ is fair, though.

@Keen Warn them in comments, then chat if they are a chat user and don't respond, then send them a mod-message if they still don't shape up. Posting good content does not offset bad behavior.

@GraceNote A similar process could be used if there are multiple highly-voted answers that differ significantly. I'd allow more time for votes, and look for a significant (10+) margin between them.

Related to that, DVK also asks: What is your threshold for binding-voting to close a question? "I would have VTCed it if my vote wasn't binding"? A critical mass of unopposed VTCs and flags? Do you consider NOT voting (and opening a meta discussion) if the comments on the question indicate a clear LACK of consensus on closing and it wasn't discussed on meta yet?

@GraceNote If I see a review which I can't make a determination I choose to skip it and leave it to someone else better qualified.

@GraceNote The only way I would take it into account is if it provided an explanation as to why the reviewer felt it should remain open. Given that I'd only use a binding close vote if I was very clear that the question needed to be closed (flags, clear dup, spam, blatant NARQ, etc.), "leave open" votes wouldn't be nearly as likely to sway me as comments or a good meta discussion.

@GraceNote This is an hard one. I don't disagree to any site policies that much.

@GraceNote I always consider not taking action as a valid course. I don't like rash decisions.

DVK's final question of the night: Please provide an example (specific question) of a moderator action that you would have liked to have taken based on your own opinion but would refrain from taking based on meta or comments achieved community consensus.

@GraceNote If an answer has been around a while and there is no upvoted contradictory answer, I would consider that policy. For more contested issues, there is no absolute rule, it's more of a case-by-case basis.

@GraceNote Again, it depends. A flag of "I find this offensive" gets a lot more weight than a flag of "this question is silly".

@GraceNote A question that has been open for a couple of hours and has no close votes from the community would get more consideration from me than one that has been open 15 minutes and already has 4 close votes.

@GraceNote I would definitely consider a meta discussion, but wouldn't necessarily hold off on voting, as the question could always be reopened after the meta discussion (for example, the question could be worded poorly, but a meta discussion might involve some suggested edits that would improve the question enough to reopen it).

@Keen It depend if the flags are founded and the kind of flag. A user who is Offensive must be disciplined. Otherwise, I would comment on his questions and try to explain him how he could improve himself.

Pearsonartphoto had this question to ask as well: A high reputation user was accused of harassing a lower ranking user. What do you do?

@GraceNote As a moderator, I would use my close/reopen vote only on clear case and prefer the skip button whenever there is a doubt.

@GraceNote As expressed in some of the comments, I am not impressed with these questions.

@GraceNote No threshold if I don't have any doubt (but I assure you that I'm a doubtful person). Waiting to be the 5th vote otherwise.

@GraceNote Reputation is a "rough measurement of how much the community trusts you", not a licence to behave inappropriately. I would verify the if the accusations are founded and take the appropriate action if necessary, depending of the degree of the harassment.

Usually, as we get near the close but we still have time, I ask this while candidates still have time to answer before we close, haha. Nevertheless, final thoughts from the candidates?

@GraceNote This question. As a regular user, I cast a delete vote, since there are 4 reopen votes and I don't think it has any justification for being reopened (not one person voting to reopen has accepted my invitation to explain, either in comments or the meta discussion.

@GraceNote There's not even a single downvote on either meta answers explaining why the question should be closed). If I were a moderator, I would not have cast a binding delete vote, and instead waited to see how the issue developed.

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 (and anyone who couldn't make it is also allowed to answer post-fact) - this end only signifies the end of new questions, not the time you have to answer.

@GraceNote I do not give the higher reputation user more leeway than the lower ranking user; if anything, it works the opposite. I expect the higher reputation users to know better than a new user (generally anyone who has 500 rep or less).

@GraceNote The first thing I do is review any specific instances pointed out. Then I look at the activity log for both users, checking comments. I look at any post where there appears to be comments between the two users in question. I then use a couple of tools available to moderators to make sure I have as complete a picture of the activity between the two users as possible.

@GraceNote If I see evidence of policy violations, I'll bring it up to the other moderators and discuss it as a team. If I see evidence of severe violations (threats, abusive language, irregular voting patterns, etc.) I'll probably also bring it to the attention of the SE community team.

@GraceNote If the review queue information were right there on the page, I would definitely take it into account. It is (recently, I believe) available but several clicks and a different screen away for moderators, so I would only check if the question's status seemed contested, from the comments on it.

@GraceNote We must move forwards, not backwards, upwards, and not forwards, and always be twirling, twirling, twirling!

Good night, everybody!

@GraceNote If a question clearly needs closing, I will use my binding vote. If it is more contested, I will normally wait and see if close votes pile up, and usually only close as the 4th or 5th vote (and, as came up in the previous question, check the close queue results for it).

@GraceNote I just want to thank everyone for your time and questions. I feel quite confident that regardless of the outcome of this election, the site will get 2 great moderators, since we have so many fantastic candidates who have already shown a lot of dedication to this site.

Okay, its past my bedtime now... thanks again, and good night!

@GraceNote Assure the complainant that moderators do, in fact, care just as much about low-rep users and won't just give high-reps a free pass (in fact, I hold them to a higher standard), then investigate the accusation.

@GraceNote @keen One thing I wanted to mention is that I got my most recent job from the Stack Exchange Careers 2.0 site, and that's a huge reason that I'm so passionate about StackEx sites.