Stack Exchange
log in

2019 Role-Playing Games Moderator Election Chat

2019 Role-Playing Games Moderator Ele…

Open Discussion for https://rpg.stackexchange.com/election/4
2086d ago – Rubiksmoose
676
25
info

export all events for this room

Starred posts

nitsua60
Jun 3, 2019 11:04
@JohnP @linksassin @Rubiksmoose @Sandra @V2Blast Regardless of how the vote goes, I'd like to personally thank all of you for taking the time to throw your hat into the ring. The site is built and run by volunteers at every level--voters, authors, power users, and moderators alike--and you're here asking to step up that level of volunteerism. Thank you!
11
Tiggerous
Jun 2, 2019 11:06
I don't think it would benefit any of the candidates, or community spirits generally, to see lists of people, who've selflessly offered to volunteer their time, with critiques of their suitability for the position publically discussed. While such a thing would be possible to do, discussing candidate's merits only, with no negativity attached - I think it would be a tricky line to walk.
9
Ben
May 28, 2019 00:29
Woo! An Election I'm actually excited about! Lol
6
doppelgreener
Jun 2, 2019 17:54
@Akixkisu I am warning you specifically not to disrespect your fellow citizens in this chat. That is all.
5
doppelgreener
Jun 2, 2019 10:23
@Akixkisu Akix, you are expected to treat your fellow members with respect. If someone disagrees with your methods, don't be so disrespectful as to suggest they have no agreement with your goal or don't want good moderators. Obviously they do, anyone does, but this doesn't mean they have to support what you're doing.
5
Rubiksmoose
May 30, 2019 14:42
So, I just had a thought sparked by this conversation related to leadership building and closing/teaching. Thinking back I've cast lots of close votes, many of which were easy unequivocal things that needed to be closed. but each time I learned more about the site and how to effectively manage it. If a mod had instead gotten there and closed them before me, I wouldn't have been able to reach the level of experience and confidence such as I have now.
5
Tiggerous
Jun 2, 2019 08:20
@Akixkisu I'm not convinced how much benefit there would be publishing such a list, so I will not be doing so. I'm not sure if we need another opportunity, other than the vote itself, to express those kind of opinions
4
BESW
Jun 2, 2019 12:46
I think that discussions of the qualities, skills, and principles to look for in a moderator would be quite beneficial. Whether or not specific candidates meet those qualifications is, I think, something better left for each voter to consider for themselves than making the subject of public debate.
3
nitsua60
May 29, 2019 19:48
I "ran" for department chair once on the platform that I'd do two things: buy two gross of whiteboard markers and put them in the stockroom, and resign.
(Previously the 'system' had been to go get 4-packs of markers form the school store, at a ridiculous price, and they only ever stocked like 3 packs so half the time they were out.)
I didn't get the job--there wasn't even an election, nor is that how our school determines dept. heads--but the current head bought two gross of whiteboard markers for the stockroom.
3
KorvinStarmast
May 28, 2019 19:31
@V2Blast I do not believe "diversity of perspective" is a tangible metric and Carcer made a decent point about that further up. Enthusiasm and a sincere desire to help would seem to me the best base line
3
Novak
May 28, 2019 19:00
@KorvinStarmast what are you waiting for?
3
nitsua60
May 30, 2019 14:21
On the vast majority of questions where I would have VTC'ed before, it's not necessary that it be closed right now. So I usually leave it to the community.
2
BESW
May 30, 2019 13:34
As regards many of RPG.SE's concerns, we the users give the blue green diamond a lot more authority than the Stack Overlords do.
2
BESW
May 30, 2019 03:08
I'm talking about cases where the policies we've built up around a topic, to keep it workable for the site, have become burdensome and off-putting for new users to navigate.
2
Rubiksmoose
May 28, 2019 14:58
I am a moose though. Have we ever had a moose mod before?
2
linksassin
Jun 12, 2019 00:46
Congratulations to @V2Blast and @Rubiksmoose! Thanks for stepping up. The results went much the way I expected. I wish you guys luck and will do what I can to support you as you take up the extra responsibility.
Rubiksmoose
Jun 4, 2019 15:45
By my figuring we've now exceeded the last election's total vote count (366) in less than 12 hours (currently at around 390). :-D
JohnP
Jun 4, 2019 13:46
@vicky_molokh That's so that people that only visit the site occasionally have a chance to make their voice heard. Work travel, vacations, etc. not everyone might get a chance to vote if it were only one or two days. (Plus time zones, world access, etc)
doppelgreener
Jun 2, 2019 10:29
I will remind everyone that access to chat is a privilege, not a right, and that privilege is extended on the basis you can conduct yourself appropriately, which includes treating your fellow members with respect. We're not going to be shy about revoking that privilege during the election if that becomes necessary.
linksassin
Jun 1, 2019 23:54
Old questions that get bumped to the homepage by other users I treat as if they are a active question and vote accordingly. Yes site policy has changed over the years but if no one is looking at the old questions it isn't worth my effort to improve them.
nitsua60
Jun 1, 2019 19:16
@Akixkisu We three are asking you to exhaust the options you have available to you--votes, comments, and meta--before making work for others when evaluating posts that are not on the front page. It's not a "warning," it's a request. It's a reasonable one, and feel free to open a meta or find one of us in chat if you have further questions.
Carcer
May 30, 2019 14:36
@mxyzplk I might look it up at some point, though I can't help but naively feel like that the rigid military command structure of something like a submarine should not be analogous to human interactions in contexts like an office job or a forum
nitsua60
May 30, 2019 14:29
@mxyzplk This bit is why I think I'm intrigued by a local meta post enumerating mod-powers. Both to rein in expectations of what we can effectuate, to make clear what we can do (with redactions for Harm to Ongoing Matter, Sources and Methods, and National Security), and to make clear how much of what we can do can also be done (and is properly done) by the whole high-rep population.
Carcer
May 30, 2019 14:23
I think there's a fundamental problem with a system that requires the most active and helpful members of the community to do less in order to preserve the balance of perspective, but it ain't a problem we're gonna be able to fix here
nitsua60
May 30, 2019 14:20
Close/reopen, yes, I refrain quite a bit when I would have otherwise. That's a place where I think the stated role of moderation and the tools we have clash.
Rubiksmoose
May 30, 2019 14:05
47
Q: “Is something wrong?” Yes: Too much moderation

nvoigtRPG's users and moderators have a number of problems as summarized in this question's answers. However, several mods have said that they can't accept meta feedback in the form of anything other than individually-separated questions. While I think that's unreasonable and contrary to common meta pr...

discussion meta
nitsua60
May 30, 2019 13:37
Off the top of my head: delete comments, unilaterally close/open, migrate questions, lock posts, unprotect questions (I forget if when a 10K+ protects they can then unprotect?), move all comments to chat, send private messages to users (which are copied to staff and we're told are only for serious infractions), suspend users, engage SE staff in conversation pretty readily, use the "featured" tag on meta, inspect cross-voting statistics, inspect some IP details.
BESW
May 30, 2019 13:33
I think a lot of the questions being posed to the moderators show a fundamental misunderstanding of the roles and capacities our Stack Overlords bestow upon elected moderators. I know I used to have a lot of the same misunderstandings. There's a lot of things which are just irrevocably outside the scope of moderator influence, much less authority, and most of the things moderators can influence are equally within the reach of other users.
Akixkisu
May 30, 2019 12:22
I believe this topic of new-user-treatment is quite important and is one of the most relevant tie-breakers in voting for new moderators for a user such as myself.

This is closely tied to the conduct of moderators which, by hierarchy, I regard with more scrutiny than that of any other users. Note that I also view them as a group entity (of authority), so all as negatively perceived conduct is something I extrapolate to the entire group (of moderators, and further ex-moderators).

I think there is more room for discussion about the conduct of future moderators specifically towards new(er)-us…
Miniman
May 30, 2019 03:18
@linksassin Okay, let me put this differently. If you wanted to say "we're not talking about this here", you should have said it here instead of talking about it yourself. Don't make your points and then say this isn't an appropriate place to discuss them as a way to dismiss others.
Miniman
May 30, 2019 03:14
The difference is, when they say "how about if I change it like this", we say "no you can't do that" instead of answering them. The forum just answers them.
BESW
May 30, 2019 03:04
Almost every example of systemic "being brusque with new users" is associated with the latest in a long line of attempts to improve our doing of a thing we don't do well.
Miniman
May 30, 2019 03:00
@BESW Personally, I think "doesn't fit the model" in this case, as with game-recs, is shorthand for "we are doing querents a disservice by pretending this is a thing we do well".
linksassin
May 30, 2019 01:04
@Rubiksmoose Many yes, but I don't think it will be all. I would like to see stronger evidence more akin to the arguments that were made to remove RAW which actively hurt the site and users.
BESW
May 30, 2019 01:01
"Doesn't fit the model" is always shorthand for "we tried for years to make this work but the coded-in structure of the site fights us at every turn and we've run out of tricks to fight back."
Isaac Reefman
May 30, 2019 00:22
@KorvinStarmast Pleasure. Not trying to convince you to change your position (i think) but even given the state where your 'time is less free' I'm impressed and grateful for the time you do give to this community, even as a non-mod user, evidenced by the depth of your contributions to meta, for one. On more than one occasion you've renewed my appreciation of this site in general.
Rubiksmoose
May 29, 2019 18:06
@V2Blast Maybe my diamond mod campaign platform should be the fact that I want to fix silly typos in my comments that I see 5.01 minutes after posting them. ;)
nitsua60
May 29, 2019 03:07
(The primary actually is a mainsite Q&A, re-skinned, IIRC. Up & down votes on any/all of the "answers", the "question" is the announcement, sort-order is by net vote, comments are enabled.)
KorvinStarmast
May 28, 2019 18:41
@Ben We could use someone in your time zone.
Rubiksmoose
May 28, 2019 17:33
absolutely! And, in my opinion, for good reason.
V2Blast
May 28, 2019 06:38
For reference, past elections:
2012: https://rpg.stackexchange.com/election/1
2015: https://rpg.stackexchange.com/election/2
2017: https://rpg.stackexchange.com/election/3
JNat
May 27, 2019 18:55
If you have questions about the election process itself, please ask your question on the Role-Playing Games Meta Site. Remember, folks stepping up to lead this community are committing a significant amount of their time, please keep all discourse civil and constructive.
JNat
May 27, 2019 18:54
Welcome all! This room is intended as a place to converse with candidates, discuss moderator traits, etc. For general discussion related to Role-Playing Games, go here: chat.stackexchange.com/rooms/11/rpg-general-chat