2020 Moderator Election Chatroom

Matt Samuel

10:24

I hereby chat first in this room to christen it.

Fury

11:37

@MattSamuel , do runnerups count?

user185131

18:13

Hello @amWhy, are you there? :)

amWhy

@Brahadeesh Hello!

user185131

How are you doing? I saw your reply to my message just now, and then pinged you here

amWhy

@Brahadeesh I'm great! Sorry I did not get back to your earlier.

user185131

The reason I wanted to speak to you was, since you took the trouble to reach out to me I felt that you deserved to know my position in more detail.

user185131

@amWhy Oh, not at all, we're all in different timezones, for one. And replying at one's convenience is the advantage of chat :)

user185131

18:24

Like I mentioned earlier, I have been considering running for moderator, but there are a couple of things on my mind that are causing me to hesitate.

amWhy

@Brahadeesh Sure, feel free to run them by me, and others here. @quid can also answer questions from a moderator's perspective, wrt what to expect if you are elected.

user185131

One is, there are issues that our site faces that are very difficult to resolve. I do have stances on most of them, and they come from my principles as well as how I perceive this site could ideally be. I also realize there's no pleasing everyone, of course...

user185131

But...to be frank, the candidates' questionnaire frightens me a bit. I think my fear is even if I answer them honestly, I might come across as far too naive when compared to how other users who have been around for a long time see things.

user185131

It's a kind of fear of public-speaking, or embarrassment, perhaps...

user185131

Sigh I thought you should know this, first and foremost, because I certainly don't have all the answers and don't want anyone to think that because I have a contrarian position on an issue I won't listen or learn.

user185131

18:33

Since you reached out to me, I was hoping you could understand this fear of mine. It's not even a fear, just a nagging thing at the back of my head...

amWhy

@Brahadeesh No problme, @Brahadeesh. Not every good mod craves public attention. Be honest. No one can please all of the people all of the time. You can say what you just told me: "I certainly don't have all the answers" ... "I have positions on some issues, (who doesn't) but I am willing to listen to all sides."

user185131

@amWhy It's a huge relief to hear that...!

user185131

The second thing is more related to the situation in the world right now. Thanks to the pandemic, my research work is going for a toss. While I am willing to commit to spend around a couple of hours on this site every day, broken into brief intervals, I'm not sure whether that would be considered sufficient or not. Maybe @quid is best equipped to answer this though. I anticipate that there will be a few weeks when I will be too busy to fulfil my expected quota, and others when I can overshoot...

user185131

Whether that is alright, to what extent it is fine, these things are bothering me... While I am always completely committed to whatever task I take up, it would not be good if my commitments don't match with what is expected of me.

amWhy

@Brahadeesh That is more time than most mods spend on this site. The time you currently spend is more than sufficient. No need to worry about missing a day or two, or taking a week or two off, now and then. Every mod has commitments, needs a vacation, etc., but you have persistently been a regular participant on this site. I would not have asked you to consider running if you weren't.

user185131

18:43

@amWhy Then I'll keep that aside in my mind for now :)

user185131

There is one more thing:

amWhy

@Brahadeesh Fire away! :-)

user185131

I have less than 10k rep currently, which means my "citizenship score/ candidature level" is far less than a solid 40/40. Perhaps more pertinently, it means I've never worked on deletion/undeletion, so I am truly unaware of the problems pertaining to this area, or even at a more basic level, what the general norms are, etc. etc.

user185131

I'm certainly willing to learn, and I will tread with care until I become comfortable with it. But handing out mod tools to someone who hasn't earned a "trusted user" status in terms of rep... I don't know, it might be natural to question it. I guess this is my fear of embarrassing myself speaking again...

Aloizio Macedo

@Brahadeesh Regarding time, it is usually somewhat of an esoteric subject but in effect you need to keep yourself informed about what is happening on the website, of internal discussions and the handling of flags. This is more a matter of commitment than sheer amount of time to spend.

amWhy

18:49

@Brahadeesh Others with less rep have been elected as a mod. And huge rep scores is not equivalent to "better mod material". I think you could easily hit this issue head on: Because I have not earned 10K rep, I haven't had the opportunity to delete or undelete. But I've taken full advantage and responsibility for the privileges I have gained.

quid

@Brahadeesh at least no one can reproach you deleting their post. :-)

user185131

@AloizioMacedo Right, this makes sense

quid

On the time, since I commented on that one meta, it is desirable to be regularly active and to pay attention to what is happening and to get involved when needed. It is not needed to spend hours over hours every day. Even most of the more active moderators are much less active than the most active non-mod users.

2

user185131

@amWhy I think I understand.... Thank you @amWhy, speaking things out (or typing them, as the case may be) helps clear my head. And getting someone's fresh perspective like this helps a lot. :)

user185131

@quid Hahaha, that's the silver lining, then :D

amWhy

18:55

@Brahadeesh Oh, absolutely. I can completely relate!

user185131

@quid I see... Then, I am confident of fulfilling my time commitment. Staying on top of things and acting when action is needed - these are more important than clocking in regular hours, as I've now understood.

user185131

Lastly, since I've spoken so much about what stops me from confirming my nomination, I think I should say a little bit about why I was considering nominating myself in the first place, even before you pinged me, @amWhy

user185131

It's nothing fancy, but it's honestly what I feel. As I have participated in this site over the years, I have grown to feel a sense of belonging to this site and the community. So, when a call for moderators came up, I evaluated whether my help could be of use, and decided I could (modulo what I asked help about earlier).

user185131

So, a desire to actively help... and trust in my competence (if that doesn't sound too prideful).

user185131

Thank you for listening to me patiently @amWhy :)

user185131

19:07

And to @Aloizio and @quid for clarifying my doubts too!

Aloizio Macedo

@Brahadeesh You're welcome. Any doubt that we can clarify to any candidate is good information so that they can set expectations. If you or anyone else have any doubt, feel free to ask.

quid

@Brahadeesh you are welcome! I think you would be a very good moderator. Bonus points for being in a timezone where we have no moderator; it's all Europe and the Americas.

2

user185131

@quid Your vote of confidence is heartening :) But you may have to retract the bonus points, since my sleep cycle is topsy-tursy. Being enrolled for a PhD does no favours to my health!

Jyrki Lahtonen

Seconding what quid said above. The number of hours I spent on the site when serving was arguably too high, and contributed to my attrition (in addition to the factors listed in my resignation speech). That was not healthy. May be Asaf should comment for his attendance is legendary :-)

amWhy

@JyrkiLahtonen But you did an absolutely great job, before, during your service, and since... I still wish you were moderating. I respect your decision, but just wanted you to hear again how indebted this site is to you.

quid

19:21

@Brahadeesh I can connect to that.

amWhy

@quid Hmmm. I wouldn't know anything about that. Actually, your time-table is similar to a mid-west American!

Jyrki Lahtonen

A more even timezone spread of the moderator team could help in many ways. On many days I was the first mod to wake up (GMT+2), and there was a lot of garbage to mop up. Still, Daniel managed to handle twice as many flags as I did (IIRC) :-)

With narrower gaps, the load would go down.

quid

@amWhy yes completely normal. ;-)

user185131

I see, I am at GMT+5:30, btw..

Jyrki Lahtonen

Gerry Myerson brought up geographical balance 3 years ago. Some voters will consider that.

A moderator from India would also enhance the cultural balance.

2

user1729

20:30

On the "balanced" note: how balanced is the demographic of the current moderators? Are most of them/you at the PhD/postdoc phase?

amWhy

I think @Jyrki was referring to geographical balance, @user1729

quid

@user1729 some yes, but not most. Also depends a bit on the exact notion of postdoc, but about half are clearly neither.

Except if postdoc is taken literally (but no one does that).

@amWhy my understanding of the remark is that @user1729 understood this yet meant to introduce another notion of "balance"

user1729

@amWhy Yes, he was. I was just wondering this anyway and it seemed to tack on well to the discussion :-)

Thanks @quid, good to know

amWhy

How about range of age, balance, and most obvious, why not go for gender balance, @user1729?? This site has never had a female mod. Shouldn't we strive to reach a 50/50 balance, afterall women comprise slightly more than 50% of the population. Be careful what you ask for. I have a much more valid claim to insist on gender balance than you do to insist on balance in the "academic maturity level" of mods (particularly if they all men). This is an answer to you as well, @quid.

Asaf Karagila

20:51

@JyrkiLahtonen It's only fair to attribute many of the good things that happened to me, career-wise anyway, to my participation on the site.

@user1729 I'm not a postdoc anymore! Huzzah. Formally since 15 days ago.

quid

21:06

@amWhy indeed various other aspects could be invoked, such as gender balance. I did not understand 1729 as insisting on anything in particular, except arguably conveying a certain desire for diversity. I would assume this extends to gender balance.

amWhy

@AsafKaragila Congrats!!

user1729

21:24

@amWhy I was asking abiut academic "rank" bwcaus that is not clear from the list of moderators, while (apart from quid) all the moderators are clearly male. I agree that there is a gender balance which should be addressed.

@Asaf You have/had a super-fancy Future Leaders UKRI fellowship though, which IIRC comes with the promise of a permanent job, right? So have you just "graduated" out of this and into the job?

(p.s. congratulations!)

Asaf Karagila

@user1729 The contract is a permanent one, with the probation period being the first four years of the fellowship.

user1729

21:42

@Asaf Ah, so you're just starting it. Serious congratulations on that, although I just looked at the list of fellows and it seems that having a Twitter account is a required. How did you get round that?!

Asaf Karagila

@user1729 Definitely not required. :-)

amWhy

22:19

Can we get back on topic, to the election, and questions about it?

quid

Any guesses how many users will vote?

amWhy

@quid 302,000 :P

quid

@amWhy you are always such an optimist.

amWhy

@quid ;D Call me optimistic amWhy!

@quid Was the last election for one single mod? (With Aloizio winning)? How many voted in the last election?

quid

@amWhy no it was Asaf and Aloizio. Actually Asaf won.

Before that it was Jack and I.

amWhy

22:31

@quid Ahh, right. For some reason I was thinking Asaf was already moderating (which he was, in the regular user sort of way).

quid

And still before was a big one with four slots.

Or maybe three.

Daniel Jyrki Pedro Michael?

Maybe the last was elected earlier.

amWhy

@quid It was three (or four?). Michael was elected in 2013, when Jack was elected, methinks, or else Jack ran in 2014 and was one of four elected.

quid

@amWhy yes it was three, and Michael was indeed elected in a group of four in 2013. But Jack was elected much later, in 2017 together with me (see above)

I don't know if he ran in 2014 maybe.

amWhy

@quid Ahh, right. Sorry. Jack had previously run, and I think in 2014, but lost.

@quid where is @MartinSleziak when we need him! :-)

quid

@amWhy indeed, I just checked (almost I typed jacked)

@amWhy the old elections pages are accessible.

That's the one from 2014 math.stackexchange.com/election/5 (edit the number in the url as needed)

In the last two elections we had slight above 2000 voters each.

amWhy

22:42

@quid It's hard to know whether having only one slot will intensify participation, or deflate it.

quid

@amWhy I think it hard to predict; it'll be the dynamic of the campaign maybe, but overall I think it is more or less indifferent

Aloizio Macedo

@amWhy @quid For a summary of all elections, one can use the page math.stackexchange.com/election

amWhy

@AloizioMacedo Thanks!

quid

@AloizioMacedo indeed that's much better for that purpose. I am not sure why I did not think of it; I had visited it recently.

Xander Henderson

23:24

@quid 2,147

amWhy

@XanderHenderson @quid I bid 2,146 :P

quid

Good guesses. Slightly more than in 2018 but slightly less than 2017, which was in a quite more active time of the year (not to mention the quality of some of its candidates ;D).

Xander Henderson

@amWhy So we aren't playing by Price is Right rules? Closest without going over?

Wouldn't 2,148 be a better guess? :P

amWhy

@quid what's the prize ;D

Xander Henderson

@amWhy A bag of potato crisps. Which you will have to get yourself. With your own money.

amWhy

23:30

@XanderHenderson No because if it's anything under 2,147, thus far, I'd win! (Of course, the guessing has just begun. And no, Price is right rules do not apply!

quid

@amWhy Don't worry. It was free. I don't charge for participation in my games. c/z all the same.

amWhy

@quid I know it's free to participate, but I want a prize if I win!

quid

@amWhy you'll be promoted to captain.

amWhy

@quid Wow!!! Is there a special badge for that? Or just the privilege?

Will all mods have to ask me "Captain May I?" and wait for permission, before suspending me in the future?? ;D

quid

@amWhy I'll add it in front of your user name.

@amWhy only the new one.

amWhy

23:37

@quid Hah!

One question any possible candidate might want to know: How do senior mods initiate newly elected mods?? ;D

quid

@amWhy let's keep that a secret; we don't want to scare of all the candidates.

amWhy

@quid (It is my understanding that mods help mentor new mods, and allow time for the learning curve. But humor me and pretend you have a long standing tradition in initiating new mods.)

@quid ;D

@quid You're quick on your feet, and hilarious!

quid

@amWhy :-)

amWhy

@user1729 Thanks for clarifying. I am sorry if I misunderstood you. But as far as academic rank, undergrads, grads, postdocs, PhD, and retired folks have all been elected and served as mods.

Transcript for

$Mathematics$ 2020 Moderator Election Chatroom