roar

Good morning

I hope I handled yesterday's dispute well

It was disconcerting to say the least

Hello, @Mokubai

I think this incident will reflect positively upon me as being real dispute resolution experience.

As bad as this looks as on my record, and as resistant as many are to admit to guilt, I will be 100% transparent here

The real issue is that I acted beyond my level of authority, attempting to address the issue myself as if I were a moderator

I was unable to bring Ramhound to more appropriate channels to discuss the issue because he wasn't around in chat at the time

I wanted to work with the mods to address the issue but everyone was busy

This is why I took the matter up myself

It's a catch-22

It's like we need more mods, but not everyone is qualified and we don't want Stack Exchange to turn into a bureaucracy

There's a reason moderators are elected whenever possible

Nobody likes to admit guilt. That's why you hear "no comment" or "declined to comment" so often on TV.

I believe firmly in transparency and that's why I'm saying this, even if it may hurt my reputation.

Erm. We've talked to ramhound a few times before privately. We've also nudged him when he's been a bit overcurt.

Both Ramhound and I were at fault to varying degrees.

We know you want to be a mod, and have the best intentions.

I just started on a new job. I'm popping in during my lunch break, lull periods...

This is probably the most important lesson I've ever learned in my Super User career and I think this can be taken in a positive light

A prior discussion was made in chat which failed to address the issue and it needed full ♦ attention to resolve

This dispute-resolution experience matters far more than a thousand flags and is what lies at the heart of being a moderator: to moderate issues in the community. I'm actually happy that I went through this "trial by fire" because it taught me a vital lesson. Not everyone is privileged to get this lesson.

That alone makes me far better prepared to handle disputes than many others.

Going through a dispute and resolving it on amicable terms is vital experience oh-so-few of us get here on Super User, even among more experienced contributors

Community building is one of the reasons I'm here, and I just wanted to make sure newcomers get the best possible experience

@DragonLord Good on you for taking it as a learning opportunity. I do feel the best thing to do though is let's all just move on now; let's stop bringing it up, and put the energy to something productive, like beating my Minesweeper score

@DragonLord It doesn't look bad on your record, it honestly bodes well that you handled it well. What is getting a bit much though is that seemingly every action you take is lazer focused on becoming a moderator. You don't need to be a moderator to take an active role in shaping and guiding the community and 90% of the job is cleaning up spam and throwing out the trash, most of which you already have a hand in due to your rep.

The community is people like you. In the words of Jeff the moderators are "exception handlers" and because you spoke to Ramhound before it became a problem we had no exception to handle and that is honestly fine, we need people to talk to each other and nip problems in the bud and it's awesome that you managed it so well. It meant that we didn't have to take it any futher and potentially suspend an otherwise good contributor.

But you shouldn't be so hung up on getting mod powers to the exclusion of everything else. I am honestly sorry that it was my fault you do not have a diamond but your first thought with regards to the community shouldn't be "I must be a mod" but instead "Who do I think would be the best mod?" I have held out from standing in 1 election and withdrawn at a late stage in another because I felt that the other candidates were significantly better for the community.

I'm not meaning to sound like I'm criticising you, I'm honestly not, but you need to stop trying to force it. We don't know when the next election might be and far as I know no-one has even discussed it yet. All you can do is be the upstanding community member you are and let the diamond come to you in it's own time.

I think I'm stressing myself out too much and need to focus on quality contributions

As much as the ♦ means to me, it's not the real end goal here

The real goal is to be a part of the community and make a difference for everyone

@Mokubai To be honest, I think @fixer1234 would make an outstanding moderator even with less than 3000 rep

@DragonLord Just to keep you informed on why we didn't act: I did intend to talk to Ramhound but I saw that you had brought it up with him in the comments and chat. I think you handled the situation well. No matter if you have a diamond next to your name or not. As long as people respect you for leading by example and moderating (which every user can do), all is fine.