2021 Science Fiction & Fantasy Stack Exchange Moderator Election Chat

SQB

08:46

@Randal'Thor here's your query

data.stackexchange.com/scifi/query/1423416/…

Now all we need is some Excel magic.

Rand al'Thor

Can't we make Data.SE produce a graph?

Someone did yesterday, Carrot I think.

TheLethalCarrot

@Randal'Thor data.stackexchange.com/scifi/query/1423436/…

To quickly hack SQB's query

SQB

TL;DR: most people vote right away.

TheLethalCarrot

With a small bump near the end

SQB

09:03

Now that the election phase is running, I can't read the comments on the nominations anymore. Are they still accessible somewhere?

TheLethalCarrot

Go to the Nominations tab

SQB

Thx.

> In the nomination phase, any community member in good standing with more than 300 reputation may nominate themselves to be a community moderator.

Has "in good standing" been defined somewhere?

TheLethalCarrot

I think it means no suspensions network wide in the past year

265

Q: Let's disallow moderator nominations from people who've been suspended in the past year

Well, it's election season again. On sites all over the network, moderators are being selected from among the good folk willing to volunteer their time to help guide and support their communities. I'm proud to be part of a system that governs itself in this manner; for all of its inherent messine...

SQB

Or to be blunt and address the issue directly, I wouldn't consider Sachin Shekhar to be in good standing. And that includes claiming support for his nomination from Valorum and DVK, which the former has denied vehemently.

And I do realise that I should've brought this up during nomination, but I was occupied with debating my own nomination.

Mithical

@TheLethalCarrot Indeed.

Which came out because of the last SFF election, incidentally.

TheLethalCarrot

09:15

I'd call it the informal nickname but he might not want me to bring it up ;P

@SQB Up until the stuff in the nomination I can't remember them doing anything bad recently tbf

SQB

I must admit I haven't checked the recent state of affairs.

TheLethalCarrot

I haven't checked, just going off of memory so could be wrong

b_jonas

@SQB Where do they claim support from Valorum and DVK?

TheLethalCarrot

scifi.stackexchange.com/posts/250001/revisions

SQB

They did, then Valorum commented on that, then they removed it.

TheLethalCarrot

09:20

Check the comments on the nomination if you doubt it as well

SQB

scifi.stackexchange.com/election/…

b_jonas

@TheLethalCarrot Ok, so how do I tell if that's the election post rather than a stupid draft that should be hidden? I don't see a "back to post" button

TheLethalCarrot

That's the revision history on the nomination "intro"

b_jonas

ah, there's a "history" link from scifi.stackexchange.com/election/5?tab=nomination

TheLethalCarrot

Aye

b_jonas

09:22

thanks, I'm not too familiar with how the election stuff works.

SQB

Valorum commented his denial at 16:44, about half an hour later the claim of support was removed by Sachin.

TheLethalCarrot

@b_jonas it has changed somewhat recently

b_jonas

scifi.stackexchange.com/election/…

"Nobody has been banned more times than you from this site." is that true?

SQB

Yeah, that doesn't get formatted properly.

TheLethalCarrot

@b_jonas We have no reason not to believe it and rand has access to that information where we don't

SQB

09:24

> "I've complete support of most famous users on this site including but not limited to @Valorum & @DVK" - Can you please remove this from your post immediately. For the avoidance of doubt, I won't be voting for you. You are, quite frankly, the worst possible candidate that's ever stood on any SE site and winning this election would be a disaster, given your persistent sexually predatory actions and intentional violations of the site's code of conduct. – Valorum Jun 9 at 16:44

b_jonas

Yeah, I'm just surprised.

Not that it matters because the other frequently banned users aren't nominating themselves.

Ok, I don't particularly care whether Valorum endorses a candidate, but lying about that in the election statement seems pretty bad.

SQB

Like wrote, I realise I should've brought this up before and it's not a good look to criticise another nominee in this manner, but I do feel this is important.

b_jonas

Yes, you should bring it up.

SQB

Which is why I'm bringing it up here, with a mod (wait, where did @Randal'Thor go?) and two CMs present.

b_jonas

However, I should read the comments for all the candidates on the nomination phase, because I care about what the existing diamonds say

Though it's a bit tricky because the comments got closed after nomination and two candidates nominated on the last day

so I'll have to look in this room too

the existing mods matter because they will have to work together with the new mod

So if the existing diamond mods want to tell us on who they think they'd be able to work together or the opposite, feel free to speak up, here or in meta.

SQB

09:33

I didn't know it either, but you can switch back to the nominations tab on the election page.

TheLethalCarrot

@SQB FWIW I think hiding comments away in another tab and locking them is a poor choice. They should be visible (collapsed by default) and not locked through the entire election in my mind. It just leads to things like this where you have no decent place to express your opinion and late nominations get too little attention

SQB

It's right below the banner that reads "Election closes in X days".

b_jonas

@TheLethalCarrot I still think comments are limited and I'm not sure comments should be even allowed on the election page. We should instead discuss on meta.

TheLethalCarrot

Should we? That hides the discussion away, nominees aren't guaranteed to see it there never mind the average user. And at best all you're doing is recreating being able to comment on a nomination post itself but somewhere else

b_jonas

@TheLethalCarrot Perhaps. I don't think it hides them away too much, scifi.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/election on the meta is the natural place to look, and I am looking there. But perhaps there are people who can vote and don't look there.

I know a lot of users get votes, I get votes on SE sites where I have very little activity, but I don't actually vote there because I don't know anything about the site.

I just visit the election page for the free bronze badge.

TheLethalCarrot

09:43

You'd struggle getting the main voting population even reading the questionnaire answers and that's in the nomination itself now. In fact reading the "intro" is probably more than some do. Asking them to go find another post, or posts, on meta and sift through that lot is too much for those that are really invested I feel

SQB

So ehr... @Catija, @hyper-neutrino, what are your thoughts on this issue?

Rand al'Thor

@SQB I was AFK for a bit, sorry. (Also, two CMs? hyper-neutrino is a mod on Code Golf; only Catija is a CM in here.)

b_jonas

@TheLethalCarrot I'm invested enough in Sci Fi that I have read the seven full election statements. And I will look for further comments on meta and here, because I'm not sure about my votes, and I may still change them depending on what I hear. I have to give time for everyone to react after the nomination phase ended.

I did submit some votes, but I expect that I may change them.

SQB

@Randal'Thor Ah, I missed that.

Rand al'Thor

@b_jonas Exactly.

b_jonas

09:50

But there are only three SE sites where I'd be willing to do this.

On the rest I probably wouldn't vote at all, because I barely know anything about the issues that mods encounter, or the existing mods.

Rand al'Thor

So yeah, there are ways in which Sachin might not be considered "in good standing" (like his suspension history), but the definition of that phrase for election purposes seems to be pretty much what Carrot said, no suspensions anywhere on the network in the last year, and that's a bar which Sachin passes.

SQB

Okay.

Rand al'Thor

All three current mods and CMs were discussing this issue privately during the nomination phase. I'm not sure how much of that discussion I should mention publicly, but clearly the result is that CMs didn't remove his nomination.

SQB

Okay, thanks.

That's all I need to know.

Rand al'Thor

You're completely justified to be concerned, and you raised the issue in a careful and sensitive way. Thanks for that.

b_jonas

09:55

Is the voting method the same as in the last years, so that my highest ranked vote has the most weight and if half of the voters vote on the same candidate as their highest ranked vote then they will be elected regardless the second ranked vote? Do I understand this correctly? I do know that you can now submit more than three ranked vote, but that just makes this better.

The only worrying part is "You should only rank the candidates you think would make good moderators." which suggests that I'm misunderstanding the voting method

I thought the voting method is such that I should rank all (or all but one) candidates because it's not worse than not ranking them.

TheLethalCarrot

I believe you're correct, the only change is that now you can rank as many or as few candidates as you'd like

b_jonas

@Randal'Thor Sure, but I'd like to hear about what the diamonds say about the other candidates too.

Rand al'Thor

@b_jonas The system of transferring votes (Meek STV) is the same as before; the only difference is that you can now rank all candidates instead of just up to 3.

b_jonas

@Randal'Thor Thank you.

Rand al'Thor

2nd and lower choices only come into play when your 1st choice is either elected or eliminated.

TheLethalCarrot

09:58

@b_jonas I believe that phrase is just there to mean you don't have to order everyone, you just have the possibility to do so

Rand al'Thor

I'm told that, if you think someone would be a bad mod, don't bother ranking them at all. I'm not quite sure of the justification of that recommendation in terms of the voting system, but it intuitively makes sense that if you really don't want to see someone as a mod, you don't put them on your ballot at all.

b_jonas

@Randal'Thor Well, if two users are such bad candidates that you don't expect they'd be elected, then it doesn't matter if you rank them among the bottom or not I guess.

Rand al'Thor

@b_jonas If you think two people are really bad and rank them at the bottom, but other people rank them higher, then your vote would actually go to them if your top five choices are eliminated.

b_jonas

@Randal'Thor Sure.

TheLethalCarrot

Essentially you don't want to be the reason someone gets elected because you thought voting for them near the bottom wouldn't matter

b_jonas

10:07

@TheLethalCarrot I don't think that argument is right. Ranking those two users among the bottom can't be worse (in this voting system) than leaving them unranked at the bottom. And I may have a slight opinion on who among them would be the worst mod.

Rand al'Thor

@b_jonas I'm not sure how much we should say about that. After all, we'll have to work with whoever gets elected.

b_jonas

@Randal'Thor You will have to work with them, which is exactly why I'd like to hear about your opinion. You might already know some of those candidates and might be able to guess how easily you can work with them.

And of course you can also ask questions to them in advance.

Rand al'Thor

Personally I'd be happy with any of the top 4 choices I voted for; they were very hard for me to put in order. I'd be OK with a 5th too.

b_jonas

I see.

Rand al'Thor

@b_jonas And I did comment on some of their nominations.

b_jonas

10:10

@Randal'Thor Yes, I did see those comments. All three site diamonds commented.

As for me, I agree with ibid scifi.stackexchange.com/election/… saying "We already have several high rep users (such as yourself) who babysit the review queues, and there's not much more needed or even possible to contribute there. I do them when I see them, but they're usually already done by that point. Mod response time to flags needs a lot more help than the review queues."

TheLethalCarrot

@Randal'Thor Poor old me with no diamond comments on my nomination :'(

Rand al'Thor

ASR and I were also among those in chat encouraging/reminding certain candidates to nominate.

@TheLethalCarrot Your stats speak for themselves, you don't need mods to speak for you too :-P

TheLethalCarrot

Haha

b_jonas

Ibid is actually talking against themselves there, because that suggests that we can have TheLethalCarrot as a mod, we don't lose much if they stop going through the review queues because there's enough other "high rep users" handling those, but TLC can spend those energies on more useful diamond moderating tasks.

Rand al'Thor

The main "criticism" I've seen towards Carrot in this election is that he reviews too much and that's why some of the other candidates couldn't get their Steward badges :-)

And he said he'd review less if he gets elected.

TheLethalCarrot

10:15

#FreeTheReviewQueues #VoteForTheRobotApocalypse

b_jonas

10:39

@Randal'Thor Now I wonder who the 4 or 5 are. I do understand the criticisms against Shakin, but I haven't seen such serious complaints against anyone else.

TheLethalCarrot

I imagine it's more of a preference thing rather than complaints

b_jonas

I wonder if the other voters would know and I'm just sit here in an uninformed bubble.

The other 500 or so voters so far, I mean.

That's a lot of voters.

TheLethalCarrot

~504 so far

b_jonas

Yeah, I looked at the badges but didn't bother to count exactly.

TheLethalCarrot

dev.hyper-neutrino.xyz/election

I just checked @hyper-neutrino's tool

b_jonas

10:50

I looked at scifi.stackexchange.com/help/badges/89?page=9 , it's 8 and a half pages of badges and about 60 per page

@Randal'Thor True, I should review that in the Restaurant

in The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, 2 days ago, by Rand al'Thor

@SQB You've got plenty of back-end user moderation stuff for your nomination resume, plus a personality that doesn't seem to clash with anyone. I've never seen anyone pissed off with you, although I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing :-P Mods usually end up having to deal with more insults and abuse from disgruntled users. There's a joke in mod circles that you only become a real mod when someone calls you a Nazi on meta.

SQB

11:15

I voted for @JackBNimble as my 1st choice.

b_jonas

in The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, Jun 8 at 13:39, by AncientSwordRage

It's not too late to change your mind, if you do feel like running

SQB

And I've ranked myself last out of the 6 that I ranked.

TheLethalCarrot

Out of curiosity, why?

SQB

Because I'm a reluctant candidate. Like I wrote in my blurb, I think I should be willing to step up and do the cleaning.

But if there's someone else who wants to do it, I'm perfectly fine with that.

It's the encouragement I got in chat that made me consider nominating myself.

TheLethalCarrot

So are you running because you think it's what you should be doing or because you actually want to be a mod?

SQB

11:20

Because that means that a number of people think I'd be a good janitor.

@TheLethalCarrot It's a sense of duty. It's not that I don't want to be a mod.

Or I wouldn't have nominated myself.

TheLethalCarrot

I get ya, just trying to understand your viewpoint on it

b_jonas

I see comments asking Adamant or SQB if they'll nominate themselves.

TheLethalCarrot

I think the ones to Adamant were because he said he'd be running and took a while to get the post out

There was discussion with Jenayah and DavidW if either was going to run as well

b_jonas

@TheLethalCarrot Yes, I saw those too.

But since they haven't nominated, I won't pay much attention for that, it won't matter for my votes.

TheLethalCarrot

Aye true

Jack B Nimble

12:48

@SQB thank you for your vote. You are my second pick, after myself. And you just earned a coupon redeemable for 1 blog post.

SQB

I still owe the blog a post about The Efteling, don't I?

And thank you.

FuzzyBoots

13:10

Cast my votes. I wish luck to everyone. I considered throwing my hat in, but new baby, I didn't feel I could devote the necessary time.

Skooba

@FuzzyBoots well congratulations!

TheLethalCarrot

It's shame, the election seems to have been poor timing to a few users unfortunately

Skooba

IfIdosaysomyself... the Pittsburgh region turns out great moderator candidates XD

FuzzyBoots

Eh, it seemed too much like work anyhow. :-P

TheLethalCarrot

We can't let it eat into your book reading time :P

hyper-neutrino

13:15

@SQB uh, which issue?

SQB

@hyper-neutrino one of the candidates. But it has been addressed.

hyper-neutrino

Ah. I've never participated on SFF by the way - I don't have any mod powers over here, I don't actually know any of the candidates (except maybe Carrot, from his earlier participation on Code Golf, but I don't have a clear memory of that anymore), and I can't even vote in this election, so there isn't much I could do about it :P

I mean, I'd be willing to offer my thoughts or opinions if that's what was asked for and it weren't SFF-site-culture-specific, but I can't like do anything about any issue :P

Rand al'Thor

@FuzzyBoots I was actually wondering beforehand if you'd run, but I didn't know if you're even the kind of person who's interested in moderation stuff. (Some people prefer to churn out great Q&A and leave moderation tasks to others, like Gareth Rees on Literature.) You just came to mind because you're high-rep and seem to get on well with everyone.

@hyper-neutrino Somehow you got mistaken for a CM :-)

@FuzzyBoots And congratulations!

hyper-neutrino

LOL. I'll take that as a compliment ;)

Null

13:40

@FuzzyBoots Congratulations!

Catija

@SQB Issue? I tried scanning back and I'm not sure... you're talking about Sachin?

SQB

Yes.

But @Randal'Thor said it has been discussed by mods and CMs, so I'm satisfied with that.

DavidW

14:56

@b_jonas (I know I'm late responding, but wow was there a lot of stuff to catch up on.) If you vote for a 6th choice you don't really want then your vote could conceivably actually go to that person; if you don't rank them at all, then your vote gets "exhausted" and doesn't help get them elected.

Without looking up the actual rules, what typically happens is that if at any point "exhausted" gets elected then the election ends with nobody elected and it has to be re-run (possibly with new candidates or alternatively a reduced field).

Jack B Nimble

15:26

I'm sure a dozen mods will join that conversation to get the context of the flags.

DavidW

I voted "not sure" a couple of times, then skimmed ahead to realize it's all the same conversation and just bailed.

Jack B Nimble

I made sure not to vote for anyone I didn't want to win

Skooba

as the wise philosopher Petty once said, the waiting is the hardest part.

caird coinheringaahing

16:45

@DavidW We were told on CGCC when we had an election last year that elections can fail, if no one meets the required vote threshold or if no one nominates (not relevant here but). IIRC in that case, there's some serious discussion about the lack of willingness to moderate, then they hold a second election. If that one fails, then the CMs consider shutting down the site.

This is going to seem somewhat harsh... As CMs, we absolutely care and want our sites to flourish and it's been hard that we haven't been able to be as hands-on recently but if a site fails to keep flags handled and two consecutive elections fail, the next step would be to start looking at shutting down the site. The onus of site upkeep is on the community on each site. Your community here is the heart of whether your site continues to exist or not. If that community goes away or stops managing the site's needs, keeping around a husk of a former site that slowly fills with junk is bad. — Catija ♦ Sep 16 '20 at 5:50

Rand al'Thor

A few sites have been shut down in the last few years after elections failed.

SQB

Which ones?

hyper-neutrino

somehow, not windows phone :p

Jack B Nimble

I had a windows phone for years, but I didn't know they had an SE

caird coinheringaahing

Honestly, the fact that Windows Phone.SE got graduated instead of shut down when the older sites graduated is kinda baffling to me

hyper-neutrino

16:59

It was old enough to be force-graduated with a bunch of other sites at the 7 (I think?) year mark, and I think sites only get shut down if there isn't moderation for it... but I do agree, it doesn't make any sense that it got graduated; Windows Phone had been fully discontinued well before the batch graduation and even with moderation preventing an accumulation of trash, there's just not really anything there anymore.

Mithical

merge it with Retrocomputing :p

hyper-neutrino

lol

Rand al'Thor

@SQB Personal Productivity and Startups, ironically enough.

I guess their users weren't productive enough to start up a sucessful new site.

caird coinheringaahing

There's also been like 3 attempts to have a Sex and Relationships.SE that have failed pretty quickly

Not sure if they were mod related or not

hyper-neutrino

opening one like that just sounds like asking for trouble...

caird coinheringaahing

17:05

It seems like something that could be done similar to IPS, but as soon as you do anything wrong, the entire thing would snowball

SQB

@Randal'Thor most startups fail, so that seems about right.

hyper-neutrino

yeah. having the core topic of a site be NSFW doesn't seem like the most brilliant idea in the world to me

caird coinheringaahing

Also, one of them was supposed to be 18+ IIRC, which would be a whole other set of issues

Rand al'Thor

Windows Phone is pretty dead too, yeah. Just six users have any activity at all in the past 60 days (posting, voting, editing, commenting, anything): three 1-rep, two 101-rep, and a mod. On meta the corresponding figure is just one user which is @cairdcoinheringaahing.

SQB

@hyper-neutrino Why not? Unless you mean that literally and want to imply that people mostly browse the SE network during work.

Jack B Nimble

17:07

I browse it mostly during work.

hyper-neutrino

er, actually

browsing a site called sex and relationships SE during work is probably one's own fault :p

SQB

I'm amazed that there is a Windows Phone but not a [windows.se].

hyper-neutrino

the site would definitely need a boot from HNQ though

caird coinheringaahing

area51.stackexchange.com/proposals/3303/…

and meta.stackexchange.com/questions/115732/nsfw-proposal-on-area51

hyper-neutrino

there's definitely stuff well within reason that could be discussed. like, we've had discussions about sex-related things in TNB several times all that were (overall) pretty mature and tame, but there's just so much potential for things to go wrong (not saying that's implicitly a reason that it cannot possibly happen, of course)

but I feel like it'd get the same issues as IPS but tenfold

Rand al'Thor

17:09

> How is that subject not family friendly? Without it there is no family! — Toon Krijthe Dec 12 '11 at 15:46

2

SQB

TNB?

Rand al'Thor

Heh.

hyper-neutrino

@SQB code golf main chat room, the nineteenth byte

caird coinheringaahing

As soon as the 15 year olds find the site, it goes into the Trash :P

SQB

@hyper-neutrino Ah.

Sounds like it could be part of IPS.

caird coinheringaahing

17:10

@Randal'Thor I literally just upvoted something, and that's the only thing anyone has done on their meta in 60 days :/

Mithical

@SQB Oh hell no.

SQB

Although that would be an exceptionally bad idea.

Mithical

They go there anyway. We toss them out as soon as possible.

hyper-neutrino

i think IPS has expressed that they don't want it

Rand al'Thor

@Mithical Questions about sexual interpersonal relations are on-topic for IPS, aren't they? Assuming they meet IPS's general guidelines, of course.

I seem to remember writing a meta answer on IPS to say that relationships are interpersonal relations so they should be on-topic assuming general guidelines are met.

Mithical

17:14

Oh, sure, in theory.

In practice, almost none of the questions make the cut.

SQB

Haven't been to IPS in quite a while. Still my second highest rep stack.

So there's Unix & Linux and even Ask Ubuntu, but no [windows.se]?

That's weird.

caird coinheringaahing

And Ask Different for mac

SQB

That too.

And Android has one.

Rand al'Thor

@SQB Just a whisker above Puzzling.

I saw you on Puzzling the other day when voting to close one of your old questions :-/ (it appeared in the review queue due to a change in site scope since it was asked)

SQB

Yeah. Puzzling stopped being fun for me when it turned into "riddle me this".

I was and am more interested in puzzle solving techniques and logic.

Also, while we're on the topic of different stacks, there's a Bitcoin and an Ethereum, but no [blockchain.se]?

caird coinheringaahing

17:21

- meta.stackexchange.com/questions/364292/…

SQB

@cairdcoinheringaahing thanks.

Rand al'Thor

There's a whole load of blockchain-related sites. I think one of them (Bitcoin?) tried expanding its scope to accept questions on all blockchains, but others keep getting big enough communities around them to pass the Area51 process and get their own sites.

hyper-neutrino

I think Bitcoin used to take other cryptocurrency questions but eventually wanted to narrow its scope and boot them so they started making their own sites

but yeah I don't think it's a great idea to create like 30 crypto sites for each individual cryptocurrency lol. although they might not fit together on a site living under individual tags, either... idk

Skooba

hopefully those sites aren't about buying crypto because the answer would always be "HODL" "APE STRONG"

caird coinheringaahing

just need a wallstreetbets.stackexchange site :P

hyper-neutrino

17:36

i have a brilliant idea. nothing could go wrong with it.

reddit.se

Napoleon Wilson

@SQB Oh hell, if it was only those two...

SQB

Yeah, I just noticed there are more.

Rand al'Thor

@hyper-neutrino Yahoo.SE: a new home for the community of the now-defunct Yahoo Answers.

hyper-neutrino

:P

Napoleon Wilson

@Randal'Thor Actually it started with that scope. But after SE gave up on the Area51 proposals and just waved every single one through, they changed their scope to limit it to Bitcoin only.

Rand al'Thor

17:39

@hyper-neutrino Also, Reddit has an r/stackoverflow and an r/stackexchange, so why not?

caird coinheringaahing

@Randal'Thor StackExchange.SE: questions about the Stack Exchange network :P

Rand al'Thor

@NapoleonWilson Ah, I didn't know the order of events.

hyper-neutrino

@cairdcoinheringaahing :thinking:

SQB

So {r/stackexchange}.se?

Mithical

hyper-neutrino

17:40

we make an (r/se).se

Rand al'Thor

@Mithical ninja'd

hyper-neutrino

then they make an r/(r/se).se

then we make an (r/(r/se).se).se

etc

Mithical

@Randal'Thor I blame slow internet :(

Rand al'Thor

@hyper-neutrino This is starting to look like a programming language.

2

caird coinheringaahing

@Randal'Thor Idk why you replied with that, that's clearly a site about Meta

hyper-neutrino

17:41

@Randal'Thor don't give us ideas

SQB

"This is the reference implementation of the self-referential joke."

hyper-neutrino

r/so and r/se are dead tho i think

Rand al'Thor

@cairdcoinheringaahing Ah right, it has questions like "I wrote a thank-you comment, but it disappeared. What happened to me 'ta'?"

hyper-neutrino

well, r/se has activity, but it's all one guy and it's just clutter

Skooba

was there a time before each site had its own meta site?

hyper-neutrino

17:53

yes, everything used to be MSO IIRC

lol

caird coinheringaahing

I think that that was only when the trilogy was a thing. As soon as more sites got added, they had their own metas

Although, MSO was at one point the network meta and the meta for SO

DavidW

18:27

@hyper-neutrino {something} Symphony Orchestra?

(There's an XKCD concept: "My hobby: deliberately misunderstanding TLAs.")

hyper-neutrino

@DavidW Meta Stack Overflow. (at risk of a joke going over my head)

oh

yeah figured it was a joke. :p

DavidW

I've joked about this before, but mostly in a context where someone uses a TLA that I already know more than 2 non-matching meanings of.

Perils of working in the computer industry I guess.

I once worked out that I could, off the top of my head, put an initialism to every permutation of "ACM." :-P

Rand al'Thor

Applied and Computational Mathematics.

DavidW

Association for Computing Machinery

Mithical

19:03

@DavidW @ACuriousMind?

DavidW

I'm sure if I looked it up I'd be able to find dozens. That's precisely the problem.

Rand al'Thor

AnarChisM!

hyper-neutrino

Absolute and Complete Madness

Skooba

Asbestos Containing Material (in my industry)

b_jonas

23:43

@DavidW I don't think that applies. If there are five users that I want elected say A, B, C, D, E, and two that I don't want elected, G and H, and in the final sixth round after A, B, C, D, G are excluded, my vote gets counted for E regardless whether I rank the two candidates. So I don't think I can come out better off if I don't rank my bottom two choices.

The ranking of the last two only matters if the two candidates that I don't like G and H end up against each other in the last round.

Though in this case there's only one candidate that I really don't want to be elected, and I think the SE overlords would just refuse to pick Shakin if they're elected, even if they shy away from striking them from the election in advance.

Now if you think that G would be a bad moderator but H would be a really bad moderator, then you should rank all seven, despite the misleading advice on the election page that I quoted, which makes it sound like this is an approval vote.

So I think that advice is misleading and should be fixed, but I don't care enough to try to complain about it on meta.

As a reminder, the election page says "You should only rank the candidates you think would make good moderators." which is the advice that I think is misleading. And what voting system is is more well hidden, so someone might read it and think it's an approval voting where not ranking the bottom choices is worth when there's a bad candidate and a very bad candidate.

Heck, that might be important enough that I should ask on Meta SE.

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2021 Science Fiction & Fantasy Stack …