@StrongBad I think you are being a bit harsh, give it some time. I was tempted to throw in my hat there but thought better of it. I don't have lots of time, and not the endless patience that some of the current mods seem to possess (seriously, how do you do that?).

I think the decision of the current mods to rerun (or not) would be interesting, and I suppose many users would be waiting for that to consider whether or not to run for "the office"

My only concern with mods is the rash use of sarcasm and perhaps not so tasteful irony. Not saying that this has happened with the current mods, but it is useful to keep in mind that irony does not go well without the vocal and visual cues.

@aeismail and @F'x First of all, I appreciate the moderation you have given us. I need to express my concern about the spams that I have seen between UTC 04:00 and UTC 08:00. I have 154 helpful flags, 31 of them are deemed spams. Many of those spam flag had gone through few hours pending until mods' deletion. I believe spam post is critical to the success of our site. Many users come to our site by Googling.

However, they will have bad feelings when they see spams on our site. My understanding is that only mods can delete those spams in a timely fashion. Otherwise, it will require three high rep(>10k) user to delete them. Unfortunately, there are not many >10k users available during UTC 0400 - 0800. I think we can wait a few hours for high rep users to delete bad posts(by that I mean low quality posts, etc.)

But, we cannot afford to take a few hours to delete spams. Again, I apprecaite the moderation you have given to us. Please continue to do this great job. I also understand that all mods have their own real jobs. I would like to see more users to share this responsibility and spread the hours so that we can have an always great site. Again, thanks for all. By the way, I have not decided to run for mod yet. Maybe not.

@posdef I agree and that is why I waited. Once I found out @eykanal and @F'x are not running and that Charles has been absent from all discussions, I felt like people needed to step up. Nomination are only open for 4 more days and we are historically quite over the weekends so I though people needed a nudge. I wish you would reconsider nominating yourself.

@scaaahu I agree that time zone is an import aspect of moderation and I would cast my vote accordingly. That said we need someone from the appropriate time zone to step forward.

@CharlesMorisset You have not said much about mode election yet. Would you run? Please.

Sorry about the typo. I do mean moderator election.

@scaaahu: I was travelling the past week, I'm just back, asking some questions for the future moderators on meta :) However, I don't think I will nominate myself, it's quite time consuming, and I would appreciate to visit the site as a regular user.

@scaaahu: Concerning your spam question, I think it's a good point, but technically, aren't questions down voted at least 4 or 5 times automatically invisible? I would expect we have enough users who can down vote questions between UTC4 and 8, so that they are effectively invisible to new users.

@CharlesMorisset Downvoting is a double edge sword. Four downvotes will make the question invisible, but then high rep users will not see it unless they use the review queue. Not too many users use the review panel. Also, you can still see those downvoted question by clicking the Question.

Also, it doesn't work that way for spam answers.

@scaaahu: Even if it's invisible, as long as the question is flagged, the question will be seen by the mods as soon as they come online. You're right about spam answers, but somehow, I've never felt it was such a big issue. But I agree with you that it would be good to have a good coverage in the moderating team.

Perhaps an even better option would be to have fine-grained delegation capabilities. For instance, based on the declared unavailability of the moderators, high-rep users could see their privileges increased, especially for urgent needs (spam, vandalism). That would also be very useful when 2 or 3 moderators are away for a week.

@StrongBad I'm backtracking, I think I'm going to submit a nomination

there are a good deal fewer people putting in than I had hoped to see, and what with their having set up elections for 4 mods I can definitely continue to contribute to the moderating

one more person takes off a lot of the strain

@CharlesMorisset Nice to see you, was wondering when you'd show up :)

@eykanal: it seems that SE waited for me to be travelling to launch the elections ... maybe I should take that as a sign? ;)

@eykanal i for one would be happy to see your nomination. I think the pro tem mods have done a phenomenal job so far. You certainly set the bar pretty high :)

@CharlesMorisset - ha! "Quick, get these done before charles gets back, maybe he won't run"

I love a good conspiracy theory

@eykanal: I made a mistake: I booked my train tickets online, and not by cash. From that moment on, I was too traceable! :D I'm glad to see that you're considering running yourself :)

@CharlesMorisset I think what you propose is a great idea. How do we make it happen? I always wonder why do I get so many (154) helpful flags. Did I bother the mods too much? Why do I see so many spams/bad posts? I think mod coverage or quasi-mod(?) coverage is a good solution.

@scaaahu: That would need to be done by SE directly. I don't know if they have any such project planned, but that could be something that the next mod team will take care about :)

@CharlesMorisset @scaaahu I like that idea a lot, actually

@eykanal glad to hear it.

Does anybody know Peter Jansson would run? To the best of my knowledge, he is the only user who has done more reviews than I do.(I notice this by checking the Review stats.

Also, I have seen him appearing a lot between UTC 0600 - 0800.

@scaaahu: meta.academia.stackexchange.com/questions/966/…

My opinion regarding spam in a specific timezone: downvoted Qs are invisible to newcomers, and downvoted As are grayed out (in addition to being at the bottom)

3 spam flags hide a question, and 6 spam flags = instant delete, whether it's Q or A (source)

so, if spam posts survive, it just means that we just have very few users in this timezone, whether they're mod or not

which, I think, means it's not so much of a problem right now (and it will disappear as the site grows)

In short: mods are not the first line of defense, other users have powerful tools for clear-cut cases (spam, offensive speech, etc.)