That's splitting hairs... The weak point of Arkamis (as far as I'm concerned) is that he got carried away on meta a few times in the past. When he keeps emotions under control, I tend to agree with what he says.
Anyway, this by no means suggests that I'm totally satisfied with the current pool of candidates... Still waiting for JL and JM to show up. :)
There was nothing egregious, or I would not have even 0.5 there... I thought some meta exchanges in comments were unnecessarily long, and too forcefully stated, without being productive. This proposal, although well-received, was overstating the problem, and was never going to make a difference regardless of outcome.
> Elections (in most places, not just on math.stackexchange) most often than not throws up idiots and the top idiot wins. Democracy, elections, voting, etc. is of the idiots, by the idiots and for the idiots.
@Behaviour Is there a reasonable way of searching chat transcripts? I'm looking for a message I remember but have not even close to an idea when it was sent.
@JackD'Aurizio You say you are for closing HW dumps... but you answered a large number of those. Sometimes voted to close, and still answered. Other times just answered before the question was closed by others.
@MikeMiller There is the search box in the upper right corner, it searches the entire history of the room.
@Behaviour: you are right. The reason is that I am uncomfortable as a "bad cop". I like to be here to learn and to help. Sometimes I gave my help (and my time) also on questions that did not deserve it. Karma will reward me, I hope.
@JackD'Aurizio Okay, you are here to learn and to help. But that's not what the janitorial task of moderators is about. They help maintain some order in the sea of questions and answers. You don't want to do that, it seems. When you see a question like "show this number is divisible by 7", you are not looking for an appropriate reference for duplicate - you jump in with an answer, one of 12 posted there. Hungry for karma - or rep?
@Behaviour I am not saying that this is always applicable, but there are definitely cases when posting an answer is faster and easier that finding a duplicate. (If I see that it already took me, say, 15 minutes and I did not found duplicate - although I suspect that there exists one - I might just post an answer.
Other possibility would be leave a comment saying something along the lines: This was very probably asked here many times. Try to search before asking. But I consider this not a very kind thing to do. I have some experience with finding questions and duplicates on the site. If I did not find a duplicate, does a newbie really have a chance to find it?
It is a discussion for another place and another time. But I have to say that I am not satisfied with the situation about not closing duplicates myself.
I agree that sometimes it is a bit tricky to decide whether the question is a duplicate or not.
But my main complaint is that many questions are closed as off-topic (lack of context/effort) should, in my opinion, be closed as duplicates.
BTW about the voting process.
Do I remember correctly that number of votes = number of slots. And I not only cast 3 votes, but I also say who is my first, second, third choice. Is that correct?
Is it the same in the primary and in the actual election?
@MartinSleziak You're right about the election proper, but in the primary you just give each candidate an up or down vote and the top 10 by score advance.
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@MartinSleziak No problem. Though I seem to have had a one-box fail.
@Integrator Not downvoting nominees you feel are clearly unqualified would be a disservice to the community. If it means a downvote goes on your "record", at least you should get a badge to go along with it.
But, as I said, I doubt that those votes will count to your total.
@MartinSleziak The number of votes is independent of the number of vacancies. Some will say that there are 3 votes, as in the linked post above. I'll say there is just 1 vote, but it can be transferred between three candidates you select. Hence, the name Single Transferable Vote, STV.
The transfer happens according to a pretty complex set of rules, with the goal of reducing "wasted" votes: if your top choice needs your vote to be elected, they get it. If not (because of being eliminated or already elected), the vote goes to your second choice, etc.
@ArthurFischer A while ago I flagged one of user11639's posts above. I kind of wish they were not here, any of them.
Too easy. I think we have more than enough questions there.
And frankly, after reading a dozen of responses to a set of 8 questions... they all begin to look more or less the same, except for some variation in length.
Much like reading a stack of recommendation letters.
I don't know. The number of naked close votes cast on spam around here is mind boggling sometimes. As well as those all-too-effective "this is spam" mod-only flags.
In connection with the Stack Overflow moderator elections, we will be holding a Q&A with the candidates. This will be an opportunity for members of the community to pose questions to the candidates on the topic of moderation. Participation is completely voluntary.
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@ArthurFischer After the election is over and the Community Bulletin becomes less crowded, create a series of educational "events". Such as "How should we deal with spam"? Click -> short explanation -> better educated users -> profit.
Exactly how many active users do we have? I would suggest that 156 is a tiny fraction.
I've been an active user of the site for a couple of years and had no idea that this discussion was taking place. I find it questionable that a discussion with a different web address (meta) can impact on the ...
This is more of an attitude than awareness issue. Presumably, after the above post, the user knew of the existence of meta and what happens there. Still, hasn't been there since August (but visits main regularly).
This is getting a bit off-topic, so I'm going to log off with a small election-related remark: I wish Thomas picked a more recognizable name/nickname. By my count, there are 66 users named Thomas on the site. But he's the one most active by far.
@MichaelGreinecker He seems to be changing his voting habits. Just today there was a comment that he is going to case enough upvotes to make it serial upvoting.
However, the comment was probably not meant seriously. It can be found at this deleted post. (I am surprised to find out that also link to a comment at a deleted post works.)
In future elections (as the user-base grows) I would like to see a reputation deposit required.
This is similar to UK elections where a candidate is required to pay a nominal fee. This is returned if they poll at-least 5% of the vote.
I suggest a deposit of 500 reputation, returned if the candi...
@DanielFischer I didn't say, "You'd be a good candidate because It seems people here like you". What I said, "You'd be a good candidate. It seems people here like you".
@MikeMiller Indeed this is also the correct thing for a 10k user or even a mod to do. Spam (and only actual spam, that is advertisements not general garbage posts) should be flagged as spam, not just removed somehow, as this feeds the spam protection mechanics of the site.
@Behaviour: about the previous debate, I am not a reputation wh#re. I like to spend my time on MSE when possible and give insightful answers. I marked as duplicate many questions for the sake of order, just thought that math.stackexchange.com/questions/1063583/… did not deserve the same sort. Moreover, we all know that to reply to "quick&dirties" is not the most effective way to gain reputation. So, for short: yes, for karma, not for rep.
@MichaelGreinecker: you're right, but I didn't mean to be mean. I was just replying to @Behaviour's argument. He is clearly against my nomination, and I am here just to "stand my trial".
I am not a native English speaker, so, just to know, is "attention bitch" considered a rude expression?
@JackD'Aurizio The long record of answering homework dumps, followed by the promise to close them, followed by answering more of them, followed by cover-up and some choice language. Yes, I'm clear on my opinion regarding your nomination.
Indeed "attention bitch" is also considered a rude expression @JackD'Aurizio may I suggest you look into what is called "politically correct" language? :)
In general, swear words should be avoided.
Also, not being a native English speaker could be used to your advantage in such an international online community.
@JackD'Aurizio I just saw your last comment under your nomination. Although you are young, you are not a teenager anymore. You should know that that expression is totally inappropriate.
What is the most serious problem facing Mathematics Stack Exchange today? And what would you hope to be able to do about that problem as a moderator?
What's happening? The community is electing diamond ♦ moderators; those individuals responsible for moderating the site the election is happening on.
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In connection with the Stack Overflow moderator elections, we will be holding a Q&A with the candidates. This will be an opportunity for members of the community to pose questions to the candidates on the topic of moderation. Participation is completely voluntary.
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Mathematics 2014 Moderator Election
Mathematics 2014 Moderator Election