@chouaib He posted thoughtful answers to the questionnaire, for one thing. Few people look at the nomination page now. And his current score (+75 -74) still indicates he's not going to fare well in the final round.
@dustin: I may be wrong judging you, but you as a (moderator) you have to be very careful not to take things personally, of course you're allowed to disagree
@chouaib what have I taken personally? If someone comments on a post, they know (should reasonable think) I am going to read it so they should expect a response. In my response, I don't have to side with the statement, and it should be okay for me to voice my alternating view if that is the case.
I do really salute your determination by the way ;) keep it up dude, but you won't have my vote (I feel that your first day task as mod will be deleting my account xD )
@chouaib disagreeing with me wouldn't be a call to delete anyone's account. Maybe I should note I was in the Army, so if I seem a bit brash, they may understand but comments or disagreements wont truly upset me.
take it easy, folks. Stretching an argument out as far as humanly possible may be a local tradition of sorts, but please be considerate of the other folks reading this room.
@quid Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night nor repeated threats to quit forever nor punitive suspension stays that courier from the swift completion of their self-appointed rounds.
@rschwieb Alas, the usual suspects return to their usual heckling, with the usual dubious "facts", e.g. a moderator who wins an election by a landslide is certainly not "self appointed". And none of this has anything to do with the forum at hand. How about staying on-topic for once?
@BillDubuque Nice attempt at a pivot. Out of all the off-topic comments here, it is my one poignant comment you pounce upon. Apparently I am a "usual suspect" for pointing out shenanigans, and that's OK with me. I have no idea how you read your moderatorhood into that comment. But since that's too far off topic, I won't pursue it.
take it easy, folks. Stretching an argument out as far as humanly possible may be a local tradition of sorts, but please be considerate of the other folks reading this room.
@skullpatrol Hey buddy. Actually, I'm on a very small, unresponsive computer at the moment, and I'm a little afraid to scroll back far and read atm. What are the "big issues" going around in here?
@rschwieb Glad to hear that. Now I can return to much more productive (and intellectually challenging) endeavors, such as teaching, or commercials in your language.
Hello. Does anyone have any questions for me regarding my candidacy? I doubt very much that I'll win but I'm pleasantly surprised at how I'm doing so far :)
Division by zero is possible in certain contexts, like in the extended complex plane. In these cases extra care must be taken to avoid the standard contradictions.
When it comes to new users asking honestly about division by zero, I think it's much more interesting & fun to tell them about these cases (with due caution) than not. They learn more and it might excite them.
@skullpatrol Little math knowledge is required to be a good moderator. Most of the important moderator duties have to do with people skills. Probably the most important skill required is the capability to moderate disputes, in order to keep the site from losing valuable contributors. Unfortunately few (if any) of the prior mods had these skills.
I suppose that I would be trying to settle disputes, whether between users or on subtle matters in meta. To do this well might be a matter of experience, I think, although having the support of the community; patience, good will, honesty; and the tools of a moderator would all help greatly.
@Shaun I totally agree with the last line. One thing we unfortunately do not have a window on is exactly how moderators handle such things. The inner workings are usually kept quiet for good reasons. A potential future moderator would have to spend some time chatting up experienced ones to gain some insight on this.
@Shaun Hmm, do you witness any specific conflict resolution on the site that you might model your approach on?
Well, there's always the next election. I think it's no secret that I don't stand a chance in this one. I see it as practise, as putting my foot in the door, even if I get my toes hurt.
To be honest, nothing particularly in depth; I try to keep up with reading meta questions. I like the way the fate of the (homework) tag was decided for instance: http://meta.math.stackexchange.com/questions/16425/fate-of-the-homework-tag-the-community-voted-now-what. That democratic approach to big issues is desirable. Approaches to matters of less importance would depend on the sub…
The Werewolf Hunter hat is so close! (Everyone voting in the final round will get it, unless they have it already). Although it'd prefer a Vampire Slayer hat personally.
The first batch consisted of just two users. Then there is a whole lot of them, but Asaf is listed first -- and knowing Asaf, I doubt it's a coincidence.
This page shows how the STV method worked out in 2013 election.
It seems the opavote page is not linked from anywhere on the 2013 mod election page. Users are invited to download the data and install software... come on. Any reason to not link to detailed results from election page, @Shog9?
Yes, but there are other factors. There was considerable growth from May'12 to May'13 too, but the number of voters compares as 394 vs 437, not nearly matching the growth of the userbase.
Now that I read old election pages, I see that Alex Becker promised to "unilaterally close spam" and nobody pointed out that this isn't the thing to do with spam. :/ Also, one of comments on his nomination raised a concern that, perhaps coincidentally, presaged what happened a year later ("Will you be able to pay regular attention to the site...?")
Hmm... what to wear for the final round: the uncle sam hat that looks nice on my avatar and is election-appropriate, or the pirate hat that is more impressive? :) Decisions, decisions...
Mathematics 2014 Moderator Election
Mathematics 2014 Moderator Election