Super User Election: Town Hall Chat

nhinkle

05:37

OK, I can't be here during the chat, so here are some questions I'd like to ask

> With a diamond after your name, everything you say and do on the site will be perceived in a different way. How do you plan to handle this, especially when having discussions about site policy and scope decisions?

4

> How would you handle a user who makes valuable content contributions, but causes significant disruptions to the site in other ways?

5

> Why the heck do you want to do this? Moderating is a lot of work, and you will get called out frequently for the decisions you make. What motivated you to run for moderator, and are you sure you're ready to handle it?

9

> Somebody goes absolutely nuts after you delete their offensive post and suspend them. I'm talking death threats and every bad word in the book. What do you do?

5

Simon Sheehan

16:52

@nhinkle I won't be here either - should I wait until later to answer questions?

KronoS

@SimonSheehan I would wait so that you can get all the questions and then answer. that's what I'm doing

Simon Sheehan

ah okay

nhinkle

@SimonSheehan let it be known that you'll be gone, and then answer them whenever you get back.

Simon Sheehan

Well guys, I shall answer when I return - off to work for a few more hours (second shift today)

KronoS

@nhinkle @SimonSheehan I used the Meta to let it be known I wasn't going to be able to make it

in case you want to do the same

Simon Sheehan

17:00

alright, good idea. anyways, off i go. sorry guys D:

Grace Note

18:37

@Simon @KronoS Inability to attend taken, sorry that I couldn't schedule to match you.

Just come by after the event and leave answers. Remember to use the reply feature

Sathya

18:50

howdy, howdy, howdy

hello @DragonLord @Diogo @Luke @Dennis

slhck

I'm here as well :P

Sathya

hey @jonsca

you're always there @slhck :P

slhck

:(

jonsca

Hey @Sathya, all

Grace Note

Alright then...

Welcome to the Super User Town Hall Chat

4

We're just here to get to know the candidates and ask questions regarding the candidates views on moderation that may help in voting.

A few notes about the format:

The format is open, feel free to ask your question(s) unprompted, however please be mindful of whether or not candidates have answered the previous questions so that they don't get behind and start missing questions. Other than that, feel free to jump in.

Candidates, be sure to use the reply feature so that questions and their answers are linked together. (Hover your mouse over the left of the message, click the down arrow, click reply)

When a question is asked, I'll star it - please star it yourself also to help! Please save stars for the questions so that candidates can refer to the star list to make sure they haven't missed a question.

@TimStone will be creating a digest version of the town hall chat after it is completed. This digest will take the form of a question on meta, containing all the questions asked as well as their answers for easier reading.

There's a system message up on the site, so we may get some stragglers joining us.

Oliver Salzburg

19:01

Should we just answer @nhinkles questions first?

Ivo Flipse

No first tell me why you aren't all busy on /review

Oliver Salzburg

@IvoFlipse I didn't know you could see that ;)

Sathya

don't forget to use the "reply to" link, else @TimStone's veins are going to popout.

Grace Note

I spy among us, in no particular order, the following candidates: @Luke, @danielBeck, @slhck, @OliverSalzburg, @DragonLord, @soandos. (@SimonSheehan and @KronoS are unable to attend)

Anna Lear

It usually helps to bold the questions so that they're easier to see.

DragonLord

19:03

@nhinkle I'll continue to make decisions as I usually do, only that I'll try to serve as the voice of the community. Not much else will change.

Tom Wijsman

@IvoFlipse I'm trying to fit 16 GB onto a 8 GB MP3 player by LAME-ing all the things.

slhck

Someone should also ping @DanielBeck to come if he's not there yet.

Daniel Beck

@slhck I'm here... somewhat.

Oliver Salzburg

@nhinkle If I was elected, I would be very confident in my prior judgement regarding these topics. Thus, I doubt I would act differently. When in doubt, I would rely on my team mates before making unjust descicions. I would handle the user same way as I handle other disruptive users. I don't think it would be wise to classify users by their contributions.

Grace Note

Well, I guess people have started, before I finished that opening, so, in that end, start off with nhinkles, and askers can start off now

Oliver Salzburg

19:04

@nhinkle Someone has to do the work and I feel comfortable doing it.

@nhinkle Assuming I made the right descicion, I'll try to explain to the user why I feel that he is in the wrong. If he refuses to understand, I'll ignore him. Engaging someone who is in such an anrgy state has rarely proven successful for me.

DragonLord

@nhinkle I'd probably send a moderator message pointing out the disruptive conduct. If this continues, I believe that it would be best to suspend the user for a few days--even if this would result in the loss of some valuable contributions.

slhck

@nhinkle I always felt that with a certain reputation level you become a representative for the site, even without being a moderator. Having a diamond next to the name would not change that feeling of responsibility. So, this would be nothing new, I guess.

Tim Stone

New users often are not accustomed to the Stack Exchange system, and sometimes struggle to present themselves properly, either in the way they use the site or their attitude. How willing are you to work with "problematic" users, and at what point do you decide that someone isn't worth the effort?

8

Sathya

Which one of you candidates will get bored or think "This isn't what I thought it was," and disappear after the first week?

10

Ivo Flipse

@slhck Which is probably why most of us prefer users with a great track record to become mods, basically they're already doing the work :)

@Sathya don't we have a runner up for that?

slhck

19:08

@TimStone You'll often see me helping new users by editing their posts, leaving comments, or explaining basic etiquette to them. If they have questions that simply aren't a good fit for Super User or Stack Exchange in general, I'll try to point them to a better place to ask.

Daniel Beck

@nhinkle I want to do this because I care about this site and enjoy helping others; both by posting answers and keeping the site running smoothly. I have been using the privileges I have for a very long time, and will just get more tools to do it, if the community elects me.

Sathya

@IvoFlipse then the runner up will have to bear the winner's share too ;)

slhck

@TimStone I'm also willing to "follow" new users and take a look at their contributions to help them on their way… problematic users should be brought to attention to other moderators and dealt with privately, but primarily every post (question/answer) should be judged by its own merits first.

Oliver Salzburg

@TimStone When I get frustrated, I'll leave the user be. I'm not particularly helpful when frustrated.

DragonLord

I'm doing this because I'd like to take my handling of undesired content beyond mere flags and close votes. I want to make a direct impact on the quality of what we see here on Super User.

You see, there are many things that an ordinary user can do, like vote to close on older questions, that often get missed by other users. While the new review system certainly helps bring attention to these posts, with the full moderator tools, we won't have to wait on other users to take care of content that might well have been deleted or closed one year earlier.

slhck

19:09

@Sathya Given that I'll mostly continue what I'm doing now, this certainly won't get boring. Bring on the flags! :)

Oliver Salzburg

@Sathya The other candidates! I'll stay, I promise! ;P

jrg

Everything you vote on (both close and delete votes), once elected, will be a binding Super Vote. How will this change your voting habits?

3

Ivo Flipse

@OliverSalzburg Just because we're mods doesn't mean we're not human. I wouldn't expect a mod to always keep calm, but a would expect them to know when that happens and back off

Daniel Beck

@nhinkle I am aware of that issue and even mentioned it in my nomination. I will continue to participate in regular policy discussions, and make it clear that it's my opinion I'm voicing. I don't see a problem with existing moderators doing so either. The exception is when I don't think I'm impartial, in that case I'll refrain from participating or will discuss it with other moderators first.

Sathya

On Super User, we tend to downvote and close a lot, esp recommendation questions. Tell us about a downvote, close, deletion, or other such "negative" action taken against you on Super User, and what you learned from it.

5

Oliver Salzburg

19:11

@IvoFlipse I feel like that is in line with what I said, isn't it?

slhck

@nhinkle We have to face the fact that this site is a community. If a user is unwilling to play by the rules – even if they perfectly understand that they have to work with this system – then I would talk to them in private first and let them know that they should work with the most important part of this site (the users who create content)), not against them.

Ivo Flipse

@OliverSalzburg Yes, just pointing out that nobody should expect mods to be angels

Oliver Salzburg

@IvoFlipse Ah, thanks

DragonLord

I'll just delete the user.

I personally prefer a relatively heavy-handed approach to moderator. This can quickly get rid of the bad stuff here, but we need to be careful not to scare away the newbies doing that.

Ivo Flipse

@jrg for some of the candidates their flag basically equals a binding vote, because I rarely if ever disagree with them. So I guess this is mostly a worry for the more unexperienced candidates

Oliver Salzburg

19:13

@Sathya My most upvoted answer was deleted because the question was off-topic. Needless to say, I was very disappointed. I learned a valuable lesson about the scope of the site that day.

Ivo Flipse

@DragonLord Do you feel the current style of moderation is perhaps too lenient? :)

4

Sathya

@DragonLord you'll delete a high rep user too?

jrg

@IvoFlipse Fair enough - however, it needs to be asked. Not to mention that it's a lot different when it's your name tacked onto the close message, and you're a moderator.

slhck

@jrg I would never cast a sole binding vote on a question that is not obviously off topic or unsalvageable, or should be migrated. Voting to close is a community effort and moderators should stay being exception handlers. As for deleting: We don't have too many users who are able to cast deletion votes, therefore I would probably delete one or the other topic myself, if there's absolutely no value in keeping it around on the site.

Tim Stone

When you see a question with major issues (poorly-written, argumentative, etc.), what tool do you reach for first?

4

Daniel Beck

19:15

@Sathya I'll make sure I don't burn out by overdoing it. Regarding disappointment: Talking to existing moderators, and doing the moderating I already can with trusted user privileges, I think I have a good idea of how it'll work, and I'm confident I can both handle it, and keep doing it for a long time.

DragonLord

@IvoFlipse Not necessarily, but if a user's conduct is unacceptable, I'll go right ahead and delete the user if this is a low-rep user.

Ivo Flipse

@slhck Never say never. Besides, someone has to cast the first vote and closing isn't permanent either

Oliver Salzburg

@jrg I hope I will only be slightly more cautious with my votes. If I would plan to make major changes in my voting behavior, that would mean my current judgement is too casual and I hope that's not the case.

@TimStone The edit link. Then the SuperUser Automatic Corrector ;)

slhck

@IvoFlipse No, of course, but I wouldn't want to overrule the community when a question might be borderline.

Dennis

Moderating is a lot of work. Do you expect to be able to keep answering questions or will you spend all your time here moderating?

7

DragonLord

19:17

@Sathya For higher-rep users, the first thing to do is extend the suspension, perhaps to at least 30-60 days, and send e-mail messages giving a stern warning. I would not want to delete a high-rep contributor's account, but

Rhyuk

KronoS FTW!

soandos

Sorry, just got here

DragonLord

@jrg I would be a little more careful with every vote I cast, and I may not act immediately on borderline cases. In such cases, I'll try to consult with the community or leave it to another moderator.

slhck

@Dennis Over the last months, I've been answering less, mostly because of the other things I was doing on the site, like editing and reviewing posts. A lot of them. I guess I'll keep answering the occasional question that I like or where I would like to research the answer myself – because that's the fun part.

Oliver Salzburg

@Dennis I spend most of my time on Super User reading and judging. I rarely get the joy of writing an answer.

Sathya

19:18

there's a feature request/bug that appears to have been ignored by the dev team, that's posted on [metasu]. The person who posted asks you why isn't anything being done about it. What's your next plan of action on this?

5

soandos

Should I start answering from the beggining

Tom Wijsman

@OliverSalzburg Haha, exactly, we've got addicted to doing anything but answering. :D

Daniel Beck

@jrg This one will probably require some time to adjust. I think it's pretty easy to detect whether a topic is a candidate for debate about closing, and will refrain from acting without seeing some community opinions first. And I'm sure bad decisions will be called out.

Grace Note

Could we reserve pins for important stuff, and leave stars for the questions, please?

slhck

@Sathya I'll ping a developer to check out the post and give a tentative reply about whether this will be implemented/fixed or if it's a 4-6 weeks thing. Then, get back to the user who asked me.

Sathya

19:19

@soandos welcome, feel free to answer in any way, just ensure you click on reply to.

Oliver Salzburg

@Sathya Migrate to Meta Stack Overflow

DragonLord

@TimStone I would point them to the FAQs, both on the site, and the network FAQ on MSO. This is essentially everything a newcomer needs to know to use Stack Exchange.

slhck

@OliverSalzburg Why would you migrate any feature request or bug report to MSO? The team has stated that they're welcome on MSU too.

Daniel Beck

@Dennis I mostly participate in niche topics as well, which means I'm starved for input much of the time anyway. I read much more than I post, and moderating should go well with that.

Ivo Flipse

Going to /review I've come across quite a few low quality posts from high rep users. Some of them even have quite a few upvotes, but clearly don't pass our current set of standards. How do you deal with this situation?

6

Oliver Salzburg

19:21

@slhck From my experience, that may be true, but a bug/feature gets a lot more attention on Meta Stack Overflow.

DragonLord

@TimStone If the user, after several attempts at educating him/her, doesn't seem to respond to assistance, I'll simply continue to close or delete as appropriate.

slhck

@TimStone Try to salvage in some way. Poor English can be fixed. Off-topic and excess information can be removed. If the post is still not salvageable, explain to the OP how they can fix it (if possible), and if not, let the community close it or close it on sight (if clearly off topic).

DragonLord

@Sathya I'll start a bounty. If this still does't work, I'll contact the dev team directly to call it to attention.

slhck

@IvoFlipse I would leave a comment telling the user to expand their post, back it up with links or other useful information. I don't care if it's a high rep user or if the person has just started on the site. In fact, I guess high rep users will respond to these kinds of requests very fast if they don't want to be seen posting low quality stuff ;)

DragonLord

@TimStone I'll try to edit the post or let the user know by using a comment, but if there is no response after a few hours, I'll close the question.

Oliver Salzburg

19:24

@IvoFlipse On a case-by-case basis. High reputation does not necessarily equal quality contributions.

Ivo Flipse

If you find a problem with how the site works or think a change in our scope is required. How do you go about changing it? And/or if you're unhappy with how changes are being made right now, how do you plan to fix that when you become a mod (if at all)?

5

DragonLord

@Dennis I don't post questions or answers that often. I actually spend more time patrolling new content than posting, so this will not have a major impact on the time I spend moderating.

slhck

@IvoFlipse Perfect example from just right now: superuser.com/posts/408624/revisions

Ivo Flipse

@slhck And if they argue that their post is in fact not of low quality? That if you want to know more, you should go and read the docs or browse Google

Daniel Beck

@IvoFlipse Comment of the posts, asking the user to improve upon the answer, as it's e.g. not useful in its current form.If such requests exist, maybe coupled with a negative score, deletion is likely. If I have the knowledge to make the post useful, I'll edit it in line with usual editing rules.

Ivo Flipse

19:25

@slhck well played :)

Oliver Salzburg

@IvoFlipse I'd first discuss my concerns in chat. When I see my concerns aren't unreasonable, I'll take it to Meta Super User

DragonLord

@Sathya I would try to avoid asking such a question again. If for some reason I don't understand the action, I would bring it up on Meta.

slhck

@IvoFlipse I'd probably try and edit the post myself and show how it's done. Leading by example, if possible, that is.

Oliver Salzburg

@slhck Oh, and I wouldn't migrate any question. But the user asked me why it went unnoticed. I would take that as an incentive ;)

DragonLord

@IvoFlipse In most cases, I would post a comment to let the user know that it should be expanded or otherwise edited to increase quality. In simpler cases, such as link-only answers, I'll edit the post to add relevant content from the linked site. Of course, if the answer is meaningless, I'll just delete it.

slhck

19:28

@OliverSalzburg Oh, alright, I see the difference now! :)

Ivo Flipse

As a moderator you're not just a janitor, but also involved with promotions of the site, for example our anniversary contest or the blog. If elected, do you plan to get involved in these things as well and if so, do you have any specific ideas to help promote SU? For example with the upcoming release of Windows 8

5

Sathya

Reviewing, acting upon flags, voting to close - all gets repetitive more so as a Mod because you essentially don't have vote limits. What steps do plan to take to keep from getting burned out? If you do get burned out, how will you handle this?

6

DragonLord

@IvoFlipse I would start with posting the concern on Super User Meta, asking for community response. If this is a major matter, I'll put it on the community bulletin.

Oliver Salzburg

@IvoFlipse Honestly, there is still a lot of uncertainty in regards to how much work the normal moderating will require. So I wouldn't want to make any big promises on what else I want to get involved in.

Daniel Beck

@TimStone I am willing to help if the users show some promise. This is highly subjective, but I expect at least minimal effort invested in the issue and proper question presentation. I will comment on what needs to be done and point out why: To improve the user's chance of getting help and not be ignored. It's not worth the effort if the user has no idea what he's talking about, the question is an unreadable mess and he's otherwise unhelpful. Result is closing e.g. as NARQ.

DragonLord

19:31

@IvoFlipse This isn't my area of expertise. I'll continue to cover the usual content moderator--closing, etc. I might give some suggestions, but I won't be directly involved in the process.

slhck

@IvoFlipse I guess being successful with that depends on finding at least one person who will devote more time into for example the blog, and just do that. I'm not sure how things will work out in the future, but I believe that I would first want to talk to other moderators to decide on an attack plan ;) I must admit I don't have any concrete ideas as of now, but that's nothing that can't be changed through discussion.

Diogo

How do you fell about being downvoted on primary elections? Some people had a lot of downvotes even having a lot of edits/flags and activity that already helped on superuser.. What do you consider that is being the largest difference on these cases?

3

slhck

@Sathya This site offers so many different things to do … I've been voting to close, flagging, reviewing for quite a while now, and even though I do take a break sometimes, I'm still here every single day, even for a couple of minutes. It never got boring so far. If I really felt like burning out, I'd ask other mods to take care of my duties, if needed, and probably start answering more.

DragonLord

@Sathya I would probably just go back to posting questions and answers, on SU and elsewhere on the network. I should be able to come back with a couple of days.

Ivo Flipse

Tangentially to @Sathya's question. Will you have enough time to help with moderating in the near future (say coming 6 months) or can you anticipate any changes that might not make you the best person for the job right now. For example: job changes, upcoming kids or going to college/university

6

Oliver Salzburg

19:33

@Sathya Hopefully, I would notice that the quality of my work is slipping, and resign.

soandos

@jrg will be much more cautious in my voting since everything will be final. I will probably be a less frequent voter

DragonLord

@IvoFlipse I'm in college at this time, but I am still available for fairly large periods of time.

Dennis

You close a question / delete a comment thread / take a normal moderator action and get called out on meta. The post blows up. How do you handle this?

5

Daniel Beck

@Sathya If it happens, I'll take a break, maybe a few days. I doubt it's likely to happen, as there's a lot I can do now already, and I'm perfectly capable to stop after a while and do something else, even if there's an unprocessed flag or a meta topic missing an answer.

Oliver Salzburg

@IvoFlipse I've been out of school for 8 years now. I work from home. I'm pretty much glued to my keyboard.

Ivo Flipse

19:35

@Diogo Its probably important that the candidates don't take the voting personal. Just because I don't think someone is suited to be a moderator doesn't mean I dislike them as a person.

Oliver Salzburg

@Dennis That depends, did I make a mistake?

slhck

@IvoFlipse I'm still at university now and – as every student – you can't foresee all eventual changes in workload. I would try to do as much as possible without sacrificing (more important) personal issues, but if there was a major change that would impact the time I could spend here, I'd probably just take a break, and if the community had a problem with that, resign.

DragonLord

@Diogo It might just come down to the overall participation of the user, not just in moderating activities.

@Dennis I'll post an official response about the action. In doing so, I'll try to address as many of the key concerns raised by the community and retain a fair tone to the user involved.

Tom Wijsman

Some user (not necessarily low reputation) decides that he wants to put up inappropriate content (whether name, avatar, about me section or post). How would you determine if it goes over the line and how would you deal with the user in that case?

4

Sathya

Is there anything in particular you'd like to change about Super User/Stack Exchange? What would that be & why is it such an annoying thing?

7

Daniel Beck

19:37

@Diogo I accept it and move on. Moderating involves making hard decisions that annoy people, so it's only getting worse than the few downvotes I got.

DragonLord

@TomWijsman I'd start by sending a moderator message. If there's no response, the user will be suspended briefly. Whether the content is inappropriate would be based on the community's response.

soandos

@Sathya There was a user that downvoted my post because he felt that a warning label was not needed. I dealt with it in this meta post.

slhck

@Dennis Well, if a post blows up, it'd be time to lock it, at least temporarily, and get in touch with the user personally. The post can be unlocked if there's no obvious hostility anymore, or deleted if there's no sign of the user starting to discuss properly. We're not censoring anybody, but we certainly wouldn't like personal accusations … overall, "being nice" is important, and discussion about the actual content.

Daniel Beck

@IvoFlipse Changing job requirements is always an issue, but other than that, I don't see any relevant issues any time soon. I've consistently been online a lot for years, using the internet for research, communication, leisure, so I don't see me canceling my subscription ...

soandos

@TimStone Edit. I have edited many posts, but to be honest, sometimes I just flag as very low quality (if there is nothing of real value there)

Oliver Salzburg

19:39

@TomWijsman I'd like to quote our faq on that: "Treat others with the same respect you’d want them to treat you. We’re all here to learn together. Be tolerant of others who may not know everything you know. Bring your sense of humor."

Sathya

Two highly respected members of the community get in a comment war on a question. They both flag each other's comments and are cussing and it is clear that this is beyond a heated argument. What do you do, what don't you do?

4

Daniel Beck

@Dennis What post blows up? In what way? Please clarify.

Grace Note

40 minute warning.

soandos

@Dennis I would probably answer less. Already, as I have gone through phases of doing extreme amounts of moderation, I answer very few posts

slhck

@Sathya I would like to make users more aware of the necessity to vote. It's what helps us separate the good from the bad, and of course the ugly as well.

Dennis

19:41

@DanielBeck The meta post. The affected user is starting to get hostile.

Daniel Beck

@Sathya I'm mostly happy with how things are now, except for our recent scope discussion (but that's heading the right way as well). The blog desperately needs some love, but the reception to improvement requests was positive there as well... I'm a bit surprised how frequently issues come up that would be solved by getting disambiguation tags (a proposal of mine on MSO), so I'd try to push that a bit.

soandos

@Sathya Send an e-mail to the dev team and see what the status is, and tell the user that the team has been notified. Probably check up on it on a regular basis.

Oliver Salzburg

@Sathya There should be something that notifies users by email if they abandoned a question. It drives me nuts to see 2 year old questions with 20 answers with 1000 upvotes, but none of them accepted :(

DragonLord

@Sathya I'll invite the users involved to a special chat room that I'll lead in an effort to resolve the dispute.

Diogo

Some time ago, we had a notable user (KCotreau) that didn't agree with a moderator action and just moved away from SU because of the disagreement. If this would happend again, how do you will deal with this kind of situation?

7

Ivo Flipse

19:43

@DanielBeck How would you push that?

Oliver Salzburg

@Sathya I wouldn't know what to do. I'd ask another moderator for guidance before doing something stupid.

slhck

@Sathya Huh. Sounds familiar. First of all, lock the post, and tell them both to step back for a moment, ask them if they think it's worth diving into an argument. If they come to reason later, fine – but I'd probably still delete comments not worth keeping. If the users still continue to fight, even after hours, that'd be time for a warning to both … it always takes two for a fight.

soandos

@IvoFlipse I have notified them in chat if they are still active, but if they are not, then treat it like they are everyone else. You are not immune from moderation because you have more rep.

@IvoFlipse Post something on MSU about what I think should change and why. It is up to the community to decide if we should change, not a mod (or even mods).

Daniel Beck

@IvoFlipse Depends on what the relation of team and moderators is. First step is finding out how they think about it, as there's been no response despite a good score...

DragonLord

@Diogo I'll send an e-mail to the user, saying that the action was isolated and should not affect the user's standing. I try to be friendly to users, unless they are being obviously abusively. We don't like to lose well-established users, but in no case is a user obliged to participate (except for mods, of course).

slhck

19:44

@Diogo In that case this particular user chose to actively (and repeatedly) ignore and act against both community and moderator advice. He was contributing very well in terms of answers, which should always be encouraged, but if they want to leave, that's their decision.

Dennis

You strongly disagree with an action taken by a fellow moderator. How do you proceed?

9

Tom Wijsman

@slhck "it always takes two for a fight" agreed, one should only single out a person if he shows up in multiple fights and chooses to be ignorant every time.

Ivo Flipse

Which candidates do you think are most suited for filling our current positions?

6

slhck

@Dennis A little broad, but: Ask them for their reasoning, and if you still think something needs to be done, go to Teacher's Lounge and ask what other moderators think the action.

Ivo Flipse

@Dennis Step 1: make sure we don't elect mods we disagree with :P

Oliver Salzburg

19:46

@Diogo I would never revert a moderating decision I made with good judgement just to please a valuable contributor.

soandos

@Sathya I think I have relatively high tolerance for this (I have done spurts of large amounts of moderation before). If I do start to get burned out, I'll take a break from heavy moderation for a day or two.

Oliver Salzburg

@IvoFlipse @slhck

DragonLord

@Dennis I'll notify the moderator by pinging him/her in chat and discuss it, starting with something like "I'd like to know why you took this action, since I don't agree with it." If this doesn't resolve the problem, I'll solicit community response via Meta.

Daniel Beck

@Dennis As I am directly involved, I'll ask him to keep it technical, and otherwise ask another moderator to handle it (if he thinks it requires handling).

DragonLord

@IvoFlipse @slhck. This is obvious.

Ivo Flipse

19:47

@OliverSalzburg plural, we can't elect slhck, slhck, slhck, even if I wanted to :P

Tom Wijsman

@Dennis As an user: Try to poke a few times to understand why they disagree. :P

soandos

@Diogo It does not bother me. I think there are other great people for the job, and if they win SU will still be a great place. I don't think any of the votes were personally motivated

Ivo Flipse

@TomWijsman Asking why someone did something goes a long way, that's for sure

jrg

You spot an epidemic of bad tags/tag wikis (think 1K + questions to deal with). Do you take it up on meta for community approval, or do you just go and solve the problem by mass editing?

4

slhck

@IvoFlipse @DanielBeck, @SimonSheehan were my first two wishes as candidates. I haven't seen the others being as active on the site. I would hope though that @SimonSheehan had more time, because I haven't seen him a lot in the last few months.

Oliver Salzburg

19:48

@Dennis Talking, talking and more talking. If that fails, I challenge him to a duel at dawn.

soandos

@IvoFlipse Should be available same as I am now, don't foresee any changes in my time availability

Daniel Beck

@IvoFlipse KronoS, Oliver, and Simon, in no particular order. (I won't bother mentioning slhck, that's just a bug that should have been fixed long ago ;-) )

Ivo Flipse

Cough You're allowed to recommend yourself Cough

slhck

@IvoFlipse @KronoS also makes a good candidate, I forgot.

Oliver Salzburg

@jrg I'd take it to meta, not for approval (hopefully), but to seek support and make my plans known.

DragonLord

19:50

@jrg I'll bring it up on Meta. One user can't solve a problem of this scope. To me, moderators act on behalf of the community, and I would prefer to enlist help from the community itself.

slhck

@jrg I think we have a good way of dealing with these things on MSU already. Not much would change about that. I'd never go on a mass editing spree myself, at least not with 1k questions ;)

Daniel Beck

@jrg Meta of course, presenting what I think is the problem and (separately) the proposed solution.

soandos

@Dennis I think that the way that it was handled with me in this meta post was best. Basically, just try and deal with it. If it gets out of hand, let another mod deal with it in an impersonal approach

Grace Note

50 minute warning - make sure to check over questions to see any you missed. Askers might consider slowing pace a tad

Luke

Thanks to everyone who posted questions; unfortunately, I have withdrawn from the election for this time around

Diogo

19:51

We have a lot of new users that comes here, makes a question, get a good answer and disappear, never come back leaving the question without any accepted answer. How do you feel about it? Do you think that some answers could be set by a mod to be accepted or it lies just to asker?

6

Ivo Flipse

@Diogo That last part isn't open for discussion :P

slhck

@Diogo No one but the OP should ever accept an answer on their posts. That's why we have voting anyway. The green checkmark is not that important, and I'd never want to tell anyone else what worked for them.

soandos

@TomWijsman The community has done a great job closing things as spam/offensive. No reason to interfere if not nessary. If it is, then I'll act as I imagine the community would do.

Daniel Beck

@Dennis Discuss it privately with that moderator, if possible. He might have a good reason to act like that, so I need to find out what's going on first.

Tom Wijsman

@Luke And that is a good thing to do, having your name in there shows people that you are interested and to some extent involved. It shows that you do care but make rooms for others that are more ready for the situation; honestly, I feel that the top voted users are more worthy a moderator position than me. I haven't been around much lately anyway...

Oliver Salzburg

19:52

@Diogo As I said in an earlier answer, this is one of the things that bugs me most about SE. This has also been discussed on Meta Stack Overflow in the past and I've simply adopted the status quo (either the user accepts it or it won't be accepted).

Diogo

@slhck good point

soandos

@Sathya Call them to chat try to sort it out with the separately, or if that does not work, individually. Worst case, short term suspension.

Ivo Flipse

@OliverSalzburg Luckily we can always delete if non of the answers really satisfies us evil grin

DragonLord

@Diogo I would not do anything except make a comment to the question to let the OP know. If moderators gained the ability to accept answers to another user's question, it would take vital control away from the question author. This is something that I feel should be reserved for the OP.

Oliver Salzburg

@IvoFlipse :D

Daniel Beck

19:54

@Diogo The accept mark should be limited to the OP. Good answers get upvoted anyway.

soandos

@Diogo I am not sure there is anything to deal with. They leave, and there is nothing more to do about it. I think in that case, he was going to burn out in any case, but in general, be nice about it, but don't change the community for the sake of one user

slhck

Okay, so I have got to leave – I'll answer questions a little later when I have time. See you guys around and happy answering!

Daniel Beck

@Diogo Moderators should keep the good of the community as a whole in mind, not trying to please a single user, even if it's a valuable contributor. It's unfortunate if users decide to take that step, but it's their decision.

soandos

@Dennis Talk to them privately and try to see how the other mods feel about it. I will most certainly respect the right of other mods to make calls though, and will not reverse them without consulting them (unless it is something minor and uncontroversial)

@jrg Take it up for meta approval, then probably ask a dev for that number of posts.

Tom Wijsman

@soandos Exactly, everything that's been contributed is still there (watch out for users that slow cripple their posts though). Leaving doesn't mean much, you'll make place for other users / content by not spending much more time on the leaving user...

DragonLord

19:57

@Diogo We don't force users to participate, we simply encourage participation.

Oliver Salzburg

Grace Note

While we're reaching closing time, closing thoughts from candidates?

3

Oliver Salzburg

That needs to be fixed!

Diogo

As moderator, how would encourage new users participation?

Tom Wijsman

The blog has been slowing down to a cripple, do you have any plans w.r.t. to blowing new life into the blog?

soandos

19:58

@Diogo Its unfortunate, but in the long run, votes are more important, and they are not dependent on the OP, they are generated by the community. I don't see it as a significant loss.

@TomWijsman I have been drafting my first blog post and it is almost done :) I plan to continue, and to try and get other users to contribute

Sathya

let's wrap up the THC with closing comments, can reply to missed questions a bit later :)

Oliver Salzburg

@GraceNote Even if I'm not elected, I'll rest easy, knowing the other candidates on the ballot :)

Ivo Flipse

Don't forget to vote for slhck, just because you think someone else will!

Daniel Beck

@IvoFlipse Present it to meta, similar to how it was done with the tablet issue. If I'm unhappy about it, I'll present my POV. Either I get community support, or I don't...

Tom Wijsman

Yeah, thought about throwing this one last in as I can't remember someone mentioning the blog, but well, the site itself is more important... :)

soandos

20:01

@GraceNote I think that whomever the SU community picks to be their new mods, SU will remain a great place. I only hope that I am privileged enough be a mod and help out with that as I can. If I can't I will continue to moderate to the best of my abilities.

Tom Wijsman

@IvoFlipse Tempted to star. :P

DragonLord

@GraceNote Moderation is about resolving disputes and keeping the site clean. I'd like to take my extensive flagging experience and turn it into direct action. That's why I'm running for moderator.

Grace Note

Thanks to everyone who showed up, the Town Hall Chat officially closes now

4

Candidates, feel free to stick around and continue answering

Thanks to candidates for their time, and everyone who showed up to ask questions. As well, candidates who could not make it, remember that you can still answer the questions. A digest version of these proceedings shall be made by Tim Stone at some point.

Sathya

Thanks @GraceNote, @TimStone for holding this.

4

thanks candidates for taking the time out to come here and answer our questions.

DragonLord

@Diogo We could brainstorm ways to advertise Stack Exchange on other web sites using VC money, promoting it as a way to get high-quality, expert answers to questions of all kinds. Of course, we should try our best to ensure that new users are aware of how SE works so that we minimize disruption by newbies.

Sathya

20:03

it's 01:30 now, I'll be off. Feel free to ask any question to me or the Mod team ;)

DragonLord

Well, it's time for me to go. See you all and good luck.

Daniel Beck

@Dennis Discussions must be kept civil. He can strongly defend his case, but personal attacks are not appropriate. I'll ask him to stop the personal attacks, inviting him to chat or ask other moderators about it if he's interested in clearing up the issue, and keep to the issue at hand. Either that works, or he continues forcing me to lock the meta topic or temp-ban.

@TomWijsman If it's something I consider universally offensive, I'll ask the user to remove it. Further action depends on the response. If I consider the offensiveness to be debatable (the recent XKCD issue is an example of this), actions depend on community response (e.g. others users flagging posts of the user referring to the profile or avatar).

@Sathya They should discuss the issue in chat. If it's only a single post they're discussing it on, I'll lock it. Then I'll wait, and participate in chat if desired. Either they then stop, discuss it properly and at least go back to being civil, or I'll hand out warnings.

slhck

20:19

@TomWijsman I think – as I said before – the key factor lies in finding someone who takes responsibility. However, given that we now often tried to revive the blog, I'm not sure. I still hope to see my proposal being implemented. Using the Stack engine for the blog – a long-term idea for maintaining a healthy blogging culture

Ivo Flipse

@slhck Didn't Jeff say 6-8 months?

Daniel Beck

@IvoFlipse I think sponsoring relevant communities (like AD does with Gruber or 52tiger) in a very targeted way is a good idea to raise awareness of SU, provided the funds to do it, but I'm not sure there are suitable, comparable sites with a more general target audience like SU has. I'd love to see some more partnerships like with Lifehacker.

slhck

@IvoFlipse Well, he said that in February ;)

Ivo Flipse

@DanielBeck Well do you have any specific suggestions? I'd like some new ideas

Grace Note

@slhck Hehehe...

Daniel Beck

20:26

@Sathya If the issue has no significant community support, I'll ask the user to first improve the presentation and get more community support. For features, this is critical. If a dev notices the issue, he'll also see that nobody else wants it. If there is significant support, but still no relevant reply, I'll try to get someone from the team to look at it. Depends, again, on the relationship between moderators and developers. Given what I've seen, I'd ask the user to not expect too much.

@IvoFlipse Not off the top of my hat. Unfortunately, my dealing mostly in certain niche topics cough means I don't know relevant sites with a more general audience that well, both for ads/sponsoring and partnerships.

@Sathya I don't particularly remember any such action. A few answers were deleted when the question was off topic, but that was to be expected. I'd like to see this more often, actually. I haven't been downvoted a lot either, and very rarely got explanations, which is the users' right, but still severely limits what I can learn from it.

KronoS

20:49

hey all, I'll be able to answer a few now as it's my break time.

@nhinkle I feel that I haven't been that outspoken as it is, but I will be even more careful about what I say, making sure to respect others opinions. When it comes to site policy and scope decision I plan to use the FAQ and fellow mods as a resource in such discussions.

@nhinkle Attempt to address the issues with the user directly either through email or private chat. If the user is consistently causing issues I would suggest temporary suspension to my fellow mods, and if they are in agreeance do so.

@nhinkle I love Super User and the learning environment that it provides. I want to be apart of creating and maintaing that environment, and feel that being a Mod is the ultimate place to do so. I know, from watching our current mods, and helping them as best as I can, that this work isn't easy nor glorious, but it's necessary, and I'm willing to be a part of that.

Ivo Flipse

@DanielBeck I think some of us have less to worry about that part, especially when its old posts getting deleted, back from when we didn't really know what we were doing

KronoS

@nhinkle Alert the fellow mods, and possibly even staff if it gets absolutely brutal. However I've notice that simply ignoring such individuals is the best thing to do.

@TimStone I currently employ @TomWijsman's commenting tools that have been very helpful in guiding new users along the path that they should go. I try to encourage new users to use the Meta site and chat (if they can) as well as editing new questions to better reflect how SE works. However, help vampires do exist and at some point, they have to be let go.

@Sathya I won't. I've been around working with the mods on various things for two years now, and don't plan on leaving.

@jrg I feel that I've been voting responibily and only choose to vote when I feel that the post doesn't belong. However as a mod, when I'm not 100% sure that the question/answer deserve to be closed or deleted, I'll let the community decide on what should happen.

Tom Wijsman

@KronoS: The commenting tools are not mine, I have just adapted a version for the review beta. The original is here and written by Benjol.

KronoS

@Sathya When I just first started on Super User, I had a question closed on me. I asked about it on Meta, and @Diago gave a great answer as to why. I learned a lot from that experience, not only how to better my question asking, but also that the Meta site was a great tool to use to better myself and the site.

@TomWijsman Oh! Sorry about that!

Tom Wijsman

(Although I did contribute to some features that made it more handy, as shown in the answer there. I don't mind an accidental wrong mention, it's just so you know...)

KronoS

20:56

@TimStone If it's salvageable, and I see potential I try to edit, or comment for the OP to edit their question. There's also been a few times that I post it on chat for someone to work on the edit if I can't do it. However, I must admit I do use the VTC and Deletion flags a lot on post that are, IMO not salvageable.

@Dennis My reputation hasn't been increasing all that much recently, esp compared to when I first joined. That's mainly due to my focus on the blog, and cleaning up the site. I know that being a mod != high reputation gains, and I'm prepared and ready for that.

@Sathya Explain to them that the dev team is human, and can't get to every request right away. If it's a serious bug that I feel needs a little more attention I'm willing to talk to the SE staff (i.e. @RebeccaChernoff, @Shog9, etc,.) and bring it up to their attention

jrg

@KronoS You don't always have that option though. (Ignoring an individual)

KronoS

@jrg I understand, but I've noticed that 90% of the time that's the best thing to do, as long as they are not hurting the site or other individuals.

Ivo Flipse

@jrg In my experience I try to reason with a user, if that fails, ask someone else to try it (if required) and else, well you shouldn't really argue with a moderator :P

KronoS

@IvoFlipse the same way that I've been doing so. Assess the question and see if it's the root of the issue. If not, then comment to the OP to rectify. If I see that there's been no improvement over time and I can see NO value to the post, then delete.

@IvoFlipse Meta.SU and Meta.SO are great places to suggest such things. I would use those as my first go to tools.

@IvoFlipse I've already been a big part of such things, and plan on continuing in this involvement whether or not I'm elected as a mod (if you'll let me :P)

@Sathya Everything has to be balanced. I plan on everyday working on Super User, but not for hours upon hours per day. I have a life, as do most other people, and I know that I'll need to make sure I take time doing other things as well, without shirking my responsibilites here on SU. If I start to feel burned out, then I'll assess my situation, and alert my fellows mods if I feel that I need a break, or reduction in time commitment to the site.

@IvoFlipse I must admit, 6 months from now I'm not sure where I will be, as I'll be graduating soon, and this caused me to pause to think on whether I should run or not. I've given it a lot of thought, and although there may be a few periods of time that I can't dedicate as much time as others, I have the committment to stay with this for a long time (years in fact).

@Dennis Privately talk to my other mods. If I'm emotionally involved, I'll remove myself and let them handle the situation. I know that I won't be perfect, and I'm willing to accept any mistakes that I may make, so if there needs to be corrective action on my part, I'll be open to that as well.

@TomWijsman Jeff has stated that this site is supposed to be a clean environment. If I see anything of this sort, I'll address the user privately and encourage them to keep the site clean. Repeat and malicious individuals will be talked with other moderators, and possibly suspended.

@Sathya Lock the question at hand, and encourage them to take the convo to the site. If they continue temporary suspension may be necessary

@Dennis This should be addressed privately with the moderator. Never will I call out an action I don't agree with publicy. Moderation is a team effort, and I don't want to destroy that team.

@IvoFlipse @slhck and @DanielBeck by far are ready to moderate. @Mokubai is also a great candidate, and I feel that he would do a great job. I feel that I myself am also qualified and ready to take on this responsibility.

@jrg Something on this large of a scale should be approved by the community. Moderators aren't site gods that make all the decisions with regards to how the site should be.

@Diogo There's not much more that you can do, besides commenting to remind the user to accept the answer. Accepting an answer is the responsibilty of the Asker.

KronoS

21:19

@TomWijsman I'm here to stay no matter what for my baby (the blog). I plan on getting her back up and running and establishing a good foundation so that this doesn't happen again.

Tom Wijsman

@KronoS Surely, if I can share one thing upon that is that we not only need to invite users but follow them up in some way as well. That's what the Trello has been said in the first place, but I've found people drop out too much. Of all the people that said "Hi!" I haven't really seen much posts come through...

KronoS

@TomWijsman That's why @slhck suggestion for integration of SE and the blogs would be super nice...

Tom Wijsman

That too, hope it'll be there in the near future; would make it more like a network (and not just an Xth place that'll only end up having the Yth most active / social / moderating / ... users). :)

Simon Sheehan

22:35

Okay guys, im here to take a few answers now

@TimStone Well, problematic users are everywhere. It's bound to happen on a site this big. However, I think it's really easy to work with them. A lot of problems with new users can be solved just by pointing them with easy comments, to the FAQ, or a quick explanation. I really think that pointing them to chat helps a LOT. Then it's more person to person, and we can go into much more detail. Also sometimes helps to get them more involved in the site.

Tom Wijsman

@SimonSheehan Don't forget to answer nhinkle's ones from before it started.

Simon Sheehan

Oh dear, this a LOT of questions..

I didn't even realize the primaries were starting today

Tom Wijsman

Yeah, you can tell from the amount of KronoS' answers. It's a full hour chat so... Glad they limit the time.

Simon Sheehan

Wow.... voting is already insane

Transcript for

Super User Election: Town Hall Chat