Welcome to the Gaming Town Hall Chat, Round The Third and Third! And first of 2012!

@GraceNote Just in time, then.

First, the standard rules and explanation of the purpose.

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, please 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)

^^ If you don't, Rebecca can't protect you from @TimStone.

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.

@GraceNote tis true!

^^ If you don't, I'll obliterate you for starring things haphazardly.

We 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.

Apparently you should bold the questions. (Says @ChrisF)

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

For those among us now... I spy: @OrigamiRobot, @fredley, @MarkTrapp, @Wipqozn, @Oak, @Ullallulloo, @John, and @RonanForman.

@RonanForman You still listen to that guy?

@MichaelMrozek I kind of have to.

@GraceNote And me.

With that out of the way, let us commence the questioning. Please keep detractions to a minimum, ahem already

@GnomeSlice You withdrew

How would you deal with a user who produced a steady stream of valuable answers, but tends to generate a large number of arguments/flags from comments?

@badp So?

@MichaelMrozek This is relevant to my interests.

(You may begin answering)

I'm timing you all, and my voting decisions are based entirely on how fast everyone types

@MichaelMrozek Flag those comments (if appropriate), try and calm the tone in comments if necessary, and educate the user as to how to behave on the site (gently).

Why do you think we fail to have quality questions/answers for some genres of games (for example, fighting games) that have deep systems and strategic gameplay, and how can we promote expansion to games like this?

@fredley And if they're still causing problems?

Let me reiterate the point about starring anything that isn't a question: don't. And don't star this, either.

@MichaelMrozek in general, it's not worth it. People come here to get answers for their gaming issues, not to be insulted or be dragged into an argument. So first and foremost, my responsibility is towards all the rest of the users, both present and future. However, I will do my best to try and calm that user down - through chat and/or private discussion, preferably - and to emphasize what we expect of users on this site.

@StrixVaria I don't really see what that has to do with moderation.

@GnomeSlice It doesn't directly, but it does have to do with them paying attention to the site.

@MichaelMrozek I'd talk to them through a private chat, or through a mod message.

And its tendencies.

@MichaelMrozek First, make sure the know what comments are wrong or unfit for the site, if they persist or did know what they were doing was wrong they may have to be suspended if they are doing it purposely to annoy, we need people to want to be here, and people being purposely annoying isn't helping that.

@StrixVaria Game giveaways are a great way to get questions asked on the site. We could have bonus giveaways for games we want to increase participation on. Also: bounties!

@bwarner asks: What, if any, changes should be made in terms of moderation (or otherwise) on Gaming.SE in response to Jeff's trouble with popularity post?

@MichaelMrozek if I have to outright delete content or suspend, I will - but I'll first do what I can to not drive that user away, especially if he's currently in a bad mood. Bad moods happen, to us all.

A diamond will be attached to everything you say and have said in the past, including questions, answers and comments. Everything you will do will be seen under a different light. How do you feel about that?

guys we might be going too fast with the asking :)

@badp Or maybe they're going too slow with the answering

Thats what I was thinking

I remember I felt perpetually behind in the first THC. I liked the format of the 2nd much better in that regard.

I agree with @badp. And these are great questions so I don't want them to get missed

@badp I'm in no rush to get answers; that's what the digest is for.

@TimStone Make sure that quality is emphasized. It's nice to have jocular answers here, but they can be funny and informative. Edit answers that are funny and informative so that appropriate weighting is given. Remove answers which are just jokes.

@StrixVaria Lack of users who play play those games enough, which I think is just due to the interest of our community. Gaming promotional grants would be one way to help draw in more users to the site who play those types of games enough to generate content. Other promotions could work as well, such as game on!

@StrixVaria The current system of rewarding people for using certain tags, (based on views I believe) seems to be working. I also think if people use tags, then more people may think of questions to ask, meaning people think of these deep questions.

@GraceNote I think that most of my posts are generally of good enough quality that I don't have anything to be ashamed of.

@GraceNote It's a badge of honour. It would encourage maturity and gravitas.

Whichever way you vote on something would now be binding; how would this affect how you vote on questions on the site?

@StrixVaria As we can all see by the number of Skyrim question, grants and contests do a great job of getting traffic. This can help draw in experts on those types of games. Unfortunately. a question on a game with deep strategy will require a lot of thought in an answer and can sometimes get into too much discussion.

@GraceNote There's only one case in which I wouldn't want to boast about, and I won that argument anyway :)

@TimStone The most important thing is the quality of the post. If a user wants to have a little fun with their question I don't see problem with it provided they also answer the question correctly.

Man I type way too slow for this.

@GraceNote I just wanted to pop in and give you props for beating Mrozek to the punch at the question he asks EVERY SINGLE TIME. Nice work XD

@StrixVaria honestly, I've never felt we have some shortcoming regarding genres (except perhaps sports games) - it's mostly about the popularity. Heck, we even got some nice casual gaming questions and answers. I think there are two reasons for games to be mentioned on our site: popularity and whether there's an existing, powerful community for that game.

How do you feel about users being active only for a certain promotion/badge. For example, seeing large amounts of insignificant edits by a user going for the editing badges. Do you think it lowers the quality of content on the site?

@StrixVaria I think it probably has to do with the fact that those games aren't as popular as other games, and that there's a large gap between people the roughly button-mash and people that are really good at them. We could do grants to help promote them, but there are probably better games to promote, I kind of think.

@Noctrine I try not to even upvote questions I for games I don't play, and close votes are the same. I would probably bring it up in chat if I was unsure.

this format is really hard to keep up with. Can we please do one question at a time and wait for everyone to respond?

@Noctrine Mostly not at all. I guess more care would be taken, but I'm happy with the way I vote at the moment.

@GraceNote It will take some getting used to, but I I don't plan to suddenly start keeping my opinion to myself. Diamond or no diamond, everyone has equal say in how the community is run. My opinion won't suddenly matter more than someone elses because I have a diamond.

@spugsley this, please.

@StrixVaria now, how we can get a foothold into games dominated by other communities is the real issue here, in my opinion, but that isn't entirely related to the question :)

@JohnoBoy No. As long as edits are valid, they're worth it. I'm a fan of minor edits to grammar/spelling/formatting. It makes the site feel a lot more authoritative when everything is correct, and pretty.

@Noctrine I already only vote on answers that I have some way of confirming are correct. I try to have some idea of whether a question is good by restricting my votes to games/genres I am familiar with. So this will not change.

For candidates, keep an eye on the stars list. For spectators, for your convenience we will have a digest you should focus on afterwards.

@JohnoBoy It technically increases quality, but it does get annoying, if anyone edits more that around 5 questions in quick succession I'd say it's borderline annoying and I'd ask them to stop.

@MichaelMrozek I would bring them aside in chat (as privately as possible) and remind gently remind them to be nice. Somewhat less gently if they're being controversial on purpose, or haven't heeded prior warnings.

But, still, some breathing room is helpful

@GraceNote @badp because Bridge is closed for some reason, and the link in this room points to an old post and an old (locked) room, do we just directly ask questions?

yes

@JohnoBoy If they're flooding the front page, I'd probably ask them to stop or slow it down, but if it's encouraging people to do helpful things, isn't that the point? It'd be nice if we could get them to stick around more, but that's not our call.

@NickT Start from here for format and rules

@Noctrine I'd be voting less often. Except in cases where a question should obviously be closed (such as a game-rec question), I'll be waiting to VTC on something until it has already acquired 3 or 4 votes.

@TimStone I think the best thing is to comment on answers if they lack crucial data, no matter how funny or clever they are. Is there a funny horse meme-image-thing? Supercool, as long as it (1) conveys some relation to the answer and (2) an actual textual response which answers the question is posted before, around or after it.

@JohnoBoy Does it lower the quality of the site? Not unless they are editing in incorrect info. But it also doesn't increase the quality if they are making unnecessary edits.

The world of videogames is a large and varied one, and sometimes you'll be asked to act on flags where every second word is obscure jargon you never heard of. (cough, skyrim, cough) How do you plan to moderate plaintext jibberish?

@JohnoBoy So long as they are quality edits I don't see a problem with it so long as they don't start to clog up the front page. I've made the mistake myself, when I was trying to clean-up tags. Although I managed to burn misuse of several our genre tags I wound up clogging up the front page without realizing it. If a user did wind up clogging up the front page with such edits, I'd just ping them in chat to let them know why it can be problematic, and just try to space out their edits.

@Noctrine I'd be a bit more hesitant about voting on a borderline questions, and get some more community input, but I'd still close things that I'm sure of.

@GraceNote I try to be civil in serious discussions and funny in my jokes. I might fail in the latter, but I think I succeed in the former. This should not be a problem.

Should all policies on the site be absolutely codified so there is as little room for interpretation as possible? Why?

room topic changed to Gaming Town Hall Chat: meta.gaming.stackexchange.com/questions/3880 (no tags)

@badp If it's clearly obscure-keyword-heavy, there's nothing much I can do. If it's something popular (cough, skyrim, cough) that's fine, however if it's something more obscure that I'm aware no one may have the expertise on it may require some research to work out how to untangle the mess. However, Googling is probably as far as it would go for me.

@NickT Yes.

@MarkTrapp Sometimes you need to know what they're talking about to decide if a post is indeed an answer or just a irrelevant comment

@GraceNote it will set everything right again, right now it's strange that I occasionally see my name as a single-vote closer or deleter of an old question :) honestly though, I feel perfectly fine with my past actions. I have no issue with a diamond being attached to them... or at least, I don't recall anything problematic :)

@Oak Heh

@NickT No. A community is an organic thing. I'm much in favour of the spirit of the law, writing great questions and answers that improve the internet over the letter of the law, laying down absolutes of right and wrong.

The nature of our subject matter means we tend to get more than a fair share of new users who don't quite grok StackExchange. (This is especially visible when looking at, for instance, the deleted answers of any skyrim question.) What can we do better, and you specifically as a mod, to train and retain those users, as our google footprint grows?

@badp In most cases I'd ask someone who knows what it means, we have a very active chat, so I know I could find someone who knew about the game, no matter how obscure, and flags come with a reason, so it's shouldn't be hard to see if that particular reason applies.

@badp I try to have a decent knowledge of different topics, but if I'd probably ask in chat if I'm not sure.

Moderators across SE sometimes vote against the grain of the community. For example, a question that was closed by a moderator, reopened by 5 regular joes then closed again by a moderator. How liberal (or personal) should a moderator's decision be in acting on controversial questions?

@badp I'd do a quick google on the game to see if I can figure out this jargon, and I would also make a post in The Bridge to see if anyone more familiar with the game can let me know what all that jargon means.

@LessPop_MoreFizz Helpful comments on unhelpful questions/answers. Comment before deleting, directing the user to the FAQ as appropriate.

@NickT Doing so would be am impossible task. Not only does no one have the time to do so, but their is no way you can list rules for every single possible situation.

@LessPop_MoreFizz We should encourage people to comment when they flag things, and I try to leave a comment when I do. It's also important to encourage newcomers to read the FAQ.

@LessPop_MoreFizz Helpful comments on questions and answers explaining what they did wrong, and linking them to the FAQ. I already make a point to try and do this when I see it, so I don't think there will be any change here for me.

@NickT There is a balance somewhere. All policies should be well defined, but that does not mean "not open to interpretation." Every situation is unique and should optimally be given the same amount of attention as its predecessors.

@Resorath If a question gets re-opened then it normally calls for a meta discussion on the matter, I'd listen to why the community believes it should be open and give my points, if we still can't make a decision then I'd unfortunately have to pull rank.

@Noctrine I will only vote if I am absolutely certain. This is something I have listed in my nomination post, but perhaps not emphasized enough, so I will reiterate: if there's any doubt, it's not for me to decide. I will only use my vote if I am positive something is inappropriate or close-worthy, or if some conflict is starting to form (e.g. back-and-forth closing/opening). There are enough 3k-ers: as long as the amount of controversy is low, it's for them to decide.

@Resorath We don't want to become reddit, that's not what our community is about. If left to the hoards, we'd end up with memeful and unhelpful Q&A. The moderators role is keeping the site true to the SE mission: improving the internet with high signal, low noise Q&A. If a question really isn't going to help anyone who stumbles past in future, it's not for this site, take it somewhere else, regardless of how amusing it is.

@JohnoBoy Your question seems fairly disjoint and most people only answered the latter stuff, do you not like users that are only active for specific promotions?

@TimStone I would encourage people to vote like the tooltip says: on the usefulness of it. If the answer is funny and useful, by all means, upvote, but if it's only funny, I would encourage people to downvote unuseful answers and I would potentially remove blatantly distracting and unuseful posts.

@Resorath I'd only vote if I'm sure. In cases where a user asks a controversial question, I'd probably open a meta topic to gather opinions like we usually do.

@Resorath If the question is re-opened by the community the moderator should not re-open it. They should first consider whether they were wrong to close the quesiton in the first place. If they don't think they were, posting in comments/chat/meta would be the correct way to proceed. A mod is still just one user, and should be enforcing the views of the community. Their views come second to that of the community.

@MarkTrapp I'm curious to hear a bit more depth from your perspective on this one, since my perception is that the sort of Problem User you run into at Programmers is a bit different from the sort I'm talking about here. I'm not talking neccesarily about misunderstandings of site scope so much as more fundamental things about the very nature of Q&A as opposed to a forum.

@Resorath If I found I were in opposition with the community, I would ping the relevant users in chat and discuss it there until we reached an agreement.

How will your moderation style differ from the existing mods? How will the site change as a result of the way your style differs?

@LessPop_MoreFizz I don't remember everything about what it was like when I first began to use the site. I didn't know about meta. It may have been spelled out somewhere in the signup process, but it is common to not read things like that. Making the site friendly to new users is a huge point to me. I have come up with a few ideas, but none of them have been very good so far. Gotta keep thinking.

@JohnoBoy my opinion of trivial edits can be found in meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/74430/… ; if I see any user doing tons of edits which I consider noise, I will contact her asap to tone things down. As long as there's no evident abuse, though, I don't see anything particularly wrong with users doing something only for a badge. As long as the content of the site benefits, we all benefit.

@LessPop_MoreFizz In most of these cases, it's just a case of people not reading the FAQ, and there's not much we can do about that. Closing, commenting and hoping for the best is what we do at the moment, and I can't think of a way of forcing people to read the FAQ without being annoying to non-hastle users. And I don't want to treat everyone as a criminal before they've even posted.

@badp By the way the correct answer was: "There'll be 5 mods other than me. As much tempting as it is to clear all the flags, I don't have to."

@LessPop_MoreFizz Refer them to the FAQ, kindly explain our actions and how the site works, possibly refer them to other questions they might be able to answer sufficiently.

@GraceNote I generally like how y'all're moderating, and I think that I'd generally kind of conform to that.

What is your favorite color of lazers?

@GraceNote I'd do what I thought was beneficial for the site as a whole, with a focus on quality (there's a lot of old junk that needs cleaning up!). Quality has worked for other SE sites (notably SO), so I think that's what I'd focus on.

@LessPop_MoreFizz blue

@LessPop_MoreFizz Purple.

@Oak That's kind of what I was trying to get at, if you have any ideas.

@LessPop_MoreFizz Green, as per the Ask button

@TimStone I'd try delete it if it wasn't useful, and try to encourage people to vote on the actual content. If it was especially distracting, I suppose I could edit to make it more subtle.

@GraceNote I don't expect it to differ too much. I'm practically always here so possibly faster response times (I'm not sure what the current ones are, but my posts I flag seem to remain untouched for quite a while sometimes).

In 5 words or less, what is your stance on ITG questions?

@LessPop_MoreFizz Blue.

@badp I've never played Skyrim. During the Skyrim promotion I've flagged tons of Skyrim answers. How? Because it was clear they were problematic, mostly "not-an-answer". Based on this experience, I do not believe one needs any knowledge with the game for the majority of issues. However, some apparently bad posts I have left untouched, because of my unfamiliarity. As a mod, I will rely on chat to help me in these cases, turning the attention of other, more knowledgeable users to the post.

@AshleyNunn If it's unrescuable, there's nothing to be done besides a nice comment and a swift close/delete. If they take it badly after attempted reasoning, this probably isn't the site for them.

@NickT The example I gave was relevant only to the second type I mentioned. But one of my recent gripes with the site is how the recent "free game" and Amalur promotions. I think these types of promotions promote asking questions for the sake of asking questions. i.e. promotes non constructive and generic questions.

@StrixVaria Eventually, they should be eliminated.

@StrixVaria They're ok, let them stay.

@GraceNote I don't know what my moderation style is. I hope to learn all the best mod tactics from the existing mods. I can say I believe that no relevant information on an issue is unimportant. Everyone deserves to be listened to and treated respectfully in serious matters. There is a Captain Planet joke in here, but I can't put my finger on it.

@StrixVaria Okay if thorough. Otherwise, KILL!!!

Per @AshleyNunn's question, what do you think can be done to counter the general downvote-phobia that seems pervasive around the site? It strikes me that a large portion of our moderation needs arise because people would rather flag than downvote. Where do you draw the line between a bad contribution, and one that should be removed?

@StrixVaria They should not be allowed.

@StrixVaria Detailed is good. Otherwise bad.

@AshleyNunn We can't go bending rules for new users, but trying to be as friendly as possible helps if they are being trouble on purpose then we don't want the on the site.

@MarkTrapp -1 you're going to starve me from flag handling!!

@StrixVaria If they're descriptive and not just people guessing then they're okay, as long as people don't upvote just because they liked the game.

@LessPop_MoreFizz Downvotes on questions are rarely needed, if a question is irrecoverably bad it should probably go. Downvotes on answers are for incorrect answers, flags are for answers that aren't answers, or spam/garbled etc. In my mind it's fairly clear cut. Do we need to encourage downvoting then? As long as good answers are upvoted there's not a problem.

@AshleyNunn I try to be nicer to newbies, edit to improve their posts, upvote a good newcomers answer, and not down-vote on off-topic stuff, but I would if their answer was wrong.

@GraceNote I like the way the current mods moderate, and I don't think I would differ too far from their current stye.

@LessPop_MoreFizz Blue! No! Ye AAAAAAGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH

@John btw, I didn't see this coming.

@OrigamiRobot What... is your quest?

@NickT I do not think it is possible. In general, though, it's better to write something down as policy then to argue every time anew about it. Also I believe users will be more alienated if their content is removed because of what they perceive to be arbitrary decisions, than by clearly-codified policies. We do need, however, to be open for discussing old policies, primarily by way of meta posts.

@LessPop_MoreFizz To find the Holy Grail!

@MarkTrapp must...not...star...

This question is specifically for @John, @Ronan, @Origami (and partially @ArdaXi though he's not present). While you're all rather active in chat and on the site, (and in @John's case, M.SO, which is a big plus), I noticed on your respective nominations that you have relatively few flags here in comparison to some of the other candidates (all of you sitting at less than 100). Can you clarify a bit as to why?

@Gilles Already asked.

@Gilles fail (;

@Gilles That was asked further up.

@LessPop_MoreFizz Bad answers that made an attempt to answer the qustion should be downvoted. "Answers" That make no attempt to answer the question at hand should obviously be removed.

If a question is destined to be closed (subjective/NARQ), but it begs a very similar good question (though it may distort the original sentiment), should it be edited or just closed?

Thanks NickT. I was trying to think of how to ask that.

@NickT Criminy, I want to answer that.

@NickT I'd probably edit if it's roughly the same at least, unless the OP objects.

@GraceNote I don't want to act too quickly, as it leads to misreading or not quite understanding what I'm acting on. So I'd rather wait to see if it gets more close votes (in the case of closing) or if it gains more flags.

@GraceNote I've said that about six times in this session

@GraceNote Me too. And I suspect my vote will depend on the answer.

halfway through (:

@NickT Closed, and a new question asked. This is always, always the case, trying to resurrect questions gets complicated, what with comments and votes that are no longer relevant.

@fredley this is early in the life of said question ("destined" not "already closed")

@AshleyNunn I try to avoid down voting new users who make honest mistakes (like asking an off-topic question, or posting a discussion answer/quesiton). I prefer to explain the problem with their post, and redirect them to FAQ. If I see a new user posting several bad posts after being redirected to the FAQ/coomented to multiple times, then I'll be a little more willing to down vote since it indicates to me they haven't done their part in learning how our site works.

@badp @GraceNote perhaps a meta post with current mods' answers to these would be appropriate (post-election, so as not to influence results)

@LessPop_MoreFizz in my opinion, new users who don't correctly understand how to use a Q&A site are probably the most haunting issue we face. It's not a particularly terrible, community-splitting issue, but the sheer amount of not-an-answer posts, on a daily basis, is daunting. I'm not really sure how to solve this. It's very pronounced in gaming but it is a cross-site issue: meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/72307/…

@NickT If it's what the asker intended (or similar to it) then edit, but if it's clearly not, then it should just be closed. We don't want to be putting words into people's mouths.

@IanPugsley Precisely why I haven't answered it.

@NickT If a relatively simple edit can fix it, edit it. Encourage the asker to edit if a lot of revision is required.

@IanPugsley not sure why we'd want to wait post-election. I think I'll append my answer at the digest stage.

@NickT If it's a virgin question, then editing is a possibility. That's the only case though.

I certainly don't want to influence the candidates

@LessPop_MoreFizz For answers, it comes down to a question of whether or not it is an answer to the question. If someone posts an answer, even one which is poorly written, or just down right wrong, it should be down voted not deleted. Deletion is for spam/offensive/discussions posts.

@FallenAngelEyes I check the review page daily and would love to get more flags. To be honest, most of the time I am unsure of whether or not to flag. Sometimes it is painfully obvious. Sometimes, not so much. Sometimes, I just don't get to the ones that need flagging in time.

@AshleyNunn Some posts are obviously spam and don't deserve one, but generally yes.

@Resorath I believe I've answered this before. I will be very careful with my close vote. If I see myself going against the community I will stop and think again and again to make absolutely sure I was doing the right thing, and I will open an appropriate meta-post or chat discussion. Community > mods

@LessPop_MoreFizz For questions I think spam should be deleted/offensive should be deleted, but more often than not I think closing + downvoting bad questions are enough (bad meaning not permitted on the site)

@AshleyNunn Yes, along with every downvote. These are harsh actions, they deserve explanation. Currently users are prompted, but not forced to comment, I think this is adequate.

@FallenAngelEyes I can vote to close, so bad questions to not get me flags. And I'm not always on the newest game, (that gets the most new users) so don't often see the bad answers from people who don't understand the rules.

@StrixVaria I'm kinda swamped and only focus on stars, please re-ask with bold and stars and all and I'll answer :)

@AshleyNunn Comments should be strongly encouraged, but not required.

@AshleyNunn Not every one, but if it's ambiguous to why it's bad, then it should.

How can we attract users from existing communities about games that don't usually get much exposure here?

When I was a fairly new user, I asked a question about Dungeon Siege 3 and it ended up being the topic of an intense discussion on the Meta. I had no idea that the Meta was even a thing so I didn't even get to be involved. How do you plan to communicate all of the features that our community has to offer including chat, meta, blog posts, giveaways, etc to new users so that they can get more involved?

(slow down cowboys)

@StrixVaria Game giveaways. Currently we don't do nearly enough to promote these outside the community. Our various tentacles in social media should be leveraged, I posted about one before, it got a lot of attention on fb, it's a crime we're not making a bigger deal of this!

@StrixVaria Trying to get users to change communities from one specialized to here is really hard. Posting links to interesting questions there could help, but generally it's better to try to get them from new games.

@GraceNote I don't know if it will be significantly different. I see my top priorities as cleaning up the site, acting as arbiter in disputes, and monitoring meta and voicing my opinions there. I hope that if I'll be a mod, I'll be successful in those three... that's it. I don't promise any radical changes :)

@StrixVaria Infiltrate the community and link to our questions, or suggest they ask questions they have here instead.

@NickT I really can't offer a general solution to that, it depends on how much the "begged question" differs from the actual quesiton. If it differs too much I would encourage the user to ask a new question. If I feel the begged question is close enough to the original quesiton I'd suggest the user make the change if they want to, or offer to do it for them assuming it has not already been closed.

@LessPop_MoreFizz bright orange.

@AshleyNunn It's very helpful, but not required, obviously. Something's better than nothing.

@NickT If the question was already closed, I would just make the edit myself and ping the original closers to see if my edit fixes the problem. I would not use my mod vote to re-open without consulting the community first.

@Oak Hah, I already know your moderating style ♪

Is there anything you would want to change on the site? And how would you plan on achieving this?

@spugsley I don't. When users gain rep, they will slowly learn about stuff, as their new privileges invite them to participate in more and more of the site. There's nothing to be done here.

@spugsley Encouraging new people to read the FAQ should generally help inform them of most of the functions.

How do you feel about a flat, across the board ban on any and all questions that are legally or contractually (i.e. EULA) ambiguous? This includes questions about private servers, hardware mods, emulators, piracy, etc.?

@spugsley Related This is why comments should be strongly encouraged on flags, close votes, and downvotes. Some people may have the best intentions and not know they are doing anything wrong.

@spugsley I co-run the social networking site around here, so if we get people to follow them we can alert people to the things going on around here.

@Noctrine LAZERS (plans on achieving this still in the early stages)

@fredley changes your +1 to -1

@badp Serious answer coming, I had to put that in sorry...

no worries.

@AshleyNunn I think the most important thing are comments. The primary problem with downvoting and voting-to-close questions by new users is that it's just too impersonal. Do vote down and vote-to-close; just add clear comments welcoming the user, explaining why the question is problematic, and explaining how to fix it (or just fix it yourself).

@OrigamiRobot I didn't do something wrong. It was about my question being similar to another users question and possibly combining them. They wanted my permission and I couldn't give it because I didn't even know they were discussing it.

@AshleyNunn Not always. If a post is made by a freshly made an account, and it is just an offensive post consisting of insults and racial slurs, I'd just delete the post followed by the users account. That said, for the common situation, a comment should always be made when a post is flagged (or before it is closed)

@AshleyNunn I don't change my voting habits depending on a users age, but I try to post welcoming comments to point the user if the right direction, if there isn't already one.

@spugsley Ooh, I remember that one

@LessPop_MoreFizz I'm generally kind of reserved about downvoting. If the question is low-quality, I'll usually edit it into shape or encourage someone who knows how to to rather than downvote it, or at least remove it afterwards, and I usually don't downvote off-topic questions if I think it was an honest mistake.

@Noctrine Yes, some minor tweaks, some of which I have raised in meta, but nothing fundamental. It's a great site, and if it ain't broke...

@StrixVaria good, but should be watched.

@spugsley Anytime a meta discussion is happening on a particular question, someone should link it in the comments. This way the user is alerted. Even if it shows up on the right side, new users don't know to look there.

@Noctrine Spell L.A.S.E.R.s right. But in all seriousness I've been with this site for a while, so sort of shaped the site as it grew (as did all users) so there isn't anything I can think of to change.

@Noctrine I like to get important/game tags, but I'm not sure how I would go about getting them.

@RonanForman what's the last S stand for?

"from Space" obviously

@LessPop_MoreFizz Edit them to remove the ambiguity. Questions about piracy are already removed pretty swiftly, however if there's a genuine question buried in there, rephrase it so that any answer wouldn't involve breaking the law.

@GraceNote Trust me I remember to :D

@LessPop_MoreFizz Personally, I don't really want one, but if that's what the community would prefer, I wouldn't mind much.

Follow up on @Noctrine's question. Do you actually have a clear idea of what moderators can and cannot realistically do? (I'm not asking you for a shopping list of things you can and can't do. I'm just asking if you have stopped to wonder this, and/or roughly know the answer. Mark needs not apply)

@FallenAngelEyes I simply don't see much that needs flagging. I find very few posts that are cut-and-dried not-an-answers. I prefer to leave posts I'm unsure on to the rest of the community. Were I elected, I would bring up posts I was unsure on in chat and actively seek to get those resolved.

@spugsley Whenever a meta discussion is started on a question I think that a comment should be made on that question. As for promoting the use of these features outside of that, I think they the current system is good enough. It gives you a prompt when you unlock new access, and new users are often given an invite to chat via email (at least I was)

@LessPop_MoreFizz Most of these are not about gaming, so are off-topic, but the ones that are should be handled on a case by case basis, I don't think any rule we have can handle all possibilities.

@badp I think I roughly know, seeing as I spend a lot of time on MSO which is frequented by many moderators.

@badp Honestly, I do not. There would be a lot for me to learn, but I am willing to ask questions and learn.

@LessPop_MoreFizz I don't know. I need to think about it some more. I'm very happy about the recent change in which edits remove poor-quality flags; it's a step in the right direction. Maybe we should consider other automated way to decrease the number of flags. Also, downvoting is fun, we need to teach more users that and convert them to the dark side :)

Our Tags Suck. We have spent over a year now fighting about How To Tag Things. You have been named Supreme Dictator of Gaming.SE. Your word is Law, and Absolute. Your actions have no consequences, but you have a mandate to Fix Tagging. You can adjust the database in any way needed in terms of blacklisting or banning or synonymizing tags. You cannot make software changes (i.e. Tag Limit). The pleading masses cry out to you for an answer; 'how do we tag things?' What do you tell them?

@badp I think I know mostly what they can do from my time here and my lurking on MSO.

@Wipqozn oh, nice. I never received an email to join chat but I think that's a great way to do it.

(Protip: I'm asking this because most of the answers to Noctrine's question are outside the area of influence of moderators)

@badp Pretty clear idea on what they can do, less clear of an idea on what they can see (what the mod tools look like, what new data is accessible)

@badp I've heard people whine about things they have to do quite regularly, and I've often caught accidental glimpses of what my Dad's been doing.

(by no consequences, I specifically mean that you don't have to worry about impacts like front page bumps or edit wars while you implement this new Tagging Regime.)

Should questions not be significantly edited for fear of "putting words in people's mouths"? Does the original poster "own" their post or is it community property?

@Noctrine I'd like to remove ITG questions for starters, and doing so should be done through the proper channels: Meta, meta, meta.

@LessPop_MoreFizz I would be in favor of not allowing anything that would potentially severely hurt the site later. (i.e. Against piracy related questions seeing as SOPA and friends have been considered)

@NickT edited, while explaining in a comment, to the original user, that it was doomed otherwise, and explaining what to do if she still wants her original question answered (e.g. by sending her to chat).

@Noctrine I would also like to fix our tagging system, which is terrible and confusing. I'll post more about this i response to the quesiton lesspop just posted though.

@LessPop_MoreFizz Tags are for Games and Platforms ONLY. No meta-tags. No Minecraft-redstone etc..

@NickT They don't own the post, but the own it's meaning, it may be edited to death, as long as the meaning remains.

@NickT If a original poster doesn't want an edit they can have it however they want as long as it isn't offensive or spam or blatant misspelling or mistagging or something, despite the consequences.

@NickT IMO, it is community property, however, it should retain the original users intents as much as possible. If this is not possible while staying within the bounds of the FAQ, I would edit to question to comply, and leave a comment stating that I had and why.

@badp I think I have a good idea. Mods are members of the community, not dictators. You can't just snap your fingers and suddenly have things change. You need to take the same steps as everyone else: meta and community discussion.

@AshleyNunn in general, yes, but I do hope this can be automated. I used to comment on most answers I have flagged, but that really got tiring. I can prepare some copy-paste bin for myself, I guess, but more automation can also help.

@NickT This site and all its questions and answers are for the benefit of the community. I would rather see questions edited than have a million bad questions on the same topic that are just different enough to not be duplicates.

Gamers misunderstand tags as clan tags, that's why questions only end up with one or two tags instead of the usual three to five tags. :P

What do you feel is the biggest challenge currently facing Gaming.SE, and what, if anything, do you feel will help you address that challenge better as a moderator than as a regular user?

@NickT It is community property. That's the way the site is built, that's how it runs, and it has no other option. Significant edits are appropriate in a number of cases we've already discussed, such as bad questions with embedded good questions, EULA violation questions etc. 'Putting words into people's mouths' is a fair price to pay to salvage the question.

@LessPop_MoreFizz Tag it with the game first, and if we have many questions on that game, tag them with subelements of the game. (i.e. tf2-pyro) I would discourage much tagging beyond that.

We're at the 75% mark now

@FallenAngelEyes isn't this a dupe?

or just a dupe from every other town hall ever

@NickT See the first question.

@StrixVaria we post useful questions and answers. That's the best way. That's also the way stackoverflow originally took the crown from existing programmer communities - of which there were many strong ones - by posting useful questions and answers in a convenient Q&A engine.

@FallenAngelEyes If you asked me this at the last election, I would have said ITG, but now I think the largest issue is tagging. Our tagging system is just confusing. There is no other word for it. Most users don't know how to tag something, because We don't know how to tag something. As a mod, I don't feel I could address this any better than I could as a normal user. This is the kind of thign which needs to be handled by the community as a whole, not just one person.

@NickT Hasn't been asked here yet.

@LessPop_MoreFizz Honestly, without important/game tags, I don't see a decent fix. With those, I'd say to put on the meta-tags like weapons and alchemy. Assuming I couldn't get those I suppose Jeff's idea is the best and we should just tag with the game except for specific non-game-centric tags on popular questions in popular tags.

Is it bad that I can't remember if I answered some of these, or just thought about what my answer would be?

@FallenAngelEyes Quality quality quality. The tide of low quality content is just beginning (I'm flagging way way way more than a year ago. This is a side-effect of being great and being popular, but vigilance on the side of mods is required. This is why you should vote for me, I'm very active (on the site almost every day) and I swing past review every time I'm on, editing and flagging as necessary. As a mod I'd be able to be a lot more effective in keeping the place tidy and civil.

@LessPop_MoreFizz Clearly no one knows how to tag things, I think the current system seems to be working, as long as people fully understand it.

@FallenAngelEyes The only way I think my diamond would help solve this issue is that my voice may carry more weight with the higher ups if the community made a request for special tags, like game tags for example.

@OrigamiRobot Just take a skim of the stars list. We're winding down since we're near the end, and just do a quick skim of your messages. You can always check after the event to catch any you were missing.

@GraceNote I might end up double answering some of them :D

@NickT 1) Explain why I did it, linking to the FAQ as appropriate. 2) Let the community decide.

@OrigamiRobot Well, as long as you're consistent, haha.

@NickT I would say it's a combination of both. Questions do belong to the community as a whole, but you shouldn't go around wildly changing peoples questions without consulting them first. Edits should be made to improve a question, not turn it into your own question or writing style.

@FallenAngelEyes Our tagging is a mess. I've already answered that though.

@FallenAngelEyes I hope I am :)

@spugsley meta is murder :) let them come of their own accord. We do have links on the main page to our blog and chat, but again, let them come of their own accord. These are all secondary to the primary mission of our site, which is gaming Q&A. The one exception is promotions - we do need a good way to make those public, perhaps through more elaborate banners or changing the background or something. We just need to find a way which doesn't look like an external ad. We had a discussion...

Criticize us. You've seen the four of us in action for the last few months, I'm sure you've seen plenty of cases when you've seen us do something stupid and died a little inside, silently facepalming. And yet you wish to join our ranks. How have we been failing you? How would you be the most winnest Gaming modrater of all times? I mean, after Grace?

@NickT I'd answer it explaining why I did it.

@badp [meta.gaming.stackexchange.com/questions/3182/…

@badp Spelling

@spugsley ... about it during the skyrim promotion thing, which I think was very interesting and could be carried on further for new promotions.

@badp I was typing that. Well, a non first person version of that. FUUUU.

> You have fully used your vote allowance for today

:(

@LessPop_MoreFizz I've been waiting for like 10 minutes to post that

@LessPop_MoreFizz 5 minutes, by the way

@NickT I'll make my motivations clear. If I felt the need for action, I will have a good reason. If they disagree, I welcome a meta post asking for reasoning. That's how user come to understand the rules.

5 Minute Warning? Time for the final question I have then.

FINAL QUESTION: How far are you willing to go to demand that we finally get our firing lazers? What are you willing to put on the line? How many StackOverflow employees beloved family pets are you willing to kidnap and hold for ransom?

No, 5 minutes until 5 minutes

@NickT I would make a reply explaining why I did what I did, in a calm and rational manner. If they don't want to listen to what I said, I'd probably notify another mod to handle the situation. I wouldn't continue to discuss things with them if my presence is just making things worse.

@Noctrine make users downvote more, and I don't know how to achieve this :) also, I'd like to see some better way to explain to new users this is a Q&A site and not a discussion form.

@GraceNote Goddamn you. You've made me fire the lazers early.

@FallenAngelEyes Often 'smaller' tags don't earn people as much rep as the should. I honestly don't think being a moderator would help with this at all. But publicising should help.

@badp To be absolutely honest, I rarely see bad mod action. Sometimes we have flag disagreements, but more often than not I'm in the wrong (and new flagging rules sort this out to some extent!). We have great mods, I'd be honoured to join the ranks.

Not including yourself, which three nominees do you think are the most suited to become the next moderators and why?

@LessPop_MoreFizz I'm not going to answer this for fear of it being used as evidence against me. :x

@badp I made all my criticisms known here :P

@NickT I would find out why they thought it was wrong, explain myself and then make a new decision based on the new facts I had.

@LessPop_MoreFizz Since this is a part of my election pledge, all the way, no exceptions - I'm gonna be like Liam Neeson in Taken...kinda thing...

@badp Generally, I think that y'all've been doing a very good job, and your failures are usually very obvious. I'd probably try to just do normal moderator stuff and mess up not a lot.

@LessPop_MoreFizz I don't like the idea. As long as the operators of this site don't mind, our top goal is to help gamers. As long as we don't deal with stuff which are obviously bad (either blatant copyright infringement, or multiplayer cheating), I don't think such a ban is a good idea.

@Noctrine Three? Don't you mean 2? And isn't this supposed to be a private ballot?

Should the scope of questions on this site be narrowed to gameplay-only (no plot, ITG) or similar?

halp halp I'm not keeping up

@Oak Take a deep breath and take your time.

Too many questions, too few time...

It's okay if your answers come after the event ends.

@badp yes.

If you don't answer before the election ends, you are incapable to be a moderator. J/K, although you don't make a good appearance not answering most questions here... :P

@Noctrine @Oak, @agent86, @Wipqozn

@NickT No, I think it's putting the medium down to say the only thing it brings is gameplay, that's like saying we should limit the writers site to words the rhyme.

@NickT No, I think those can have good answers too. Sci-Fi works and it's almost entirely the former, and the later has been argued a lot, and I still think that they can work.

@MarkTrapp Yeah, Juan's been very active in the last few days

@badp I'll be splitting this into two separate posts, since it is really two different questions.

@RonanForman It's a throwback question from the other elections.

@badp To be honest, I don't have any serious complaints the current mods. If I had to pick and prod, I would say the @mana is a little to soft when it comes to handling certain situations, and @raven can sometimes be a little too quick to cast his binding close votes (you're obviously perfect @badp :P).

@NickT No, we have a good variety of questions, and a lot of interesting questions about game-lore etc (see portal-2). We don't need to change this

BONUS QUESTION: If annoying users use a P2P network, thus changing his IP with the click of a button, to abuse Gaming.SE (spamming / voting / ...); what would u do?

You disagree strongly with a fellow moderator's stance on some issue. How do you plan to handle that issue?

@Noctrine @agent86 @MarkTrapp @Oak ( @FallenAngelEyes if we could write in candidates)

@GraceNote No it's not! Type faster slaves! If you can't type these answers fast enough, how can we be convinced of your speed in typing out an explanation of why you've just closed that question about how to download Skyrim for free in Russia!

@TomWijsman Wait for them to get bored, clean up. What else can I do?

@TomWijsman wat. P2P doesn't work like that

We're at the 5 minute mark now - time is almost up. Please don't barrage the candidates with a slew of last minute questions like "If you had a theme song, what would it be?".

@Gilles Post in meta, let the community decide.

@badp maybe he means onion routing

Did you mean Tor?

@badp It does, it is that easy, but can't link those tools. They are associated to the deep net though.

Yeah, that one and others. :P

Ah, okay. Tor's totally legal anyway

@Noctrine I think Oak look like the best candidate because he flags everything and has experience moderating here. John looks like a good second. He spends a lot of time here and seems to understand the site very well. For third, it's a toss-up between Mark Trapp and agent86 for their high flag counts and ronnie for his so pro much-ness.

@Gilles Dicussion, discussion, probably in meta, if all else fails, fight to the death.

Wow, LessPop managed an invisi-star

@badp: Although people wouldn't have anything against gaming, which is why it is a bonus.

@badp As long as you're not in China/NK

@Gilles Simple. Talk about it with them either in a private chat or in meta (whichever is more appropriate for the given situation)

@TomWijsman They'd get tired eventually

@FallenAngelEyes I only barely got a second to star it in time.

@LessPop_MoreFizz my opinion from the earliest days of this site is identical to my opinion now - and, incidentally, identical to Jeff's opinion - tags should be something that people filter on, that they can be experts on. As such, I do believe the vast majority of game-specific questions - which, in turn, are the vast majority of questions on our site - should be tagged with just the game. For large games, such as minecraft, starcraft and skyrim, a few sub-tags are appropriate, as long as it's clear...

@Gilles Raise a meta post to get the input of the community.

@GraceNote It's still starred on my monitor

@badp Same, on mine.

For those candidates once you have made it through all of the onslaught by this closing time, final parting thoughts?

@GraceNote It's because I'm a wizard.

@TomWijsman Uh...I'd think that there's a mod tool or something for something like this possibly. Else, I guess just counter them until they get bored.

@badp One solution is like the obvious one that most post here, just wait and clean. Another one for more extreme cases is to deny anonymous users and registrations if it is really something serious. But well, extreme cases once again...

@LessPop_MoreFizz ... that they are indeed sub-tags. More on my opinion regarding this can be found on my related meta posts.

(Also, @Oak, don't forget to pipe in your question to @agent86 for him to grab post-fact)

@GraceNote Please remember to adjust your votes after this, or it's all pointless.

And by parting Grace means partying. There now will be cake. So long as I find someone to bake.

I'm not going to win this year (unless all the other candidates mysteriously disappear), but it's been great to discuss the "Big Issues" facing Gaming.SE, as always.

@TomWijsman TBH the real correct answer is "annoy @Rebecca about it until she fixes it somehow"

@fredley ^this

@badp I would be the most winnest mod gaming has ever seen for one obvious reason: I'm Wipqozn. Seriously though... I make no claims I would be the best mod ever, but I think I would be an excellent mod. I almost always make a point to comment when flaggin/vtc/down voting, and would continue to do the same as mod. I would put the views of the community first, and my own second. I would still voice my opinion, bu if the community disagrees with me I'll still enforce the communities views.

@badp wait, whaaaa?

@NickT this is very similar to a question just asked here, isn't it? Anyway, it's okay to edit someone's post even if the meaning is slightly altered, as long as it is done carefully and that it is explained to the asker. I've written more about it in my previous answer.

@RebeccaChernoff The original question was about an hypothetic problem user spamming the site quickly from multiple IPs and whatnot, so...

@Gilles I'd handle it the same way I would handle a disagreeance with any other user: I'd talk to them about it, and make a meta if required.

@badp The furthest I saw an user go post "F-word [some-moderator] and [some-user]" everywhere he could on Super User under different IPs / accounts. But it was just a single user who wasn't really fast and got bored after an hour or so...