2015 ELL Moderator Election

Nathan Tuggy

00:01

@Catija I think we all want porbs. At least I know I do!

Catija

@NathanTuggy Congrats on being the first person to post your answers. I kept telling myself to write them over the weekend... but I was making beer and watching movies... and doing homework... It's my priority for tonight/tomorrow.

Nathan Tuggy

@Catija I told myself the same thing, but I didn't actually write anything, just looked at the questions on Meta.

Catija

I'm not going to read the other candidates until I write mine. I want to have the answers be what I think... I may change them later but at least people can see if I did change them and what I wrote initially.

What do you think about our inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M doppelganger?

Nathan Tuggy

@Catija Their activity spans defamation, offensive posts/sneaky edits (as you've seen), and a fairly obvious combination of SE knowledge (rollbacks just like that?) and willful ignorance of site or even human norms.

So it's hard to see anything they're doing as anything other than trolling.

Kinda sad that a site as small as this would have to worry about such terrible behavior against someone as generally inoffensive as M.A.

Catija

I've looked to see if there's anything on Meta.SE to do about it but I can't find anything about the topic.

@NathanTuggy If I had to guess, I wonder if it's that same user from yesterday, Elvis whatever... They had a bit of an incident yesterday.

Nathan Tuggy

00:10

@Catija Mod deletion of the user, presumably. Or just flag the post(s) as offensive. The rollback war is enough to get diamond intervention.

@Catija Could be. Yesterday was my birthday, so I was a bit less active... ;)

2

StoneyB

@GraceNote Do your powers extend to stamping out the latest trollery of this impostor?

Catija

@NathanTuggy Happy Birthday!!! YAY! How fun. Did you have a good day?

Nathan Tuggy

@Catija Thanky! Yeah, went out to play laser tag and eat cheesecake with some friends.

Catija

@NathanTuggy OOOH! Fun! Sounds like a great day. :D

I have to tell you guys.... I really wish we had four mod slots. It's difficult but I can get my vote to four but I can't manage to get it to three.

@NathanTuggy I've been flagging... I don't have the 80 flags for that badge but with this guy, I'm getting closer :D

Nathan Tuggy

@Catija Secretly, they're just trying to make sure candidate scores for the election go up. (Not really.)

StoneyB

00:45

@Catija, @NathanTuggy This question and the previous one are now delible.

Nathan Tuggy

@StoneyB Pretty sure that's only for 4kers' speedy deletion. (2k question deletion doesn't have the -3 threshold for instantly deleting.)

Catija

@StoneyB I've voted to delete... I can't find the previous one... you have a link?

StoneyB

@Catija [ell.stackexchange.com/q/65849/32]

Catija

@StoneyB Thanks.

StoneyB

@NathanTuggy Oh, bother; I've never been able to figure those gradations out.

Well, there's one down . . .

Catija

01:04

Well, this tells me we really need to hope SE keeps their decision about not increasing the Privilege numbers. If we had graduated privilege ranks, we'd be in trouble.

We only have 16 users with 10K or more (of which 2-3 are unfamiliar to me). There are four in the 9K range... but that's it.

Nathan Tuggy

@Catija 5 20kers, not counting J.R., plus three active diamonds, means speedy deletion is still possible for most questions.

Catija

@NathanTuggy Sure... but we only have one active diamond right now. And I'm not actually familiar with Jay at all.

Nathan Tuggy

@Catija Jay posts at whiles. Seems reasonable enough, and active, if not necessarily moderating all that much.

Catija

And "speedy" is subjective... It's always hard. When you're in the middle of an issue, it seems that nothing can be done quickly enough. :P

Nathan Tuggy

True enough. I'm just referring to "faster than two days after closing"

Catija

01:17

Maybe we should ask nominees to post where on the planet they are located? It might be worth considering for the election.

Nathan Tuggy

Or just timezone.

Catija

@NathanTuggy Yeah. That would be enough.

StoneyB

01:39

Maulik's subcontinent; MAR's Iran; Araucaria's London; jimsug's Sydney; Chenmunka's UK; Dog Lover's Ozzie, but I don't know if he's actually in Australia. J.R.'s East somewhere I think, Wendi's Dallas. You guys are Texas and SoCal?

Nathan Tuggy

@StoneyB GMT -6:00, not actually Cali.

tchrist

Yes, well, so am I. But does yours change? :)

my @zones = qw(
            UTC
     Canada/Newfoundland
     Canada/Atlantic
    America/Puerto_Rico
         US/Eastern
         US/Central
         US/Mountain
            Navajo
         US/Arizona
         US/Pacific
         US/Alaska
         US/Aleutian
         US/Hawaii
         US/Samoa
);

Nathan Tuggy

@tchrist Twice a year, whether it needs it or not!

tchrist

Of course, that's just our side of the globe.

@NathanTuggy I hate it when that happens.

Is ELL programmer-heavy enough so that as soon as all ten candidates post their TZs that somebody will calculate an optimal spread? :)

Nathan Tuggy

@tchrist Probably. I guess we'll see, though. (I suspect it would need some data on heaviest flagging/asking/answering times that we might not have to hand.)

tchrist

01:44

You could probably figure out the asking/answering times via SEDE.

Or at least a reasonable approximation.

StoneyB

I'd think the optimal spread would prolly be folks on the same schedule as our questioners: one Oz, one Middle East, one Brit. We don't have many Latin American questioners, and I get the impression there are more folks trying to get into US colleges than actually there.

tchrist

That's an interesting way to look at it. You may be on to something there.

StoneyB

My son suggests that we supplement the mods with Billy Goats Gruff.

tchrist

Blustery.

Although there have been times that the Billy Goats Gruff seem to be in order, I’m not sure that that fits in with the moderator oath to be trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean, and reverent. We have CMs for the Billy Goating. :)

StoneyB

02:03

But two out of three Billy Goats Gruff are silver-tongued and guileful, averting violence by appealing to the troll's self-interest. Only the third is forceful and abrupt.

tchrist

02:14

Good cop, good cop, scary cop?

Catija

@StoneyB Austin, yeah. But I'm up at odd hours, so that makes me more appropriately zoned as Pacific. I usually wake up around 10 and go to sleep around 3 am.

@StoneyB This reminds me of one of my favorite book series, The Dresden Files.

StoneyB

@tchrist Or rogue, rogue, enforcer.

tchrist

I spent so many hours playing srogue at college it isn't even funny.

StoneyB

@Catija Remember it well. Theatre hours. That all ended when my son had to be at band practice at 6:30 in the am.

Catija

@StoneyB Ugh. You should have told him to pick a different extracurricular ;)

tchrist

02:26

@Catija We would never see each other. You're awake while I'm asleep.

StoneyB

@Catija I tried real hard to get into Dresden Files, but couldn't quite make it work.

Catija

@tchrist Then how am I seeing you now? :P

tchrist

I'm about to fall over right now. At 8:30pm.

I'll be up by 4.

This is not a choice, you understand. It's simply how I was made.

StoneyB

@Catija Well, he was a drummer like me, so I owed him that.

tchrist

Who the hell would choose to get up at 4am?

Catija

02:27

@StoneyB The first couple of books take a bit of time to get into but after that, they're good. There's a couple of bumps down the road but solid writing in my opinion.

StoneyB

@tchrist Writers. I can't get anything done once I get to my nominal workplace.

Catija

@tchrist Sorry. I couldn't fall asleep that early if I tried. My brain comes awake around 10 and falling asleep before 2 is hard to manage.

@StoneyB Ah. I suppose that's allowed, then.

tchrist

My brain is jelly by afternoon. I get all my work done from 4am till noon. It's all downhill from there.

StoneyB

@Catija I kept waiting for it to turn into Thieves' World, I think.

tchrist

Heh.

We know where that went.

Turned into the godgame.

Catija

02:30

@StoneyB I've only read the MythAdventures.

StoneyB

@tchrist Me, too. I work until 6:30 get into work by 7:00, do client meetings in the early afternoon, leave at 3:00.

tchrist

Sounds sane.

StoneyB

@tchrist Well, so did D&D about the same time.

tchrist

And it's just becomes I'm in my dotage. I've always been this way.

Catija

I'm guessing you are older than I am? I hear that your schedule gets earlier as you age.

tchrist

02:31

@StoneyB It was all downhill after Gods, Demigods, and Heroes.

Meaning Supplement IV.

StoneyB

I haven't actually looked at any TW since about 1986.

tchrist

Same.

Catija

... and now I have no clue what you're talking about. I've been told I need to help my husband fold laundry, apparently.

StoneyB

@Catija Ugh. My wife and I sorted out very early that I cook, she does laundry. Now she's off in grad school and we're both stuck with what we hate.

tchrist

That's what you get for marrying undergraduates. :)

Catija

02:34

@StoneyB I cook, he washes dishes, we fold laundry together... though he does the ironing, most of the time.

tchrist

Oh the ironing.

StoneyB

That's what I get for taking my retirement first and then going to work.

I asked my wife last fall where the iron was. She told me "Oh, that burned up four years ago."

@Catija I'm older than everybody, I think. Older than dirt.

tchrist

Well, if you're already counting your falls, you should get a rocker. :)

StoneyB

... but I'm on tchrist's schedule -- bed calls. Check the Cards game, then bed.

tchrist

Yes, I too must away.

StoneyB

02:38

Ugh. I should have left it at bed.

'night all

Catija

Bah. Old men. Night you guys!.

Damkerng T.

03:12

Ahh... my questions for candidates didn't make it, which is pretty much what I speculated.

@NathanTuggy Happy birthday!

Nathan Tuggy

@DamkerngT. Thank you! :)

Damkerng T.

Ah, I was hoping that you might've seen the message later!

I didn't wake you up, I hope?

I'm not sure about your time zone anyway.

Oh, it's about eight over there.

Nathan Tuggy

@DamkerngT. It's hard to wake me up if I don't want to be woken. But I'll be up for several more hours, anyway.

Damkerng T.

Phew! :D

Catija

07:29

Coatija

1

word-usage

Ummmm... Any thoughts... This sort of looks like our impostor from earlier... and it looks like they may have a new target?

Nathan Tuggy

Wow.

jimsug

I'll raise it upstairs

Catija

@jimsug Thanks :D

Wow...way to make that question even more offensive... let's talk about the n-word and sport a confederate flag... nice choice.

^Sarcasm, by the way.

Nathan Tuggy

Seems like kind of a cheap shot there, going for a group that's had a lot of PR hits lately as a way to direct more dislike at them under false pretenses.

Catija

@NathanTuggy Tis the raison d'être for a troll, though.

Nathan Tuggy

07:38

@Catija Well sure. I guess they're going for the trifecta or something: offend and defame as many people as possible.

Catija

@NathanTuggy Yeah. I have my city on my profile... so I suppose that could have linked it. He seemed really interested in playing the "Irani" card when he was on the other account.

Nathan Tuggy

@Catija I assumed that was just verisimilitude. But maybe you're right.

jimsug

@Catija are questions about taboo words pff-topic, though? The body of the question, the insults notwithstanding, is unremarkable.

Catija

8

Q: Policy for coarse language in posts

Recently the question has been raised about if (and to what extent) we should allow coarse language in our posts here on ELL. No one is trying to tamp down on free speech, and I know this has been brought up on MSO many times in the past. We're not really talking about the occasional curse word h...

discussion scope

@jimsug I was able to find the above question on Meta.

It's not so much that the question is not allowed... I haven't (and I don't think anyone has) voted to close it. I haven't even downvoted it. Mostly I was bringing attention to it because it looks like this might be the same user as earlier.

jimsug

Mmm. Fair enough. It's not really an offensive question, I don't think.

Nathan Tuggy

07:51

Yet.

Catija

And now it has -4 votes, and is, essentially, invisible.

Nathan Tuggy

08:15

The real question is: which candidate will be targeted next?

Catija

@NathanTuggy That really depends on whether this guy's targeting candidates or is targeting the people who were involved in that Elvis chat yesterday... coincidentally, many of those people are moderator candidates, so there may not be a correlation. If I had to guess, it'd be J.R., though.

Nathan Tuggy

That's what I was thinking too, actually.

That J.R. would be next, I mean.

But be that as it might, I must hie myself to bed.

Catija

@NathanTuggy Night! I'm trying to finish my questions.

inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M

09:21

@NathanTuggy HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU . . . HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOOOOU . . . HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOOOUU HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!

StoneyB

11:21

@Catija .. and he strikes again.

0

Q: Is there is word we can refer to all minorities like blacks, hispanisc,asians,gays, muslims,iranians

Is there is word we can refer to all minorities like black, hispanic,asian,gays, muslims,iranians Is there any word I can use in my essays, when I want to refer to all minorities in the USA which doesn't offend anybody?

word-request

Damkerng T.

I flagged it.

StoneyB

So did I. It's a delicate question whether it's actionable right as it stands; but the impersonator will probably start adding nastiness by degrees.

Damkerng T.

Judging from all the questions in the last two days, I think they have no real intention to learn English.

Ahh... there is an answer. I guess he doesn't know what's going on.

On the other hand, it could be a legit answer at face value.

StoneyB

11:56

@DamkerngT. Your own comment is very judicious!

Damkerng T.

13:06

That question is going to be political.

StoneyB

13:22

@DamkerngT. Bang bang Maxwell's silver hammer ...

Damkerng T.

Ten four!

Catija

17:32

@StoneyB Meh... I was asleep. Was that one on the "Coatija" account, too?

Damkerng T.

@Catija I remember that it was Catijaa.

Catija

@DamkerngT. Hmmm... Meh. Oh well. Maybe he'll get tired of it eventually.

Interesting... the questions don't show up in the delete queue...

Damkerng T.

@Catija Even more interesting, I'm still seeing the original title (along with the original text, original username, and so on) on AOL Reader.

(It's the 10th question on the feed.)

inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M

@Catija Caching, prolly.

Damkerng T.

17:47

One good thing about the election is that some of our old answerers come back!

For example: ell.stackexchange.com/a/65930/3281

Transcript for

2015 ELL Moderator Election