2016 Science Fiction & Fantasy Moderator Election

user132126

21:00

Yes, both of those.

user132126

data.stackexchange.com/stackoverflow/query/363044/…

Jason Baker

Also Constituent, if you consider voting in elections to be meta participation

Napoleon Wilson

I wonder why they don't actually include the stuff from the statistics page in the nomination. Because noone never ever reads no statistics page (ever).

rand al'thor

21:14

@CreationEdge That's a fair question (especially since I've made jokes in the past about being Richard's sock!) An important difference is that I'm scaling down my answering and not worrying about rep any more, in favour of more moddish activities such as editing, reviewing, and flagging.

user132126

Are you scaling down, or do you mean that your plan?

rand al'thor

I'd rather not start digging dirt on Richard, especially when he's unable to defend himself, but a lot of what people criticised about him as a mod seemed to relate to point #3 on the questionnaire ("How will you best separate your own opinions and your responsibilities for being an ambassador for the site?")

And I admire the hands-off attitude to moderation taken by @Thaddeus and @AncientSwordRage.

@CreationEdge I am already. Check out my rep graph :-)

user132126

Part of my question is that you've been vocal about supporting Richard, miss him as a mod, considered inactivity when he was suspended, and have often cited his tutelage for your success. So, in some ways it appears that you've taken on an "apprentice" role.

rand al'thor

I don't remember saying I miss him as a mod. I've always had rather mixed feelings about him actually.

user132126

@randal'thor It looks pretty consistent to me, but I suppose there's been a downturn this month :)

user132126

21:21

@randal'thor I may be mixing up other sentiments with that point, then. We can strike it.

user132126

I'm not saying it's a bad thing, I'm just wondering how you'll handle yourself differently, which the ambassador question does answer, I suppose.

Loong

@CreationEdge chat.stackexchange.com/search?q=miss+richard&room=198

rand al'thor

@CreationEdge Nobody denies he's an excellent answerer of questions on this site, and yes, I have learned a lot from his posts. That doesn't mean I agree with his conduct as a mod.

user132126

@randal'thor I think that's probably sufficient. I didn't mean to seem anti-Richard in any way, so I hope I didn't.

user132126

@Loong Thank you. I remember that comment being starred, and that may have made it stick out to me and have mixed it up.

rand al'thor

21:25

@Loong Just one message from me there, and that was about missing him as a Brit in Mos Eisley, not as a mod.

user132126

@Loong Now I'm having fun seeing how many times users have been mentioned in chat. Thanks!

Loong

@randal'thor I don't know the context; anyway, I don't think that it's a bad thing to miss him.

user132126

I don't think so, either.

Loong

@CreationEdge try this ;-) chat.stackexchange.com/search?q=easter+egg&room=198

Mike Edenfield

@Keen I think it should definitely factor meta-participation more than it does and that has nothing to do with the fact that I have far more than any other candidate.

elections.stackexchange.com/#scifi.stackexchange

user132126

21:28

He's been mentioned in chat over 13,000 times!

Keen

@MikeEdenfield Personally, I'd take the 20 points from rep, split it in 2, and have half of it devoted to 'meta rep'.

rand al'thor

@Loong Of course it's not a bad thing to miss him, or to like him, or to emulate him as an answerer. Seeking to emulate him as a mod might be a bad thing ;-)

@MikeEdenfield Ahem, no you don't :-)

meta.scifi.stackexchange.com/users?tab=participation

Mike Edenfield

@randal'thor You: Answers/Questions: 31 / 13

@randal'thor Me: Answers/Questions: 89 / 13

Loong

@randal'thor hey, even I am on that page :-)

rand al'thor

How is the "participation" tab ordering calculated anyway?

I know I've seen the answer to this somewhere.

Mike Edenfield

21:32

its in the tooltip.

its posts, edits, comments, and votes in the past 60 days

rand al'thor

Is it votes + posts + comments in the last 2 weeks or something?

@MikeEdenfield Votes are definitely involved.

That's why Ward is so high in the participation tab on main site.

user132126

Cool. I'm higher ranked than all but 2 other candidates (who are present now!)

Mike Edenfield

yeah i meant votes, not answers, as answers are part of posts.

rand al'thor

@CreationEdge And Mithrandir is next.

Mithrandir is higher than Jason Baker? Seriously?

Jack B Nimble

I winning in the number of Meta questions asked. Just so long as no one looks too closely at them.

Jason Baker

21:38

@randal'thor Participation weighs votes pretty heavily, I understand; I haven't been voting a lot lately

rand al'thor

@JasonBaker They should fix that statistic.

Voting is important, but not that important.

It's much easier to cast 50 votes than make 50 posts.

Jason Baker

Mm, but voting is how most meta decisions are made

2

Loong

data.stackexchange.com/meta.scifi/query/354578/…

rand al'thor

Btw: @JasonBaker congrats on overtaking Keen in rep!

And @MikeEdenfield congrats on overtaking DavRob60 !

Null

Some of us have the Civic Duty badge on meta.

I just noticed from that page that SS-3 is suspended again. I won't ask why.

rand al'thor

21:44

SS-H, we shouldn't talk about it.

Mike Edenfield

I believe he has made a statement via Wad on Mos Eisley about it.

Jack B Nimble

Hmm, both SS and DVK expressed their support in voting for me, and now they are both suspended. Conspiracy? I think so.

If I lose this election by two votes....

SSumner

23:03

Wait DVK got suspended? I thought he just left

Ixrec

he got suspended after he left

Jason Baker

It's...complicated

SSumner

Okaaaaay....

Jason Baker

He left a statement in his profile, unless it's been edited out

Ixrec

it's still there; I can see some minor changes since I last read it but seems like everything of significance is intact

SSumner

23:08

Well the drama continues...

rand al'thor

That of course is an easy solution to the issue raised in #2 of the questionnaire.

If a high-profile user is suspended, they can edit a message for the community into their profile. If it's inappropriate or fails "be nice", it can be edited or removed.

Napoleon Wilson

Yeah, now we just need those user profile things to ever paint the whole story. ;-)

Ixrec

well, if the mods were allowed to tell us the whole story... =)

but since we're mushrooms an essay in his user profile is the best we can hope for

rand al'thor

Wait ... can mods edit a user's profile page, or does that require a CM?

Some profile pages are network-wide, so I guess a CM would be needed.

Jason Baker

Not necessarily

-20

Q: How was my username changed without any notice or my permission?

My username was changed without any notice or my permission. How did it happen? I do understand that the username "idiotretard" is unorthodox but why has anyone changed it into something even offensive and humiliating, "iamuncreative"? I want it changed back!

Not profiles, but similar idea

26

A: Who are the diamond moderators, and what is their role?

Community moderators (people with a ♦ next to their name, who aren't Stack Exchange employees) have a number of abilities beyond other users. They have all the privileges of normal users, regardless of their reputation. Wherever users with sufficient privileges can vote (such as when closing qu...

Keen

23:15

@randal'thor Yes, mods can edit profiles.

The most common use of this power is to alter offensive usernames/avatars.

rand al'thor

@Keen OK, thanks.

But if somebody changed their profile and copied the changes to all their SE communities, would that need a CM to fix?

Mike Edenfield

although I believe they allow a whole lot of leniency in profiles.

rand al'thor

(assuming it needed fixing, of course)

Keen

Let me check... I've got the 'update profiles across the network' button available, so I assume that works.

Ixrec

you know what we should've asked the candidates?

Mike Edenfield

23:22

Why do you hate Jack B Nimble?

Jason Baker

@MikeEdenfield I liked the pre-edit version of that better

Ixrec

"What, if anything, would you do to help end the series of high-rep user chat and site suspensions?"

rand al'thor

@Ixrec I've thought of one or two questions it would've been nice to see.

Mike Edenfield

easy. suspend them all, right now, forever.

2

Ixrec

is that your official answer?

rand al'thor

23:23

But as a candidate myself, I wasn't sure if it would be good form to post a question to the question collection.

Loong

@MikeEdenfield and freeze the rooms

rand al'thor

@MikeEdenfield [note to self: don't vote for Mike]

Mike Edenfield

delete chat.

Ixrec

@randal'thor seems fine to me, it's not like you can upvote your own answer

rand al'thor

@Ixrec Seriously though, that seems pretty close to Richard's question.

Ixrec

23:24

crap, now I need to go read the complete list of suggested questions that didn't get used

Jack B Nimble

@MikeEdenfield Just the err... top 9 users.

Mike Edenfield

@Ixrec no, because I'm not sure officially there's any way to answer that; as long as high-rep users keep doing things they should not do, the mods will keep being forced to suspend them. shrug

you're basically asking "how do you intend to make everyone else behave without punishing them."

Jason Baker

Personally I thought Erik's question was quite good

rand al'thor

@JackBNimble Including or excluding DVK?

Jason Baker

10

A: 2016 Moderator Election Q&A - Question Collection

As a corollary to Richard's question about high rep users: What will be your approach to low rep (<1k rep) users in general? Low rep users are the vast majority of the users, and the ones who frequently need some gentle guidance. As a low rep user I've felt like my opinion was discounted becaus...

rand al'thor

23:25

@JasonBaker Yes, that was another good one.

Jack B Nimble

@randal'thor Whatever puts me at the top.

Jason Baker

A very real problem

rand al'thor

High-rep users bullying low-rep users would be bad. Mods bullying low-rep users would be even worse.

Jason Baker

Not even necessarily actually bullying, but the perception of bullying

We must seem so unfair to people with no experience with the SE network

rand al'thor

I like to think I've always been very good on this score.

Case in point: this question.

Jason Baker

23:28

It's a delicate balance between being firm on the rules, but still encouraging future participation

And being seen as willing to listen

rand al'thor

Exactly.

Quite a few closeable questions could easily be edited to bring them on-topic.

Jason Baker

To be fair, many are

Loong

@JasonBaker hm, yes, I had to delete my first answer as off-topic.

Xantec

@JasonBaker Doubly so when those inexperienced users didn't learn English as a primary language.

Jason Baker

@Xantec Indeed

Ixrec

23:32

it's weird seeing concern about being too harsh to newbies over on this site where you don't have to be anywhere near as hard on the first timers as we do at Programmers.SE to keep the overall quality of the site intact

not that it isn't a valid concern or anything, but here the problem seems so small that no real solution is needed beyond being nice and posting some explanatory comments

Jason Baker

Then why does that seem to be such a challenge?

I mean, some people are just going to be angry no matter how delicately we explain the situation; sometimes diplomacy just doesn't work

rand al'thor

@Xantec Are all our current mods native English speakers, btw?

Xantec

I couldn't say.

rand al'thor

Pretty sure Thaddeus, ASR, and Kevin are. Dunno about Keen.

If not, his English is good enough that he might as well be.

Ixrec

I kinda want to get 3k rep here just so I can see what your close vote queues are actually like

Jason Baker

23:37

@Ixrec I'll save you the trouble

I mean, slightly exaggerating; but we had 35 close vote reviews today

rand al'thor

@Ixrec Like this:

@JasonBaker The lorry, presumably, is a passing mod?

Jason Baker

@randal'thor Seems about right

Ixrec

23:58

for comparison, over on my site:

75 - First Posts
2 - Low Quality Posts
1 - Reopen Votes
0 - Late Answers
0 - Suggested Edits
20 - Close Votes
You have no more close votes today; come back in 2 minutes.

(obviously, I don't really do the first posts review queue; we could easily have a whole conversation about why that is but that's probably too much of a tangent for now)

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2016 Science Fiction & Fantasy Modera…