Has there ever been a mod elected that existing mods really didn't think would do a good job? Did any of these surprise you in a good way, or a bad way?
@fixer1234 One is number of reviews, and the other is min of either upvotes or downvotes. Being higher up in that axis would mean you're more fit for the moderator position, since those are the activities normal users do that most resemble what mods do.
Delete votes would've been a good measure as well, but that can't be queried.
@M.A.R., interesting graph but it's really just community moderation activities. Plotting the two axes against each other implies some relationship between them. I'm not sure what that tells you, but all of the candidates lie on pretty much the same diagonal line, which means the ratio is about the same. So all it really shows is relative quantity.
That's one indicator of commitment, but in terms of "skill" and "knowledge", once somebody passes the many hundreds range, does more show a significant difference in capability?
@fixer1234 I know that I understand better what SE is now than when I had, say, 1000 reviews.
@fixer1234 My view on what moderation as what mods do is different from that of most people in this community, and every community. Most burned out ''crispy'' users are like this too; they think of moderatorship as a thankless janitorial job with a much bigger responsibility than that of a janitor.
Thus, it only makes sense to choose people that have given back to this site by moderating and participating on meta, rather than being good answerers.
There's a minimum rep where users start to get around the site to see how everything works, ranging from 300 to 1000. After that, only the amount of moderation you've done should matter.
Being a mod is unlike being a president; because the latter has its rewards.
Mods don't get any thanks except sporadically on metas, and they usually get shouted at ''Y U DELETE MY COMMENTZ''
And well, you never understand this system enough.
Sometimes you just spit out the philosophy of SE sites, while not knowing what they really mean, and why you spat them. O.O
@JourneymanGeek I know, the buttons are fun to click, especially ''suspend'', but I was just explaining why you need to choose the most deserving people without giving them back much.
@M.A.R., I'm not familiar with td512's experience because our topic areas don't overlap much and he hasn't been an especially prolific reviewer or Meta poster so our paths haven't crossed. But David, Ben, and music2myear all have sufficient site experience that I think the chart exaggerates an artificial difference.
@fixer1234 Sufficient, but David has done the most moderation, so that's why he appears in the sky
The difference isn't artificial. After a certain point, you start wondering ''WTH am I doing with my life?! I've done too many reviews already'' Only the most prolific and engaged users stay.
David has proven that he would stay.
Maybe Ben and music2myear haven't been around as much as David, maybe they've spent more time answering, whatever.
The reason isn't important. What's important is that David has a zillion reviews and votes without burning out and even nominated for the janitorial position.
@JourneymanGeek I know, and that has most probably something to do with it, but we can't ignore how much David has given back compared to others just because 1000 rep is enough for a minimum understanding of the site.
@JourneymanGeek Not "Janitor". More like "Sanitation Engineer." Fancy name for a dirty job nobody in their left brain would consider. Won't catch me standing for the position if I was here for a decade. <scary>
@M.A.R., I guess my point is that after some threshold level of activity, additional becomes "polish" more than learning. There is a wide range of activity that contributes to preparation for being a mod and demonstrating the knowledge and ability to do it. It's probably possible to produce a measure that makes any candidate stand out. But there are important qualities that aren't really captured by statistics. You also need to look at the nature and quality of their contributions.
There's something I don't see in the pages I've looked at, and that's the percent "useful" flags. Not the actual quantity so much as how many were useful. That, to me would give some indication of how much their thoughts on what's good and bad mesh with the overall community's, and the current mods' views. I.e., are they a fish swimming up stream, like the one that dropped out, or will they "fit in" with the current timber of the site? My view anyway.
@fixer1234 But measures that relate directly to amount of helping in moderation of the site aren't 'any' measures. And well, most people that stand up for moderator position already have well enough contributions or they wouldn't pass the threshold anyway
@GypsySpellweaver Good point, but note that only showing the percentage wouldn't be useful, the number is important too
I have 2 helpful flags on Civicrm.SE. My helpful rate is 100 percent. As high as it gets.
@GypsySpellweaver Of course there are exceptions to 'good' numbers in any measure. I don't think a guy with 1000 helpful flags is trigger-happy. Trigger-happy is for one day
Ok, given that I'm new to this I'll take a stab at something. My impression is that as rep goes up, the need to cast flags goes down, since the VTC, for example, becomes automatic rather than a flag that's reviewed. So the flags, and the ratio, would be acquired in the early part of their membership. Correct?
I'm engaged in a few communities where I have very little reputation (but I have some pull there), and there's no real push to do community moderation past a few badges
Notification for new elections on SuperUser: "oh, long time I haven't been active there, let's see a bit" "Hm, maybe I could apply to be a moderator again"
Then I realize I haven't been active in years, and that I was a moderator in 2010.... which is 7 years ago. And I feel old. And no one knows what I'm talking about by this point because no one has a clue who I am even :P
I get the idea of the democratic election, but some nominations make me feel like "well, there was a form to fill, so I filled it, and now I'm a candidate apparently, lol"
Though you do have a few serious contenders in the fold indeed. Particularly impressed by the guy who jumped to 19k rep with almost all the badges in just 2 years
I opened a PDF file in gimp with 600 dpi resolution. Then I save the file as EPS and then insert the EPS file in to a word document DOCX.
Problem is when I convert the DOCX file to a new PDF file, I see that the quality of the EPS file is dropped!! Obviously the output figure (in the PDF file) d...
Super User 2017 Moderator Election Chat
Super User 2017 Moderator Election Chat