@SimplyBeautifulArt You say that I will stand for a more moderate position, but I think you mean I will stand for a moderator position. I know, grammar is hard and all. In any event, here in 'Merika, we don't just stand around, we run for elections!
(Ugh... terrible pun, I am going to go hide in shame, now.)
Can I also compliment you on being one of the few candidates to read the instructions and actually adding a link to your answers to the questionnaire question? I've had to edit in the last two myself. :\
I would like to pick your mind a little regarding a couple of your answers. Is there any chance that you might drop in on the election chat? — Xander Henderson11 hours ago
@user7530 I think I added my comment under The SimpliFire's nomination after The Count posted that message about "needless literal word games". And I agree that it wasn't a very important issue, but it puzzled me for a second, so I thought it would be best to use the correct terminology.
Initially I also wanted to ask why TheSimpliFire's profile indicated a lot less review tasks, but then I realised that my profile didn't match the number of reviews I've performed. I guess the profile doesn't take deleted posts into account - which is a bit pointless for Close vote or Low Quality Posts reviews...
Did y’all ever figure out what happened with Zach? He was getting some pointed questions from the “will do your homework for you for 10 e-points” crowd, but I didn’t see anything too rude or aggressive...
That's normal : editing posts is not done through a review queue (except if you choose to edit a Low Quality Post, or a Suggested Edit, but I think those are counted in the "reviews"). Incidentally, I've forgotten to add for the record that I've now (before posting here in fact) removed the comment mentionned above as it was obsolete after TheSimpliFire edited their nomination post.
@TheSimpliFire Yes. Your answer to question (6) (about problem statement questions) made me realize that there is a nuance which was obvious to me, but which I did not convey very well in the question.
Your answer is "I am on neither side. I think that for PSQs, there should only be closure/deletion if the asker of a low-quality question does not respond/act to comments encouraging them to provide their efforts."
I see closure as a way of informing a user that their question is of low-quality, and that they should do something about, to be followed by deletion only later, if the user user fails to respond.
Thus an ideal process would be (poor question) -> (closure) -> (improvement) -> (reopening).
Hence there should be time between closure and deletion during which the asker can respond to comments.
Because this nuance was lost in the question, your answer looks like you would not be in favor of closure until after the asker failed to respond to comments asking for improvement.
Is that a correct reading? or did my poor phrasing of the question lead to an answer that doesn't really reflect your point of view?
You are mostly correct. I usually allow 2/3 minutes for them to reply, then I close if there is either no reply, or if they reply with something along the lines of 'I can't be bothered' or 'I don't know'. If they give their attempt in the comments then I would incorporate that into their post.
If closure happened immediately and the OP decides to write a better question, then more time (than 2/3 minutes) would be needed to get 5 reopen votes.
@TheSimpliFire 2-3 minutes can be an extremely short amount of time, most people are not checking their notifications constantly, or they could be busy with a number of other tasks, such as reading the answers they have received.
@JyrkiLahtonen for all I know there was nothing overly specific. IIRC, there was a string of hostile comments on the nomination, though. Yet, I cannot see it anymore either.
@AndrésE.Caicedo The only good thing about me being a moderator is maybe someone will finally push that whole "please remove WMs accounts globally" agenda towards other sites outside the MO/MSE sphere.
Since so many people are curious about Zach and I've been following the election page quite closely and the situation was public at the time, I think I am not overstepping in saying that prior to his withdrawal, what happened was further development of the situation/discussion that initially began some time ago (I would say it didn't escalate, but that is up to interpretation). It could be that something happened elsewhere, but at that page nothing significantly new happened.
@quid With all my appreciation to Andreas, and my absolute love of him as a person and a mathematician, I don't think he would make the best moderator, nor I think he would want to be one.
@SimplyBeautifulArt that's hard to answer like this. But I'd say most will typically not spend more than 15-30 minutes a day on moderating. It's certainly possible to do still less without come over as too inactive. But then, it is likely not a good idea to start the task if one is not prepared to spend that amount of time.
@quid But you also do "not strictly mod things" like read posts, read comments, interacting on chat, etc, all things that inform you how to use your 10-15 minutes of strictly mod-things most efficiently, and without that outside time on this site, spending only 10-15 minutes on the site per day would be insufficient to act as a more fully informed moderator.
@amWhy yes. What I meant to convey is that being a moderator in itself does not make it necessary to spent each day an "enormous" amount of time moderating. Of course, somebody that is not pretty active on the site over all, would not make for a good moderator. (Likely they won't be elected either.)
@AsafKaragila In much of the US, primary school is approximately K-6 (elementary school), and secondary school is grades 7-12 (middle and high school). This jargon is particularly common among the folk that work in these institutions.
For example, I am a certified secondary mathematics instructor in the state of Nevada (or, at least, I was---my cert may have expired by this point in time), which means that I am qualified to teach mathematics in a single subject classroom.
@XanderHenderson Thanks. I wish US people would remember that a large portion of the users do not live in the US, and as much as I am aware of pop culture and American slang, and I am a rare exception, there's a lot missing.
I flew from LAX to Munich and had a layover in Warsaw. Miraculously, he flew from Israel to Venice and had a layover in Warsaw, and we saw each other a week or two ago in an airport. I had the worst borscht.
@AsafKaragila The problem is not so much slang as the fact that "secondary education" comes from a professional argot (which Google says is a synonym of "slang," but my linguistics instructors always defined to be the specialized language or jargon of a particular group).
I wouldn't, in general, expect most Americans to be familiar with the terms "primary" and "secondary" education.
@AsafKaragila but secondary school that's precisely an international term. By contrast high-school is rather US specific. For all I know no one goes to high-school in the UK.
@SimplyBeautifulArt Well. The ability to identify problems in oneself, as the ability to correct for those problems.
So being self critical, whether or not that criticism originated from an external source. And the ability to create machinations for yourself that help you compensate for those pitfalls when things call for that.
@AsafKaragila Hm, well I can't say myself whether or not I am mature or not. In any case, judging oneself honestly is hard; I can only respond with a clearly biased opinion.
I would like to believe that sometimes it's not whether or not you are ready, but simply that you're willing to try. Of course, that doesn't always cut it, but you need a starting line anyways.
What to do about a candidate that has never visited this chat, and has yet to post answers to the candidate questionnaire (not that they have to, but... to get elected...), and has already alluded to not running below their candidacy announcement? There is really little way for users to contact this user and vet them.
@amWhy Given that it seems the user Von Neumann has intent to withdraw (but perhaps not technical skill enough to do it), it would be nice if a CM removed them from the list.
@SimplyBeautifulArt I only realized relatively recently that writing the standard basis for $\Bbb R^3$ as $\langle i, j, k\rangle$ is precisely because we are identifying the real 3-space with imaginary quaternions.
@SimplyBeautifulArt That XKCD is a good one. I need to check whether the crowd at the ExplainXKCD site knows the difference between algebraic geometry and geometric algebra :-)
@AsafKaragila No, more like a straight-face one can never replicate after being hit by a hot poker. Kind of a "neither here nor there"; I was sort of trying to say, hey, Wikipedia, for what it's worth, can fill in some details.
@MikeMiller Also, if you ever run into one of the good folks that were students in Jerusalem at the same time as I was, ask them what I did most of my time as a student.
Roaming the hallways, intervening in conversations, making jokes about stuff, and having busy office hours. And of course, always having a window of SE open. :P
Wow. I'm reading the comment from 2012 where I said I would never run for moderator. It's been a long long time.
@quid Of course. My fellowship prevents me from teaching, unfortunately. I'd have been happy teaching a set theory course somewhere around here (something that I could have arranged had the conditions allowed me to do so).
I think I will not run for moderator this cycle. The near future is too busy / chaotic / unclear for me, and I already find myself too easily distracted. But I appreciated the kind words. :)
@AsafKaragila And you've got the experience and record to qualify as a reluctant super-qualified MSE candidate .... who grudgingly acknowledges the need to fill a potential void! Aaaaannnndddd Rises to the occasion!
@AsafKaragila But please don't take the above as any effort to pressure you! :P
@AsafKaragila Not so much... Just saying..... I could use the same argument to harass @JyrkiLahtonen too! But in the end, I do respect your decision and Jyrki's decision ... Just wanting the best for the site, at least as I see it. But "you can't always get what you want."
@AsafKaragila What a(n extremely positive) turn of events! If this helps anything in making you more comfortable with the situation, I am very pleased to see your nomination.
That horse is looking pretty good, @Asaf. Now it's just a matter of answering some questions, and "your horse in the race" no doubt has some excellent answers to share.
"My interest started to fade" I sympathize with this...
I come back on and off but it is tiresome to see mostly bad questions, even when I restrict my searches very aggressively. I don't have the energy to fight it but feel a little guilty about that.
I tend to agree that 'PSQ' is the wrong guideline. I have answered good problem statement questions when there is not much more to say than the problem statement. But I feel that there is a glut of 'bad' questions. I won't try to define this - I guess that's what led to the PSQ idea being so used.
3
Perhaps this room is an inappropriate place to have that discussion, but eh, I felt it in my gut.
