2019 Moderator Election Q&A - Questionnaire

Question

In connection with the moderator elections, we are holding a Q&A thread for the candidates. Questions collected from an earlier thread have been compiled into this one, which shall now serve as the space for the candidates to provide their answers.

Due to the submission count, we have selected all provided questions as well as our back up questions for a total of 8 questions.

As a candidate, your job is simple - post an answer to this question, citing each of the questions and then post your answer to each question given in that same answer. For your convenience, I will include all of the questions in quote format with a break in between each, suitable for you to insert your answers. Just copy the whole thing after the first set of three dashes.Please consider putting your name at the top of your post so that readers will know who you are before they finish reading everything you have written, and also including a link to your answer on your nomination post.

Once all the answers have been compiled, this will serve as a transcript for voters to view the thoughts of their candidates, and will be appropriately linked in the Election page.

Good luck to all of the candidates!

Oh, and when you've completed your answer, please provide a link to it after this blurb here, before that set of three dashes. Please leave the list of links in the order of submission.

To save scrolling here are links to the submissions from each candidate (in order of submission):

• Duarte Ramos

• Pierre Schiller

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1. 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?

2. 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?

3. How would you handle a situation where another mod closed/deleted/etc a question that you feel shouldn't have been?

4. If elected moderator, how much of a priority would you make it to regularly do reviews, to help solve the problem we currently have where there are several dozen posts in the close vote review queue at any given time?

5. How much time can you dedicate to moderation tasks?

6. Rep, badges, flags, candidate score and the like are all measures of your familiarity with BSE. How familiar do you consider yourself with the SE system?

7. How familiar are you with blender (2.8 and prior)?

8. Which Blender Open Movie is/was your favorite, and why?

Answer 1

Duarte Ramos

1. In your opinion, what do moderators do?

A moderator's work is to help run a site smoothly by dealing with any exceptional issues not dealt by the network's "self regulating" system. It should cover general housekeeping like dealing with review queues and guiding new users, but also dealing with misconduct and improper use of the site.

Intervention should be minimal, and ideally invisible to most users, but whenever required further actions should be firm and fair.

2. 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?

Users who provide answers are invaluable and an essential asset for the network where the needy far outweigh those knowledgeable and willing help. If those answers are of high quality even more so.

The point being that I believe despite the trouble caused, users providing good answers are probably still worth the minor trouble they may stir up.

This of course does not mean inciting or rebellious behavior should be condoned. Bringing it up in private would probably be the advised course of action; I'd try to talk him into improve his behavior in a tone that would avoid driving the user away.

If the bad behavior persists; the moment the trouble caused outweighs the benefit of his answers, more severe actions should probably be taken. Discussing it with other moderators about possible course of action would be the next logical step.

3. How would you handle a situation where another mod closed/deleted/etc a question that you feel shouldn't have been?

I wouldn't generally question another moderator decision, or try to create any disagreement. If I felt very strongly against it I'd probably bring it up in private conversation at the chat and try to find out the reasoning for actions.

If different solution was found, actions would be taken to guarantee a fair outcome to the original posters.

4. If elected moderator, how much of a priority would you make it to regularly do reviews, to help solve the problem we currently have where there are several dozen posts in the close vote review queue at any given time?

I generally manage to find time in my day to clear my review queue at least once or twice a day, often more.

Most of my current time in the site is already spent on reviewing anyway, so I plan to at least keep my current rate, whenever time allows.

5. How much time can you dedicate to moderation tasks?

Hard to say in absolute terms, BSE tends to represent a resting time from work for me. While I rarely spend extended periods visiting the site, I do like to make an occasional break, or sporadically give it a peek while waiting for a render.

I already spend a considerable time here, and the urge to come back spikes whenever I am away for to long, I don't see that changing any time soon.

6. Rep, badges, flags, candidate score and the like are all measures of your familiarity with BSE. How familiar do you consider yourself with the SE system?

Definitely not as familiar as the veteran users that have been around for far longer than I have, but familiar enough to know my way around in most day to day tasks.

I plan to keep improving my knowledge for the foreseeable future.

7. How familiar are you with Blender (2.8 and prior)?

I have first started learning Blender in the 2.48 days, mostly as a hobby/side interest, and have been using it on and off since then. I started using it professionally about the time 2.5 came out for sporadic side jobs. As it currently stands it quickly became my main work tool for the past four years, using it daily both as freelancer and at my current day job.

While I know Blender fairly well I don't usually work with animation or characters creation, so certain areas like sculpting, dope sheet, painting among others, are generally out of my deeper knowledge. Other than that I generally take interest in areas I don't necessarily use professionally out of curiosity, and browsing BSE questions and answers has vastly expanded my horizons.

I also follow development closely, so I'm well aware of most planning, known roadmaps and upcoming features; and have occasionally lectured beginner workshops introducing new users to Blender.

8. Which Blender Open Movie is/was your favorite, and why?

I really enjoyed Agent 327 and Daily Dweebs, but Cosmos Laundromat remains my favorite so far.

I enjoyed the enigmatic story, the expressive characters and overall graphic quality. On the more technical side, hair simulations and particle system simulations caught my eye for the particularly high quality.

Answer 2

Pierre Schiller

1. In your opinion, what do moderators do?

Guide new users through the site, it´s functions. Also to calibrate the quality of the case (questions) presented in such manner that everyone will understand the question in term correctly. A moderator should build (emphasize) team collaboration, team reviews and collective talents to present solutions in a consistent basis.

2. 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?

I will first direct him/her to the StackExchange general guides about the issues, and how convenient it is to make "brief answers with solid points". If the user repeats this behavior, I´ll try to see what is it that he/she is really trying to communicate. On a third (and last) opportunity I´ll strickly signal him to follow a specific order in arranging his answer/thoughts that will conform to the site´s guidelines.

3. How would you handle a situation where another mod closed/deleted/etc a question that you feel shouldn't have been?

Experienced mods are qualified to do that because they know the community. I´d simply ask if there´s a new opportunity to open the question on another (similar) thread. Or to keep it simple: I´d try to open it to offer the answer (to the best of my experience) and then wait for a period of 24 hours to see the reaction to the answer given. If there´s no interest from the community: I´d close it again.

4. If elected moderator, how much of a priority would you make it to regularly do reviews, to help solve the problem we currently have where there are several dozen posts in the close vote review queue at any given time?

I generally organize my time into a space of 1 or 2 hours at the end of my day (when all general inquiries are done commenting/voting) to help review them every day. At most: skipping one day.

5. How much time can you dedicate to moderation tasks?

1 or 2 hours

6. Rep, badges, flags, candidate score and the like are all measures of your familiarity with BSE. How familiar do you consider yourself with the SE system?

I will study it deeper in case I result elected. In general, yes: I'd say I know them.

7. How familiar are you with blender (2.8 and prior)?

I´m am a Blender Foundation Certified Trainer. I applied because I come from a large experience background in the 3D industry producing commercial advertisement, vfx for movies, interactive applications and videogames. I started on Blender 2.78 which is the version of Blender NextGen movie was created in. I also created a training course to change Blender's UI with code to customize Blender 2.79 (python). I am familiarized with all areas in Blender (sculpting, nla, uv, shading, compositing...etc) that I often receive a lot of questions from other 3D artists using other application to make the switch to Blender 2.8 - I´m also subscribed on the most influential sites from the developers to keep up the news.

8. Which Blender Open Movie is/was your favorite, and why?

Yeah, has to be open movie: SPRING. Otherwise NextGen all the way. Spring is my favorite because of the animation (tools presented on 2.8, finally getting some love and attention specially the NLA), because of the VDB volumetrics (lovely clouds), and I guess the characters: Who doesn´t love a dog like that? Spring as a character was well designed. Mark my words, that movie is going to earn a LOT of festival awards. Spring also represents a lot of integration on industry standards (i.e: materials and workflows). Story-wise: it´s the most solid and compelling one.