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8

For the same reason Q/A mods aren't necessarily the best Chat mods, i'm not so sure this should be a combined role
– Kevin B
Commented Nov 28, 2022 at 22:20
2

Put another way, i'm not suggesting mods shouldn't be able to moderate chat, rather, "chat mods" would be able to moderate chat, without being elected as a Q/A moderator and wouldn't have those Q/A moderator tools.
– Kevin B
Commented Nov 28, 2022 at 22:36
5

@KevinB Yep, that's exactly what I'm suggesting here. I added a parenthetical note to make it clearer that being a site mod wouldn't be a requirement.
– Sonic the Anonymous Hedgehog
Commented Nov 28, 2022 at 22:38
1

Interesting idea, I have some questions. This would be an appointed position, not elected? For life or with a time/term limit? Appointed by whom, CMs? Site moderators? Moderator council? Meta? Would sites be able to opt out of this system? How much PII/dashboard would a chat moderator require to do their duties? How are conflicts between site and chat mods to be handles (is there hierarchy)?
– Mast
Commented Nov 28, 2022 at 23:11
4

Would giving more power to room owners alleviate most of the problems already? If so, which addition would have the most impact?
– Mast
Commented Nov 28, 2022 at 23:16
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Chat moderators outranking site moderators in chat but not on site could create some odd situations and conflict. Site chat rooms are part of their site, historically. I'm not sure your approach creates a net gain, it could upset a mostly stable situation on lots of sites.
– Mast
Commented Nov 28, 2022 at 23:24
2

@KevinB In many cases, Q/A mods are better equipped moderate chat, and at times they do: they know the context of disagreements, better know the users and histories. great damage, hurtful at times to well-meaning, but clueless moderators from elsewhere entirely unfamiliar with the norms, leeway granted, who may make ill-informed decisions.
– amWhy
Commented Nov 29, 2022 at 0:40
2

Right now, site moderators are given the power to moderate all chat rooms because chat.SE is just too large, interconnected and real-time to be moderated by small handfuls of people on a per-site basis. We'd probably need a lot of "chat moderators" to have any significant effect.
– goldPseudo
Commented Nov 29, 2022 at 0:42
4

I think the linked proposal uses an out-of-date approach for the hierarchy and I think this could kill an otherwise good idea. You say there's a risk of moderators being disruptive and waiting for staff is not a sufficient option. But what if the chat moderators are disruptive? Isn't this moving the problem instead of solving it? Especially since there will be less chat moderators than site moderators. Site moderators mostly keep each other in check lately, if need be. Hundreds of colleagues who can get angry at you. What will keep a chat moderator in check?
– Mast
Commented Nov 29, 2022 at 1:21
1

@Mast Technically speaking, it's Mithical's suggestion, which I happen to be wholly in favor of. The point of this answer was to bring it up again since it ties in with the idea of additional roles put forth in the question, and I wanted to bring forth arguments that the community is likely to be in favor of. I had written an elaboration on the disruptive mods issue, but deleted it since I figured it wasn't likely to be received well, but still wanted to point attention to it and its argument in their suggestion.
– Sonic the Anonymous Hedgehog
Commented Nov 29, 2022 at 1:47
3

@SonictheAnonymousHedgehog I reckon the majority of mods on chat already dislike dealing with off-site issues to avoid stepping on jurisdictional toes, especially when another moderator is already involved. If you add a layer of Chat Moderator on top of that, it seems likely most off-site mods won't even bother looking at any issues outside of their own site, which just reduces the number of potential eyes on any real-time situation. Unless the number of "chat moderators" is enough to offset that across the whole network, it really feels like this will end up backfiring.
– goldPseudo
Commented Nov 29, 2022 at 2:35
1

Continuing, per this post from Shog9, some people seem to be able to participate constructively - even admirably - on the main Q&A site, but routinely fall into abusive patterns when participating in chat. From what I've seen, this has included certain site moderators in the past. There's no required vetting of chat activity when checking if a user is a good fit to be a site mod - the usual check that one may not have been suspended in the past year excludes chat suspensions - and the only ones that may take place is in competitive elections-
– Sonic the Anonymous Hedgehog
Commented Nov 30, 2022 at 21:30
1

...when the candidates are cross-examined by the community. Sometimes moderators win elections by default when not enough candidates nominate in a pro-tem election, and sometimes the community may fail to consider chat activity when cross-examining candidates in competitive elections. On the other hand, chat moderators would be more closely vetted for their chat activity, whether it's by SE when appointing mods or by the community when electing, so the chances that an individual chat moderator will be disruptive in chat are lower, which makes the case even stronger than the previous odds.
– Sonic the Anonymous Hedgehog
Commented Nov 30, 2022 at 21:33
3

If moderators are repeatedly misbehaving in chat, we should fix that by having the CMs look into that. Adding an extra layer does not fix CoC and moderator agreement violations.
– Mast
Commented Nov 30, 2022 at 21:51
1

I slightly lean against this proposal because, as Mast said, "Isn't this moving the problem instead of solving it?". But what "intrigued" me, so to speak, is your remark that site moderation and chat moderation require different sets of skills. Could you elaborate? I would think that a decent moderator of a site impliedly has the skills that chat moderation requires.
– Iñaki Viggers
Commented Dec 4, 2022 at 19:05

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