Subject Matter Expert

On the tags that I monitor most closely, such as xslt, there's an odd situation where we have half a dozen users who are the lead answerers - the vast majority of questions, if they're comprehensible at all, get answered by one of this small group, and we all know who we are. Yet I have no idea who the moderators are, all I know is that they occasionally get things really wrong (for example by closing a question that's perfectly answerable if you know enough about the topic).

I have absolutely no desire to be a moderator, life is too short for that, but as an expert in a particular area I would like to be able to engage with the moderators in such situations, to know who they are and to "advise" them when this is called for.

This also relates to the whole system of badges and brownie points (which I hate). As far as I can see the only point of these accolades is so that people reading your posts can see that you know what you are talking about. But that's defeated when you stray into an area where you are not an expert. It would be good to see answers from users who are acknowledged experts in the particular subject matter to be flagged as such.

Subject Matter Expert

On the tags that I monitor most closely, such as xslt, there's an odd situation where we have half a dozen users who are the lead answerers - the vast majority of questions, if they're comprehensible at all, get answered by one of this small group, and we all know who we are. Yet I have no idea who the moderators are, all I know is that they occasionally get things really wrong (for example by closing a question that's perfectly answerable if you know enough about the topic).

I have absolutely no desire to be a moderator, life is too short for that, but as an expert in a particular area I would like to be able to engage with the moderators in such situations, to know who they are and to "advise" them when this is called for.

This also relates to the whole system of badges and brownie points (which I hate). As far as I can see the only point of these accolades is so that people reading your posts can see that you know what you are talking about. But that's defeated when you stray into an area where you are not an expert. It would be good to see answers from users who are acknowledged experts in the particular subject matter to be flagged as such.