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Update 2 (March 6, 23)

We made a shortlist of the most promising suggestions from the answers provided, and we then shared our findings with Philippe Beaudette, our VP of Community. After some discussion, we determined that we need to do further exploration and research into these proposed roles before we can consider a potential fit for the network. Afterward, we’ll share our findings with the community and discuss the next steps for any roles we might pursue.

Update

Thank you to everyone who has contributed their suggestions. At this point, we are going through all the feedback shared. Additional feedback past this point is welcome but won't be taken into account for our initial discovery work.

TL;DR: The Community Team has been doing discovery work on the possible creation of new community roles across the Stack Exchange network and individual sites. We started by approaching site moderators, and now we want to hear from the broader community about the different roles you would like to see outside of the existing site moderator role. This could be anything that you would see as applying to the network as a whole (which individual communities can choose to fill, or not), or a role specific to a particular Stack Exchange site.

Background

For a long time, the only codified community role that we have had on Stack Exchange sites is that of the site moderators. The community contributes to and participates on each site in various ways, but we have rarely provided an official way to recognize the ways in which each user has helped maintain the knowledge base and/or support the rest of the community. As such, we wanted to find ways to give you all more ownership of your respective communities and empower you to shape them further.

What kinds of roles?

Throughout the network's history the only role designated to the community so far has been the role of site moderator. This is an exercise of exploring what could exist alongside that role to enrich the experience of using the different sites. These could be roles that would exist alongside new tools, opt-in responsibilities, or permissions related to specific badges. The sky's the limit here.

For example, we believe the following could be possible roles to consider:

  • Plagiarism Handler – a role centered around reviewing and removing plagiarism from the network
  • Deputy Moderators – a temporary role by appointment that would give lower-rep users some early access to reputation-based curation tools
  • Event Planner – a role centered around creating and organizing events for their site, community, etc.

Don’t focus too much on these roles in particular; we’re just including them as examples of the different kinds of roles that could be considered. (But if you think one of the above examples would be a good role for us to add, feel free to suggest it as an answer and explain how you think it should work!)

How should I share my suggestions for new roles?

We don’t want the discussion to focus too much on analyzing our existing examples; rather, you should treat this as an open-ended opportunity to brainstorm and identify possible new roles that could help our communities run more efficiently and create a more enjoyable experience for all of you.

If you have an idea for a new community role please post it as an answer on this post (one suggested role per answer). To make it easier to discuss your ideas, please start each answer with a name for the role as the heading of your answer, followed by a brief description of how you think the role would work (e.g., what permissions it might need, new tools you think it might need, etc.).

December 19th, 2022 is our tentative deadline

You can always propose things on Meta – but as far as this post is concerned, we’ll be accepting suggestions of new community roles until December 19th, 2022. After that, we’ll present and discuss these ideas internally with the rest of the Community Team and other staff. We plan to make a post in early January to share which roles, if any, we will begin exploring in more depth with engineering and product teams.

We can’t promise that your suggestions will all be implemented; the examples we provided are just interesting things that we think might enrich the network experience. Regardless of the outcomes, we think this is an interesting exercise to carry out periodically, to continue innovating on the Stack Exchange user experience.

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  • 32
    Elected? Placed in power by a consensus of existing elected moderators? I'm wary of power being given to those who won't necessarily deserve it or use it wisely. What would be the appeals process for a disagreed-with decision - flag for a mod? How to get them out if they abuse their power, removal by mod or would staff need to get involved?
    – W.O.
    Commented Nov 28, 2022 at 21:19
  • 33
    Chat room owners are one example of this that already exist.
    – Sonic the Anonymous Hedgehog
    Commented Nov 28, 2022 at 21:22
  • 6
    @W.O. I assume you are inquiring about the examples we offered. I want to note they are just examples and are not in any state of development toward becoming a reality at this time. If someone did suggest them as an actual role, we would define these things during the creation process of those roles.
    – SpencerG StaffMod
    Commented Nov 28, 2022 at 22:27
  • 5
    @SpencerG Is this about network wide appointees, or per site appointees, or both? Likely site-specific?
    – amWhy
    Commented Nov 28, 2022 at 22:51
  • 7
    @W.O. I'd oppose it being done by the distribution of cutlery by ladies of aquatic abode... "how" they are picked is likely part of the RFC ;)
    – Journeyman Geek
    Commented Nov 28, 2022 at 23:46
  • 62
    People don't need roles. They need privileges and the power to do things. Over the years, many tried to suggest 30k privileges, or to enhance existing privileges to give users more power to do certain things. I'd rather see those things being done rather than super complex and super cryptic new "roles", which I honestly don't understand how it can work, but that's besides the point.
    – Shadow Wizard
    Commented Nov 29, 2022 at 8:03
  • 78
    "Role Inventer" ...is clearly the most needed role.
    – Mentalist
    Commented Nov 30, 2022 at 11:29
  • 12
    Most of the answers I see here seem to be suggesting some kind of new 'badge', and that 'badge' would then unlock access to certain new tools/privileges. Why are you looking at 'roles' and not just 'new badges/privileges'? What is a role supposed to be that isn't already in some way or form present in the current system/can't fit under the current system of privileges and badges (and to an extent, site preferences)? Will you be overhauling the existing system (like renaming privileges to roles), or are roles supposed to be something entirely separate?
    – Tinkeringbell Mod
    Commented Nov 30, 2022 at 11:53
  • 5
    @Mentalist A no-brainer I should have considered. I definitely will add it to the list.
    – SpencerG StaffMod
    Commented Nov 30, 2022 at 13:41
  • 8
    @Tinkeringbell This is purely just discovery work. We don't have plans to overhaul anything. If badge-based privileges are where people's heads are, then that will probably be the direction we take this project. We are not married to creating roles exclusively.
    – SpencerG StaffMod
    Commented Nov 30, 2022 at 13:44
  • 29
    "Story Moderators" - a role for former mods who just want to tell stories that start with "back in my day, only diamond moderators could do all these" :p
    – Bhargav Rao
    Commented Dec 1, 2022 at 17:05
  • 7
    @ShadowTheKidWizard reputation based privileges assume that the reputation system is working. On SO I routinely see users with extremely high reputation still asking poorly researched questions that get upvotes, or users posting poorly researched answers on duplicates that also get upvoted. Reputation is a poor metric for privileged powers on the site. (closing a duplicate has no rep gain but makes the site more usable and cross-referenced, while a code only answer on a duplicate stands to reward rep.)
    – pilchard
    Commented Dec 8, 2022 at 10:36
  • 6
    A thought: forget about roles, and introduce privilege deputation. X is a mod with certain privileges, but not enough time to do everything, and little interest/skill in, say, plagiarism complaints. Y is keen to work on plagiarism complaints, but lacks the necessary privileges. X lends the privileges to Y. X is 100% responsible for Y's exercise of those privileges, and can yank them back at any time. Being able to lend a privilege is, itself, a privilege which can be earned in the usual way (and, hey, maybe lent). Is there any reason to prefer "roles" over this?
    – Beta
    Commented Dec 11, 2022 at 1:27
  • 6
    @ShadowWizardChasingStars Also, this isn't really 'cryptic', rather, it mirrors how real world organizations handle permissions: role-based access is the gold standard in terms of what you let users do. Right now we have reputation-based access: the more people upvote your questions and answers, the more (unrelated) tools you get access to. This was a decent system for SO/SE when it was smaller and higher reputation translated more or less directly to the buy-in/investment a user had with the site, but it does not scale.
    – TylerH
    Commented Dec 14, 2022 at 14:42
  • 8
    I’m voting to close this question because it does not accept further feedback so better prevent people from wasting time by posting answers.
    – Shadow Wizard
    Commented Dec 21, 2022 at 15:30

39 Answers 39

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1

Subject matter experts

Target group: People with demonstrated knowledge in a certain area of expertise, a (group of) tag(s) for example, and with sufficient knowledge of the SE content moderation guidelines.

Task: singlehandedly removing NAA (Not An Answer) posts.

Especially on bigger sites moderators are often not SME's, making it hard for them to judge a NAA flag. If any attempt at an answer is posted, how misguided it may be, it often stops there for moderators as they lack the expertise to judge an answers credibility. An SME, perhaps guided by a review queue, would be able to singlehandedly delete these ill attempts at answers.

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  • 10
    That's a lot of trust to put in anyone, being able to singlehandedly remove posts. What's to stop someone with a lot of knowledge and a vindictive personality from just deleting everything they don't like, or competing answers to questions they've answered, under the claim that they're NAA?
    – Rand al'Thor
    Commented Nov 29, 2022 at 11:36
  • 5
    As with everything SE keeps transparant logs. If someone were to start deleting things at a disproportionate scale people would notice quite quickly and raise their concerns either to moderators or publicly on meta. If needed action could then be taken against a certain user. At the same time we trust mods with the same privilege, and even more privileges, cases of mod abuse are rare.
    – Luuklag
    Commented Nov 29, 2022 at 11:45
  • 1
    There is also the question on what people need to be recognised as SME's. Would we base that solely on objective gains on the site ( badges, rep) or do we want to take subjective measures (likeability, trust) into account as well.
    – Luuklag
    Commented Nov 29, 2022 at 11:47
  • 5
    I think this is actually counter to the Stack Exchange vision. The community is supposed to decide what is valuable and what is not by voting. If that isn’t working in some situations, the answer is not to just give up and let arbitrarily appointed SMEs delete other people’s content. The entire point of SE is that people don’t have to trust someone’s credentials; removing content from the community’s view should be reserved for spam, CoC violations, and automated cleanup of abandoned content.
    – ColleenV
    Commented Nov 29, 2022 at 12:08
  • Essentially, this feedback duplicates: meta.stackexchange.com/a/240712/282094 meta.stackexchange.com/a/280396/282094 meta.stackexchange.com/a/259859/282094 meta.stackexchange.com/a/260234/282094 - empowering Silver Tag Badge holders (to delete); which is a valid suggestion (1 vote weight for Bronze, 2 for Silver, 3 for Gold), allowing 5, 3, or 2 (respectively) users to vote to delete, with less than 20K rep.
    – Rob
    Commented Nov 29, 2022 at 17:40
  • @Luuklag that's the first thing I thought of. Is this going to be a privilege pegged to tag badges or will there be some other way to apply, for example with a subject matter exam, portfolio presentation, or election? Maybe I don't particularly enjoy answering [python] questions on Stack Overflow but am actually a Python expert with many years of professional experience. Can I submit my resume in order to gain SME status or is answering questions the only way? Can I opt to sit the Stack Overflow Comprehensive Subject Matter Exam in Advanced Python (TM) and claim my SME privilege if I pass?
    – Robert Columbia
    Commented Nov 29, 2022 at 20:39
  • Do you have any suggestions on possible concrete qualifications for who would/could get this role?
    – starball
    Commented Nov 29, 2022 at 23:04
  • 3
    According to this FAQ -- How do I properly use the "Not an Answer" flag? -- you in no way need to be a SME in order to recognise when something is "not an answer". It's not a question of whether an answer is at all "credible" -- it's a question of whether it is formatted as, of whether it even attempts to appear to be, an answer.
    – ChrisW
    Commented Nov 30, 2022 at 11:33
  • This is already done by demonstrating knowledge in the subject. People tend to trample over them anyways.
    – Braiam
    Commented Dec 8, 2022 at 0:18
-4

Code Tester

For software and hardware sites directly related to coding in various programming languages, checking and testing the published code for syntactic, thematic and other errors is essential. This feature will improve published content and improve the quality of understanding the behavior of published code for novice programmers...

P.S. I think someday this feature will be replaced by robot testers :-)...

Update 1-response on the comment @starball

  1. This is my point of view and I am not forcing anyone to follow it;
  2. "Do you have any suggestions..." - You could come up with some sort of code quality mark, such as: "Your code has been tested and deserves special attention - Software testers Dr. Jack London and Mark Twain," etc;
  3. "Why do you think that..." - Code testers should be independent of the community because there should be no condescending or prejudicial attitude towards the programmer who has published his code, i.e. the tester-programmer should not be interested in the former merits of the questioner/respondent to the community, he should abstract away from everything except the code itself, since the higher value is the novelty, the expected behavior, the quality and purity of the code;
  4. "Are there any among your acquaintances..." - I'm afraid that this job should not be done by a single tester-programmer, but by a group (3 or more people) of independent, progressive and experienced programmers. Such people are "worth their weight in gold", but I hope that they will be found for every programming language. Maybe they can be selected from the community itself, maybe they should be attracted from outside :-)...

Update 2

This proposal would lead the community to create an "Independent International Software Quality Control System"...

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  • 3
    Welcome to MSE! That's a big, difficult sounding job- if not for software, especially for hardware! Do you have any suggestions on tools or special privileges that people with such a role might need to achieve their purpose? Why do you think there is a need to have dedicated people doing this instead of the community / people already interested in each specific Q&A? Are there specific people you know who are interested in taking up this role, or who are already doing such work with long-term dedication?
    – starball
    Commented Dec 5, 2022 at 22:32
  • 2
    @iBugsaysReinstateMonica What does your edit summary "🍎" mean, if anything?
    – The Amplitwist
    Commented Dec 6, 2022 at 9:40
  • @TheAmplitwist Whenever I find nothing interesting to put in that summary box, I make up a placeholder. Certainly there can be something meaningful, but often I'm in a hurry and consider the edit itself (the diff) is self-explanatory.
    – iBug says Reinstate Monica
    Commented Dec 6, 2022 at 10:48
  • 2
    @iBugsaysReinstateMonica The system will automatically generate a summary once you're no longer in 'suggested edit' territory. Just leave it blank next time.
    – Mast
    Commented Dec 10, 2022 at 20:42
  • Ah, yes... if only we had the services of world-renowned code-tester Mark Twain!
    – Mentalist
    Commented Dec 15, 2022 at 1:41
  • @TheAmplitwist A classic red apple, shown with a stem and single, green leaf on major platforms. Commonly associated with doctors, teachers, and New York. (So guess the last one fits, SE headquarters are in New York as far as I know.)
    – Shadow Wizard
    Commented Dec 21, 2022 at 9:24
-4

@Mentalist commented about the need for Role Inventor, which is a good idea, though it could go further: what about Meta-moderator/creator? E.g. someone who is good at brainstorming ideas and raising (meta level or 'normal') questions about the site's operation. This wouldn't necessarily entail being above moderators; in fact, it could be a person with the creativity to do the job who simply isn't a moderator.

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  • 5
    This just sounds like the role of any regular community member. What is different about this than being a regular community member? What additional tools/privileges would a person with such a role need?
    – starball
    Commented Dec 21, 2022 at 0:57
  • 1
    This is a title, not a role.
    – Thomas Markov
    Commented Dec 21, 2022 at 1:08
-5

Beta Tester

Beta Testers are people who volunteer themselves to always opt in to any A/B testings or any kind of tests that need users to use the system in its closed or even opened beta phase.

The system may or may not pick all of these beta testers but they are all willing to join anyway.

They are ready to use the system without being informed that if anything is for testing purposes. However, when asked or surveyed, they will always provide feedback with honesty.

This role should be assigned/unassigned manually by moderator or staff, but the user must be able to quit the role at any time.

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  • 18
    Why does this need to be a role, and not just a 'preference' setting in a profile, like you can already opt-in to the beta version of the editor? Why would mods or staff need to manually assign/unassign it, especially if the system may not pick all of the ones assigned that role to test something? This sounds like a lot of overhead to me for something that could be much simpler.
    – Tinkeringbell Mod
    Commented Nov 29, 2022 at 11:20
  • 4
    I think the more pressing matter is for SE to provide more A/B testings, rather than making a new role for the tester...
    – Meta Andrew T.
    Commented Nov 29, 2022 at 14:31
  • 3
    Giving out a badge at the end of each test might be a nice idea though
    – Bergi
    Commented Nov 30, 2022 at 20:56
-6

Community Ambassador

Community Ambassadors would be elected to represent the community and communicate to the company which features, policies and improvements that the community likes to see implemented, changed or given priority.

They could help with gathering community opinions or with beta testing of new features, by acting as a coordinator, gathering community feedback in a condensed form. They should also coordinate and forward feature requests from the various moderator teams, since moderators are also part of the community, but with more advanced needs.

Notably, there exists no sensible or credible channel of communication between the community and the company today:

  • The various metas were supposed to be this channel, but they are problematic for various reasons: lots of noise, lots of drama and snark, stressful for SO employees, the Q&A format is far from ideal for discussions, and so on.
  • The Community Managers (CMs) are paid employees and therefore don't represent the community.
  • Elected diamond moderators were elected as janitors/peacekeepers and not for forwarding community opinions or aiding with beta testing.
  • Users/moderators participating in various closed/private benchmarking or beta tests channels do not represent the community, since they were either picked by the company or just personally volunteered.

Community Ambassadors would be elected the same way as diamond moderators are elected today, through the same voting system. (There's nothing preventing someone from being an ambassador and moderator at once, though the elections should be kept separated.) Ambassadors should however be elected for a restricted time period such as 1 year or 2 years. Ideally this should be a large group of elected ambassadors forming a "community council" or whatever you'd like to call it.

Similar systems exist for many online gaming communities, where users representing the community are elected on regular basis. In those situations it's obvious to the companies that they are dealing with their paying customers and ought to listen to them, or else they take their money elsewhere. This wasn't always obvious to SO-the-company, since the customers here pay in content, product value and volunteer moderation rather than in cash. Still it's a loss when they walk away.

There are many benefits: the community would feel heard, the company would have a direct, friction-free channel with the community, moderators wouldn't feel as if they were somehow responsible for taking on this role (which they aren't).

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6
  • 3
    Something I gave as feedback in an earlier iteration of this was that - these roles shouldn't overlap 'core' community management roles - and the ability to directly engage the community and work with it, and effectively use tools like meta should be an organic capability of the community management team. There's some difficulties there between company culture and hiring practices but folks who can be credible ambassidors of the company to the community and vice versa should be recruited/hired for the community team. I'd go so far in saying there's value in folks directly engaging
    – Journeyman Geek
    Commented Dec 2, 2022 at 16:04
  • the community outside working with the various moderation teams, almost like a community manager at large - focusing on small 'local' issues and available and visible to the community. But that's naturally outside the scope of this, and is something I've not quite figured out how to bring up formally and gracefully ;)
    – Journeyman Geek
    Commented Dec 2, 2022 at 16:07
  • 3
    Does this really need a separate role? If there's an active community on meta posting things, all a mod needs to do is to add a single tag to pass a question to CMs/devs.
    – Laurel
    Commented Dec 2, 2022 at 17:00
  • 3
    @Laurel one point Lundin made that might explain their stance on that is "The Community Managers (CMs) are paid employees and therefore don't represent the community. [...] Community Ambassadors would be elected the same way as diamond moderators are elected today, through the same voting system.". I can see the argument for having a focused, dedicated role separate from "exception handling".
    – starball
    Commented Dec 2, 2022 at 17:39
  • 1
    We have several users at RPG (including myself) who are thoroughly engaged with the broader SE community, particularly here on meta. I'm confident most, if not all, stacks already have users who are looking out for their respective stacks at the network level through engagement here on big meta.
    – Thomas Markov
    Commented Dec 2, 2022 at 20:53
  • 2
    @Laurel I'm not sure what you mean with "separate", there is no such role presently. Obviously the company can't hire someone and put them on their payroll to "represent" the community, it would be as if the leader of a labour union was hired by the company. The main goals with this would be: transparency, a clearer channel of communication, a way for the community to put some weight into their insistence that the company should prioritize the right kind of projects. I think it would be a win-win for everyone.
    – Lundin
    Commented Dec 5, 2022 at 8:47
-7

Duplicate Finder

For users who log in everyday and cast the first CV on lots of posts. This first user who has to find the duplicate target is normally the one who has to spend the most time.

(In 2021 almost half a million posts were closed on SO, so a good metric would no less than 1% of last year's closures over the user's history.)

Taken from this proposal.

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  • 7
    You suggest a badge, that's not the purpose of this project.
    – Shadow Wizard
    Commented Nov 30, 2022 at 13:03
  • 1
    @ShadowTheKidWizard no I'm suggesting a title, the other thread suggests a badge.
    – bad_coder
    Commented Nov 30, 2022 at 13:04
  • 5
    The question is here asking for more than just a title.
    – Shadow Wizard
    Commented Nov 30, 2022 at 13:15
  • 1
    @ShadowTheKidWizard oh yeah, it's a "a role" and "a title".
    – bad_coder
    Commented Nov 30, 2022 at 13:21
  • 8
    Again, you don't understand the meaning of role. It's not only a title. It involves something extra, privileges, etc. You suggest nothing.
    – Shadow Wizard
    Commented Nov 30, 2022 at 13:28
  • 1
    @ShadowTheKidWizard no you don't understand that I don't want to clutter the proposal. The role has overlap with several other proposals and I'm not going to repeat what's been said.
    – bad_coder
    Commented Nov 30, 2022 at 13:32
  • 3
    Well I'm not going to click through links to know what you mean. Answer on Stack Exchange should stand on its own, not just refer to other answers/sources. That's actually NAA.
    – Shadow Wizard
    Commented Nov 30, 2022 at 13:33
  • 1
    @ShadowTheKidWizard if you're unaware of the context I'm sure whoever is considering this will know how to read it in the broader picture.
    – bad_coder
    Commented Nov 30, 2022 at 13:34
  • 9
    Why is logging in every day a(n important) metric here? Also, I'm assuming you mean 'first close vote to close as duplicate' and not just any close votes? And to me it's also not clear why this should get a 'role', a whole new system, instead of it being just another badge like the post you link to asks for. What would be the benefit of making this a 'role' instead of a badge?
    – Tinkeringbell Mod
    Commented Nov 30, 2022 at 13:41
  • 3
    @Tink that's exactly what I was trying to figure out in too many comments here until giving up.
    – Shadow Wizard
    Commented Nov 30, 2022 at 14:17
  • 1
    It is one of the most important roles, IMO. Perhaps expand it? The question says (my emphasis) "To make it easier to discuss your ideas, please start each answer with a name for the role as the heading of your answer, followed by a brief description of how you think the role would work (e.g., what permissions it might need, new tools you think it might need, etc.)."
    – This_is_NOT_a_forum
    Commented Dec 1, 2022 at 14:04
  • You could take inspiration from the other answers.
    – This_is_NOT_a_forum
    Commented Dec 1, 2022 at 14:10
  • 4
    I've argued several times that SO (in particular, SE in general) should make it easier for people to manage duplicate finding. This doesn't necessarily need a new role; it just needs tooling to help people who would do duplicate finding keep track of known duplicates in their tags of interest, so that when it is time to find a duplicate, they have SO-provided tooling to help. I use an extensive set of bookmarks, but it isn't very satisfactory as a mechanism.
    – Jonathan Leffler
    Commented Dec 3, 2022 at 19:11
-7

'identity' infrastructure [for roles]

(Assumptions)

Many perspectives

Each user will likely see 'gaps' in their experiences on Stack Exchange network (SE); and in its content.

This corpus of content appears to have gaps at the basic-to-intermediate level to help newcomers to 'get moving'; I say this from my own past experiences on stack overflow -- difficulty with topics like configuration in Rails, or getting started with CI/CD...etc.

Voluminous content

SE appears blessed with a huge amount of content. Given the broad scope of the SE problem [of education and knowledge management]; and the huge variety of users;

An organic approach

to contribution could re-energize the foundational meaning of SE.

Each person offers a particular 'energy' according to the "enneagram's" nine strategies of life—

The enthusiast1 may produce a volume of engaging content – at times a bit too speedily – that the reformer may critique and adjust. The harmonizer or community promoter may enjoy2 filling small-but-important gaps in the body of content, over which others might glide past. The investigator will make profoundly insightful contributions, while the challenger may drive momentum.

Recognizing these characteristic behaviors3 [either with tag suggestions like how social media has many types of 'likes' or annotative emojis –in Signal, or even WhatsApp for example], can create the means or 'API' by which to layer interesting functionality --whether privileges or even custom interfaces (!) to surface relevant content and ‘facilitators’.

Graduated development paths, constellations of influence, or 'leveling-up' (all coarsely put), [perhaps in the way the Masons (as in masonic lodge...) do] could allow useful structure [in seemingly a most open/pliable and ‘accessible’ basic format]. And these paths may emerge from the ground-level nine 'paths'4.

1 (or give it an SO-specific name)
2overlaps fine and likely
3carefully derived from a large, varied body of spiritual wisdoms... Sufism, and many others.
4 multiple or all certainly possible to any user: steps on the journey to revelation

2exhibit
deceptively nuanced, even if simple question of a ‘three-way handshake’ - see Sanzhar Yeleuov’s answer, and [charged?] argument, in comments section

perhaps, this table helps elucidate possible nuance, and fill gaps in the process (if not, then just illustrative of the possibilities :D)

action result
client initiates with [packet] data (SYN) server may now confirm data transmission success, from client (ISN x)
(together)
- server responds (ACK)
- server sends own data (SYN)		 client may confirm data transmission it received from server (ISN y)
client responds (ACK) both parties understand what comes next (2 ACKs); syncing/test transmissions complete (2 SYNs)
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  • 5
    As someone who knows nothing about "enneagram's" nine strategies of life, I find the suggestion pretty unclear.
    – starball
    Commented Dec 16, 2022 at 5:59
  • 4
    I can't actually tease out what the suggestion is here? Was this generated by ChatGPT ?
    – Rob
    Commented Dec 16, 2022 at 11:08
  • @starball, take a look at the context first, then the links. should I include an appendix on the enneagram, as standard practice? Next person's comment: the suggestion lies with thinking outside the box...looking beyond roles, and into how people recognize [each other's] behavior, first.
    – kruchkamgar
    Commented Dec 16, 2022 at 20:13
  • 3
    @Rob: That was my thought as well when I read it. Who would write word salad like "re-energize the foundational meaning" and "derived from a large, varied body of spiritual wisdoms"? What does it even mean?
    – This_is_NOT_a_forum
    Commented Dec 18, 2022 at 21:53
  • Though only humans misspell Stack Overflow.
    – This_is_NOT_a_forum
    Commented Dec 18, 2022 at 22:19
  • "gaps in basic-to-intermediate 'get-moving' enabler knowledge": What?
    – This_is_NOT_a_forum
    Commented Dec 18, 2022 at 22:22
  • (I did not bump it. This page was on the main page today, 2023-12-06. I am not sure which action caused it. Probably a new answer that was later deleted.)
    – This_is_NOT_a_forum
    Commented Dec 6, 2023 at 15:35
-10

Sergeant-at-arms

It would be good if someone were able to make sense of the 'rules' that the community established on Meta so if there were any disputes over close reasons they could be answered by a person who isn't elected to make those decisions.

Often moderator elections are seen as a mandate to move the site in a certain direction. The ideas that the person running for the position said they were going to moderate under become the ideas that the moderator takes when making decisions about what constitutes topical questions or invalid answers.

But having a sergeant-at-arms to bounce off questions, who can maintain the FAQ's and keep things consistent, without injecting their own opinions about procedures - only going off of what has become community consensus, would be a fantastic boon for some of our sites with steeper learning curves and more contentious sorts of content.

This person could be a full-fledged moderator on meta.

Responsibilities could include:

  • Setting a threshold for consensus when changes are suggested by the community.

  • Keeping track of duplicate discussions.

  • Informing the moderation team of the "rules" at they currently stand.

The sergeant-at-arms would be a trusted advisor to moderators and a person who they could bounce questions off of in edge cases to ensure consistency.

Improve this answer
5
  • 1
    Do you think it would be insufficient to just add more links to useful meta FAQ posts builtin to the site UI where appropriate/relevant? If so, why?
    – starball
    Commented Nov 30, 2022 at 17:31
  • @star after a community gets to about 10 years old, you sometimes have some forgetfulness. I moderate Christianity.SE and we have a lot of people who come there and are befuddled by the rules that we created to keep things civil and objective. The explanations to new users for why they're having a hard time with the site (if they didn't start by appreciating why we're different than other sites) is almost always tailored to the individual. Oftentimes new users just think we're making up the 'rules' as we go along.
    – Peter Turner
    Commented Nov 30, 2022 at 19:38
  • I can definitely empathize. I've started keeping a "saves" folder for various meta posts that I find useful for guidance to myself, and one for meta posts with guidance that I often give to others. Ex. don't post images of text, what specific kind of content needs to be in English, why "can you help me" isn't a real question, why not to post certain kinds of comments like LMGTFY, idownvotedbecau.se, "we are not a programming service", etc. IANAL, but I'd image this is a bit like how it feels to pull out precedent cases and such. All those meta posts are hardly discoverable to new users.
    – starball
    Commented Nov 30, 2022 at 19:44
  • 6
    "without injecting their own opinions about procedures - only going off of what has become community consensus." I'm not sure that's possible.
    – JBH
    Commented Nov 30, 2022 at 22:01
  • 2
    Like the concept, hate the name. "Historian" gets to the need and duties much faster. Should be an advisory role, privy to both public and private discussions and both expected and empowered to research and provide contextual input on matters such as those you describe.
    – Shog9
    Commented Dec 3, 2022 at 3:28
-14

Guru

Someone willing to help a community who have demostrated competence (knowledge, skills, values) by having an academic degree from a trusted education center, a certification from a trusted body, or have published books or papers through trusted scientific / professional bodies publishers or being the recognized creator of a topic, i.e. in Stack Overflow the creator/mainteiner of a tool used by programmers could be designed as guru for the corresponding tag.

A guru help a community by

  1. Providing answers to canonical / reference questions in one or more tags.
  2. Marking posts as authoritative.
  3. Marking posts as recommended.
  4. Marking posts as obsolete.

Required resources:

Gurus should be able

  1. To choose the format to be used by their posts: use the regular Q/A format or use the Article form used in Collectives.
  2. Select one or two community members as Delegates. Delegates will help the expert by creating a post on their behalf, repling to comments, remove no longer required comments from authoritative posts. Once a post is created by a Delgegate, the post is submitted for the Expert for review and approval.
  3. Mark a post as authoritative, the post could be created by the expert or by someone else. Authoritative posts can't be upvoted / downvoted by the regular community members, but they could be discussed in the corresponding per-site Meta. Authoritative posts will include links to the recent discussons in Meta. Also an authoritative post could be used by the community as close as duplicate target.
  4. Mark a post as recommended. Posts sorted by relevance will show recommended posts first. In Q/A pages the accepted answer will be shown after the recommended answer, then the answers according their score. There should be other sorting options, like newest first, active first, etc.
  5. A post marked as obsolete optionally will include a link to the current post.
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  • 4
    I feel like the word "expert" is too general here / confusing when we use the term "subject matter expert" to refer to anyone who knows a topic well without having those qualities you list here.
    – starball
    Commented Nov 29, 2022 at 4:27
  • 5
    I'd be on board with some kind of indicator for "being the recognized creator of a topic". But as someone without the kind of academic background you're referring to, the rest of the (highly-academic-background-favouring) qualifications feels a little strangely specific, especially if put beside the "anyone can ask and answer" statement we put on the site banners.
    – starball
    Commented Nov 29, 2022 at 4:33
  • 3
    Would this be similar to "recognized members", which is a thing for collectives, but just that it isn't limited to collectives?
    – starball
    Commented Nov 29, 2022 at 4:34
  • 1
    Maybe "Author" would be a better title than "Expert" -- on SO it's the author of whichever tool -- or perhaps "authoritative".
    – ChrisW
    Commented Nov 29, 2022 at 6:37
  • 2
    Is the name itself, "guru", a problematic name or not (not a rhetorical question)?
    – This_is_NOT_a_forum
    Commented Nov 29, 2022 at 9:05
  • 4
    I don't like this idea. FWIW, in the Python tag on SO, some of the Python core devs are (or have been) active members. Of course, the Python community recognise them by name, and appreciate their expert input. But they don't need to be given an extra special status boost. And they aren't infallible demi-gods: they occasionally make blunders, and get down-votes.
    – PM 2Ring
    Commented Nov 29, 2022 at 9:43
  • 2
    Marking the posts as "authoritative", having "delegates" and calling them "guru" or experts seems very patronizing. Marking posts as obsolete might seem to have merit, but putting a comment under the post also does a fair job of getting the point across most times. I'd much rather take the current existing system of reputation to help determine trust in the author than having people with the tag "guru" under their name.
    – Charchit Agarwal
    Commented Nov 29, 2022 at 11:32
  • 2
    @This_is_NOT_a_forum It's jargon (which may be understood on SO but not other sites).
    – ChrisW
    Commented Nov 29, 2022 at 12:35
  • @ChrisW perhaps these days using a word from various religions en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guru might mislead people on some sites.
    – mdewey
    Commented Nov 29, 2022 at 16:15
  • 1
    @mdewey You're telling me. Some people on the Buddhist site would find it controversial, I am pretty sure. One of the FAQed topics in the meta there ends with, "In general, unless you actually are the questioner's teacher, don't assume a teacher's mantle."
    – ChrisW
    Commented Nov 29, 2022 at 16:35
  • I don't get why you'd want to suppress voting -- because that may be unpopular and I don't see why it's desirable. Also is there any important difference between "recommended (by the authority)" and "authoritative"?
    – ChrisW
    Commented Nov 29, 2022 at 16:41
  • A problem with this is that Guru powers can be abused (I would say will be). Already with Gold Badge dupehammerers we occasionally see them favoring their own old answers, granting those "a canonical answer" -status. This is not necessarily excessive self-promotion because an eager dupe hunter is very pressed for time, so it is natural to use threads you have answered yourself as dupe targets. Simply because those are the easiest to find. But there is potential for abuse. I have also seen two dupehammerers getting into close/reopen wars and such.
    – Jyrki_Shog9Supporter
    Commented Nov 30, 2022 at 12:25
  • With sufficiently large egos clashing, problems are foreseeable, and remedies should be discussed in advance. I think the dupehammer is the highest privilege we can safely award anyone, and even that should be monitored.
    – Jyrki_Shog9Supporter
    Commented Nov 30, 2022 at 12:27
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