Who should our moderators be?

Question

It maybe a bit early, but it is something definite to start thinking about.

From the Moderator Pro Tempore blog:

About a week into the public beta, we will seek out members who are deeply engaged in the community’s development; members who:

• Have a reasonably high reputation score to indicate active, consistent participation.
• Show an interest in their meta’s community-building activities.
• Lead by example, showing patience and respect for their fellow community members in everything they write.
• Exhibit those intangible traits discussed in A Theory of Moderation.

Bonus points for:

• Members with participation in both meta and the parent site (i.e. interest in both community building and expertise in the field).
• Area 51 participation, social network referrals, or blogging about the site.
• Members who have already shown an interest or ability to promote their community.

Candidates will be contacted and three of them will be selected to act as provisional Moderators until the community holds formal elections after the Beta period. Besides the normal abilities of a Moderator, they will:

• Have access to a special chat room where we will collectively work through the challenges of moderation and community self-policing.
• Organize the process of selecting the site’s attributes (domain names, design issues, the FAQ, etc.).
• Rally community support and drive the mission of getting publicity for the site.

Essentially, they will have the ear of the Stack Exchange team for anything we can do to help their sites succeed!

Nominate someone or nominate yourself.

Answer 1

I would like to nominate Yannis:

1. He has a lot of experience with the Stack Exchange network; he's the moderator of two sites and has more reputation than I will ever have.
2. His questions are interesting and his answers are well sourced. When we are in public beta, I will use his questions and answers as examples of the content we want new users to post.
3. He's active on chat and on the main site.

If we can convince him to add a third site to his already extensive list of responsibilities, he would be a great choice.

Answer 2

I'd like to nominate @Semaphore.

I don't know if he wants to be moderator, but it seems like a pretty clear choice to me (after @Yannis, obviously):

1. Has the second most rep as of this posting (after @Yannis)
2. Has made smart, intelligent contributions to both main and meta
3. Has the 3rd most rep on History.stackexchange. I think it's important for us to have a moderator who is active on both sites; we want someone who understands them both well to help us all understanding the exact differences between the two sites and can help us with fleshing out the lines.

Answer 3

profile for durron597 on Stack Exchange, a network of free, community-driven Q&A sites http://stackexchange.com/users/flair/1968644.png

• 1 user according to Area 51 statistics

• 3 in reputation on Main

• 2 in participation on Meta

  • Second person to earn the Convention Badge (10 posts with a score of 2 or more on Meta)
• Been an active user in the Stack Exchange community for more than 3 years, with 12k rep on StackOverflow
• Recently I've been taking a much larger interest on being a janitor on StackOverflow and on Programmers.SE
• I admit when I'm wrong, and listen and advocate for other's good ideas.
• When I have any doubt about any issue, my first instinct is to come to Meta and post a question. That is why I have by far the most asked meta questions, at 9.
• I'm interested in
  • Ensuring both questions and answers here are well cited (aside: note how well cited this nomination post is)
  • Working hard to narrow and clarify site scope
  • Riding herd on keeping tags on-point and useful
  • Editing salvageable questions to create good content
  • Encouraging increased activity levels from existing users
• Who wouldn't want a Lego Jedi to be moderator, anyways?

Answer 4

I would like to nominate myself, El'endia Starman.

Here's why I think I would be a good moderator:

• I am a moderator on Christianity.SE, and was a moderator ever since I was selected by the Stack Exchange team to be a pro-tempore mod (and that despite the fact that I wasn't nominated by anyone or myself). This shows that I know and understand quite well what's involved in being a moderator.
• I'm actually putting significantly more time and effort into this Beta than into other sites.
• I am first place in Meta participation. (Which is surprising to me, in fact.)
• My answer to How will we define mythology? currently has a +20/-1 score, which is incredibly well-received for a private Beta. (And for practically any Meta in general.)
• My answer to How should we decide if a religious question belongs here or on .SE? currently has a +1/-4 score, and I later answered a question (Who commands the Heavenly Host in combat?) that would be off-topic according to my post, but not according to the current top answer, which stands at +11/-0 score. This shows that I am willing to follow and support the community when they disagree with me.

Possible negatives:

• I don't have very much rep compared to top users. Then again, this is also true of me over at Christianity.SE, and lots of people there like me as a moderator.
• I am less than three weeks away from graduating from college. This means I will likely have brief periods of inactivity over the next month, but I should still be able to devote a good amount of time to moderation and participation in general.

Answer 5

Nomination: @naltipar

Since there is no clear third nomination, I would also like to nominate myself as a moderator. Although I'm a member of Stack Exchange for a year or so, my experience with Stack Exchange started in January, when I became active in AskUbuntu and Stack Overflow. I have contributed to them as a typical user, by improving posts, giving answers when I could do so and also flagging inappropriate behaviour.

I've been active in this beta since its start, have given many good-quality answers and I am constantly in the top-reputation users, also contributing to the meta and the chat. It will most probably be my next addiction. I dedicate many hours a day watching this Beta and I will continue to do so.

My important negative might be, that I have less overall experience and reputation compared to other users or moderators. This, I believe, should and will be taken into consideration, but everyone has a starting point.

Answer 6

I would like to volunteer my services as part of the pro-tem moderator team for this site.

I have fifty years experience of studying myths from around the world. This started from growing up in Glastonbury, the Isle of Avalon itself. I now live in Wiltshire, surrounded by many sites of significance in British and Celtic myth. This started my quest to see what other places and other myths were out there, looking for parallels and contrasts. I was banned from Religious Education class at school after writing in an essay that parts of the Old Testament was plagiarised from the Epic of Gilgamesh. Irrespective of whether you call it religion, mythology, folklore or just a cracked pot-boiler, it fascinates me.

Incidentally, the name Chenmunka is a nickname I was given during a short spell working in Korea. During which time I was able to look more deeply into far eastern mythology, including visiting the Tripitaka at Haeinsa.

I have followed this proposal from its inception on Area51, having proposed a number of succesful example questions. I currently follow a number of sites there which could be construed as similar but I believe this site has the best chance of graduating.

I have two years experience of the StackExchange system. Although never a Moderator, I have reviewed over 12,000 posts across 10 sites. I have some experience of using the 10k tools on English Language Learners.

I would welcome the opportunity to help steer this site through its adolescence to become a legendary source of information in its own right.

Answer 7

I would like to nominate Christofian.

I would like to invite you to take a quick look at his comment history. The pattern of him mercilessly hunting down sourceless answers is hard to miss. His always-polite-but-firm comments have inspired quite a few of our posters (myself included) to improve their posts. I think that's a very valuable trait for a beta moderator.

Since all other nominations mention reputation, I think I should point out the bulk of his reputation comes from self-answered questions. Self-answered questions are notoriously hard to get right, and the fact that Christofian mastered them tells me that he has a more than sufficient understanding of the SE model.

---

Thank you for the kind words, Yannis. I (christofian) accept, and I would just like to add three things:

1. Although I am strongly in favour of people citing reputable sources in their answers, I would never act unilaterally as a moderator to close or delete content that I felt was improperly sourced. I would continue to write comments as a member of the community, but closing or deleting posts should never be done unless there is a community consensus to do so. I strongly believe that moderators should act as exception handlers, and that they should not write policy single-handedly.
2. I used to be a moderator on Pro Webmasters back in 2011.
3. I have a long standing interest in mythology, and I will remain active, whether as a moderator or as a member of the community.

Answer 8

I'd like to nominate myself, HDE 226868

Potentially good things

• I'm currently a pro-tempore moderator on History of Science and Mathematics (and have been since early December), and I have been an extremely active member there since Day 1.
• I have a lot of experience with community moderation (example: Worldbuilding) on a bunch of sites, and I constantly check out the review queues. I also flag any posts which need to be flagged - though I ironically have not yet gotten Citizen Patrol on Mythology, though that may be because the corps of users here doesn't mess around.
• I'm #7 #5 #4 in participation on Mythology meta, and I fully intend to stay active.
• I have prior experience on two private betas (HSM and Engineering), so I know what it's like to help out with a site in its earliest days.
• I'm currently our #1 editor, thanks in part to some work I've done on tag wikis.
• I'm active in chat.
• I'm also active on Meta Stack Exchange.
• I was the third person on Mythology to get the Convention badge.

Potentially bad things

• I've been with Mythology for a slightly shorter time than some others here (three days less, which is rapidly becoming not much of an issue) , thanks in part to a hectic week, so I have (three days) less experience than most (if not all) of the other candidates.
• I'm 16. That was only held against me once on another site, when a person who was criticizing everyone who posted knocked on me for being a 16-year-old moderator. I'm not sure if that will be a concern for anyone; I have yet to have a moderation complain from anyone about anything, but there are people on Stack Exchange who don't want teens moderating. They're few and far between, but they still exist.
• . . . ? I'm sure there are other things people dislike, so I'm open to additions!

---

There are a few things I've seen asked in elections, so I'll answer them here.

Closing questions

I typically don't close or re-open questions unless there are three of four votes already there, to let the community decide. There are clear exceptions (e.g. a user is spamming), but for the most part, I stay our of things.

Other decisions

I always consult with the other mods and/or the community before making a major moderating decision, such as banning a user (which I have not yet had to do!).

Meta

I love using meta, and bring decisions there if I'm ever unsure of anything. Same goes for sites where I'm a non-mod. It's always best to have the input of others. This meta is, in my experience, especially active relative to the other private betas I've been in, which is really handy.

Answer 9

I would like to nominate @senshin

He is quite active on this site main and meta, and has a range of useful expertise on other sites and in other domains. His meta posts are very advantageous and thoughtful. He has a good amount of reputation on the site and is a prolific editor.

He is very active on Anime and Manga SE with more than 11k rep. He is also a moderator on Anime.SE and Hinduism.SE. He has extensive experience and moreover, is familiar with mod-works.

Answer 10

I would like to nominate femtoRgon.

1. He's active on meta.
2. His answers are some of the best answers on the site.
3. He's very dedicated to the site, and has the fourth most reputation, despite being relatively new to the site.

Answer 11

I feel a bit weird doing this, but yolo right?

I would like to nominate Ero Sɘnnin (myself), meta.

I think I would be a good moderator because:

• I'm knowledgeable about a range of mythologies and their culture.
• I'm active only on a few select sites and I'm active most of the time during the entire day.
• I have a well-above-good level of patience and I always encourage others to do the right thing. I'd love to help anyone in need.

On Mythology.SE:

• All my answers and questions are well received.
• I float around in the top 15 users on both main and meta.
• I spend a lot of time reviewing questions and answers, helping them improve.
• I'm active on both the main and meta sites. You can find me at The Pantheon most of the time.

I know this site has a lot of potential and I am willing to dedicate my time and energy to help this Stack achieve its true potential.

Good luck to all nominees! :D

Answer 12

I'd like to nominate myself, @Luna.

I'm Luna, I've been a member of the SE network for approximately 7 months, and a lurker long before that. I've spent a lot of time on both the main sites, and the metas, and believe I've built up a lot of knowledge on how the network is driven by the community.

I've been an active participation in a lot of the meta discussion about what should be going on this site and how we should organise it. However, the role of moderator is not to force their opinions on these things through - I'd instead be honoured to act on the voices of the Mythology community in taking this site forward. I'm honest and willing to admit to my mistakes.

On Mythology.SE (at time of writing):

• Yoyo-ing around among the top ten users on Main
• Currently second for participation on Meta
• I've been participating as much as I can, in chat and Meta, in discussions on how we should form and organise the site
• I've asked some well-received questions and given well-received answers - I'm particularly active in Q&As about Arthurian Legends and British folklore, although I'm happy to dabble in Greek and Scandinavian mythology too.

Availability:

• I'm not a moderator anywhere else and have no other volunteering duties
• I do work during the day, but am pretty much always online outside of work. I'm on UK time.
• I'm pretty excited about this moving forward and am willing to dedicate time to the site as required.

Answer 13

I would like to Nominate myself Young Guilo

I started this SE site with the hopes that people from all over would come together and express their ideas and feelings for a topic that is widely loved and adored.

Based on the Beta so far my dream has come true.

Why should I be moderator:

1. I am extremely knowledgeable in mythology and am always learning more everyday
2. I am dedicated to this site and will forever make sure it stays maintained and well kept

I appreciate the help of all those involved. May the gods bless you.

Answer 14

I'd like to nominate fredsbend

He's very active on another, very difficult to moderate SE site, and definitely gets the StackExchange model. He spends a great deal of time in the review queue, and in chat. He does a wonderful job of helping new visitors understand the guidelines over there, and I think he would be very strong in a moderator role here.

Put simply, there are few users whose judgment I trust more implicitly.

He's also been very active on this site, and is currently in 3rd place for active meta users.

If you're looking for someone who will put the good of the community first, and for someone who understands what it takes to make it out of beta, you would be hard pressed to find better.