2011 Moderator Election

nomination began
Jan 18, 2011 at 21:00
election began
Jan 25, 2011 at 21:00
election ended
Feb 2, 2011 at 21:00
candidates
10
positions
3

On Stack Exchange, we believe the core moderators should come from the community, and be elected by the community itself through popular vote. We hold regular elections to determine who these community moderators will be.

Community moderators are accorded the highest level of privilege on our community, and should themselves be exemplars of positive behavior and leaders within the community.

Our general criteria for moderators is as follows:

  • patient and fair
  • leads by example
  • shows respect for their fellow community members in their actions and words
  • open to some light but firm moderation to keep the community on track and resolve (hopefully) uncommon disputes and exceptions

Every election has three phases:

  1. Nomination
  2. Primary
  3. Election

Please participate in the moderator elections by voting, and perhaps even by nominating yourself to be a community moderator!

86

TL;DR: I've been here for quite some time, spent considerable time and effort in shaping the community, vote a lot, ask & answer few questions and flag/vote to close questions which don't seem fit for the site.


Hello Super Users!

I'm Sathya. I've been part of the Super User community since it's earliest days. Over the course of time, I've had the privilege of observing, taking part & shaping the community from it's earliest days to the awesome level that it currently is ( and not to forget, evolving as well).

Having seen as to how the then and current moderators have guided the community, I'm confident that I will be a good addition to the Moderation team).

Taking a cue from what makes me a good Moderator:

  • Dedication - As mentioned, I've been an active member since the early beta days, having represented Super User for well over 500 days, with the last 200+ being consecutive days.

  • Reasonably high reputation

  • Community building: I'm a prolific voter with over 3600 votes, amongst the more active in voting to close (run out of close votes almost every day), active participant in Meta.Super User & Meta.Stack Overflow, have suggested several tag synonyms which are actively in use, use the /review route almost daily and often drop a comment explaining what a member can do to improve his experience here.

  • Prior Experience in Moderation: While not a Moderator on Stack Exchange sites, I am a Moderator at one of India's leading computing magazines. As a 10k+ user, I've had access to the moderator tools, and have been pretty active in editing, flagging posts which are not suited for Super User community.

  • Badges: Badges on Stack Exchange are often an award for good behaviour, some of the noteworthy badges that I've earned include: Copy Editor,Electorate,Fanatic, Beta, Convention, Generalist, Necromancer, Yearling.

  • Miscellaneous: Amongst other things, I'm always available on Super User Chat ( actually founded the chat room, before the server switcheroo). Also, I'm about halfway across the world from the US, in India so there's another set of eyes from a different timezone.

Conclusion: I firmly believe that I can be a good Moderator. If my pitch sounds a bit too-much like self-promo: well that's what we're supposed to do right ;)


Addendum: My reply to the Election Nominee Q&A

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Two of my passions are technology and helping people. Super User lets me combine these passions and benefit others. I'm a technical person by nature and detail-oriented; having self-taught myself most of what I know.

Ever since I joined, I have been actively giving back to the Super User community, one way or another (as my reputation has allowed):

  • Voting (4,000 votes and counting), awarded Electorate, Civic Duty, and Suffrage, and most recently, Sportsmanship (the 4th one awarded ever) badges.
  • Retagged 400+ posts between 500 & 2,000 rep.
  • Frequent editor - awarded Copy Editor and Strunk and White badges. Also use the /review page on a regular basis.
  • Frequently vote to close, helping to keep Super User clean and focused.
  • Create Tag Wikis where possible - making tags easier to use and understand.
  • Flag posts for moderator attention (i.e. spam, 'not an answer' posts, etc).
  • Other badges awarded include Tag Editor, Tenacious, Yearling, Altruist, and Investor.

I enjoy Super User's sense of community and willingness to help those who have questions. Users here have been patient and helpful, showing me where I have made mistakes and how to correct or avoid them in the future. I am quick to learn and open to any feedback or concerns users may have.

See my Q&A session over on Super User Meta.

I am an active user across a number of Stack Exchange sites, but my primary focus has been Super User. I participate in the Super User Meta, as well as Meta Stack Overflow. I also enjoy reading the Stack Overflow Blog, keeping up-to-date with what's new and awesome in the Stack Exchange!

I would be proud to be a "human exception handler" and volunteer my time to make Super User a better place! :)

11

My name is Tom Wijsman, 21 years old and I live in Ekeren, Belgium (GMT + 1). My interests lie in Computers, Programming, Troubleshooting and more. I'm a Computer Science Bachelor at the University of Antwerp. For those interested in a chat, you can find me in our chat channel Root Access.

After I have discovered Super User in September 2009, I've developed a hobby last year to visit Super User daily to help you with your questions and answers. As I love Super User I'm doing my best to give back by helping to maintain the community by guiding new users, improving Q&As, helping on ideas like the new community FAQs, improving titles and tags to help people find questions, and so on...

My onset is to be patient: Think first, communicate, then act; unless immediate action is necessary. As described in the theory of moderation I will not over-do anything, as past and current moderators have shown that this works out the best. Given that I love helping people by improving their questions, I believe that I can be that human exception handler and I will handle any issues with good care.

I will do my best to be an active, responsible and respectful moderator, to help maintain & improve SU.

A short summary of my profile:

  • Gave 700+ votes, 340+ answers, active in 500 tags, worth 5k+ reputation, none downvoted.
  • Edited 180+ questions & 60+ answers for content & formatting quality, to help people.
  • Closed 100+ questions due to various close reasons, very often left a comment to help the user.
  • Recently earned a Windows-7 tag badge and a Convention badge
  • Dedication, it's hard to remember a day where I have barely visited Super User.
  • Flagged a lot of things that I didn't have permissions for, to help the current moderators.
  • Cross-site reputation of 14.000+, helping new sites. For an example, see my Programmers Profile.

For more info, check my Candidate Answers, my Profile and Cross Site Activity.

May the best three nominees win! :-)

PS: My notable badges are: Fanatic, Strunk & White, Convention, Civic Duty and Talkative.

42

I have been a member of Super User for over a year now. I am very involved in the community, and believe being a moderator would enhance my ability to help Super User. Technical skill is important on a site like this, and I think my record speaks for itself, so I shan't discuss my technical prowess further.

It is my belief that moderators should be users who are dedicated to the success of the community. They should be patient, and should have the motivation and foresight to guide the community forward. I have demonstrated an ability and eagerness to do these things. For example:

  • I frequently edit/improve other people's questions, work on community FAQ, review new and low-quality posts, close/vote/flag, and do other maintenance work.

  • I encourage users to post good questions and answers, and to improve low quality posts. If a post is beyond saving though, I will nominate it for closing.

    • I use the /review page to find low-quality posts, and often leave comments with specific suggestions about how users can improve their post and not have it closed/down-voted.

    • When a question is likely to be closed, but has good potential and is interesting, I try editing the question to bring it within our guidelines.

  • I have recently been very involved in the Community FAQ initiative, including working to define the process for creating Community FAQ questions, and writing posts for it.

  • I suggest ideas on Meta and follow up on them, engaging in discussion about how to best improve the community.

  • Whenever interacting with users, I am always as kind and gentle as possible, while remaining firm about Super User's community expectations. Patience and kindness are traits I think moderators should possess, and users here have commended me for exemplifying this.

    On multiple occasions before I have politely helped handle confused, misguided, and sometimes confrontational users. In one case, a relatively new user was upset because he felt his question had been unfairly downvoted. I commented on his post, explaining why that may have happened, and later had a more detailed discussion with the user on chat. That user now has over 3500 rep and contributes frequently to the site. My interactions may have helped convince him to stay.
    (I am not including a link, to protect that user's privacy, but if you search chat, you can probably find the conversation.)

  • I have also helped users in the Ask A Moderator chat room before when no moderators were available: See example 1 and example 2.

I enjoy working with this community, and view moderation as a way to give back and improve it. If the community decides to elect me, I will be honored to serve you. Whether or not I am elected, I will continue striving to improve this site, and will continue collaborating with the existing moderators and involved members to make Super User the best computer Q&A site on the internet.


I have posted a detailed response to Ivo's Moderator Candidate Q&A. Please give it a read!

To summarize...

  • Goals: Increasing the tech community's awareness of Super User, making more Community FAQs and making them an official feature
  • How being a mod would change my activities on SU: More efficiently finding and handling low-quality posts and users who need help, editing tag wikis.
  • Stance on duplicates: Duplicates of questions we've answered many times should be closed, but more nuanced dupes which generate high-quality answers should be kept.
  • Opinion on overlap with Apple.SE, Ubuntu.SE, etc.: Valid, on-topic questions should stay here. If an esoteric question doesn't get a good answer here and might on another SE site, it should be migrated at the asker's discretion.

And finally, some notable statistics/badges:

48

Although being quite disappointed you have to make yourself a nominee and it not being done by the community (mentioning is the highest form of flatter in my opinion), I just think I'll give it a shot anyway.

I don't study any computer science, nor does my current employment have anything to do with it. Then again, I don't think it's the main qualities a community moderator should have. I think a moderator should be patient, willing to put in an effort, and I think it's an examplerary position. Critical, yet just and involved in the community. Of course, a certain level of computer science is required to maintain a proper way of moderating, yet I believe that reputation should justify that.

As I like to believe I can represent the community, I'm about to press the "Save Edits" button below and leave it up to you guys to judge. Of course, a sales talk is nice but the product should be evaluated and I invite you all to do so. So I'm going to leave it with this "I would be willing to become a Super User moderator"-nomination. Check out my profile page if you wish to learn more! =)

49

I have been at SU for seven months now, and have steadily gained rep in a few subject areas. I don't consider myself all-knowing, or even part-knowing in many areas of computing, but I've stuck around and chipped away at those bits I have solid knowledge of because the quality of the site and its participants has encouraged me to stay. As a user I strive for high quality1, not for quantity or reputation.

And, it is this quality that we, as a community, need to strive for in content and in the "top" users that represent the site to new users. Specifically, a moderator's role is more than just keeping the peace, they are a representative for the site and have a responsibility to be an ideal citizen.

I feel that I can take this role, both by continuing to produce quality content, improving the content we already have, acting responsibly and hopefully helping shape a top-quality community.

I try to utilise all my current privileges whenever appropriate, I regularly check and edit or flag items in the new /review pages and I am frequently in chat, where I occasionally raise more serious issues directly with the current moderation team.

Finally, I pride myself on being fair, objective and impartial in (almost) everything that I do. And I believe we need to provide a "guiding hand" for new users when they transgress; I prefer to warn and inform whenever possible - because if we blindly punish without trying to teach, how can we expect to maintain the quality of the site (and users)? Obviously, the exceptions are posts that are malicious (eg, spam, intentional offenders) or cases where immediate action is beneficial (eg, low quality/incorrect answers to downvote, migrating questions to the correct SE site, closing duplicates).

I think this outlook matches up with the final statement from the "A Theory of Moderation" blog post:

The ideal moderator does as little as possible. But those little actions may be powerful and highly concentrated. Judiciously limiting your use of moderator powers to selectively prune and guide the community — now that’s the true art of moderation.


Since my arrival I have been sure to keep an eye on all recent developments; I regularly read Meta.SO (and occasionally input), the SO blog, and have been involved in our local Meta since its inception.

I am regularly available on chat (I tend to sit idle in there if I'm near a computer, just @ me if you want my attention), and I also have some participation in a few other Stack Exchange sites, but rarely at the level of frequency that I have on SU.


My responses to the Candidates Q&A Session can be found here.


1. If you check my profile, you'll see that a large proportion of my answers are accepted. Additionally, I've only ever recieved a single downvote on any of my posts here on SU (this one, if you're feeling nosey). Sorry, I just felt that I had to show off somewhere in this text. ;P

28

Having had a strong presence with the Super User community I feel that I have contributed greatly and have lots more to contribute. I have close to 10 years of IT and computer related experience. I love to share my knowledge with others and to learn as well. In the 5 months that I've been a part of this community I have earn over 4100 rep points. I've not only been an active participant of the Super User site, but also the meta site. One of my questions was featured on the stack overflow blog. I also have worked very closely and contributed to Super User's own blog. I say all of this not to "toot my own horn" but rather to show to you all my dedication to the Super User community and it's members.

My father has taught me, that in order to be successful in anything one does in life, they must have mastered these three things: Courage, Commitment, and Communication. This is exactly what I bring to the table as a potential moderator:

  • Courage: to do what is right at all times and in all situations

  • Comittment: to be available to solve problems and or issues and help Super Users become even better

  • Communication: be patient, kind, yet stern and clear, in everything that I do and say

No matter what happens, whether I become a moderator or not my dedication will be the same to Super User and it's members: To help facilitate making it a better place where teaching and learning can be found in a enjoyable setting.

As per @IvoFlipse's idea I have answered some questions regarding the moderator elections.


In just the 5 short months I have made these Moderator quality achievements:

Edits:

Edited over 64 questions for improvement in quality, clarity and often times to prevent closure of a good question.

Votes:

Voted over 300 times

Closing Questions:

Voted to close roughly over 130 times

Meta Participation

  • Have asked 13 questions which all but 2 have been upvoted and no downvotes.
  • Have answered 23 questions which all but 2 have been upvoted.

Badges:

  • Civic Duty
  • Convention
  • Talkative
  • Guru

Finally I want to say that running for a moderator position in no way means that I feel that I'm better than you. I just feel that I have the talents, time, and know how to keep this site clean and friendly so that you can continue to enjoy it.

As we draw to the final stages of the election, I also want to say that to all candidates good luck, and may the best mods win!

0

Having worked in IT since 1981 in many support, training, consultancy and mentoring roles, I am genuinely pleased when my efforts help someone else to add to their knowledge or solve a problem. For the past 10 or so years, I have been an active advocate of Open Source (community-oriented) projects, but not being much of a programmer I have kept busy with other tasks such as helping other users, suggesting improvements to applications and offering to help with documentation - a quick Googling should pick up my presence at numerous other forums and groups under my nom de net or my real name.

Quite a few of you may already be familiar with some of my work - although you won't know about it as I have been a journalist and ghost-writer for a number of organisations and publications over the years, starting with PC User Magazine in the UK in the late 1980s and early 90s. I have co-authored and developed a number of training manuals and books that have been used and sold worldwide - for example: if you have completed any Red Hat, ECDL, A+ Service Technician or Network+ training you have almost certainly used courseware derived from my original material, or for which I have provided technical input. I have also co-written with Mike Meyers of “A+ All-in-One” fame and the 'Passport' series of books, and provided train the trainer services for many of the big IT training companies around the world.

I'd be proud to be a moderator hereabouts as it will be another way I can 'give back' to the general IT community using my training and technical skills.

0

Every since 1994 (When I was 5 years old) I have been tinkering around with computers. In high school I got heavily into computer programing and networking. I pursued a Computer Networking Associates degree shortly after high school and am now working at a data center.

Throughout my entire learning experience I have been there to give a second opinion, and second set of eyes, a guiding hand to make sure that everyone gets the help they deserve (if I know the topic). I will make sure to help others as much as I can and guide others to the correct path.

I am usually on super user five days a week (average). If I am elected to be your moderator, I will lower taxes, cure world hunger o wait, wrong speech. I will try to be the best moderator I can be through, working hand and hand with the experienced super users and making sure that the correct decisions are made.

Thanks,

This election is over.