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.
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