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2015 Moderator Election

nomination began
Apr 6, 2015 at 20:00
primary began
Apr 13, 2015 at 20:00
election began
Apr 17, 2015 at 20:00
election ended
Apr 21, 2015 at 20:00
candidates
30 / 31
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 in our community, and should themselves be exemplars of positive behavior and leaders within the community.

Candidacy Criteria

Generally, moderators should have the following qualities:

  • 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 uncommon disputes and exceptions

For the Stack Overflow election, candidates must have all the following badges:
Civic Duty, Strunk & White, Deputy, Convention

…and also cannot have been suspended during the past year.

Furthermore, all moderators must abide by the moderator agreement.

Due to the size of Stack Overflow, moderation is a significant responsibility. As a moderator you will need to dedicate part of your time (at least 30 minutes daily) to help shoulder the load of the moderator flag queue.

Election Process

Every election has up to three phases:

  1. Nomination
  2. Primary (active only if there are >10 candidates)
  3. Election

Their descriptions can be found in the blue notice boxes at the top of each corresponding page.

For questions about the election process itself, you can search Meta, or ask in the election chat room linked in the section below.

Please participate in the moderator elections by ranking the candidates, and perhaps even by nominating yourself to be a community moderator.

Ed Cottrell's answers to your questions


I would be honored to be a moderator.

About Me!

I've been active on StackOverflow and other SE sites for 2+ years. I love this community and want to make it even better. I'm an attorney by day and a developer by night (mostly LAMP and JavaScript). I've been writing software for 30 years (yes, really!).

Why Me?

  • I have experience serving as a moderator on ebooks.
  • I grok the Theory of Moderation. As error handlers, mods must use a light touch. We step in if there's a problem only mods can fix or a problem with the community itself. We don't step in if the community is handling a problem on its own.
  • I treat everyone with respect.
  • I do lots of quality control and cleanup. I've raised over 6,500 flags, 99.2% of them "helpful."
  • I work the review queues.
  • I know my limits. I don't moderate what I don't understand; I get help.
  • I'm on here all the time, but most active on SO late at night in the US, when fewer mods are on.

Why Not Me?

  • I don't have the highest reputation.
  • I've participated less on Meta than I would like. I commit to being much more active there, even if I am not elected.

deceze's answers to your questions


I've been following Stack Overflow literally from before its beginning (6-8 anyone?). Within the first year or so of its existence it became quite a major point of influence for me. I've learned and grown from it in my professional career enormously. And while I'm still learning from it, at some point my interaction with Stack Overflow tipped over into me "putting in" more than "getting out". I like the community, the site, the interaction model. It works. It accomplishes its design goal each and every day. My personal experience with it is all the proof I need for that.

Since my interaction with the community has become more and more meta over time, nominating myself for moderator seems like the logical next step. I'm often mostly curating the site with the few tools I have available anyway; if you think I'm doing a decent job at that and would be okay with giving me access to more tools, I'd be happy to wield them.

Some quick third-person facts about me:

  • is mostly active in LAMP-stack related tags from PHP over Python, MySQL, Postgres, Javascript to AngularJS
  • has somehow managed to visit the site every day, even while his son was born
  • has problems with character limi

Jon Clements' answers to your questions


I'm still here a (after yet another) year on with more experience of the community and with no less passion than I did before to help out where I can...

My beliefs/actions are still the same:

  • editing and improving posts where possible (no point closing a question if it's reasonably salvageable by an edit), participating in close (especially to tidy up duplicates)/re-open, (un)delete votes and assisting with flagged posts
  • part of a community that's working on a system for a Python Wiki based on SO and building SO chat rooms
  • have spent several years dealing with conflicts as an IRC Operator and Channel Services Admin
  • being respectful, open-minded, patient and fair - just don't confuse that with being non-decisive or a "walkover"
  • keep up to date with Meta (even if I don't say much that often)

Martijn Pieters's answers to your questions


Hello, my name is Martijn Pieters and I am a Stack Overflow Ninja.

I've been active on Meta since before we had our own Meta; you may have seen me active there providing support. As such I am already devoting quite some time to help run this place, next to my other Stack Overflow activities.

And I am addicted to it. I ask you to help me feed this addiction, and elect me moderator so that I can help more, clean up more, support more.

I've always been the quiet admin in the background, gardening the system and keeping out the cruft, the garbage and the critters. I've been a moderator of various groups, forums and bulletin board sites, and I've naturally extended this to Stack Overflow. I edit almost any question I open, resulting in a top illuminator spot and better questions.

Make me mod, and I'll extend that drive to the flag queue!

Jeremy Banks' answers to your questions


This election marks seven years since the announcement of Stack Overflow. A few months after that announcement, I entered the private beta and immediately knew that this site was going to be something special. It has grown to be valuable to so many, and I'd like to help that continue.

I've demonstrated that I don't like to risk losing useful content. Help me save more of it. I make a particular promise: if elected, I will monitor the deletion log, undeletion vote log, and edits to recently-deleted questions. Any deserving questions I see will be restored immediately, instead of waiting and hoping for high-rep users to bring them back.

Has this ever happened to you? After carefully considering a problem you conclude that you need to do X. You post a question asking "How do I do X?". Instead of relevant responses, you get a dozen commenters telling you "you're doing it wrong". You try to explain, but by the time you respond your question has been closed as a "duplicate" of something entirely unrelated. Elect me so that I can reopen these questions and set things straight.

Matt's answers to your questions


Hi everyone,

I hope my activity (on SO, MSO and MSE) will portray me as a user who is active, fair, and helpful.

If I was to be elected, you'd not only see me continue to exhibit the same behaviour as I have to this day, but you'd also see me help to clear the flag backlog. After participating in review, and having flagged ~5,700 items, I feel I'd be pretty comfortable in that regard.

My firm belief is that moderators should be directed by the consensus of the community, and their actions should be virtually invisible. You therefore won't see me make any wild manifesto's, like you'll see in other elections, but you will see me stand up and explain my actions (and likewise acknowledge any mistakes I make) on Meta.

I nominated myself to be a mod last year, but didn't quite make it; but I'm still here, still addicted to Stack Overflow, and still eager to be a mod and help out.

Thanks,
Matt

Second Rikudo's answers to your questions


Hey! I am Second Rikudo, and I'd like to nominate myself as a moderator for Stack Overflow.

Before we get to some stats, I'd like to present what I think matters most in a mod. I think a mod should be professional, patient with users, and slow to judge. Someone with the humility to make mistakes and learn from them, but also someone who stands firm behind their decisions.

I think that mods are those who should be aware of the issues currently at hand, and be able to answer appropriately.

I am an active member for 3 years, 8 months, in which I've

I am currently a moderator on Anime & Manga, I know the system, I know the people, and I have the experience I think is a must for any moderator on such a large community.

I also plan on being one of the only diamond mods regularly active in chat.

Good luck to all candidates! Thanks for reading!

meagar's answers to your questions


My name is Matt Eagar. I've been an avid and daily user of Stack Overflow for over 5 years. During that time I've visited the site on 1772 days, posted 2457 answers, raised 2221 helpful flags, made 7400 edits, participated in meta and chat, and spent countless hours moderating the site in everything but name.

I believe Stack Overflow is a place for reference-quality writing, and I believe votes (up and down) and comments are a great way of providing feedback when content doesn't meet this high bar. It is a high bar, but it is also the reason Stack Overflow is what it is: The best place on the Internet for hobbyist and professional developers to get quality feedback in exchange for asking good questions.

At the same time, new users are the lifeblood of any site. It's too easy to place the burden of getting their first post just right on new users. I believe our experienced users and moderators have a duty to teach new users how to contribute, by leading by example and where that fails, gentle encouragement.

I'm back after narrowly losing last year to humbly ask again for the opportunity to be your moderator.

Raghav Sood's answers to your questions


Why I'd be a good moderator

  • I spend several hours on SO daily. Dedicating 30 minutes or more/day is easily doable
  • Since I hit 10k, I've made good use of the tools given to me and raised 2852 helpful flags
  • My meta participation is a bit low, but I'm working on improving that
  • I'm very even headed. If you ever drop by the Android chat room, or goes over its transcripts, you'll find that in my role as room owner I'm always fair in my decisions and don't pick fights with anyone at all
  • I'm patient and willing to help. In many cases, I go to great lengths to help out people, explaining over a few comments or on chat how to solve the problem
  • could use some major cleanup right now, and I can do that with mod tools. It is 650k+ questions, making it one of the biggest.
  • This is my third consecutive year standing for moderator. I've learnt a lot more things and come a long way in that time. In fact, I turn 18 a day before the voting starts
  • My participation did drop down in the past few months due to my final set of school exams. With those out of the way, I should be back on this site as I used to
  • I'm in UTC+5:30, a timezone with mod shortage

Paresh Mayani's answers to your questions


Why I would be a good moderator

I've used moderator tools effectively for cleaning up piles of review threads, especially have reviewed android posts.

Moderation activity

  • 4522 flags
  • >1600 review tasks
  • >700 close votes
  • >1300 suggested edits
  • >1100 low quality posts

Passionate about community and willing to help

  • I've visited the site for >1300 days and I spend >1 hour daily.

  • My regular meta activity was bit low but I have worked and improved over it. I have contributed into the SE android application by finding bugs/issues and also by suggesting some features, have posted 43 threads so far and one among the top contributors.

  • Regarding helping out developers, I have posted 89/1248 QA so far and still counting! I have helped many developers by taking their issues offline.

  • In my leisure time, I write and share about android development on my blog.

Why standing for the moderator?

  • Flags aren't being moderated quickly during IST.

  • tag requires major clean up & moderation and as far as I know there is no moderator who either knows or expert in Android and active for the same.

This election is over.