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2015 Moderator Election

nomination began
Nov 9, 2015 at 20:00
primary began
Nov 16, 2015 at 20:00
election began
Nov 20, 2015 at 20:00
election ended
Nov 24, 2015 at 20:00
candidates
18
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.

Undo's answers to your questions


Here's why you should vote for me:

  • I'm not afraid to admit my mistakes. As a human, I know I make plenty.

  • Before I take an action, I ask myself: Can I defend this on Meta? If I'm concerned that someone could legitimately call me out, I should not (and do not) take that action.

  • We should make our rules clearer to people from countries with different cultures and languages, like India and China. We should ask why people don't follow the rules. Instead of blaming them, let's make ourselves easier to understand.

  • I'm already a moderator on two other SE tech sites. I already know what all the buttons do, so I should be able to 'hit the ground running' on SO.

  • I've developed a fairly accurate SEDE query to find sockpuppets. I'd be able to cut out the middleman and handle these myself.

I might not be a 'flag handling hero' like others have been. My promise is simple: I'll be available for years to come, to handle a good number of flags every day. When I make mistakes, I'll own them.

That's what we need. I will deliver that. Feel free to ask me questions in the chatroom. I made a live primary vote counter. Try it!

Vinod's answers to your questions


Howdy There!

I am Vinod Madyalkar - formerly known as TheLostMind (I assure you, I am completely sane :P). I've been an active member on SO for 2.7 years.

Why me?

  • I spend about 6+ hours a day on SO on weekdays and at least 2 hours on weekends/holidays.
  • I am patient and fair.
  • I show respect to my fellow members in both words and actions.
  • SO has helped me a lot and I really want to do something good for the community.

Why not me?

  • Not amongst the smartest people on SO (I am trying though).
  • Never been a mod on any site before (There is always a first time :P)
  • I commit mistakes.
  • Not too active on other SE sites.

What do I believe in?

  • Be polite, always.
  • New users should be given both time and feedback to learn how SO works. They should not be scared away by down-votes or closed questions.
  • Always be open to feedback - positive or otherwise.
  • Try to help whenever you can, in whatever way you can.
  • No spam, bullies or trolls.
  • Edit a post only if it is necessary and NOT because there is a badge out there.
  • Down-votes should always be used with proper feedback. OP should always know what's wrong with his / her post.

rekire's answers to your questions


Why me?

I would like to give Stack Overflow something back for the whole time I saved with using the site. I hope that I can achieve more good things with moderating powers as I can do now. I am daily online on Stack Overflow, I visited this site on 1477 days, 826 consecutive. I closed more then 1500 questions and also deleted almost 350 postings. I am active in the tag and try to help where I can. I life in Germany so I will be online to other times then other moderators. My personal goal is to reduce the crap on the site to make it easier to find helpful content.

My background

I am almost everyday online in the Java and Android era chat, where I try to help others whenever I have some free time. Compared with my nomination from the april I tried to improve my voting behaviors and I try to fight against useless link only answers and I try to keep the site clean.
I started programming with Visual Basic very long ago then I switched to .net and focused on . When Android was going to been released I learned . Now I have a small family and I work as a Senior Android Developer.

Mureinik's answers to your questions


After about two and half years participating in Stack Overflow and two elections I voted in, I'd like to throw my hat in the ring and nominate myself for moderation.

About Me

I've been programming professionally for the last fifteen years or so. I'm an avid , and Iron Maiden enthusiast, not necessarily in that order. I believe that toughest skill a software engineer can master is removing code, and I pride myself on having a negative net contribution in terms of LOC in any project I'm involved in a major way (while delivering useful features, of course).

Thoughts about Stack Overflow

As long as it's within the On Topic list, we should be moderating the form of the content, not the content itself. SO should be a place where any programming enthusiast feels welcome, regardless of their level of experience. Having said that, content should be presented in a way that makes it easy to consume and discuss. Questions like "Give me the codez for loop!!1" shouldn't be removed because the OP doesn't know how to use a for loop, they should be removed because OP didn't even make an honest attempt to participate in this community. I believe that if we aren't welcoming to novice programmers, we're missing our mark, and as a moderator, that's what I would like to concentrate on.

Ed's answers to your questions


I would be honored to serve as a moderator. I stood for election in April but was eliminated in the final stage. I'm still here, ready to serve.

About Me!

I've been active on Stack Overflow and other SE sites (esp. ebooks and MSE) for 2+ years. I love this community and want to make it even better. I'm a full-time developer, mostly on the LAMP stack and JavaScript. I've been writing software for 30 years (really!).

Why Me?

  • I have almost 2 years' experience moderating 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 in the community itself, not if the community is handling things on its own.
  • I treat everyone with respect and help new users.
  • I do tons of quality control and cleanup. I've raised over 8,900 flags (99.36% 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.

Why Not

  • I've done less on Meta than I would like. I've been more active in 2015 and commit to doing more there in the future even if I'm not elected.

josilber's answers to your questions


About Me

Hi, I'm John. On SO I've mainly been active in . I'm a postdoc/lecturer at MIT, got my PhD from MIT in operations research, and got my undergrad from Maryland in math and computer science.

Why I'm Running

I'm the sort of person who is drawn to cleaning up messes; for instance, when I worked for a newspaper I was copy desk chief. On SO I find janitorial work rewarding and spend most of my time moderating. As a diamond mod I could expand the reach and impact of my moderation by addressing the range of issues raised through the flag queue.

Why Pick Me

I think I have a few characteristics of a good diamond mod:

  • High Volume: I'm on the site a lot (much more than 30 minutes/day) and moderate at high volume (e.g. 8.6k helpful flags, 7.5k on Q+A). I think I could help knock down the size of the flag queue.
  • Light Touch: I take care when moderating to avoid deleting useful content (e.g. 267 helpful flags per declined/disputed). I would apply the same light touch as a diamond moderator, only stepping in when necessary.
  • Moderating with Respect: I try to be respectful and understanding in moderation, especially with our newest users.

slugster's answers to your questions


Hi everyone. I'm slugster, and I want to be your first choice for moderator. If you already have a favorite then make me your second choice.

A vote for me is a vote for someone:

  • with a proven community contribution (more than 6 years)
  • who is nice to new users and understands where they're coming from
  • but who also knows where to draw the line and protect the integrity of the site
  • who can chew through a lot of flags
  • and can also spend time moderating the chat rooms
  • I'm in the Asia-Pacific region, so I can clear flags while our US and European friends sleep

My comprehensive Meta.SO and Meta.SE activity means I know how the place works. Stack Overflow is my main hang out, and I look forward to assisting the community as a moderator.

I'm a developer by day and a martial artist by night (not the caped super hero type!) - I have been a pro temp ♦ moderator on Martial Arts for 3+ years. This means I already have a proven moderator style, and I know how to deal with new people who have no idea how the site works.

Thomas's answers to your questions


I'm throwing my name in the hat for Stack Overflow moderator so that I can give back to the community that has helped me to learn, either by answering questions that I've had or given me interesting reading material.

A summary of my qualifications for SO moderator:

deceze's answers to your questions


For anyone who has ever wondered: "deceze" stands for my initials, D. C. Z.; it's not a misspelling of "decease". You can call me David. You may have seen me around, I've been here a while. I've been here so long that a lot of the time I answer questions by closing them as duplicates of answers I've written before, or of answers I've seen a million times already. I love seeing and contributing new content, but quite honestly a lot of things here just need categorising, sorting and moderation by now, since the existing library of content is already so well established.

This might sound like I'm down on Stack Overflow, but I'm really not. I'm still here regularly. Even though I've got one more kid now than I did during the last election, I'm still here a lot. Stack Overflow is such a fantastic collection of knowledge accumulated by so many people, it simply must be preserved, curated and carefully extended. As a moderator, I'd see this as my primary task: keeping Stack Overflow usable for the purpose of finding knowledge. Squabbles, disputes and misdeeds will be resolved erring on the side of this vast knowledge pool, not any one particular user.

Madara's answers to your questions


Howdy everyone, I am Madara Uchiha, and I want to be your moderator.

Who am I?

I am Madara Uchiha, previously pro temp mod on Anime & Manga and currently elected mod on Anime & Manga. I've been a member of Stack Overflow for over 4 years, and I've seen a lot of things about this community and the site, and how they progressed.

What do I intend to do?

As a 20k+ user, the extra abilities of a mod won't be too drastic of an improvement, I think the most significant thing you get by being a mod is the diamond. The diamond represents trust, it represents example by leadership, and it represents what's expected from all community members.

I intend to be more than a flag vacuum cleaner, my ideal is to serve an example on how to respond and interact with members of the community, I want to help users help themselves, by ensuring they understand the site and its policies.

Why choose me?

  • I am and will remain active in chat. Both for moderator and for inquiries.
  • I know the tools of the trade, as well as the obligations required of me.
  • I have strong opinions about things, but am open to compromise based on the winds blowing in the community.

All in all

Whether elected or not, I still love the site and the community, and always strive to make it a better place.

Good luck to all candidates!

This election is over.