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_{(Largely cribbed from the 2017 check-in)}

We, the elected moderators, wanted to take a minute to check in and see how the community feels like things are going on the site. About a year ago we did this and felt that it was pretty helpful in putting specificity on some issues, productively talking through some things, and recognizing where communication breakdowns were happening. It also prompted an election!

Out of that we were reminded of some things going well. We encouraged more and have seen more involvement/leadership from "regular" moderators--users who have reached moderation priveliges. We've quickly dealt with some abusive users--hopefully quickly enough that few of you even noticed! (Though some did, and your flags and pings are really helpful when you see something going wrong.)

So again we'd like to share our thoughts and also get yours on what is going well and what could improve.

How this specific Q&A is run so that we get good value out of it.

We'll post some of the things we've done/observations we have/things we think still need improvement. Please do the same.

1. Post one kind of thing per answer, so that when people upvote/downvote based on whether they agree or not it's more clearly actionable - if you write an essay about 4 different things, it's not going to be clear what part(s) people agree or disagree with.

2. Upvote or downvote based on your agreement.

   Let's not have long comment threads -

3. If you disagree with an answer, post your own answer.

   This isn't just being pedantic. If we have a 30-comment thread on an answer, what does that tell us we need to do? Mostly it tells us whether one person is really irritated instead of whether a large part of the community disagrees, which is what we kinda want to get to.

4. As usual, Be Nice applies to meta as well as the main site.

   You may strongly disagree with other users or with the mods or whoever, but we trust you can find ways to express what you like or don't like without being hostile or insulting to others. Focus on actions rather than characterizing people.

So here we go - our thoughts on things that are going well or need improvement. Feel free and add on!

_{(Largely cribbed from the 2017 check-in)}

We, the elected moderators, wanted to take a minute to check in and see how the community feels like things are going on the site. About a year ago we did this and felt that it was pretty helpful in putting specificity on some issues, productively talking through some things, and recognizing where communication breakdowns were happening. It also prompted an election!

Out of that we were reminded of some things going well. We encouraged more and have seen more involvement/leadership from "regular" moderators--users who have reached moderation privileges. We've quickly dealt with some abusive users--hopefully quickly enough that few of you even noticed! (Though some did, and your flags and pings are really helpful when you see something going wrong.)

So again we'd like to share our thoughts and also get yours on what is going well and what could improve.

How this specific Q&A is run so that we get good value out of it.

We'll post some of the things we've done/observations we have/things we think still need improvement. Please do the same.

1. Post one kind of thing per answer, so that when people upvote/downvote based on whether they agree or not it's more clearly actionable - if you write an essay about 4 different things, it's not going to be clear what part(s) people agree or disagree with.

2. Upvote or downvote based on your agreement.

   Let's not have long comment threads -

3. If you disagree with an answer, post your own answer.

   This isn't just being pedantic. If we have a 30-comment thread on an answer, what does that tell us we need to do? Mostly it tells us whether one person is really irritated instead of whether a large part of the community disagrees, which is what we kinda want to get to.

4. As usual, Be Nice applies to meta as well as the main site.

   You may strongly disagree with other users or with the mods or whoever, but we trust you can find ways to express what you like or don't like without being hostile or insulting to others. Focus on actions rather than characterizing people.

So here we go - our thoughts on things that are going well or need improvement. Feel free and add on!

_{(Largely cribbed from the 2017 check-in)}

We, the elected moderators, wanted to take a minute to check in and see how the community feels like things are going on the site. About a year ago we did this and felt that it was pretty helpful in putting specificity on some issues, productively talking through some things, and recognizing where communication breakdowns were happening. It also prompted an election!

Out of that we were reminded of some things going well. We encouraged more and have seen more involvement/leadership from "regular" moderators--users who have reached moderation priveleges. We've quickly dealt with some abusive users--hopefully quickly enough that few of you even noticed! (Though some did, and your flags and pings are really helpful when you see something going wrong.)

So again we'd like to share our thoughts and also get yours on what is going well and what could improve.

How this specific Q&A is run so that we get good value out of it.

We'll post some of the things we've done/observations we have/things we think still need improvement. Please do the same.

1. Post one kind of thing per answer, so that when people upvote/downvote based on whether they agree or not it's more clearly actionable - if you write an essay about 4 different things, it's not going to be clear what part(s) people agree or disagree with.

2. Upvote or downvote based on your agreement.

   Let's not have long comment threads -

3. If you disagree with an answer, post your own answer.

   This isn't just being pedantic. If we have a 30-comment thread on an answer, what does that tell us we need to do? Mostly it tells us whether one person is really irritated instead of whether a large part of the community disagrees, which is what we kinda want to get to.

4. As usual, Be Nice applies to meta as well as the main site.

   You may strongly disagree with other users or with the mods or whoever, but we trust you can find ways to express what you like or don't like without being hostile or insulting to others. Focus on actions rather than characterizing people.

So here we go - our thoughts on things that are going well or need improvement. Feel free and add on!

_{(Largely cribbed from the 2017 check-in)}

We, the elected moderators, wanted to take a minute to check in and see how the community feels like things are going on the site. About a year ago we did this and felt that it was pretty helpful in putting specificity on some issues, productively talking through some things, and recognizing where communication breakdowns were happening. It also prompted an election!

Out of that we were reminded of some things going well. We encouraged more and have seen more involvement/leadership from "regular" moderators--users who have reached moderation priveliges. We've quickly dealt with some abusive users--hopefully quickly enough that few of you even noticed! (Though some did, and your flags and pings are really helpful when you see something going wrong.)

So again we'd like to share our thoughts and also get yours on what is going well and what could improve.

How this specific Q&A is run so that we get good value out of it.

We'll post some of the things we've done/observations we have/things we think still need improvement. Please do the same.

1. Post one kind of thing per answer, so that when people upvote/downvote based on whether they agree or not it's more clearly actionable - if you write an essay about 4 different things, it's not going to be clear what part(s) people agree or disagree with.

2. Upvote or downvote based on your agreement.

   Let's not have long comment threads -

3. If you disagree with an answer, post your own answer.

   This isn't just being pedantic. If we have a 30-comment thread on an answer, what does that tell us we need to do? Mostly it tells us whether one person is really irritated instead of whether a large part of the community disagrees, which is what we kinda want to get to.

4. As usual, Be Nice applies to meta as well as the main site.

   You may strongly disagree with other users or with the mods or whoever, but we trust you can find ways to express what you like or don't like without being hostile or insulting to others. Focus on actions rather than characterizing people.

So here we go - our thoughts on things that are going well or need improvement. Feel free and add on!

_{(Largely cribbed from the 2017 check-in)}

We, the elected moderators, wanted to take a minute to check in and see how the community feels like things are going on the site. About a year ago we did this and felt that it was pretty helpful in putting specificity on some issues, productively talking through some things, and recognizing where communication breakdowns were happening. It also prompted an election!

Out of that we were reminded of some things going well. We encouraged more and have seen more involvement/leadership from "regular" moderators--users who have reached moderation priveleges. We've quickly dealt with some abusive users--hopefully quickly enough that few of you even noticed! (Though some did, and your flags and pings are really helpful when you see something going wrong.)

So again we'd like to share our thoughts and also get yours on what is going well and what could improve.

How this specific Q&A is run so that we get good value out of it.

We'll post some of the things we've done/observations we have/things we think still need improvement. Please do the same.

1. Post one kind of thing per answer, so that when people upvote/downvote based on whether they agree or not it's more clearly actionable - if you write an essay about 4 different things, it's not going to be clear what part(s) people agree or disagree with.
2. Upvote or downvote based on your agreement.

Let's not have long comment threads -

3. If you disagree with an answer, post your own answer.

This isn't just being pedantic. If we have a 30-comment thread on an answer, what does that tell us we need to do? Mostly it tells us whether one person is really irritated instead of whether a large part of the community disagrees, which is what we kinda want to get to.

4. As usual, Be Nice applies to meta as well as the main site.

You may strongly disagree with other users or with the mods or whoever, but we trust you can find ways to express what you like or don't like without being hostile or insulting to others. Focus on actions rather than characterizing people.

So here we go - our thoughts on things that are going well or need improvement. Feel free and add on!

_{(Largely cribbed from the 2017 check-in)}

We, the elected moderators, wanted to take a minute to check in and see how the community feels like things are going on the site. About a year ago we did this and felt that it was pretty helpful in putting specificity on some issues, productively talking through some things, and recognizing where communication breakdowns were happening. It also prompted an election!

Out of that we were reminded of some things going well. We encouraged more and have seen more involvement/leadership from "regular" moderators--users who have reached moderation priveleges. We've quickly dealt with some abusive users--hopefully quickly enough that few of you even noticed! (Though some did, and your flags and pings are really helpful when you see something going wrong.)

So again we'd like to share our thoughts and also get yours on what is going well and what could improve.

How this specific Q&A is run so that we get good value out of it.

We'll post some of the things we've done/observations we have/things we think still need improvement. Please do the same.

1. Post one kind of thing per answer, so that when people upvote/downvote based on whether they agree or not it's more clearly actionable - if you write an essay about 4 different things, it's not going to be clear what part(s) people agree or disagree with.

2. Upvote or downvote based on your agreement.

   Let's not have long comment threads -

3. If you disagree with an answer, post your own answer.

   This isn't just being pedantic. If we have a 30-comment thread on an answer, what does that tell us we need to do? Mostly it tells us whether one person is really irritated instead of whether a large part of the community disagrees, which is what we kinda want to get to.

4. As usual, Be Nice applies to meta as well as the main site.

   You may strongly disagree with other users or with the mods or whoever, but we trust you can find ways to express what you like or don't like without being hostile or insulting to others. Focus on actions rather than characterizing people.

So here we go - our thoughts on things that are going well or need improvement. Feel free and add on!