15
\$\begingroup\$

The purpose of this thread was to collect questions for the questionnaire. The questionnaire is now live, and you may find it here.

Role-Playing Games is scheduled for an election next week, May 27th. In connection with that, we will be holding a Q&A with the candidates. This will be an opportunity for members of the community to pose questions to the candidates on the topic of moderation. Participation is completely voluntary.

Here's how it'll work:

  • Until the nomination phase, (so, until May 27th at 20:00:00Z UTC, or 4:00 pm EDT on the same day, give or take time to arrive for closure), this question will be open to collect potential questions from the users of the site. Post answers to this question containing any questions you would like to ask the candidates. Please only post one question per answer.

  • We, the Community Team, will be providing a small selection of generic questions. The first two will be guaranteed to be included, the latter ones are if the community doesn't supply enough questions. This will be done in a single post, unlike the prior instruction.

  • If your question contains a link, please use the syntax of [text](link), as that will make it easier for transcribing for the finished questionnaire.

  • This is a perfect opportunity to voice questions that are specific to your community and issues that you are running into at currently.

  • At the start of the nomination phase, the Community Team will select up to 8 of the top voted questions submitted by the community provided in this thread, to use in addition to the aforementioned 2 guaranteed questions. We reserve some editorial control in the selection of the questions and may opt not to select a question that is tangential or irrelevant to moderation or the election.

  • Once questions have been selected, a new question will be opened to host the actual questionnaire for the candidates, typically containing 10 questions in total.

  • This is not the only option that users have for gathering information on candidates. As a community, you are still free to, for example, hold a live chat session with your candidates to ask further questions, or perhaps clarifications from what is provided in the Q&A.

If you have any questions or feedback about this process, feel free to post as a comment here.

\$\endgroup\$
11
  • 3
    \$\begingroup\$ I haven't been here for one of these before... Who are the candidates? Do the current mods have to stand for reelection, or is this about finding a fourth mod to replace SSD? \$\endgroup\$
    – Tiggerous
    Commented May 20, 2019 at 20:26
  • 5
    \$\begingroup\$ This is the start of the process, candidate solicitation comes later. Current mods do not stand for re-election, SE is mod-for-life. \$\endgroup\$
    – mxyzplk Mod
    Commented May 20, 2019 at 21:13
  • 1
    \$\begingroup\$ @Tiggerous The candidates are whoever nominates themselves on the election page which any community member in good standing can do. (You cannot nominate another person.) \$\endgroup\$
    – doppelgreener Mod
    Commented May 20, 2019 at 21:53
  • 6
    \$\begingroup\$ For reference: 2015 Moderator Election Q&A - Question Collection and Questionnaire; 2017 Moderator Election Q&A - Question Collection and Questionnaire \$\endgroup\$
    – V2Blast
    Commented May 21, 2019 at 2:29
  • \$\begingroup\$ Any thoughts to the suggestion from last Questionnaire that the sorting could affect visibility (and if there is a way to resolve that)? Or is that not a concern for the Question collection itself? \$\endgroup\$
    – David Coffron
    Commented May 21, 2019 at 17:27
  • 7
    \$\begingroup\$ @DavidCoffron my concern in that comment was that candidates' responses seemed like they weren't served well by "voting and floating" norms around the stack. (Because the election, following, is the proper place to exercise those votes.) Here it is desirable for votes to capture which questions the community thinks are useful and, therefore, should be presented on the questionnaire. At least, that's my take on it. \$\endgroup\$
    – nitsua60 Mod
    Commented May 21, 2019 at 17:50
  • 8
    \$\begingroup\$ It is OK for these questions to be multi-part. Argue that on another meta Q if you want, but I am cleaning up the various comment arguments about this as it is interfering with the purpose of this meta. \$\endgroup\$
    – mxyzplk Mod
    Commented May 23, 2019 at 4:06
  • 2
    \$\begingroup\$ The election page states "moderator positions available 2". Does this mean that 2 moderators are being elected? (bringing rpg.se to a total of 5 moderators?) \$\endgroup\$
    – Sdjz
    Commented May 27, 2019 at 15:42
  • 2
    \$\begingroup\$ @Sdjz yes, barring truly bizarre circumstances. (Only one person runs, or staff deem every nominee unsuitable, or the like.) \$\endgroup\$
    – nitsua60 Mod
    Commented May 27, 2019 at 18:14
  • \$\begingroup\$ Wait-what's all this about SSD? \$\endgroup\$
    – MrHiTech
    Commented May 28, 2019 at 19:32
  • 1
    \$\begingroup\$ @MrHiTech SSD retired from the diamond recently. \$\endgroup\$
    – doppelgreener Mod
    Commented May 28, 2019 at 19:35

9 Answers 9

Reset to default
20
\$\begingroup\$

As a moderator, how would you respond to learning that a user, or group of users, feels unfairly treated by another moderator? What steps would you take to learn their complaints, validate them, and what would you do with them if you felt they were valid or invalid, respectively?

KRyan's excellent question from the 2015 collection

\$\endgroup\$
0
18
\$\begingroup\$

Being a moderator is a customer service/public relations job for which there is little to no extrinsic motivation. You will invest hours of your free time dealing with the worst the internet has to offer, and we expect you to do it with a patient demeanor and a smile.

What is your motivation for candidacy, or in short - why do you want this job?

Stolen from the 2014 Arqade mod election questionnaire.

\$\endgroup\$
2
  • \$\begingroup\$ Oooooh, that's a good one. \$\endgroup\$
    – Miniman
    Commented May 23, 2019 at 3:35
  • 2
    \$\begingroup\$ I will say, for those interested, our time dealing with really bad things (abusive jerks, threats, &c.) is pretty low, and there are good tools and support for dealing with them. It does pop up, but it's maybe a coupla-percent of the the time-load for elected moderators. \$\endgroup\$
    – nitsua60 Mod
    Commented May 23, 2019 at 17:47
17
\$\begingroup\$

What is your view on current moderation policy on this site? Is there anything in particular you disagree with? If so, why? How would you reconcile this with needing to work with existing moderators?

Wibbs' excellent question from the 2015 collection

\$\endgroup\$
0
17
\$\begingroup\$

How will you, as a moderator, react to community consensus that you disagree with? How will you, as a moderator, handle issues on which the community has failed to reach consensus, particularly when you personally favor one particular side in the debate?

KRyan's excellent question from the 2017 collection

\$\endgroup\$
0
10
\$\begingroup\$

How important do you think it is for moderators to be aware of and keep in touch with the feelings of the community with respect to moderation issues?

If you view it as important, what kinds of ways do you intend to use to try to keep in touch with how the community is feeling?

\$\endgroup\$
0
9
\$\begingroup\$

In your opinion, how does the role of moderator differ from the role of a 10k or 20k rep user on the site? What changes to the way that you interact on this site do you expect to have to make when filling this new role?

\$\endgroup\$
7
  • 1
    \$\begingroup\$ Isn't this addressed by some of the example questions in my self-answer? :) \$\endgroup\$
    – JNat StaffMod
    Commented May 22, 2019 at 15:08
  • 3
    \$\begingroup\$ It is! But my understanding was that those "optional" questions would only come into play if the community did not provide enough of them. One of the reasons I posted it separately was because your self answer seems to encourage it: "if you like one enough, you may split it off as a separate answer for review within the community's 8". Did I misunderstand anything? \$\endgroup\$
    – Rubiksmoose
    Commented May 22, 2019 at 15:19
  • 1
    \$\begingroup\$ My goal was to propose this as a question that would for sure be on the final version (if the community likes it enough of course) because I like it a lot. \$\endgroup\$
    – Rubiksmoose
    Commented May 22, 2019 at 15:23
  • \$\begingroup\$ No, you understood correctly! Just wanted to make sure this wasn't a more nuanced thing, and slightly different than those two :) Maybe I shoulda phrased my question a bit differently ;) \$\endgroup\$
    – JNat StaffMod
    Commented May 22, 2019 at 15:26
  • \$\begingroup\$ @JNat In the end I'm not sure if my "twist" on the questions is an improvement or not. If the community doesn't like it hopefully the default ones will make it in. \$\endgroup\$
    – Rubiksmoose
    Commented May 22, 2019 at 15:32
  • \$\begingroup\$ I think you should explicitly include the 10k and 20k marks instead of the vague "high rep". What counts as high rep is subjective based on user experience. \$\endgroup\$
    – linksassin Mod
    Commented May 23, 2019 at 0:43
  • \$\begingroup\$ @linksassin good point! added. \$\endgroup\$
    – Rubiksmoose
    Commented May 23, 2019 at 0:44
9
\$\begingroup\$

In your opinion, how active should moderators be on meta sites? Should moderators take a pro-active approach to meta issues or be guided by the community?

Inspired by other sites where mods have a very different participation rate on meta to here. Wording could probably be improved.

\$\endgroup\$
7
\$\begingroup\$

Here is a set of general questions, gathered as very common questions asked every election. As mentioned in the instructions, the first two questions are guaranteed to show up in the Q&A, while the others are if there aren't enough questions (or, if you like one enough, you may split it off as a separate answer for review within the community's 8).

  • How would you deal with a user who produced a steady stream of valuable answers, but tends to generate a large number of arguments/flags from comments?
  • How would you handle a situation where another mod closed/deleted/etc a question that you feel shouldn't have been?
  • In your opinion, what do moderators do?
  • A diamond will be attached to everything you say and have said in the past, including questions, answers and comments. Everything you will do will be seen under a different light. How do you feel about that?
  • In what way do you feel that being a moderator will make you more effective as opposed to simply reaching 10k or 20k rep?
\$\endgroup\$
7
\$\begingroup\$

Becoming a new moderator can be daunting, but is also a big opportunity.

What are you worried or fearful about in your transition to becoming a moderator, and is there anything you're looking forward to? Is there anything we can do to help support you in those areas should you be elected as a new moderator?

Stealing doppelgreener's excellent question from 2017.

\$\endgroup\$
0

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .