In connection with the moderator elections, we are holding a Q&A thread for the candidates. Questions collected [from an earlier thread](https://rpg.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/9873/2020-moderator-election-qa-question-collection) have been compiled into this one, which shall now serve as the space for the candidates to provide their answers. Not every question was compiled - as noted, we only selected the top 8 questions as submitted by the community, plus 2 pre-set questions from us. As a candidate, your job is simple - post an answer to this question, citing each of the questions and then post your answer to each question given in that same answer. For your convenience, I will include all of the questions in quote format with a break in between each, suitable for you to insert your answers. Just [copy the whole thing after the first set of three dashes](https://rpg.meta.stackexchange.com/revisions/f5f8b122-6294-4577-8b50-4756142d4807/view-source). Please consider putting your name at the top of your post so that readers will know who you are before they finish reading everything you have written, and also including a link to your answer on your nomination post. Once all the answers have been compiled, this will serve as a transcript for voters to view the thoughts of their candidates, and will be appropriately linked in the Election page. Good luck to all of the candidates! **Oh, and when you've completed your answer, please provide a link to it after this blurb here, before that set of three dashes. Please leave the list of links in the order of submission.** To save scrolling here are links to the submissions from each candidate (in order of submission): - [Ben](https://rpg.meta.stackexchange.com/a/9929/12193) - [Someone_Evil](https://rpg.meta.stackexchange.com/a/9933/52137) --- > 1. 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? > 2. How would you handle a situation where another mod closed/deleted/etc. a question that you feel shouldn't have been? > 3. What practices at RPGSE do you see working particularly poorly, possibly hampering high-quality Q&A or harming community? > 4. What practices at RPGSE do you see working particularly well to create high-quality Q&A and/or healthy community? > 5. 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? > 6. What's your view on whether and how moderators represent sites to the broader SE community and to the company? > *Related: [recent discussions of moderation/moderatorship on MSE](https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/moderators), perhaps starting at the most recent: https://meta.stackexchange.com/q/347104/311001.* > 7. Our site has struggled in the past with moderators overriding community voices, which made this feel like a moderator-driven site more than a community-driven site. Suppose you had a course of action or policy you felt strongly the site should adopt, but you were not sure the community would be supportive: how would you handle it? How would you handle that situation if the community vocally, strongly objects? > 8. We have a problem here, occasionally, when a new user will ask a question that doesn't quite fit our format, and thus gets put on hold very quickly. This often leads to the new user feeling unfairly targeted and leaving the stack soon after. As a mod, what would you do to help improve these new users' questions while still encouraging them to stay on the site? > 9. 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? > 10. 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?