Nominations: New Stack Overflow Moderator [closed]

Question

blog.stackoverflow: Stack Overflow 2010 Moderator Election Begins

Based on the traffic volume, it's crazy that we have so few Stack Overflow community moderators relative to the site's size and traffic. Numbers in parens, below, are the 1 month visitors from Google Analytics:

• meta
  (74k)
  Joel, Kyle, Tom, Sean

• serverfault
  (831k)
  Kara, Denny, Stefan

• stackoverflow
  (12.7m)
  Bill, Marc

• superuser
  (1.2m)
  TheTXI Ivo, Stefan, Diago, HTG

The original thinking was that Joel, myself, Jarrod, and Geoff would be pitching in as moderators, and I desperately try to every day, but I don't think that's enough in practice.

So, I think we need to have another Stack Overflow Moderator Election. Let's start by collecting some nominations.

Post an answer if you think you would make a good community moderator. But first, some ground rules:

1. You may nominate another user who you feel meets the below criteria, but the nomination is invalid until the user him or herself acknowledges the nomination and accepts it by either editing or posting a comment on the nomination to indicate they accept.

2. You must be a currently registered Stack Overflow user in good standing

3. You must have at least 7,000 reputation on Stack Overflow.

4. You exhibit patience and fairness at all times in your questions, answers, and comments.

5. You lead by example, showing respect for your fellow programmers in everything you write.

6. You should want the responsibility. This is not an obligation. It's purely voluntary.

Moderation guidelines:
https://blog.stackoverflow.com/2009/05/a-theory-of-moderation/

Nominations are now closed; thanks for participating, and keep an eye out for the vote!

Answer 1

I got an email this morning asking me to nominate myself, so I have. Here's a handy pro/con chart:

Pro:

• I've been using Stack Overflow for quite a while
• I check the site fairly often
• I have a very inclusive definition of what constitutes a "programming question"
• I'll bring a non Microsoft-centric view to things (more of a Mac/Unix perspective)
• I always try to give helpful answers to questions
• I have moderation experience on a number of other discussion forums

Cons:

• I can be a bit blunt when folks haven't done their homework
• I'm not obsessively on the site 24/7
• I've never asked a question on the site, just answered them
• I'm not very interested in "gaming" my reputation, so I don't know how that system works in any great depth

Answer 2

I'd like to step up. Profile: Gishu

• Too late in the night for me to write an elevator pitch. I'll let the votes and my SO profile decide (pretty minimal presence on meta and the others, which is a nice segue into)
• Pro/Con: Favor minimalism. That is my excuse for saying I'll be able to do the mod thing, 15-30 mins a day. Walking a flimsy tightrope with a resource-hungry day job, a great family, a blog that's threatening to put itself up for adoption and a love for programming languages.
• Like to be inconspicuous - will do my best to remain in the shadows. Still I'd like to volunteer for a year - the least I could do for SO and its community.
• Haven't been in a mud-slinging event on SO since I joined.. a year+. I think I'm the calm-n-composed type for the most part.
  So checkmark on prereqs 3..6

Answer 3

I'd like to nominate myself.

I feel I can be fair for the most part, and like to contribute actively.

I've been on SO for over a year, and have learnt a huge amount reading through questions and answers, and like to plug that knowledge back into the community.

I know at times I can be harsh on people, but this is the internet, and that's generally what people do. I can also take criticism and will humbly accept when I am wrong.

I'm also on the right side of the Atlantic for those that are awake in the GMT+0 times of the day.

Whilst I'm primarily a Microsoft fan (boo, hiss) I don't treat other technologies with disdain, as without Java, where would C# be?

Also, as proof I known what I'm doing:

bold, italic, interesting

 IModerator newModerator = CheeseFactory.CreateModerator("ck");

The worst website in the world <= this link is to the worst website in the world.

This is a good website:

Answer 4

I (dribeas) will pop in the game. I have been an active user for quite a while and spend quite a bit of time each day in SO browsing C++ (where I am most active), C#, Java and Python.

Most of the time I participate by commenting to improve answers or to help correct small details in overall appropriate responses. In most of the cases that ends with answers being corrected by the author, improving the overall quality of the site and maintaining a low downvote/upvote ratio (less than 10%). In all those cases, where I downvoted and discussed the reasons, I never got into an argument.

On my judgement on question quality, it seems appropriate as all the questions I voted for closing were actually closed, and the two questions I voted for reopening were also reopened.

On the negative side, I hardly ever go into questions that are not tagged with c++, c#, java or python, so chances to spot problems in all other questions are limited.

As a last note, I also endorse Neil Butterworth (also in GMT+0 timezone) nomination, as shared interests made us coincide many times, and from what I know, I do trust him with the responsibility of moderation.

Answer 5

Well, I like to nominate myself too. All I can say is:

• I spend a great deal of time on Stack Overflow anyway.
• I'm willing to think the best of people, I actually believe almost everyone on Stack Overflow tries to help... even when they don't
• I try to never prejudge anyone and consider all points of view.
• I think the moderator spirit is to handle discussions and get consensus if possible, dealing with people. Again, I firmly think people that need moderation do not know they do need it.

And that's basically all, I don't have an outstanding reputation although is sufficiently high to at least guarantee I've done my homework :)

By the way, I'm from Spain so another timezone. If that even counts because I see answers being posts at ANY time I connect...

Answer 6

Sup-a-Dillie-O All!

I'd like to nominate myself for the role of moderator. I've been in part of the SOFUM suite since the early beta testing and believe I have a good grasp on the "big picture" with the overflow sites. This puts me in a good position to keep a level head despite the flare-ups that pass through from time to time.

I'm on Stack Overflow every day and while I'm no "rock star" participant, I'm dedicated to see the site continue its AMAZING success it has had in nearly over a year now. If you want consistency, level headedness, and dedication, I'm your man.

Answer 7

I'd be happy to be a moderator. I'm not going to try and sell myself here, I'll let my profile speak for itself.

The reason I'm interested is that I get a huge amount of value from using SO but am a lop-sided in terms of what I have contributed vs. what I have got out of it. This would be a nice way of putting something back.

Answer 8

I would like to nominate Chet A, a long-time Stack Overflow user and possibly our glorious leader's secret evil twin. He's far too modest to nominate himself, however I managed to obtain tacit approval:

Certification of Acceptance http://shog9.com/so_chet_accept.png

Reasons Chet would be a good choice

• He's a serious workaholic
• His avatar pic looks like an explosion from some 8-bit console game.
• Long history of doing boring janitorial work on SO.
• Everyone already hates him.

Reasons Chet would be a bad choice

• Doesn't coddle new users.
• Has a fan club dedicated to furthering his cult of personality at every opportunity.
• Everyone already hates him.

Non sequitur note is non sequitur

If you run this nomination through a Perl interpreter, you'll see a dancing bunny.