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Are we going to have another Community Moderator Election for 2013? It seems like we have one around this time every year.

Does the community/mods think we need another mod? I, personally, think that (most) mods are doing an outstanding job at what they have to do, but all of our mods should be doing so for the benefit of the site.

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    It's my understanding that mod position isn't subject to re-election, so is one of the mods resigning? Or do they feel that they need an additional mod to help with the workload?
    – Walter
    Dec 26, 2012 at 17:52
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    @Walter Personally, I believe that one more mod should be added, as one of the current mods is very inactive. Depending on how this post goes, I may bring that up.
    – Dynamic
    Dec 26, 2012 at 17:54
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    @Walter That said, I also believe that the mod in question should be asked to step down.
    – Dynamic
    Dec 26, 2012 at 17:55
  • Normally this is a case of "the site is rather hard to keep the glass swept up from the broken windows, can we have another mod" and not so much "it's tradition". If there's a need for another moderator, it will be evident to the Stack Exchange Community Team, and to the mods themselves. I can't imagine there's a need for that right now on Software Engineering
    – jcolebrand
    Dec 26, 2012 at 17:56
  • @jcolebrand I agree with you in the sense that it is ultimately up to the mods and SE. I would like to see what the community thinks about this.
    – Dynamic
    Dec 26, 2012 at 17:57
  • @jcolebrand Please see my edit.
    – Dynamic
    Dec 26, 2012 at 18:06
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    I'm all for elections if the current, active mods feel the need for an addtional mod. I'm not overly concerned about an inactive mod, we all have periods where life takes over and we don't have as much time as we would like.
    – Walter
    Dec 26, 2012 at 18:08
  • "I'm not trying to get on anybody's bad side" but "eff you idle moderator, step down you dumb pos, wtf r u doin" ... You send two messages here. Pick one.
    – jcolebrand
    Dec 26, 2012 at 18:14
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    @jcolebrand Actually we do have a very inactive moderator here. He's a good moderator and I've benefited from many of his posts in the past, but he's been extremely inactive over the past year or so
    – Rachel
    Dec 26, 2012 at 19:18
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    @Walter None of us is resigning, and we haven't really complained about the workload. In fact we weren't involved at all in triggering the election, all of us found out about it when Anna posted her answer here. That said, looking at our traffic growth (the month view is revealing) the past year I can understand why SE thought it would be a good time to add a new mod to the team. Personally, I'm looking forward to hazing the new guy/gal ;P
    – yannis
    Dec 29, 2012 at 9:19
  • @YannisRizos Is there a certain factor(s) that's caused the growth? Or is it just a matter of maturity and more publicity?
    – Dynamic
    Dec 30, 2012 at 18:57
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    @dynamic Every positive contribution counts, I don't think it's easy to try and identify certain factors. Publicity wise all I can think of is... well... this ;)
    – yannis
    Dec 30, 2012 at 19:55
  • @YannisRizos I just got one today :P
    – Dynamic
    Dec 30, 2012 at 20:47

2 Answers 2

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Good timing! We actually just reviewed Programmers to see if we were going to spin off another election.

While we agree that the current moderators are doing a great job, after looking at the growth of the site and how the workload is split across the current team, we scheduled an election for one more moderator.

The nomination period starts on February 18, so polish your nominations and ready your questions for the candidates, ladies and gents.

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  • Awesome Anna! Thanks for the info!
    – Dynamic
    Dec 26, 2012 at 20:58
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    @Dynamic this sounds like a nice user name "Awesome Anna" :)
    – gnat
    Dec 29, 2012 at 11:17
  • It's Feb. 18th! I didn't forget! ;-)
    – Dynamic
    Feb 18, 2013 at 20:18
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I see three questions here.

Is there going to be a moderator election?

Dunno. Hasn't come up in our chat or hit my radar.

Do we need another moderator?

My opinion? No. I think the site is suitably managed by our current staff of Yannis, Thomas, ChrisF, maple_shaft, and myself. Maybe I'm way out of the loop though and don't see problems that you see. Make some observations and either email the staff or open a new question outlining what you think can be improved and how.

Should inactive moderators step down?

Probably best to ask the inactive moderators directly, either via email or through a question on meta more specifically about their inactivity.

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  • Specifically, when you see site-wide issues that need redress, open the discussion as a meta post. Don't resort to chat except as a "hey, double check this napkin calculation I did". When there's a governance issue, put it out on meta.
    – jcolebrand
    Dec 26, 2012 at 19:42
  • What is your opinion on the duties of a moderator? Do you think that they should only do what they have to do, or go above and beyond their duties if they have the chance?
    – Dynamic
    Dec 26, 2012 at 20:21
  • @Dynamic Why do you ask? Personally I think moderators are all volunteers and signup to be human exception handlers, so that's all I would expect of them. I don't expect them to go "above and beyond" what they sign up to do. It's nice, but not required nor expected :)
    – Rachel
    Dec 26, 2012 at 20:25
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    @Rachel Exactly. To maintain a site at it's current standards, everybody has to keep doing what they're doing. To make it better and to grow the site, a few people have to go above and beyond. The current mods are doing great, and so are a lot of the normal users. But if nobody goes above and beyond, the site will never get better. I'm not saying the current mods should be doing more (they have jobs and lives and, again, they're doing great), but we need somebody to go above and beyond what everybody else is doing. This is why I support having one more mod. If everybody does their job...
    – Dynamic
    Dec 26, 2012 at 20:32
  • ...that one person has the freedom to go beyond expectations and make the site better. Wow, that was a lot of writing :P
    – Dynamic
    Dec 26, 2012 at 20:33
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    @Dynamic I think I understand you... lol I'm not sure though :) You don't need to be a moderator to go "above and beyond" helping out the site though. You've proved that yourself with your help with the blog. Ideally the sites should be run by the community, with moderators only stepping in when the community can't handle a situation on their own. I don't think moderators are expected to actually run the entire site - that's the community's job. Moderators are only expected to help out with exceptions the community can't handle.
    – Rachel
    Dec 26, 2012 at 20:58

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