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In connection with the moderator elections, we are holding a Q&A thread for the candidates. Questions collected from an earlier thread have been compiled into this one, which shall now serve as the space for the candidates to provide their answers. Due to the submission count, we have selected all provided questions as well as our back up questions for a total of 7 questions.

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. Oh, and 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.

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!

  1. We currently don't have a clear community consensus on what makes third-party plugin questions on-topic or off-topic. What is your view on this, and as a moderator how would you seek to help the community reach consensus?

  2. 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?

  3. How would you handle a situation where another mod closed/deleted/etc a question that you feel shouldn't have been?

  4. We get a lot of off-topic questions. Do you currently participate as a close-voter? How would your participation change if you became a moderator?

  5. In your opinion, what do moderators do?

  6. 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?

  7. In what way do you feel that being a moderator will make you more effective as opposed to simply reaching 10k or 20k rep?

3 Answers 3

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We currently don't have a clear community consensus on what makes third-party plugin questions on-topic or off-topic. What is your view on this, and as a moderator how would you seek to help the community reach consensus?

I think that it should not be an absolute answer. Some third-party plugins questions are very interesting, show research effort and can be seen as a way to improve the way all of us interact with core. This is "WordPress Development" after all. I think that these questions deserve to be accepted. However, I have to note that most of the third-party plugins questions, are just support quest, poor quality and without research effort. For me these question should be dropped, but there are already other reason why they are off-topic. So, for me, the sole fact that a question regards a third-party plugin (or theme) should not be a reason to be off topic, even if the percentage of good third-party code related questions is so low.

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?

This is a community, and answering questions is just a part of what it does. As moderators for SE are just "exception handlers", if an user produce some "exceptions" I think it would be my duty to tell they what's the expected behaviour in this community, and the quantity and quality of answer they produces is not something that would change my behaviour.

How would you handle a situation where another mod closed/deleted/etc a question that you feel shouldn't have been?

I would talk with that other mod, asking for the reason they did what they did and explaining my reason why that should not be done in my opinion. Depending on the outcome of discussion, the decision could then maybe be "reverted". In case of doubt, I would try to make the less "drastic" solution wins. If the matter of discussion allows it, with the consensus of the other moderator, I would try to bring the do the discussion publicly, e.g. in chat, to let other people from community to be part of decision.

We get a lot of off-topic questions. Do you currently participate as a close-voter? How would your participation change if you became a moderator?

Yes, I partecipate as close voter. And considering that a moderator close vote makes a question immediately closed I would be much more careful on closing votes, trying to let the community moderates itself as much as possible.

In your opinion, what do moderators do?

As I said, I like the definition that other moderators here often say. Moderators are "exception handlers", i.e. they take care of special situations in which the community can't moderate itself.

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?

If you ask me if I would write again same things that I written in the past, I would definetively say no. But I'm not scared or ashamed of it: because it is the proof that I improved a lot in these years as a community member, mostly thanks to this community.

In what way do you feel that being a moderator will make you more effective as opposed to simply reaching 10k or 20k rep?

I have already more than 20k reputation. The additional capabilities it brings allows me to see more in detail what happen behind the scenes and make me more engaged. However, to be an "exception handler" a moderator needs the "power" of dealing with exceptions, which does not comes with reputation.

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  1. We currently don't have a clear community consensus on what makes third-party plugin questions on-topic or off-topic. What is your view on this, and as a moderator how would you seek to help the community reach consensus?

I don't believe or see questions regarding third-party plugins becoming on-topic with the current stackexchange system in place. Our current answer rate is at a respectable 72% but I feel if we allow questions regarding plugins we won't have the knowledgebase required to cover the wide variety of plugins in the WordPress ecosystem. In the end, I think our answer rate will plummet. I'm certainly open on hearing how we may be able to make this work but as of right now I don't see allowing plugin questions as a good idea.

As far as reaching a consensus - I don't feel it's necessary. It's healthy to have opposing views.

  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?

First I would chat with the offending user. Thank them for their quality answers and discuss some of the issues that we've seen arising and how they could avoid this type of behavior in the future. This would serve as an initial warning that I would want to make clear. I'm not sure if comment restrictions are part of moderation tools but if so and the bad behavior hadn't changed I would apply this type of restriction. Finally, had the behavior continued I would dismiss the offending user from the exchange as I don't believe that quality answers should be put above community relations.

  1. How would you handle a situation where another mod closed/deleted/etc a question that you feel shouldn't have been?

Communication is key. I would discuss this with the moderator and if possible pull in another moderators ( or any active users ) to discuss the merits on why it was closed in the General Chat. We could then discuss why it was closed and why it maybe shouldn't be closed and hopefully come to a majority resolution.

  1. We get a lot of off-topic questions. Do you currently participate as a close-voter? How would your participation change if you became a moderator?

I do actively participate in close voting with 3416 casted votes and sitting at #4 in top reviewers for this queue. Becoming moderator won't change how often I vote.

  1. In your opinion, what do moderators do?

Moderators keep the peace and provide clarification on why the rules are the way they are. They're a last resort when the community doesn't have the capability to do a specific task or cannot come to an agreement.

  1. 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?

I'm O.K. with that as I feel that in the past I've presented myself in an appropriate manner and will continue to do so into the future!

  1. In what way do you feel that being a moderator will make you more effective as opposed to simply reaching 10k or 20k rep?

Honestly, I don't believe it will make me more effective at anything. I'll still continue to review, moderate, and voice my opinion on meta topics. I'm not sure what moderator tools I'll have access to that I currently do not. My end goal is to help out where I can.

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  1. We currently don't have a clear community consensus on what makes third-party plugin questions on-topic or off-topic. What is your view on this, and as a moderator how would you seek to help the community reach consensus?

My aim would be to allow the community to be a part of the decision making. If it is a controversial decision like this, and one that will quite drastically affected the content of the platform, the decision should be in the hands of the members of the community.

In this scenario, rather than using my power as a moderator to make a decision, I would provoke and campaign (if you wish) to encourage the community (and the upper-tier users/staff of StackExchange) to engage in the decision making itself.

That would be my main purpose.

  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?

I would overview the flagged entries properly (and not skim through them), discuss internally with my fellow moderators, and finally approach the user and engage in a constructive session with the user about the etiquette of the platform.

While the quality of answers are of high value, the community is the heart of this platform and should certainly be treated as such.

  1. How would you handle a situation where another mod closed/deleted/etc a question that you feel shouldn't have been?

This is definitely an internal issue and not one that should be resolved in a public manner. I would discuss the issue with the said moderator and come down to a solution together in how to proceed. If there is still a conflict, I would bring it up with the whole team of moderators and delve into it with a collaborative approach.

  1. We get a lot of off-topic questions. Do you currently participate as a close-voter? How would your participation change if you became a moderator?

I have not participated as a close-voter as much as the other areas of the platform where I am actively contributing. This is something that I would definitely pick up on when I become a moderator. I would also aim to bring interest to close-voting to the users in the community who have gained this ability.

Very often, in a community like this that's self-policing, when you try out a feature, you tend to add it to your routine when you're active.

  1. In your opinion, what do moderators do?

As I outlined in my pitch, my model of moderation is divided into three major processes:

  • Communication: Understand the lingo to connect with the community and master the art of maintaining a positive approach to resolve conflicts.

  • Collaboration: Engage with fellow upper-tier users/mods and work together to resolve issues and provoke change when encouraged by the community.

  • Responsibility: Protect the integrity of the community, understand my rights, and never misuse my power.

You can also read my tale of moderation.

  1. 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?

I'm completely comfortable with it. I have moderated a variety of high trafficked platforms and learned from it, particularly on how to engage with the community and not to overstep my boundaries.

  1. In what way do you feel that being a moderator will make you more effective as opposed to simply reaching 10k or 20k rep?

Reputation doesn't mean anything for me beyond achieving new abilities to perform editorial tasks, which I've found valuable. I've spent my points on more bounties than I can count.

Being a moderator, as opposed to a high rep user, will mean that I will gain the status to do more upper-tier moderation tasks. And more importantly, I will have the possibility to provoke change and improvements to the platform. This is something that tends to require a strong voice to kick off and I can be a part of the movement with the assistance of my fellow moderators.

Our aim should be growth in quality contributions in all areas and encourage controversial changes when needed be.

If all fails, I will do a mind-meld with the community members. One by one...

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