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Arqade's sixth moderator election has come to a close, the votes have been tallied and the two new moderators are:

Frank Wrigglenite

They'll be joining the existing crew shortly—please thank them for volunteering, and share your assistance and advice with them as they learn the ropes!

Also, please join me in thanking badp, RavenDreamer, and InvaderSkoodge who will be stepping down as moderator.

For details on how the voting played out, you can download the election results here, or view a summary report online.

12
  • 19
    But I am excited to see that Wrigglenite/DanmakuGrazer becoming moderator in such a short time period. You've definitely shown to be a fair but firm person in the community and I am grateful to see you take on the role of moderator. Congratulations Wrigglenite!
    – childe
    Jun 18, 2019 at 20:18
  • 7
    Congrats Wrigglenite! Well deserved.
    – dly
    Jun 18, 2019 at 20:34
  • 2
    Yes, happy to see the very fervent Wrigglenite earn a well-deserved place among the diamonded!
    – Joachim
    Jun 18, 2019 at 20:47
  • 4
    Congrats to Wrigglenite and Frank. May the force be with you. Jun 19, 2019 at 4:36
  • 38
    Frank is the main reason that I abandoned this site a few years ago. Browsing just now I saw this, and... well, I know not to come back again! My thanks to RavenDreamer; I remember them being a kind, helpful and thoughtful moderator when I was active.
    – Flyto
    Jun 19, 2019 at 5:45
  • 4
    Congrats Wrigglenite!!! Very happy to see you up there!
    – Mumford451
    Jun 19, 2019 at 13:45
  • 16
    I found Wrigglenite extremely unwelcoming when I started participating here, executing the letter of the law without empathy, context, or nuance, being hostile to several community members in the face of reasonable feedback, and explicitly saying that they were unconcerned about being unwelcoming. This community is already relatively stagnant, probably in decline, and has now elected two moderators who lack the community-fostering skills that are most needed right now. This is a deeply disappointing result.
    – Jeremy
    Jun 19, 2019 at 18:47
  • 11
    @Badeline I don't think he's hostile "without empathy..." though I do think he can occasionally be a bit terse. I've seen him answer several questions or leave comments that are barely a sentence long. While the contents aren't (to my memory) rude or anything, not giving more in-depth answer gives off an aloofness that can be off-putting. I think it use to be worse when he were known as DanmakuGrazer - ever since he changed his name it's much improved. But I share your concerns, and I hope he is able to grow in his role as mod and help foster growth in the community.
    – Mage Xy
    Jun 20, 2019 at 2:38
  • 10
    @Badeline I agree that the community is pretty stagnant as well. There's a clear lack of newer questions even when new games are released especially comparing to a few years ago when I started on the site. "Disappointing and concerning" pretty much sum up the entire situation for me. I personally have no negative feelings towards either of the newly elected mods, I'm just speaking about how the site feels in general lately.
    – Mkalafut
    Jun 20, 2019 at 14:17
  • 5
    [Some comments removed] - Hey all, airing concerns with the elected mods is ok, but this post isn't the place to call out regular community members for past actions (including nominees that weren't elected). If you have an issue with another community member's actions, please raise them using the moderation options available to you
    – Robotnik Mod
    Jun 29, 2019 at 4:03
  • 1
    Why are we mad that a user uses their downvotes? I wish more users had the guts to use downvotes on other sites. Congrats Frank.
    – zero298
    Jul 9, 2019 at 2:51
  • 5
    Looking back at this months later: Frank doesn't actually seem to do much, at least not much that I see. But whenever I see something he has done, it's an absolutely garbage question or answer (or things that were posted as such wrongly) that got deleted by him, usually pretty quickly after creation. So it seems to have turned out well in the end. Oct 17, 2019 at 1:00

7 Answers 7

38

Congratulations to wrigglenite.

But I do agree with @senpai. I usually stay away from meta and the site politics, as I neither have the interest nor the time consider a mod position or trying to change site rules. I also don't really care who the mods are, as I very rarely have anything to do with any of them, but on this election, I had one candidate, who I didn't want to see as a mod and that's Frank.

I feel Frank is a bad choice as a mod, because I think, he is too aggressive in enforcing the rules and often is too harsh towards new users. I think back to this Hearts of Iron 4 question, which Frank defended for being closed as unclear and attacking the asker because of that, while he knew nothing about the game and didn't acccept arguments from people, who told him, the question was perfectly clear and answerable.

I think the first comments by wipqozn and Frank are a perfect example.

Wipqozn:

Not quite sure what you're asking. Are you just not sure how to actually use them, or not sure how they're useful? Could you please try and clarify? Thanks!

Frank:

If your question provides no context, you should expect your question to be closed. This isn't people being ignorant; it's them not understanding your question. That's on you; you made no attempt to make it understandable.

I fear, a question like this would have been deleted immediately, if Frank was a mod back then. I'm disappointed in so many people trusting him to be a good mod.

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  • 25
    " Frank defended for being closed as unclear and attacking the asker because of that, while he knew nothing about the game" This is probably my most relatable experience of him. Despite knowing absolutely nothing about the game in which the question pertains to, he clearly lets his own bias push through in judging a question, regardless of what the majority of the community thinks, or his own lack of knowledge in that area. He's actually done this several times on some of the niche questions I've asked, so not too surprised to see this example.
    – childe
    Jun 19, 2019 at 19:23
  • 11
    Just to make it super-clear (also for @senpai): Frank had 859 upvotes and 3031 downvotes in December 2013, 966 up and 12506 down in September 2015 and now has 1039 up and 34332 down now. Racking up so many downvotes (and removing like 12k rep yearly from the system) just shows... I don't know what to say. 0.3% upvotes in the past 4 years!
    – user143228
    Jun 22, 2019 at 6:03
  • Just to be clear, I'm not trying to ostracize Frank here, but just to show what's happening.
    – user143228
    Jun 22, 2019 at 6:05
  • 4
    @RudolfJelin To be fair, there is a way bigger proportion of bad Q/A than there are good ones. That percentage would make sense when you are reviewing lots of questions and the majority of them are of low quality.
    – FoxMcCloud
    Jun 22, 2019 at 17:40
  • 2
    @FoxMcCloud Good point. I am sure, though, that even if one is only reviewing queues, there is more than 0.3% notable posts. Maybe he is saving his upvotes to have more downvotes before the daily limit :{
    – user143228
    Jun 24, 2019 at 5:02
  • 3
    It is also worth noting that a fair percentage of the down is on deleted content. I don't believe that percentage can be know by mere mortals, but a lot of those were probably getting stuff below community's autodelete threshold, like many of mine are
    – Unionhawk Mod
    Jun 25, 2019 at 23:33
25

I want to say something to everyone who nominated themselves this election: FoxMcCloud, iVhagar, Dragonrage, dly, Unionhawk, The Mattbat999, and Gigazelle.

Thank you for being willing to go the extra mile in support of Arqade. Your nomination is proof that you love this site and I hope you'll continue to improve it as you have been so far.

3
  • 7
    <3 Thank you so much, and I hope you enjoy your time as a mod!
    – FoxMcCloud
    Jun 18, 2019 at 22:15
  • 3
    Thank you, Wrigglenite. You have my full support, and I will continue working through review queues!
    – Gigazelle
    Jun 20, 2019 at 19:48
  • I know this is an old answer , but you’ve been a very good moderator, in my opinion. Apr 12, 2021 at 16:11
24

The mod team has been keeping a close eye on this post, as it's obviously generated a fair bit of controversy and concern from some of the community. Since it's still gaining new votes and comments, we thought it would be a good idea to just remind the community of what options are available to them if they take issue with any moderator's behaviour.

Meta

First off, as always, meta is always available if you wish to discuss or dispute how certain posts were handled. Although it's not really the best place to discuss every action you disagree with, it is a fantastic way for getting the entire community to weigh in, or to go into a post more in depth than you could in the comments.

Flags

Flags are another option available to you. Comment flags are of course the go to if you've got an issue with a moderator's comments, and think it breaks one of our commenting rules. It's something that's happened before, and when it happens, another moderator will take a look at the flag. If we action the flag we'll normally make a point to poke the moderator in question to let them know.

If you disagree with how a moderator handled a question or answer, then flagging the post is the best choice. This applies even if you already flagged the post previously, and the flag was declined. In situations like this it's best to use a custom flag, giving a bit of detail on the issue or why you think this post should be given a second look by the mod team. When situations like this occur, a new moderator will be the one to take a look at the new flag (unless, of course, the original mod sees it and goes "oh, huh, oops! My bad!", which I've definitely done before).

Ping Mods in Chat

Another option is chat. Most of the mod team are frequent chat users, so you can always ping a moderator in The Bridge or create a new room an invite a moderator to it if you wanted to discuss something with them. There's ways for moderators to make rooms private as well, should you wish to discuss the issue with a mod privately, all you need to do is ask.

Escalate to Community Managers

If you have have serious issues with a moderators behaviour, then you can escalate the issue to Stack Exchange by using the Contact Us form. Either the "Report/Dispute a Code of Conduct Violation" or "Other" would be the best subject for such a situation. Rest assured the moderator team isn't involved in this process at all, so we'll never see what you submit, or even know you submitted something in the first place.

Use the 10k Moderation Tools

Something else I'd like to draw attention to, as already pointed out by Wrigglenite in the comments, is that users with 10,000 reputation have access to the Moderator Tools privilege. The tools page offers a lot of insight into both community and diamond moderation on posts, such as close votes and deletions.


So that's pretty much it, although if you think we forgot anything, by all means let us know in the comments.

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  • 4
    A very informative and helpful answer, thank you! BTW, the edit history is hilarious :)
    – user143228
    Jun 27, 2019 at 16:09
  • 2
    And, never forget: Leaving Arqade. That may well be the best thing for a user. Mods also need to keep that firmly in mind.
    – The Nate
    Jul 7, 2019 at 23:02
  • @TheNate you'll find plenty of "fuck you I'm leaving" posts on meta, typically by sorting questions by votes and looking at the last page. ;)
    – badp
    Jul 8, 2019 at 9:32
  • 1
    @badp That doesn't strike you as a a concern? I'm done answering as well- this user simply should not be in any position of authority and I find that pretty obvious. Oh well.
    – Decency
    Jul 21, 2019 at 22:09
  • 1
    I can not find anything about Frank stepping down as a moderator. Does anyone know the why or what? There was no announcement or anything. Nov 28, 2020 at 6:05
24

I put together a bit of a breakdown for the votes for anyone who is interested. The format is T: T1, T2, T3

Unionhawk     315:  95,  93, 126  
Dragonrage    323:  74, 137, 111  
Frank         316: 110, 123,  83  
Gigazelle      91:  28,  23,  40  
FoxMcCloud     89:  22,  33,  34  
dly           113:  34,  40,  39  
Wrigglenite   353: 201,  85,  67  
iVhagar        45:  16,  14,  15  
The Mattbat999 44:  11,  17,  13

The ten most common votes were (Count | 1, 2, 3):

33 | Wrigglenite,       Frank,   Unionhawk  
30 | Wrigglenite,  Dragonrage,       Frank  
25 | Wrigglenite,  Dragonrage,   Unionhawk  
24 | Wrigglenite,       Frank,  Dragonrage  
21 | Wrigglenite,   Unionhawk,  Dragonrage  
14 |       Frank, Wrigglenite,   Unionhawk  
13 |  Dragonrage, Wrigglenite,   Unionhawk  
12 |   Unionhawk,  Dragonrage, Wrigglenite  
12 | Wrigglenite,   Unionhawk,       Frank  
10 |   Unionhawk, Wrigglenite,  Dragonrage
5
  • 3
    Is that total, total first choice, total second choice, and total third choice? Forgive me if I'm wrong, but shouldn't you be a mod then if your total was 323 over Frank's 316?
    – Timmy Jim Mod
    Jun 19, 2019 at 16:00
  • 2
    @TimmyJim, yes it is total votes (total 1st, 2nd, and 3rd choice votes added) followed by the individual totals for each choice. as to why Frank won and not me, most people who voted for me as second choice voted for either Uni, Frank, or Wrigglenite, so a lot of those didn't transfer over to me.
    – Dragonrage Mod
    Jun 19, 2019 at 16:04
  • 2
    It'd be interesting to see the 20 or so most common complete choices. Something like: "Unionhawk > Dragonrage > Frank: 60 times" Jun 19, 2019 at 16:35
  • 2
    @Wrigglenite added top 10 most common
    – Dragonrage Mod
    Jun 19, 2019 at 16:44
  • 1
    This is neat to see on a smaller site. Thank you! My vote card looked like #14 on your second result set. And sorry to see you did not make it!
    – TylerH
    Jun 20, 2019 at 18:23
21

Congrats to the new mods. May you serve well. I shall have to step up in my flagging to make sure you have work to do. :P

2
  • 7
    Absolutely! I'll do my best on the other side. Jun 18, 2019 at 20:35
  • 4
    @Wrigglenite i expect you to be at close to Ash's record by the end of the year :P
    – Dragonrage Mod
    Jun 18, 2019 at 20:47
14

A huge congrats to Wrigglenite! Recent interactions are fully in line with your nomination description - you indeed have turned a new leaf, and I look forward to continuing working with you.

I am very apprehensive seeing Frank elected as a moderator. Arqade already has a stigma of being an unfriendly site to new users, and I anticipate this will only make that stigma worse.

I hope that the moderation team will be extra diligent to keep each other in check, as I anticipate there will be many questions that might be outright deleted without additional perspective from the rest of the community. There have been several situations where a question that needs clarification has turned into genuinely good content as a direct result of community collaboration. These good questions could not be possible if a moderator deletes them outright in the name of "quality".

1
  • 11
    Thank you for the kind words! As I have undoubtedly acted in an openly unfriendly way in the past, your encouragement means a lot to me. And while I'm sure every mod, including Frank, will only act in a way that benefits Arqade, I'd like to remind you that as a 10k+ reputation user, you have access to the moderator tools page, which, among other things, shows a summary of posts recently deleted, undeleted, and with delete or undelete vote. If you're really worried about overzealous moderators, that page might prove useful. Jun 21, 2019 at 7:44
-11

I like having Frank as a mod. It takes a lot to know and understand the rules, and he pushes new users to know them. He doesn't do this out of hatred, he does it because he loves Arqade. A lot of us who voted for him know that he loves this site and he'll continue to make the rules fair and enforce them when necessary.

I haven't had a bad encounter with Wrigglenite on this site, ever. Most, if not all of his meta posts I agree with 100%. While not as familiar with Wrigglenite as I am with Frank, I'm sure I will enjoy my time on Arqade with Wrigglenite as a mod.

Congrats you two, and godspeed to the mods leaving us.

7
  • 28
    It's one thing to know and understand the rules, it's an entirely different metric to enforce those rules. Being unequivocally blunt and harsh with new users is not the way to act as anyone, much less what we expect of moderators. Recall one of the core tenets of the SE Code of Conduct, "Be kind and friendly.". Well somewhere along the way, Frank forgot all about that.
    – childe
    Jun 18, 2019 at 20:26
  • 10
    @senpai You respond as if the current mods acknowledge someone is going around abusing new members and don't do anything about it and the majority of people on Arqade voted for a tyrant mod. If there are issues on this site, its users or mods, I'd encourage you to bring it forward and address it.
    – FoxMcCloud
    Jun 18, 2019 at 20:32
  • 28
    @Fox "If there are issues on this site, its users or mods, I'd encourage you to bring it forward and address it." - I get the impression thats exactly what senpai is doing.
    – Robotnik Mod
    Jun 18, 2019 at 22:38
  • @Robotnik Yes, I agree. I wish they would have done it after the election if they felt this strongly before.
    – FoxMcCloud
    Jun 18, 2019 at 22:42
  • 2
    I completely agree with this. I'm not sure why so many people are against Frank, his comments and moderation actions do not seem harsh like everyone says they are. I'm glad I'm not the only one who believes Frank will be a great mod. Jun 21, 2019 at 3:58
  • 9
    @PikachutheParenthesisWizard Because I've been here the entire time Frank has been here and have borne witness to the damage he's done to posts by new users.
    – Powerlord
    Jun 27, 2019 at 22:41
  • 3
    While I disagree with Frank on quite a few things, the votes were cast and I think Frank deserves a fair shot moderating. He clearly cares about the site and holds it to a high standard, which I can respect. So Frank, I want to encourage you to do your best at serving this community. You are a dedicated user and, with a little restraint, I think you can become an excellent moderator.
    – Batophobia
    Jul 5, 2019 at 15:27

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