Q&A with the Candidates in the 2011 Moderator Elections [closed]

Question

Based on Ivo's work on Super User, which in turn was based on Math.SE, I'd like to establish a list of questions for the candidates. Some of these will be similar questions (or the same), others will be a little different.

Openers

• What do you believe is the biggest issue currently facing Gaming.se? How do you plan to handle it?

Personal

• Should we be afraid you'll burn out or become even more fanatic?

• How do you expect becoming a moderator will change or influence the way you use Gaming?

• Will you have the time to spend moderating the site? How much time do you think you'll spend modding?

• Gaming suffers from a very wide topic space, how you plan to stay up to date with such a diverse knowledge base?

• If you're not elected, will you take a break from GSE or will you just carry on like before?

Topics

• We saw a lot of problems over the voting on Game-Rec, what do you think could have been done better? if such an issue faced us in the future, how would you handle it?

• What do you think of Identify This Game? How should it be handled? Please use qualitative terms and not vague ones.

• What's your stance on duplicates and how should they be handled?

• There's an iffy tag on a couple dozen questions. Another tag is close in meaning to it. Both suck though. How do you handle the tags and/or the questions? Merge? Delete? Close? Ask Meta.GSE?

Moderator Powers

• How will you deal with having a binding close vote?

• How do you, the potential moderators, feel about suspensions? in what cases should it be used? and not?

Users

• What do you feel is a good way to deal with new Users posting bad questions?

• 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?

Closers

• Which three nominees do you think are the most suited to become the next moderators and why?

Please feel free to add questions to this list for the candidates

Answer 1

I haven't actually posted up my nomination yet. But, I figure, it won't really hurt for me to answer these early. ♪

Which three nominees do you think are the most suited to become the next moderators and why?

It's too early to answer this question because we don't have all nominees. Considering my current station, I also don't think it would be particularly fair for me to answer this, either.

But I will say that there are a lot of potential candidates, currently nominated or otherwise, that I think would indeed do a great job. No matter how well you think we did as pro tem moderators, I urge everyone to consider the merits of all of the candidates when they vote.

How will you deal with having a binding close vote?

There's an iffy tag on a couple dozen questions. Another tag is close in meaning to it. Both suck though. How do you handle the tags and/or the questions? Merge? Delete? Close? Ask Meta?

How do you, the potential moderators, feel about suspensions? in what cases should it be used? and not?

I currently moderate on a policy of "Deliberate when necessary, take action when necessary", and I would continue to do this if re-elected. Moderators need to make these judgment calls themselves, and subscribing to a strict, general answer is honestly unwise in my opinion.

Binding votes are used when judgment must be decided upon. Tag ambiguity is handled based on the severity of the ambiguity and the frequency of usage. Suspension is not a threat, but rather an avoidable consequence that neither party favors as a resolution.

What do you feel is a good way to deal with new Users posting bad questions?

Communication is key, community is key. The actual resolution of a new user's question may vary based on their response, but the first step is always to talk with them and try to educate them on proper question asking. If they are someone who will become a productive member of the community, they will naturally return to respond.

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?

Being a Mediator is part of the job of a moderator. You need to talk with people, not just to understand the situation but make all involved parties understand the situation. Answers and community are both valuable, so the ideal scenario is someone who respects both. One can be curmudgeonly all they want, as long as they aren't actively destroying the community.

If all else fails, there's always investing 300JP for Mimic Daravon.

What's your stance on duplicates and how should they be handled?

Close when determined that the two questions aim for the same goal, not merely have the same answer.. As before, deliberate when necessary.

What do you think of Identify This Game? How should it be handled?

Identification is basically our Code Golf. They are objective, seek to solve a problem, and are questions. They have flaws, though, the biggest ones being their susceptibility to vagueness and poor memory as well as their reliance on passive knowledge and thus not being prime candidates to getting answered. Like Code Golf, they're also not quite material that people will actively search for. If kept in check, they can be handled.

As far as handling them, it's a matter of analysis. Check how many details are available, check how much intersection is between the given details and how many possible candidates, and check the integrity of the details. And very importantly, the responsiveness of the author. If the details are sparse, if there's just too many possible matches that we're shooting blind, or if the author doesn't care to return, all of these are marks that the question should just be closed.

We saw a lot of problems over the voting on Game-Rec, what do you think could have been done better? if such an issue faced us in the future, how would you handle it?

Not host that kind of process again, that's for sure. Polling is not a substitute for decision making. That's simply the whole of it. To be honest, there were two separate issues and I think they both did get resolved decently for all the fallout that happened. Really, the more problematic issue is the stalling of issues due to lack of consensus - that has caused far more harm than anything else.

Going forward, there's simply a call to be more decisive. When a real issue pops up, analyze the scenario and come to what best conclusions can be made, and see what the right decision to be made is. Crossfire is easiest avoided by negotiating during times of peace.

If you're not elected, will you take a break from Gaming or will you just carry on like before?

You won't see me doing deletions anymore, but you'll still find me providing deep answers to the parent Q&A, being generally involved in Meta manners, and wandering about in chat.

Gaming suffers from a very wide topic space, how you plan to stay up to date with such a diverse knowledge base?

That's what the community is for. In the scenario wherein my own expertise and research will not be enough, there are always other moderators as well as the rest of the community ot turn to.

Will you have the time to spend moderating the site? How much time do you think you'll spend modding?

My history of moderation speaks to this a lot better than anything I could write.

How do you expect becoming a moderator will change or influence the way you use Gaming?

Ahahahahahahahaha! ♪

To seriously answer, though, I expect to update my profiles to reflect the status. That's... about it.

Should we be afraid you'll burn out or become even more fanatic?

No and no. I've been honed from years of moderating a number of game communities and forums. As such, I've become accustomed to knowing how to space my activity such that I can make reasonable coverage and handle scenarios without becoming overworked. I love the community, and I'd hate to jeopardize my relationship with it by becoming too enthused.

What do you believe is the biggest issue currently facing Gaming? How do you plan to handle it?

Gameplay coverage. I like to see our devotion towards providing gamer resources, technical support, and the odd identification question. But the actual incoming flow of actual gameplay questions honestly feels like a trickle in comparison to what it could ideally be. With a very unique exception, the majority of our incoming traffic are towards specific gameplay questions, not any of the rest. Improving the scope of such questions so that more people will find this place first for these, I find that to be a very important goal.

I have been working on a variety of plans. But until they are concrete, I don't find it wise to publish them and create any sort of expectations for their yield. I'm working on it, though.

Answer 2

What do you believe is the biggest issue currently facing Gaming.se? How do you plan to handle it?

Continue to grow without sacrificing the quality of our content in the process. With a greater popularity we will get more bad questions and more users unfamiliar with the SE principles. The amount of moderation needed to keep the quality high will increase. There will certainly be new problems I cannot imagine now, that the moderator team will have to solve.

We also need to clean up our tags at some point, at our current size this is not a big problem, but we are wildly inconsistent there. We need to better define which tags are useful and start a dedicated effort to retag our content.

How do you expect becoming a moderator will change or influence the way you use Gaming?

It will shift my time from asking & answering questions to moderating tasks a bit, but it won't change dramatically I suspect. The biggest change will probably be the binding votes (see answer below). I'll remain the same user I have been, only with superpowers ;-).

Gaming suffers from a very wide topic space, how you plan to stay up to date with such a diverse knowledge base?

I'll continue to play games, so within my interests I will stay current. But I don't need to know every game to moderate here. For most moderator tasks game-specific knowledge is not required.

If you're not elected, will you take a break from GSE or will you just carry on like before?

Nothing will change for me then.

We saw a lot of problems over the voting on Game-Rec, what do you think could have been done better? if such an issue faced us in the future, how would you handle it?

I think the direct democracy we tried by voting on a meta question does not work well. I would continue to get community feedback for such questions, but I would not let the community decide policy by voting directly. The community can now elect the three moderators, giving them a democratic legitimation. Further policy issues should then certainly be openly discussed on meta, but the final decision should rest with the moderator team.

Another lesson out of that is that a very subjective rule on allowed questions does not work, allowing only "good" game-rec questions was probably the worst of all solutions.

What do you feel is a good way to deal with new Users posting bad questions?

If the question is salvagable, the community here will quickly edit it and improve it. Many users will get the hint and improve their questions in the future. If a user continues to ask bad questions I would ask him nicely to work on improving his questions. If a user is not willing to change and his questions are bad enough a timed suspension might be necessary.

Questions that are not salvagable should get a comment explaining that this questions is bad and why. Having your first questions closed is not a nice experience, it is necessary for the quality of the site, but we don't want to drive away too many people. Explaining the closing personally should increase the chance that the user stays interested in Gaming.SE and might become a productive member.

What do you think of Identify This Game? How should it be handled? Please use qualitative terms and not vague ones.

They should remain allowed unconditionally for now. I don't consider those questions harmful in itself, they only become harmful if they drown out other questions or if they are of too low quality. Of course, for ItG question the same quality criteria apply as for all other questions.

If the amount or quality of those questions changes significantly, I'm open to revisiting this question.

What's your stance on duplicates and how should they be handled?

Duplicates should be closed, but I see one problem with our current approach. Sometimes the older, duplicate question is of average to low quality and not very helpful. I think we should not necessarily close the newer question as a duplicate, but the lower quality one. We should also try to create high quality CW answers to often duplicated questions as "reference" answers, if no good answers exist (I tried that for the graphics card buying advice).

There's an iffy tag on a couple dozen questions. Another tag is close in meaning to it. Both suck though. How do you handle the tags and/or the questions? Merge? Delete? Close? Ask Meta.GSE?

Tagging is a bit of a mess at the moment, we need some more discussions on how tags should be used on Gamingg.SE. There are quite some useless tags that should just be deleted, but such a large scale retagging should be discussed on meta.

How will you deal with having a binding close vote?

For clear-cut cases, e.g. game & shopping recommendations I will not hesitate to use them. For other questions that are more ambiguous I would generally wait until 2-3 community members cast their vote and only cast my deciding vote then. Closing questions is something the community should do itself most of the time.

How do you, the potential moderators, feel about suspensions? in what cases should it be used? and not?

In cases of deliberate vandalism timed suspensions are appropriate to prevent further damage. In most cases suspensions should only be used after warning the user about his behaviour, and only if the users willfuly continues to behave inappropriately.

Which three nominees do you think are the most suited to become the next moderators and why?

I'm very satisfied with the excellent work of Grace Note and Oak, and I hope that they will run in this election.

Answer 3

• What do you believe is the biggest issue currently facing Gaming.se? How do you plan to handle it?

  I can't think of any. We didn't decide anything on the topic of ITGs but otoh they stopped falling like rain.

• Should we be afraid you'll burn out or become even more fanatic?

  Surprisingly enough, I have more stuff I'm supposed to do than Gaming. Variety is the spice of life.

• How do you expect becoming a moderator will change or influence the way you use Gaming?

  Well, my activity as a regular user would have to give way to the moderating bit, part of which unfortunately can't be public (like talking about how much of a terrible mod Arda would've been with the other people in the teachers' lounge.)

• Will you have the time to spend moderating the site? How much time do you think you'll spend modding?

  My activity graph speaks for itself, although I'll have a very busy February.

• Gaming suffers from a very wide topic space, how you plan to stay up to date with such a diverse knowledge base?

  That's not required of me. Moderators are less about answers and more about meta. As such I'll rely on chat and flags for posts about games I'm not familiar with.

• If you're not elected, will you take a break from GSE or will you just carry on like before?

  I don't want to be elected if, as I hope, Oak and Juan nominate themselves. Hence, no, my activity wouldn't receive a hit from not being elected. OTOH I already mentioned I'll have a very busy February.

• We saw a lot of problems over the voting on Game-Rec, what do you think could have been done better? if such an issue faced us in the future, how would you handle it?

  Deadlines for community decisions, so that we don't spend four months to make another call again. Pro tempore guidelines while the community decides, so that we don't have some people answering them, some other people closing them subjective, some more people closing them NARQ, some more closing them off-topic, some people merely commenting on them etc.

• What do you think of Identify This Game? How should it be handled? Please use qualitative terms and not vague ones.

  I think one of the main raisons d'être is to improve the internet by feeding better, fresher to Google. I hope ITG questions can help increase the number of keywords leading to those obscure games. Remember, I wanted us to be able to handle game-rec questions too, then it became clear they were overwhelming for us.

• What's your stance on duplicates and how should they be handled?

  Exact duplicates are just that, "exact." They're not "subset", they're not "superset", they're not "kinda like but not entirely different." If you think another question has the answer, feel free to use the content license and quote while giving attribution. Don't want reps? Mark CW.

• There's an iffy tag on a couple dozen questions. Another tag is close in meaning to it. Both suck though. How do you handle the tags and/or the questions? Merge? Delete? Close? Ask Meta.GSE?

  Tagging was never meant to be perfect. We need more non-game-specific tags. We should focus a bit less on that.

• How will you deal with having a binding close vote?

  I hope I'll be able to contrapt chat notifications for triggers like "This question has three close votes" to help me not go batshit crazy with the voting.

• How do you, the potential moderators, feel about suspensions? in what cases should it be used? and not?

  Suspension is supposed to be a wake up call, not a punishing tool. There's the downvote roulette for that. Tough love, or so they call it.

• What do you feel is a good way to deal with new Users posting bad questions?

  Leave comments.

• 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?

  Reputation is not a "get out of jail for free" card.

• Which three nominees do you think are the most suited to become the next moderators and why?

  Oak, Juan and Grace.

Answer 4

What do you believe is the biggest issue currently facing Gaming.se? How do you plan to handle it?

Now that Game-Rec and ITG are mostly taken care of, I think the biggest challenge we'll face is expanding out audience while still maintaining a high level of quality. I also think that we need to learn from our experiences with Game-Rec and ITG and go forward with better plans in regards to decisionmaking, which will be an ongoing challenge that we should try not to lose sight of.

Should we be afraid you'll burn out or become even more fanatic?

Not really. If I didn't think I'd be able to handle the moderation duties, I wouldn't volunteer. Other than having to be more active in regards to doing moderation activities, I wouldn't anticipate my site usage changing much.

How do you expect becoming a moderator will change or influence the way you use Gaming?

Honestly, I don't think it would really change much in how I use the site other than having a diamond by my name and having more to do in regards to being able to review flags, delete questions, etc.

Will you have the time to spend moderating the site? How much time do you think you'll spend modding?

If I didn't think I'd have the time, I would not volunteer. To give an idea of my average participation, before I went on vacation, I'd visited the site 120+ consecutive days in a row. I make it a point to check it at least once a day if possible, usually more, and I'm often available/pingable in chat. While my schedule for 2011 is looking to be more full, I'll still have enough time to check at least daily.

Gaming suffers from a very wide topic space, how you plan to stay up to date with such a diverse knowledge base?

I don't feel that I personally need to keep 100% up to date. This is the reason that we're a community and not a one-man show. I don't feel that I need to buy a game on release date in order to still be able to moderate efficiently. If a judgment call is needed that requires the knowledge of a particular game, for whatever reason, this is why we have a moderating team, instead of just a single moderator.

If you're not elected, will you take a break from GSE or will you just carry on like before?

No, I plan on continuing to use the site as normal.

We saw a lot of problems over the voting on Game-Rec, what do you think could have been done better? if such an issue faced us in the future, how would you handle it?

Game-Rec was a pretty bad situation for all parties. If we need to make the same type of decision in the future, we definitely need to put a deadline on decisionmaking and make it an utmost priority to get the conflict solved before it drags out ambiguously for 4 months.

What do you think of Identify This Game? How should it be handled? Please use qualitative terms and not vague ones.

I'm of the (unpopular) opinion that passive knowledge is also knowledge that can be valuable for the site. I think ITG can be valuable for the site and other users, as long as we hold them to the same standard of quality as other questions. While I think it's unreasonable to expect a screenshot from a game you don't remember, clear, concise descriptions (i.e. no rambling along trying to describe a single detail) along with time period, platform, and distinctive characteristics are a reasonable standard to stick to.

What's your stance on duplicates and how should they be handled?

I think Grace put it most succinctly in stating that when 2 questions have the same goal, it is best to close one as a duplicate of the other. This reduces the clutter on the site.

There's an iffy tag on a couple dozen questions. Another tag is close in meaning to it. Both suck though. How do you handle the tags and/or the questions? Merge? Delete? Close? Ask Meta.GSE?

I think this is a bit subjective as it partially depends on how popular the tag is and how many questions this will affect, as well as the reason why the tags suck. Are they misrepresentative? Ambiguous? Either way, I would feel more comfortable posting on Meta.GSE about it before taking any drastic measures for a tag/tags that are used on a lot of questions.

How will you deal with having a binding close vote?

I think a binding close vote is mostly useful to quickly take care of questions that are obviously inappropriate for the site without having to wait for 5 closes, such as questions with inappropriate sexual content, asking about illegally downloading games, etc. Our community is very on top of closing questions that need to be closed though, so I don't anticipate needing to use it overly often.

How do you, the potential moderators, feel about suspensions? in what cases should it be used? and not?

I feel that suspension may be necessary if a user is deliberately and continually misusing the site and/or abusing other users, even after being informed that their conduct is out of line. If a user is unwilling to cease actions that are harmful to the site/community, then suspension is likely the best answer.

What do you feel is a good way to deal with new Users posting bad questions?

I believe that the best way to deal with them is to politely inform them of our site's and community's standards and give them advice on how to improve. I also believe that is important to communicate this in a manner that will not alienate the user and cause them to leave the site due to frustration or feeling as if they're being attacked. Once we inform the user, we can take further steps based on how they respond. If they continue to post poor quality questions, then they are likely not a good fit for the site. However, if they are willing to listen and take our advice, then we'll have gained another valuable member for our community.

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?

We obviously wouldn't want to alienate a user who has been valuable to the site, but at the same time, if they've been around long enough to have consistently provided helpful information, they should also be familiar with the site's policies. Confronting the user and addressing the issue with them would be the first priority.

Which three nominees do you think are the most suited to become the next moderators and why?

I think that Grace Note, Juan, and Oak (if he decides to run) have all done a great job as our pro-tem moderators and I would wholly support their continued reign moderation.

Answer 5

What do you believe is the biggest issue currently facing Gaming.se? How do you plan to handle it?

I see the growth of the site as both a good thing, and a risk that has to be managed. As we gain popularity, and have lots of new people who don't know the culture dropping in it will be more important to maintain standards and communicate our culture to the next virtual generation.

We communicate that culture in several ways.

• A clear FAQ.
• Comments explaining why moderator action was taken.
• Consistency in enforcing community expectations, and holding active, consistent users to the same standards.

Should we be afraid you'll burn out or become even more fanatic?

No.

How do you expect becoming a moderator will change or influence the way you use Gaming?

Of course. I will spend more time moderating the site instead of answering, but honestly I haven't been able to answer much lately.

Will you have the time to spend moderating the site? How much time do you think you'll spend modding?

Yes. As a rule I think I can devote an hour daily (spread out of course) as well as more focused time on the weekends.

Gaming suffers from a very wide topic space, how you plan to stay up to date with such a diverse knowledge base?

While I agree with the other candidates that you don't need to be the lead expert to be moderator, I think knowing the trends does help one moderate. I will keep up on the trends the same way I do now:

• Our own gaming chat
• Steam news
• General internet surfing

If you're not elected, will you take a break from GSE or will you just carry on like before?

I will carry on as before. This isn't a deal breaker for me in any way. I just want to be able to help out more directly.

We saw a lot of problems over the voting on Game-Rec, what do you think could have been done better? if such an issue faced us in the future, how would you handle it?

I think that the issue was drawn out because we wanted to avoid the foregone conclusion, for some good reasons and some bad. I believe that after roughly the third inconclusive meta discussion the moderators should have made an executive decision, put it in the FAQ, and enforced it.

What do you think of Identify This Game? How should it be handled? Please use qualitative terms and not vague ones.

I think that ITG is acceptable, under the FAQ, and I currently see no reason to change that. I believe that unanswerable ITGs should be closed as with any other Not a Real Question.

What's your stance on duplicates and how should they be handled?

If a "duplicate" is generating a significantly different answer set, it's not a duplicate. True duplicates should be closed, early if possible.

There's an iffy tag on a couple dozen questions. Another tag is close in meaning to it. Both suck though. How do you handle the tags and/or the questions? Merge? Delete? Close? Ask Meta.GSE?

Ask on Meta.Gaming.SE. This is one of those areas where detailed topic knowledge is required, and I would have to confer with the experts. Moderator Powers How will you deal with having a binding close vote?

How do you, the potential moderators, feel about suspensions? in what cases should it be used? and not?

Suspensions are our most powerful moderating tool, and I believe it should only be used in serious cases, usually after a user has been contacted and continues the negative behavior. I would expect to suspend people for.

• Repeated abusive behavior
• Sock puppets
• Revenge voting

What do you feel is a good way to deal with new Users posting bad questions?

I feel the only way to deal with them is by leaving a helpful comment, and closing the question. I do not think new user questions should be downvoted unless there is a serious problem.

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 contact that user directly, and ask them to modify their behavior. It is important in such cases to define what behavior you appreciate, and what needs to go. If after a contact they continue, I would likely move to a brief suspension.

Which three nominees do you think are the most suited to become the next moderators and why?

• Grace because of her(?) levelheadedness, and keen understanding of community issues.
• Badp because of his commitment, understanding, timezone, and the sense of humor I lack.
• Myself because of experience, balance, and hubris.

Answer 6

I was going to post this in my nomination, but it made my nomination WAY too long.

What do you believe is the biggest issue currently facing Gaming.se? How do you plan to handle it?

The biggest issue Gaming faces right now is attracting users. The StackExchange platform is really good for Q&A, but we have competition from existing websites. Our biggest indirect competition is GameFAQs. Our biggest direct competition is... GameFAQs Answers.

Should we be afraid you'll burn out or become even more fanatic?

There is always the possibility that I'll burn out. However, as long as I take things in moderation, I should be OK.

How do you expect becoming a moderator will change or influence the way you use Gaming?

To start, it likely won't change a lot. I will need to participate a lot more on Meta.Gaming.

Right now, my Gaming rep isn't even high enough to vote to close, let alone vote to delete or use Moderator Tools. That alone will change my behavior on the site.

However, I intend to use any mod-specific powers sparingly. This also includes close votes if the close reason is ambiguous, as mod close votes are absolute.

Will you have the time to spend moderating the site? How much time do you think you'll spend modding?

It will likely come out of the same time pool that my current gaming time comes out of. Modding isn't really a separate action, it will just be additional responsibilities in addition to my current actions.

Gaming suffers from a very wide topic space, how you plan to stay up to date with such a diverse knowledge base?

Moderation doesn't actually require you to know everything about the subject material. Having said that, I continue playing new games that interest me.

If you're not elected, will you take a break from GSE or will you just carry on like before?

I will carry on exactly as before.

We saw a lot of problems over the voting on Game-Rec, what do you think could have been done better? if such an issue faced us in the future, how would you handle it?

I'm not really sure if this is talking about the social or the technical side, but I assume social, since we do not have direct control over the tech side of the site.

Ultimately, this site is run by the community. There are two ways we can handle votes of this sort: 1. Put it up to a community vote. 2. Ask our moderators to decide for us.

Now, if you've seen the way politics works in the U.S., you know firsthand that the second way of doing things tends to backfire.

What do you think of Identify This Game? How should it be handled? Please use qualitative terms and not vague ones.

I don't mind Identify this game, as it can be used to find old games that you may have once played but can only barely remember. The better the description, the more useful the answers are going to be.

What's your stance on duplicates and how should they be handled?

Duplicates should be closed. That's why we have Close as Duplicate. Duplicates should not be deleted. Of course, this is irrelevant, as it's StackExchange policy not to delete them.

There's an iffy tag on a couple dozen questions. Another tag is close in meaning to it. Both suck though. How do you handle the tags and/or the questions? Merge? Delete? Close? Ask Meta.GSE?

If both tags suck, remove them both. The major exception to this is tags for games. In my opinion, every question should have at minimum its game as a tag.

However, there are certain tags that are superfluous and need to be removed. fps is a good example... it's a tag that could have multiple meanings. One meaning is a First Person Shooter which is superfluous since the game name already tells you that. The other is frames per second, and frame-rate is much more descriptive.

How will you deal with having a binding close vote?

I would only use close votes when absolutely sure that the question doesn't belong. Since I don't currently have Close privileges on Gaming, this isn't a large change.

How do you, the potential moderators, feel about suspensions? in what cases should it be used? and not?

Suspensions need to be used sparingly. EXCEEDINGLY SPARINGLY.

Simply put, suspensions are a moderators tool to be used against a user as a last resort, once talking to a user has failed.

As some of you may know, I was hit with a suspension during this election. Not on the site, but on StackExchange's chat area, presumably from Gaming since that was the only room I was active in. For reasons that were never explained to me. (Side Note: I know who this mod is, and yes I am voting against them in the primary because of it.)

Using suspensions just because you want to is not acceptable behavior for a mod under any circumstances.

What do you feel is a good way to deal with new Users posting bad questions?

That depends on if you think the question can be saved or not. If it can be, edit it so that it's a valid, working question.

If it can't be, downvote it and/or vote to close it and give reasons why.

If new users have enough closed questions, they will no longer be able to ask new questions until they participate in the community.

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?

Tough question, but it sounds like they really need to be sat down with and have explained to them that their comments are unacceptable, and that you will have to suspend them if they continue. Remember, suspension is the last ditch ability a moderator has.

Which three nominees do you think are the most suited to become the next moderators and why?

C.Ross: From my experience with him, he has a level head on his shoulders, and is willing to listen to both sides of an argument.

Arda XI: Arda appears to be very active on the site and in chat.

badp: He may have nominated himself as a joke, but I don't think he'd make as bad a mod as his nominate seems to imply.

I would love to say Juan Manuel, but I've had some disagreements with him in the past, and I think his lack of activity recently is not necessarily a good thing.

Answer 7

What do you believe is the biggest issue currently facing Gaming.se? How do you plan to handle it?

I don't know, it's pretty great like it is. Probably the lack of new questions and people, but I'd say that it'll naturally fix itself.

Should we be afraid you'll burn out or become even more fanatic?

No, I'm gonna keep playing games, so I'll keep being active here. :)

How do you expect becoming a moderator will change or influence the way you use Gaming?

I'd moderate stuff too, but I don't see it changing my current activity, just adding onto it.

Will you have the time to spend moderating the site? How much time do you think you'll spend modding?

Yes, I'm homeschooled by videos that I watch here on my computer. I'm sitting here hours a day already. Basically, I'll mod as much as is needed. Pretty much the only times that I can't get on are Sundays and Wednesday afternoons.

Gaming suffers from a very wide topic space, how you plan to stay up to date with such a diverse knowledge base?

I don't think that I can keep up with everything, and I don't think that I need to. I try to answer stuff about games that I play or free games that I can, but some things I just don't want to play so I won't answer questions about. If something is relevant to moderation, then I can use Google to learn.

If you're not elected, will you take a break from GSE or will you just carry on like before?

I'm gonna be active here no matter what.

We saw a lot of problems over the voting on Game-Rec, what do you think could have been done better? If such an issue faced us in the future, how would you handle it?

I think that it was too drawn out. We shouldn't have bothered with all the polling. Getting community input was necessary, but then you eventually have to just make a decision.

What do you think of Identify This Game? How should it be handled? Please use qualitative terms and not vague ones.

I think that they should be allowed. They aren't a problem right now at least. We can rework it if we ever get too many, but for now, they're fine.

What's your stance on duplicates and how should they be handled?

They should be closed if they're basically the same question. What Fabian said makes sense too.

There's an iffy tag on a couple dozen questions. Another tag is close in meaning to it. Both suck though. How do you handle the tags and/or the questions? Merge? Delete? Close? Ask Meta.GSE?

I'd ask it on Meta. I don't see much use in tags besides the game's name right now though.

How will you deal with having a binding close vote?

Close it if it's in clear violation of the rules, or get community input if I'm not sure. Whether by asking it on meta or just waiting a bit longer and seeing what others do.

How do you, the potential moderators, feel about suspensions? in what cases should it be used? and not?

I think that suspensions should only be used on obviously problematic users where the user does something against the rules while knowing that it is against the rules and isn't willing to change.

What do you feel is a good way to deal with new Users posting bad questions?

Mods can try to whip them into shape themselves for a while and try to help the user learn the rules if he's breaking them and just telling him what he's doing wrong so that he won't do it again.

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 deal with comments as needed and then talk to him about it, letting him know that he's doing good with answering questions and answers, but ask him to improve his future comments.

Which three nominees do you think are the most suited to become the next moderators and why?

Grace Note obviously has done an amazing job so far. Fabian and Arda Xi would make good mods too. Not that many people have applied so far though. =/

Answer 8

Openers

• What do you believe is the biggest issue currently facing Gaming.se? How do you plan to handle it?
• Gaming is actually in great shape after the discussion about game-rec has finished. The biggest challenge now is to grow the site, which can only be done by attracting new users and getting questions about more diverse games. One man can only do so much, so my own role in this is quite limited. Rather I would spur the community into asking (more) questions every time they play a new game or editing some of the 'hot' questions to improve their quality. Remember, our most important entry point is Google, so I would want such questions to make a good impression!

Personal

• Should we be afraid you'll burn out or become even more fanatic?
• More fanatic? I fear there aren't enough hours in a day to be on Stack Exchange more. I've sustained this level of activity for about as long as I'm a member on Super User, so I think I'll manage.
• How do you expect becoming a moderator will change or influence the way you use Gaming?
• I would finally be able to edit without needing anyone's approval. Furthermore, you can expect me to behave as I do on Super User, which mostly involves keeping the site clean and leading by example. Either by editing, closing/deleting trash or noise and by leaving comments.
• Will you have the time to spend moderating the site? How much time do you think you'll spend modding?
• Lucky for me, we just got fresh blood on Super User! Also, I always have tabs with Stack Exchange sites open, so you shouldn't view my activity as short bursts or activity, but rather as constantly keeping an eye out. Furthermore, I always encourage users to contact me on chat if there are any issues.
• Gaming suffers from a very wide topic space, how you plan to stay up to date with such a diverse knowledge base?
• Wide? Try anything computer-related! First off, moderators don't need to know a lot about everything, just enough to make judgement calls and to understand enough jargon to improve most posts. Either way, I read a ton of (tech) news and always watch Gametrailers.com for new content. I also own several gaming devices (PS3, Xbox360, iPad, PC, Android phone) so I think I'll manage.
• If you're not elected, will you take a break from GSE or will you just carry on like before?
• I almost feel like I was already 'not elected' because I want to keep the entire Stack Exchange network clean! Any way, that never stopped me from participating. It's just that since I started working as a freelancer, I haven't played a lot of new games, so that disqualifies me somewhat from answering. If not elected I would probably support the new mods as best as possible and wait for my rep to grow over time to be able to use the regular mod tools.

Topics

• We saw a lot of problems over the voting on Game-Rec, what do you think could have been done better? if such an issue faced us in the future, how would you handle it?
• Since this is a recurring problem (watch SO, SU, Cooking, Web Apps and especially the new non-tech SE sites), therefore I believe we need a network wide policy for this. In part all FAQs have already been updated to reflect this, but I would enforce such a policy top down. I'm biased here, because I'm getting slightly tired of having to explain users with no history on the network why this has failed in the past. I for one, wouldn't let this discussion continue as long as it has, but sadly I lacked the tools to enforce it. Have a look at how Super User handled website questions as a reference.
• What do you think of Identify This Game? How should it be handled? Please use qualitative terms and not vague ones.
• Handled? I prefer strangled. This site should be about helping gamers become better gamers. Helping to cure Alzheimer, while noble, isn't part of that mission. ITG questions are in the end game-rec's in disguise, because users would name a bunch of games and the OP picks one he thinks suits him the best. These questions are generally poorly defined, requests for more information are impossible (he forgot, remember!) and only interesting for that one person. Everybody else who's interested, just want to know if it's a game they would want to play too. My solution: ask it on Chat and we'll all be glad to help you!
• What's your stance on duplicates and how should they be handled?
• Duplication to some degree is wanted, because I know from experience that users can have very different wordings to describe the same thing. However, I think the current system for duplication sucks, because I'd rather not see closed questions anywhere. They're a dead end and that doesn't help anyone (but that's a discussion for another day). Regardless, I prefer that questions are widened, so they cover multiple instances of the same question in one. Examples of this are: when specifically looking for one out of four items in some game, broaden the question to look for all four of them. You might know where the find the other three, but who knows: somebody else might not!
• There's an iffy tag on a couple dozen questions. Another tag is close in meaning to it. Both suck though. How do you handle the tags and/or the questions? Merge? Delete? Close? Ask Meta.GSE?
• Sorry, I truly suck at tagging and I'd used to leave all that work over to quack (on SU). Thankfully, I know Gaming has badp and Grace Note to make sure these stay in line. Everyone has their strengths and weaknesses, this is one of my weak spots for sure.

Moderator Powers

• How will you deal with having a binding close vote? Using the binding vote is scary the first ten times, but seriously how many examples does one need to judge these on your own? I've apparently closed about 556 questions on Super User and 75 on Gaming. If I'm really in doubt, I'd used to leave a mod flag for another mod to help decide. Nowadays I use chat and I'm rarely disputed. More importantly, most moderator actions are reversible (also just one click) and if I'm wrong, I'm happy to admit my mistake and undo it. More often than not, users would first need to put in some additional effort into their question, so it served its purpose.
• How do you, the potential moderators, feel about suspensions? in what cases should it be used? and not?
• Most of my suspensions are reserved for spammers, but occasionally there's a bad apple that needs to be put in the Penalty Box. In my experience though this is a very rare case, but if it occurs I will not hesitate to use it. Again, it can easily be undone, so most of the time it's a measure of damage control, where you simply want to prevent a user from continuing his bad behavior. If after discussing it, he constrains himself, the suspension will be lifted. If not, then I'd rather loose one user than having him scare of thousands of potential new users.

Users

• What do you feel is a good way to deal with new Users posting bad questions?
• I often comment on their posts asking them to add more information. However, I'm off the opinion that it's a privilege to ask questions here and that we aren't required to answer bad ones. If he fails to post bad questions and after contacting fails to improve, he will need to be suspended, because his input is harmful for the sites quality. Note that I have only seen a handful of these cases on Super User, so it's pretty much a case-by-case thing.
• 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?
• These can be pretty nasty cases, but in the end I don't think positive behavior can ever outweigh negative behavior. If you are harassing or trolling other users and fail to improve your behavior, I will rather loose a high rep user than having him scare of dozens (is anyone seeing a trend here?). Luckily, the system often let's us remove negative content out of the sight of regular users very easily and most of the time, the user will stop bothering to leave such comments, because they'll be deleted anyway.

Closers

• Which three nominees do you think are the most suited to become the next moderators and why?

• I would have said the current pro-temp mods, but since @Oak didn't nominate, I nominated myself. Grace Note is my number one choice, simply because you can't argue with her. She's always right. Furthermore, I have a feeling CRoss would be a good replacement for Juan. Not because I dislike Juan (though I do disagree with him on game-rec and ITG), but rather that CRoss has been more involved in network wide moderating and understand the problems the network as a whole faces. Lastly, I think I'm a good choice. I have proven to be capable of moderating and I care about the site, not the status. While I think badp is a valuable member of the community, I feel he's not suitable as a moderator given his temper and the fact that he takes a lot of things far too personal. Besides that, we need users who are criticize the system and hold moderators accountable for their actions. That's a role in which he's most valuable!

• In response to @Tzenes's comments

• As you can see I have been active on Gaming, however I was never able to do much beyond flagging and commenting. With moderating abilities I would be able to visit Gaming more purposefully, like during the Beta without the need of any middle men. Furthermore, due to my lack of abilities I couldn't 'serve' the community as well either. I'm used to having access to moderator flags or having users ask for help (on chat). I wasn't able to do either, which frustrates me a great deal. Since Super User got new moderators, I feel that it will be easier for me to spread my love. Note that I became a computer geek because I played a ton of games and loved tweaking my gaming rig, not the other around
• Currently Grace often asks me what to do with these questions and again, because I couldn't change much about them from Gamings end, I haven't done as much in this area as I could. As with ITG, I'm not sure whether we should cater to (advanced) troubleshooting. The scope of the site should much more be about helping others become better gamers, than enabling them to game in the first place. While harsh, there's a good reason such questions aren't allowed on Super User and I think it extends to Gaming as well. My plan would be to have several community-faqs that cover the most frequent troubleshooting questions and everything is will be viewed with zero-tolerance as being off-topic.

Answer 9

What do you believe is the biggest issue currently facing Gaming.se? How do you plan to handle it?
I think the main problem is the low amount of questions being asked on the site, or more precisely the range of questions being asked. I am pretty sure that this will sort out after the 'slow season' of games being released is over.

Should we be afraid you'll burn out or become even more fanatic?
I can confidently say that I will not stop visiting this site without good reason; I have a naturally inquisitive mind and therefore games interest me, so even if I were to stop playing games, other people's views and experiences of them will always interest me, and for that reason I will continue to be a part of this site.

How do you expect becoming a moderator will change or influence the way you use Gaming?
I don't think being a moderator will change the way I use the site. I have always been here to gain insight into gaming and to help others. I think being a moderator will only help that.

Will you have the time to spend moderating the site? How much time do you think you'll spend modding?
I honestly do not know how long I will need to spend moderating. I think it will simply depend on the day/week.

Gaming suffers from a very wide topic space, how you plan to stay up to date with such a diverse knowledge base?
I am only a student and so don't always have the newest game. Sometimes, this limits the answers I can provide, but for me the main reason I wish to become a moderator is to make sure the community works as it was intended, or, more importantly, how it would like to work, and therefore the answers aren't necessarily important, more the way in which they are answered.

If you're not elected, will you take a break from GSE or will you just carry on like before?
If I were not elected, or even if I was, I would continue to be a part of the community, only using the moderator privileges (if I have them). I understand that while the site does occasionally need moderators, it has many non-moderators who can help the site through comments, answers and questions alone.

We saw a lot of problems over the voting on Game-Rec, what do you think could have been done better? If such an issue faced us in the future, how would you handle it?
The game-rec problem emerged because the site simply wasn't clear enough about what type of questions were allowed. I think it was handled well in regards to the situation and if a similar situation were to appear later, it should be handled toughly. I think the community knew it should not have been allowed.

What do you think of Identify This Game? How should it be handled? Please use qualitative terms and not vague ones.
My view on the 'identify-this-game' questions is that the should only be allowed if enough users find them useful; after all, the point of the site is to allow people to find answers to questions. if these questions are so specific that only one person can benefit from them, it's just not a good question. The other reason for it could be if they actually have a legitimate reason for asking it rather than just curiosity (i.e research for a game in development).

What's your stance on duplicates and how should they be handled?
Duplicates should be handled the same as they are on any other SE site, if the question proves to be different enough to count as a new question, it can stay, otherwise it should be closed.

There's an iffy tag on a couple dozen questions. Another tag is close in meaning to it. Both suck though. How do you handle the tags and/or the questions? Merge? Delete? Close? Ask Meta.GSE?

How will you deal with having a binding close vote?
The binding vote should not be used, except as a very last resort. I can't see why the question would be gaining user rep if it is bad and will simple get left behind as new questions are asked.

How do you, the potential moderators, feel about suspensions? in what cases should it be used? and not?
Suspensions should only be used if they are causing grief to enough users and the user is beyond reasoning with.

What do you feel is a good way to deal with new Users posting bad questions?
Explain what they did wrong, close the question and allow them a new start without penalization.

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?
Users who cause argument from flags/comment should not be tolerated on the site. If it is a valid point or genuinely their point of view, then fair enough. But if it causes new users the be turned away, then it should not be pardoned, even in light of their positive contributions. Many of these users could give equal or better answers, and in any case, the site is not simply about allowing people to gain reputation, but to be helpful to users and guests alike.

Which three nominees do you think are the most suited to become the next moderators and why?
From the THC most of us would do well, it's so hard to choose! :(

Answer 10

Openers

• What do you believe is the biggest issue currently facing Gaming.se? How do you plan to handle it?

I think the low barrier of entry is an issue, albeit not a very big one. Because people don't need to sign up to ask/answer questions, it becomes easy to ask questions that are spam/illegal. Couple this with the low barrier of Gaming in itself, and you've got a potential for quite some problems. However, a great mod team is exactly what's needed to overcome this issue as quickly and pain-free as possible.

Personal

• Should we be afraid you'll burn out or become even more fanatic?

Well, not really. I think that especially the people who've seen me in chat will know that I can be a bit... fanatic, but as I noted in my nomination speech, this is only to get a debate going. I would never act upon my fanatic opinions. If they are shared by the community, that's another thing entirely of course.

• How do you expect becoming a moderator will change or influence the way you use Gaming?

Not too much, really. Of course, it's a great responsibility, but I plan to use it for janitorial purposes mostly (clearing up the spam I mentioned in the first question for example). Most of the moderation I already can do (and am doing), such as editing.

• Will you have the time to spend moderating the site? How much time do you think you'll spend modding?

I have a lot of spare time, especially for a student. I don't think that having mod privileges changes the amount of time I spend on the site that much, just how I spend that time.

• Gaming suffers from a very wide topic space, how you plan to stay up to date with such a diverse knowledge base?

Does a mod really need to know everything about the topic? Moderation itself is not really something that requires intimate knowledge of all of the site's subjects. I do believe that I know just about enough to make actual modding decisions, such as whether a question is truly spam or good faith, and otherwise there's the second and third places.

• If you're not elected, will you take a break from GSE or will you just carry on like before?

Not at all. After all, the site is community moderated, I don't think that my activity would change in the slightest.

Topics

• We saw a lot of problems over the [voting on Game-Rec][3], what do you think could have been done better? If such an issue faced us in the future, how would you handle it?

I don't think it was handled that badly, honestly. The only problem we had that I remember is that everyone started to accept their opinion as truth. This is where a community moderator really comes in useful, to relay the site's policies to the users, whether or not one is formed, and to minimize the damage done by people who do not understand these policies well yet.

• What do you think of Identify This Game? How should it be handled? Please use qualitative terms and not vague ones.

I don't think there's a fix-all solution to ITG, at least not yet. As I said, I don't want to moderate on my own personal stances. This should be an actual democracy, not a representative one. However, my own stance is that if sufficient resources are provided (at least description, truly identifying characteristics and preferably a few images) they can be okay, such that there is only one right answer.

• What's your stance on duplicates and how should they be handled?

Really? The same as they always have. Closed as duplicate. In the situation where an older, more specific question is made duplicate by a newer, more general question, (as has happened here before) the former should be closed as the latter.

• There's an iffy tag on a couple dozen questions. Another tag is close in meaning to it. Both suck though. How do you handle the tags and/or the questions? Merge? Delete? Close? Ask Meta.GSE?

That really depends on the specific tag. I'd prefer to get opinions from Meta first though, before doing anything.

Moderator Powers

• How will you deal with having a binding close vote?

Use sparingly. I prefer to post comments or edit posts in order to make them acceptable. Even if 4 votes have already been cast, that extra diamond makes the close vote ever so little more binding, so it should be used in the most obvious cases only.

• How do you, the potential moderators, feel about suspensions? in what cases should it be used? and not?

They are a very, very last resort. In general I don't believe that there should ever be a case where suspension is necessary. This means that communication not only on-site, but also one-on-one has completely failed, and nothing rests but having access restricted. I would definitely hope never to need to use it.

Users

• What do you feel is a good way to deal with new Users posting bad questions?

If a question is bad because of spelling or grammar, edit it into an answerable one. Leave a friendly comment explaining the site and it's purpose. Make them feel welcome.

• 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?

Confront them. Try to contact them, probably one-on-one, and explain the situation. We shouldn't scare them away, but valuable answers are not an excuse for bad behaviour, in any case.

Closers

• Which three nominees do you think are the most suited to become the next moderators and why?

I would say our original mod team, Grace Note, Oak and Juan Manuel. They have handled the site so well until now, I just don't know how we got by without them. Possibly seeing them go, even if it would be in favour of myself, is a real shame.

Answer 11

What do you believe is the biggest issue currently facing Gaming.SE? How do you plan to handle it?

I believe the biggest issue facing Gaming.SE is not currently occurring, but will happen as our site becomes better known. The Stack Exchange engine is a very unique system, unlike any other website on the Internet. As we, specifically, are a gaming oriented website, I'm sure we will have many users coming across our site, and signing up for accounts (which is a good thing). However, there would almost certainly be users who don't quite understand the Stack Exchange engine.

To deal with this, I would communicate to the users who don't quite understand through comments and potentially off-site through emails.

Should we be afraid you'll burn out or become even more fanatic?

Nope, I'll keep doing what I'm doing.

How do you expect becoming a moderator will change or influence the way you use Gaming?

I would do more "moderating duties", but I would still provide great answers, questions, and edits.

Will you have the time to spend moderating the site? How much time do you think you'll spend modding?

I would definitely have the time to moderate - I'll spend quite a large amount of time doing so.

Gaming suffers from a very wide topic space, how you plan to stay up to date with such a diverse knowledge base?

As a teenager, I already do stay up to date with all the newer releases, and can ask my friends for an even larger knowledge base. However, I may not know some of the older games that are asked about.

If you're not elected, will you take a break from GSE or will you just carry on like before?

I would carry on just like before.

We saw a lot of problems over the voting on Game-Rec, what do you think could have been done better? if such an issue faced us in the future, how would you handle it?

I think the problem was for the longest time, we didn't have a policy about it, so half the people were keeping [game-rec] questions open, and the other half closing them. If such a problem happened in the future, I'd be sure to help establish a policy so we'll have a ruling.

What do you think of Identify This Game? How should it be handled? Please use qualitative terms and not vague ones.

I'm completely fine with Identify this Game - I don't see anything wrong with it.

What's your stance on duplicates and how should they be handled?

If the questions are duplicates, then close. If the questions are similar but not duplicates, but the answers are the same, don't close.

There's an iffy tag on a couple dozen questions. Another tag is close in meaning to it. Both suck though. How do you handle the tags and/or the questions? Merge? Delete? Close? Ask Meta.GSE?

Ask Meta, as they would probably know best.

How will you deal with having a binding close vote?

If a question is clearly close-worthy, I would go ahead and close it. If it's more in the gray area, I would either ask Meta or Chat, or perhaps let the community close it (instead of using my binding vote).

How do you, the potential moderators, feel about suspensions? in what cases should it be used? and not?

Suspensions are for users who have been told not to do a certain activity, but continue to, as if they weren't even told to stop. I would first communicate with them through comments on the offending posts, then through email. If they still don't learn, then a suspension would be used.

What do you feel is a good way to deal with new Users posting bad questions?

New users posting bad questions is inevitable, but I feel we should communicate with them through comments to suggest how to improve their questions.

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?

Contact them, either through comments on the posts with flags or even offline through email, to see if the problems can be worked out.

Which three nominees do you think are the most suited to become the next moderators and why?

I think Grace Note, Oak, and Juan Manuel are all doing an amazing job as moderators currently. I would say they are still the most suitable moderators.