How should I approach the moderator's tool with my lack of experience

Question

I've started becoming active on Arqade exactly a year ago and over the past year I've almost reached the 10 000 reputation mark which give access to moderator's tool. To be quite honest I feel a bit overwhelmed by moderator's tool. I've read the priviliege page on moderator's tool and some things keep bugging me especially:

The stats page is a gold mine for outliers that might benefit from a bit of attention from a wise, aged site veteran such as yourself.

Well I've been an active user for 1 year, i've barely been in the chat, I review post when I think about it or flag post when I think about it but that's it. In the end I don't concider myself a veteran of Arqade for one second, should I ? Am I being underconfindent ?

I've never been given any responsisiblity on any website ever and I'm quite affraid of making mistakes or deleting something I shouldn't have or I don't what horrible thing I could do. I don't know why but I'm suddenly feeling quite a lot of pressure toward this priviliege so how did you (other 10k reputation users) deal with that and do you have some advice on how to make a good (starting) use of the moderators tool the time in take them in hand ?

Thanks

Answer 1

I think the 10k tools have changed a bit since I last used them, but here's some general advice:

There is no pressure to act any differently. You have new tools but you don't need to use them. You shouldn't feel that because you have them, you are expected to use them. You have signed no contract saying you will perform any moderation, you just wrote good content and people upvoted it.

The only new privilege that significantly changes what you can do is the ability to cast delete votes. 3 votes are required to delete a post, so don't worry if you get it wrong. Your votes aren't visible until the question is actually deleted, by two other 10ks or by a mod.

As for the mod tools, well they're just giving you information. It might be useful to you, it might not. If you don't want to use them, you don't have to.

If you are interested in getting involved in moderation, remember that there's a load of people here who do know what to do (most of the time), and can advise. Drop into chat, even for a few minutes, and check if you're doing it right (you probably will be). The site mods are very active there. Don't want to chat? Throw up a quick meta post.

By writing 10k's worth of good content, we trust that you know by now what's good and what's not. Trust your instincts and you won't stray too far, and at the end of the day nothing you can do with your current powers has the ability to really upset people, so don't worry too much about making mistakes.

Answer 2

When you are given a privilege based on a certain high reputation level, it means the site expects you to have enough experience to use it properly. But what does the site know?

Some users know from day one how to use all of SE's features, and some will never learn. If you are not confident enough that you can properly use the moderator tools, then don't! It's as simple as that.