In connection with the moderator elections, we are holding a Q&A thread for the candidates. Questions collected [from an earlier thread](http://meta.gaming.stackexchange.com/questions/8242/2014-moderator-election-qa-question-collection) have been compiled into this one, which shall now serve as the space for the candidates to provide their answers. Not every question was compiled - as noted, we only selected the top 8 questions as submitted by the community, plus 2 pre-set questions from us. You guys provided a ton of awesome questions. Candidates might consider browsing the ones not picked once they're done with these ten. 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](http://meta.gaming.stackexchange.com/revisions/8a7f9310-85cf-44d5-9b1a-e14532d51172/view-source). 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! --- > Arqade has a very active chatroom. But sometimes, folks who are able to contribute constructively on the site itself are unable to participate in chat without bringing out the worst in everyone they interact with. How would you remove such a bad chat-apple without driving them away from the site entirely? > Arqade is well known for having one of the most active chat rooms (The Bridge) on the network. There's a large disparity in the current moderation team's chat presence, from nearly daily to very seldom, for varying reasons. Do you feel it's important for a moderator to have a presence in The Bridge, in addition to the main site and Meta? Why or why not? > Assume a civil but controversial discussion is occurring over whether or not a class of question is on-topic. Questions of that type are being closed, reopened, closed again, etc but there's no clear community consensus on what we want to do. What, if anything, do you do about this as a mod? > A new user has arrived and doesn't really understand the way the Stack Exchange system is supposed to work. They're complaining that people keep editing their posts and a roll back war has started on a question that they've asked. You need to step in and moderate the situation. What actions do you take? > What is the single biggest problem that the site faces? As a moderator, what would you do to help fix it? > 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? > How would you handle a situation where another mod closed/deleted/etc a question that you feel shouldn't have been? > Being a moderator is a customer service/public relations job for which there is little to [no extrinsic motivation](http://psychology.about.com/od/eindex/f/extrinsic-motivation.htm). You will invest hours of your free time dealing with the worst the internet has to offer, and we expect you to do it with a patient demeanor and a smile. What is your motivation for candidacy, or in short - why do you want this job? Why is it important to you to be a moderator? What do you feel that you, personally, can bring to the moderation team that is different or will complement the team as it currently exists? > Can you give an example of a time you had your mind changed on Arqade due to a meta or chat discussion? If not, why? > What is your philosophy regarding up-voting and down-voting content? Do you think your own voting ratio supports your stated view?