20
votes
\$\begingroup\$

Notice: We have moved on to the election phase. Latecomers are still welcome to nominate themselves to run for moderator, but should expect to be at a disadvantage because voting for the other candidates has already begun.

With elections still tied to site graduation, we (your current pro tem moderators) have been informed that there's an open spot for another pro tempore moderator for PPCG. However, there are several highly active users who we think would make great moderators, so there is no obvious choice. Therefore, we'll be holding a small informal election here on meta.

Please post one nomination per answer. Self-nominations are allowed. Nominations should include a couple of paragraphs for why the user is a good candidate. If you were nominated by someone else, please comment or edit the post to indicate whether you accept the nomination or not. Nominations will be open for one week.

To avoid a fastest-gun-in-the-west effect, a separate thread will be posted for the actual election after nominations close.

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3
  • \$\begingroup\$ Is there any point to voting at this point? \$\endgroup\$ Aug 13, 2015 at 16:05
  • 11
    \$\begingroup\$ @NathanMerrill none at all except to feed everyone's addiction to clicking on those triangles. \$\endgroup\$ Aug 13, 2015 at 16:30
  • \$\begingroup\$ I go away camping for a week and miss all this excitement! :) \$\endgroup\$ Aug 19, 2015 at 5:29

7 Answers 7

37
votes
\$\begingroup\$

I'd also like to nominate Dennis.

If you've spent more than a few minutes on the site, you've undoubtedly seen one of his amazing CJam answers. Dennis is an exceptionally kind, level-headed person and is very active on the site, as well as other SE sites. He knows a lot about how things work here, where he has the second highest reputation on the site, and on the Stack Exchange network as a whole. He's active on Meta.SE and has over 18k reputation there. He's a natural choice for moderator and would do a fantastic job.

Dennis has moderated on other (non-SE) sites and in 2012 ran in a Stack Overflow moderator election. He is a natural teacher, having taught high school and college. There are several things you learn how to do being a teacher (paraphrased from his SO election nomination):

  • Be patient when dealing with people who can't see the error of their ways
  • Deal appropriately with major infractions
  • Approach people committing minor infractions
  • Analyze reactions to your own moderation

There are a lot of great reasons to support Dennis, so I've made this a CW so that anyone can add to it and put in their two cents.

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3
  • 5
    \$\begingroup\$ Thank you for the kind words. I hereby accept this nomination. \$\endgroup\$
    – Dennis
    Aug 13, 2015 at 3:34
  • 7
    \$\begingroup\$ I'd like to add that there were multiple times when Dennis significantly improved my answers but was too modest to post them as his own. \$\endgroup\$ Aug 13, 2015 at 7:58
  • 2
    \$\begingroup\$ @aditsu That is so true, but you seriously need to wrap up your CJam game ;) :P \$\endgroup\$
    – Optimizer
    Aug 13, 2015 at 12:01
30
votes
\$\begingroup\$

I'd like to nominate Peter Taylor, as one of the oldest, most active, most level-headed and also most knowledgeable members on this site.

Peter is always quick to offer suggestions to challenges, and is often seen rewording questions or providing good additional test cases. Four years of experience come in handy too — Peter's vast knowledge on (seemingly) every code-golf question gives him an internal duplicate question detector, typically put to good use in the sandbox before it is too late.

On the meta side of things, Peter is always keen to improve the site, including the recent retagging of time-complexity and custom off-topic reason proposal.

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8
  • 1
    \$\begingroup\$ Saw pinned message in chat; came to meta to nominate Peter. Had to upvote instead. \$\endgroup\$
    – Geobits
    Aug 12, 2015 at 14:50
  • 2
    \$\begingroup\$ Peter's a great choice, but you're not a bad one yourself @Sp3000... \$\endgroup\$
    – durron597
    Aug 12, 2015 at 16:03
  • 5
    \$\begingroup\$ I also am with Peter. He is sensible, calm and knowledgeable. The only negative point that I can see is the involvement. Due to a job and other stuff, it could be hard to be active as a mod. \$\endgroup\$
    – Optimizer
    Aug 12, 2015 at 16:03
  • \$\begingroup\$ @durron597 Is that a nomination? ;) \$\endgroup\$ Aug 12, 2015 at 16:20
  • \$\begingroup\$ @MartinBüttner I'm not active enough here to nominate anyone. \$\endgroup\$
    – durron597
    Aug 12, 2015 at 16:25
  • 3
    \$\begingroup\$ Thank you (and the upvoters) for the expression of confidence. I'll going to take a couple of days to think about whether to accept the nomination. \$\endgroup\$ Aug 12, 2015 at 20:24
  • 13
    \$\begingroup\$ I've decided not to accept the nomination. There are other candidates who both want it more and are better qualified. \$\endgroup\$ Aug 14, 2015 at 16:08
  • 13
    \$\begingroup\$ @PeterTaylor I'm sorry to hear that but I'm glad you considered the nomination. Just know that you're extremely valued in the community and we're all glad you're around, even in a non-moderation role. \$\endgroup\$
    – Alex A.
    Aug 14, 2015 at 18:12
21
votes
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I would like to nominate myself for moderator.

I've been a member of PPCG for aeons. (since 2011, almost a whole other decade.) Visited 892 days total (that's like 2 and a half years) and have earned the fanatic badge. I think I'm known for hanging out in the chat room, regardless of my personal schedule. There's a reason I've visited this site every day this week despite marching band camp from 9 AM to 9 PM. That reason: I'm physically addicted. I have a few other accomplishments of which I'm proud, such as asking both of the most-answered threads (the Unscramble the Source Code cops-and-robbers). But enough about usage statistics.


I have prior moderation experience on a small website called Fluther.com, which is a discussion-based general Q&A forum. (proof). Not exactly an SE site, but it still has ~100 active users. I became a mod at age 13 (?) and eventually moved up in rank until I got access to the site's back-end and improved the moderation tools and flagging system myself. I think this is an example of dedication. I had little-to-no Linux/Bash/ssh/vi/Python/Django(!)/HTML experience before making the decision to improve the mod tools, but I taught myself and figured out how to do it. It was slightly insane.

Now, I probably won't be able to pull off a similar feat on SE (unless I pull a CJY), but this shows that I am willing to do a lot of behind-the-scenes work to improve a website. Other behind-the-scenes work involved collaborating to write massive moderator announcements, or writing up mod election procedures.

There are some significant differences between the two websites, mainly in Fluther having a much broader range of topics and being a "free discussion"-based forum (the question and all of its answers form one long conversation). This means that a lot of my moderation went towards handling "personal attacks" and other things which thankfully don't seem to happen on PPCG as much.

Don't get me wrong, though. Most of the mod-related work on Fluther and on SE is about handling flags. Everyone who's ever been a site mod knows about "the grind" and I have been there and done that, yet am still applying for another mod job, somehow.


Outside of PPCG, I enjoy eating, sleeping, marching band, and some other things (and I go to college in my free time).

My campaign HQ is located here: http://chat.stackexchange.com/rooms/26953/phi-for-mod

(I'll probably add more to this later.)

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1
  • 5
    \$\begingroup\$ Upvoted - not necessarily because I think you are the best candidate - but because you've clearly spent the most time explaining why you are qualified. That shows dedication and convinces me you are truly interested in the office. \$\endgroup\$ Aug 13, 2015 at 3:38
20
votes
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I'd like to nominate myself.

Sure, I haven't been around as long as others, just about 1.25 years, but I'm absolutely addicted to PPCG and I will do anything I can to ensure the health and longevity of the site. I've wanted to be a moderator about as long as I've known that moderators exist.

I try my best to ensure a welcoming environment for new users and I like to be friendly to everyone. This meta post illustrates that point well. According to the meta participating ranking, I'm the second most active user on meta. I always make time in my day for PPCG, which is how I got the Fanatic badge.

I enjoy going through flags. I've spent a lot of time going through the review queues on multiple sites. I always try to leave meaningful comments and vote accordingly. I've earned the Pundit and Electorate badges on this site.

I don't really know what else to say here, so if you have questions or suggestions for me I'd be happy to address them in edits here. Will I get elected? Probably not, but it's worth a shot!

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7
  • 11
    \$\begingroup\$ I can't speak to Alex's experience, but I can say that Alex A. has shown himself to be consistently friendly and welcoming - even to new users that many of us would find annoying. \$\endgroup\$ Aug 12, 2015 at 19:17
  • \$\begingroup\$ @Calvin'sHobbies Thank you very much, that means a lot to me! :) \$\endgroup\$
    – Alex A.
    Aug 12, 2015 at 19:19
  • 5
    \$\begingroup\$ And of course, everyone loves birds \$\endgroup\$
    – Beta Decay
    Aug 12, 2015 at 19:28
  • 3
    \$\begingroup\$ Alex is absolutely one of the friendliest and most supportive people I've ever met on the Internet. His criticism is always constructive and polite, without fail. He's certainly one of the main reasons I decided to stick around and learn more about the site. I wholeheartedly support this nomination. \$\endgroup\$
    – BrainSteel
    Aug 12, 2015 at 22:38
  • \$\begingroup\$ @BrainSteel Wow, thank you so, so much for the support and kind words! I'm so glad I could help you decide to stick around, and I'm especially glad you did stick around. \$\endgroup\$
    – Alex A.
    Aug 13, 2015 at 1:51
  • 1
    \$\begingroup\$ I wholeheartedly agree with this nomination. \$\endgroup\$
    – absinthe
    Aug 13, 2015 at 2:01
  • \$\begingroup\$ @Pyrrha Thank you very much! \$\endgroup\$
    – Alex A.
    Aug 13, 2015 at 2:06
6
votes
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I'd like to nominate myself, ProgramFOX.

  • I've been a member of PPCG for almost 2 years and I'm an enthusiast user of the site.
  • I have enough time to be able to moderate the site.
  • I always try to be polite, and I believe I'm successful at this.
  • If I don't know something, I'm honest about that, and I'll be happy to learn from the other moderators.
  • I participate on Meta PPCG (and also on Meta Stack Exchange).
  • I'm active in the review queues and frequently make use of the moderation tools for 2k+ users.
  • I vote and edit.
  • I lurk around in The Nineteenth Byte, the site's chat room, so you can ping me there whenever you need.
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2
votes
\$\begingroup\$

I'm gonna have a go at nominating myself.

Being a high school student and all, I have a lot more time on my hands than someone with a job might do, so I'll be able to patrol PPCG more than most people.

If you don't find me in the Nineteenth Byte, then I'm probably asleep or gone for a couple of hours, so there's only a few times when I'm inaccessible. Even then, I have phone notifications which tell me if someone contacts me.

As a fairly new user with just over year under my belt, I likely have a slight naivety which could be helpful when dealing with new users. This is something that the various veterans of PPCG may not be able to do.

In my school (in the UK) we have a large number of boarders from countries such as Hong Kong, China and Russia. Due to the necessity of communication, I am probably better at interpreting broken English than the average Briton/Middle American/Other English national. Of course, someone whose English isn't their first language is going to be better at this, but don't let this stop you. :)

As a student, I have little knowledge of the outside except a week's work experience, so moderating will give me experience of working for a larger company.

Alright, thanks :)

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-9
votes
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I nominate no one. That is, I think we should keep the mod spot open and leave our current moderator setup as is.

If we really need a new mod - like if the current mods are swamped with flags and whatnot - then getting a new mod is a good idea. But if the reason for getting a new mod is merely to fill an open slot, then getting a new mod is a rather hollow idea.

I'm not saying there aren't a few users who would be decent mods, it's just that I'm happy with our current mod setup and don't see the need to change things. As far as I can recall, PPCG has been successfully managed by two mods (Doorknob and Chris/Martin).

Of course, I'm a relatively new user (member for ~1 year) so don't be afraid to downvote if you disagree.

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4
  • 13
    \$\begingroup\$ Thank you for your trust in us, but the conversation about getting another mod on board was initiated by the existing moderators. It's not that we want another mod because there's a slot to fill, but that there's a slot to fill because we want another mod. ;) \$\endgroup\$ Aug 12, 2015 at 18:56
  • 12
    \$\begingroup\$ Having another moderator would also be beneficial in that when both @MartinBüttner and I are gone (or busy), there would still be someone else around (this actually happened once, and of course could happen with three mods, but is much less likely). Furthermore, one mod is obviously bad because there's nobody around to provide feedback and help, but two is also not ideal because there's not another person to provide input in case of a disagreement. \$\endgroup\$
    – Doorknob
    Aug 12, 2015 at 19:24
  • 11
    \$\begingroup\$ Just commenting to break the mod comment trilogy.. \$\endgroup\$
    – Optimizer
    Aug 12, 2015 at 19:47
  • 6
    \$\begingroup\$ Just commenting to break the >20k rep trilogy. \$\endgroup\$
    – Alex A.
    Aug 16, 2015 at 21:01

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