2012 Moderator Election

Stats: I am consistently at the top of Mi Yodeya's participation ranking and my reputation, badges and most importantly my 190 helpful flags indicate that I have been participating in line with community expectations.

Style: As a mod I hope to continue doing what I do now: close and downvote low quality posts, upvote high quality posts, discussing the value of a post and/or position, removing extraneous comments and managing tags. I will try to always let both sides be heard and be willing to change my opinions, always incorporating the community's thoughts as appropriate. I hope my patience matched with persistence in past discussions has shown a willingness and interest in discussing all positions without compromising on the rigor that I believe is required for a public forum such as ours to function effectively.

Skills: decent understanding of Hebrew and English grammar; decent grasp of available tags and possible duplicates; often have an eye on the site at the more unusual times of day

Signoff: This page is full of high quality individuals who are more than capable of representing this community. I humbly request that you consider me among them.

I have qualified myself for this position by making my many contributions to this site, as well as the education I have obtained, which is evident from some of the things I have written here in questions, answers, comments, and the chat room (V'dibarta Bam). I have been an active member of Mi.Yodeya for more than six months, and I want to give back more to the community. This should be obvious, because I always try to be enthusiastic to contribute. I have also made some proposals in our Meta site that are of benefit to our community. In addition to moderation duties, if you elect me, then I will also pledge (bl"n) to increase the brainstorming of ideas how we could grow our site and the implementation thereof. I guess it is selfish, but I do these things because there is a mitzvah in the torah of v'ahavta l'reyacha kamocha, loving your fellow as yourself, which I desire to uphold to the utmost. I view all of my contributions on this site as acts of lovingkindness because our users want opportunities to learn and teach, and my becoming a moderator would enable me to give more opportunities for talmidim to learn and chachamim to teach, because these things are what I also love doing.

STATEMENT OF PURPOSE:
I appreciate all the contributions that the current moderators have made to the site, and I especially appreciate their time commitment. I do, though, also feel that it is a good idea to bring in new moderators to bring new perspectives, both to the moderation process and to the moderators themselves.

It must be very enlightening and enriching for the moderators to go through the site and read questions and answers they might have ignored if not for their job to review them for quality. In addition, refreshing the process with new moderators' perspectives on things will make the site more vibrant.

Although it doesn't have to be a site policy, I'd like to see voluntary term limits for moderators, and without taking on any Halachically binding oath or vow, I intend to serve a limited term (not lifetime) as moderator if elected, and I encourage others to follow suit.

QUALIFICATIONS:
I have been a member since nearly the beginning.
I participate on every level.
I have very strong grammar skills.
I am sympathetic to other perspectives.
I uphold the Torah and Mitzvoth.

Having been a mod for only 5 short months (about), and a user for just twice that, I am by far the most junior of the Pro Tem mods. But I hope that in that time I've been an effective moderator, policing politely, commenting constructively, etc. I would like to continue doing that, G-d willing.

About my moderating: Most flags and issues I handle on my own, but I often consult with the other moderators, and the community, about the more iffy issues. While I often act on flags, I try to do a lot of moderating while browsing as well. I'm a daily visitor to the site, and nearly always have a M.Y. tab open, no matter where I am, so I see most things that happen on the site.

I tend towards inclusion, and try not to delete things that have any redeeming qualities. I am more likely to close questions and ask the owner to fix (or fix them myself), and to convert answers to comments, than I am to delete them.

I always try to give users the benefit of the doubt, whether in their flagging or their posting. Politeness is something I'm very passionate about, and I try to go out of my way to be polite and respectful even when dealing with difficult users (not too many of those, thank G-d!)

I have been an active Mi Yodeyan since the start of the (2.0) beta 14 months ago, contributing regularly on main and meta and in chat. I have a permanent MY browser tab open. I'm also active in several other SE sites, including English Language & Usage, Biblical Hermeneutics, and User Experience. My professional background is in technical writing and designing software interfaces; both emphasize attention to detail and precision.

I've been on the net for a long time (cough) and while I'd be new to SE moderation, I'm not new to the dynamics of online media and the challenges that lurk there. I strive to always remember that there is a human being on the other end of the online handle and act accordingly. As a moderator I hope to take the smallest action that solves a problem. I strive to give the author of a post a chance to correct problems that have been pointed out. That said, if a situation calls for more-immediate action, I'm ready to take it.

I think having a mix of backgrounds and perspectives among the moderators strengthens the site, and I think I can offer that diversity.

I've been a moderator here for some eighteen months and I think I've been a good one, taking decisive, unilateral action when appropriate but sometimes first seeking community (or another moderator's) input. Even when taking unilateral action, I have always been open to being convinced I was wrong. (Just about every moderator action is undoable.)

I tend to clear chatty or obsolete comments quite a bit, which is effective as a moderator (otherwise, I could only flag them for moderators' attention). Also, I have created a bunch of tag synonyms and merged tags, again something moderators can do effectively and others can't.

My four-year experience as an administrator (something like a moderator here) at another site should stand me in good stead here. There, I've tried to be firm but helpful and patient with those who don't understand the site mores, and just plain firm with those who flout them. (Thank God, the latter has not been much of an issue here yet.)