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I've been a user for twelve months, and I would like to nominate one or more candidates for the position of ELU moderator. Generally speaking, the mods on ELU are doing a great job, with a few who are constantly present and keeping track of everything that's going on. Some might appear zealous to newbies but their hands on approach I fully endorse and approve. However, there is one mod in particular whose presence I have seen less and less frequently, who seldom posts answers or questions and as far as I can tell, barely participates in meta. I do like, and admire this person's integrity but if this person, for whatever reason, can no longer participate and act as the cool voice of reason, I feel she/he should be substituted.

Moreover, there is one other mod who I feel is particularly biased in favour of the "old vanguard/brigade", whose motives and ability to be fair and objective I find myself questioning.

ELU does not provide much information on these elections. Here is what I did find

2012 MODERATOR ELECTION
On Stack Exchange, we believe the core moderators should come from the community, and be elected by the community itself through popular vote. We hold regular elections to determine who these community moderators will be. [Etc.]

How regular are these elections?

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    There are two misunderstandings in your post that I feel ought to be clarified. (1) Users may only nominate themselves for candidature; they may not nominate another user for election to moderatorship. (2) Moderators are not replaced in election. Moderators are removed if they have not visited the site in six months; moderators who are abusing their privileges may be recalled in accordance with SE policy. The reason moderators are not replaced in election is because we are expected to act in accordance with policy, not to make policy.
    – waiwai933
    Commented May 25, 2014 at 16:35
  • @waiwai933 so are regular elections held or what? The first mod I mention has visited the site in the last six months, I only know this because I looked at the account. But what about activity if something like six months go by without any discernible activity is that OK? Is chat considered pertinent activity? I do not chat so it could be that this person is a regular there.
    – Mari-Lou A
    Commented May 25, 2014 at 16:47
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    All five mods have visited the site in the past six months. That's all that matters. If a mod is too busy to moderate, that's why we elect more moderators, but keeping them as a mod is not a problem. I would say that in the sense used in the election page, regular does not necessarily mean at regular intervals; rather, it likely means that elections are not unexpected and rare events.
    – waiwai933
    Commented May 25, 2014 at 16:51
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    @waiwai933 thank you, if you could include this in a posted answer I will be only too happy to accept it. However, I query the definition of regular elections, I'm sure that anyone reading this phrase would automatically presume that elections are held at regular intervals, be they every two or three years.
    – Mari-Lou A
    Commented May 25, 2014 at 16:58
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    In addition to what @waiwai933 said, another point you might not be aware of is that there's not a fixed number of mods -- electing one doesn't require removing another to make room. As sites grow it's sometimes necessary to add to the team; a site may start out with 3 or 4 mods and over time get up to 6 or 8 (or way more, for the big sites). This is all considered normal.
    – Monica Cellio
    Commented May 25, 2014 at 19:46
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    It does seem that an active European moderator would be a good idea. Most drastic moderation activity over the last few months (dealing with spam) has been in the morning EU time, which is the middle of the night US time. The fact that that activity occurs in the small hours or early morning of US time may be significant. Still, it does wonders for my flag count!
    – Andrew Leach Mod
    Commented May 25, 2014 at 21:54
  • @AndrewLeach, waiwai933 is British, if I'm not mistaken, (according to his profile) so I believe Europe is covered.
    – Mari-Lou A
    Commented May 26, 2014 at 19:49
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    RegDwight is GMT +1.
    – Daniel
    Commented May 28, 2014 at 0:15

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
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Yes, there will be a 2014 Moderator Election, and it's underway now!

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I'm perfectly happy with all the ELU moderators at the moment. I'm not champing at the bit for an election to add more mods, nor do I see any reason why any of the existing team should leave.

My understanding is that ideally mods should have little to do, because if an SO site is functioning well, ordinary users (such as myself) take care of most cases where intervention is required. I don't know whether any of the current team think they're "overworked", but I assume they don't.

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    Oh, I'm sure nobody would call you ordinary, FF.
    – Tim Lymington
    Commented May 27, 2014 at 21:33
  • ordinary user with 76k reputation? No way, haha
    – justhalf
    Commented May 29, 2014 at 8:23
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    @justhalf: Some users are more ordinary than others. It's true I have some privileges you don't (yet) have. But there are dozens of other users with 20k+ rep in exactly the same position, including Tim, Andrew, and Daniel on this very page. Sure - we can walk on water, raise the dead, and impregnate virgins. But other than that we're pretty much the same as you. :)
    – FumbleFingers
    Commented May 29, 2014 at 11:21
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    Good input, though this doesn't answer the question "Will there be a 2014 Community Moderator election?"
    – Paul Draper
    Commented Jun 1, 2014 at 2:17
  • I prefer to raise the water, impregnate the dead, and walk on virgins.
    – Hellion
    Commented Jun 2, 2014 at 18:31
  • Would I be eligible for impregnating (or at least making a good faith effort of going through the motions) by FF if I were not a virgin? Maybe that is a question better suited for meta SE. They think we are very staid here.
    – Ellie Kesselman
    Commented Jun 2, 2014 at 20:01
  • @Paul: Well, I've said that I assume the current team don't think they're "overworked", so by implication they probably won't push for another election this year. The only other likely reason for having one is if we the users want one - if you upvote my answer, that will add weight to the voices saying we don't. If on the other hand you do, you or someone else will have to post an answer calling for an election. I'm sure if there's significant support for such an answer, an election will take place.
    – FumbleFingers
    Commented Jun 2, 2014 at 20:21
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    @Feral: You're more than welcome to apply for a place in my Virgin Impregnation program for 2014. We have ways of restoring lapsed virgins to a pure state. I can usually only manage a few hundred each year, but I've been experimenting with a technique I originally developed some while back for getting more performance out of a couple of loaves and a few fish. I'm thinking I should be able to manage 64 virgins a night now.
    – FumbleFingers
    Commented Jun 2, 2014 at 20:24
  • FF wow, you have a framework AND a business model! You know, if it is web scale, say, like MongoDB but without the pesky problems, we might be ready to look for VC funding. If you would be willing to take me on as co-founder, with equity of course, I'd be delighted to be part of the Alpha release. We could do a use case demo as part of the pitch to VC's. It is compelling enough to get a foot in the door, I'm sure. Instead of Schumpeterian creative destruction, it would be creative creation! How out of the box is that! This could be bigger than 23AndMe!
    – Ellie Kesselman
    Commented Jun 3, 2014 at 10:10
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    @Feral: Coincidentally, I recently watched Choke (2008), the storyline of which has slightly unhinged Paige ("scotty totty" Kelly Macdonald) convincing sex-addicted con-man Victor (Sam Rockwell) that he was cloned using cells stolen from the holy prepuce. I'm sure we can use that in our pitch to the VC's to prove we're tapping in to an idea whose time has truly come. The movie itself isn't great - but if you can bone up on Paige's seduction techniques it'll help our first meeting go with a bang!
    – FumbleFingers
    Commented Jun 3, 2014 at 13:37
  • I don't think mods need to be overworked before new ones are chosen. You yourself FF and Mari-Lou would appear to be obvious choices. I wouldn't be sad if one of the current mods decided to spend more time with his dupes.
    – user24964
    Commented Jun 5, 2014 at 15:21
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    @TheMathemagician: I wouldn't put myself forward because I don't really think I am suitable (I'm too inconsistent, leaning towards "crotchety", amongst other downsides). Mari-Lou might well be a suitable choice, but her question text suggests she's more interested in nominating someone else, rather than standing herself. If we want less "trigger-happy closevoting" from our mods (which I suspect may be Mari-Lou's position), other good candidates would be, for example, Martha and MetaEd. But as I said - post and/or vote for an answer calling for another election, if that's what you want.
    – FumbleFingers
    Commented Jun 5, 2014 at 15:36

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