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The purpose of this thread was to collect questions for the questionnaire. The questionnaire is now live, and you may find it here.

Computer Science Stack Exchange is scheduled for an election next week, 2023-06-13. In connection with that, we will be holding a Q&A with the candidates. This will be an opportunity for members of the community to pose questions to the candidates on the topic of moderation. Participation is completely voluntary.

Here’s how it’ll work:

  • Until the nomination phase, (so, until 2023-06-13 at 20:00:00Z UTC, or 4:00 pm EDT on the same day, give or take time to arrive for closure), this question will be open to collect potential questions from the users of the site. Post answers to this question containing any questions you would like to ask the candidates. Please only post one question per answer.

  • If your question contains a link, please use the syntax of [text](link), as that will make it easier for transcribing for the finished questionnaire.

  • This is a perfect opportunity to voice questions that are specific to your community and issues that you are running into currently.

  • We, the Community Team, will be providing a small selection of generic questions. The following two questions are guaranteed to be included:

    • 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?

  • The community team may also include the following three questions if the community doesn’t supply enough questions.

    • In your opinion, what do moderators do?
    • A diamond will be attached to everything you say and have said in the past, including questions, answers and comments. Everything you will do will be seen under a different light. How do you feel about that?
    • In what way do you feel that being a moderator will make you more effective as opposed to simply reaching enough reputation to access moderator tools or become a trusted user?

  • At the start of the nomination phase, the Community Team will select up to 8 of the top voted questions submitted by the community provided in this thread, to use in addition to the aforementioned 2 guaranteed questions. We reserve some editorial control in the selection of the questions and may opt not to select a question that is tangential or irrelevant to moderation or the election. We exclude any suggested questions that are negatively scored.

    • We will post the final questionnaire on the Election page. Candidates will have the option to fill out the questionnaire, and their answers will appear beneath their intro statements.
    • This is not the only option that users have for gathering information on candidates. As a community, you are still free to, for example, hold a live chat session with your candidates to ask further questions, or perhaps clarifications from what is provided in the Q&A.

If you have any questions or feedback about this process, feel free to post as a comment here.

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  • $\begingroup$ Are generic questions along the lines of "Why do you want to be a moderator?" and "Why should we vote for you?" (sugar-coated, of course) acceptable? $\endgroup$
    – Dmitry
    Commented Jun 11, 2023 at 18:38
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    $\begingroup$ I have no issue with such questions. Naturally, whether or not they get selected depends on whether or not the community votes for them, though, @Dmitry $\endgroup$
    – JNat StaffMod
    Commented Jun 12, 2023 at 9:04

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It takes most time to review questions. One of our existing moderators has been doing a fantastic job reviewing questions. Are you planning to learn from that example?

By reviewing questions, I mean checking whether a question can be understood and answered as-is and vote accordingly. If not, improve and correct problems. Or leave a helpful comment. Or take some other action.

I am aware that reviewing questions is not even mentioned on the page who are the site moderators, and what is their role here?. I believe one can be a good moderator with little reviewing new questions. However, the answer to that question will carry the most weight for my vote by far. Half of the value of a question-answer site lies in the questions. It is fortunate that we, or at least I have been enjoying our moderators' excellent question-review.

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What is your opinion about cheating (homework, exams, and ongoing contests) on CS.se? In case you believe that the cheating situation should change, what actions do you plan to take to that end as a moderator?

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  • $\begingroup$ Do you mean homework questions? $\endgroup$
    – Pseudonym Mod
    Commented Jun 10, 2023 at 12:35
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    $\begingroup$ Homework, exams, etc (all types of academic misconduct) + ongoing contests. $\endgroup$
    – Dmitry
    Commented Jun 10, 2023 at 21:52
  • $\begingroup$ If you believe that the question should be improved, please fell free to edit it. $\endgroup$
    – Dmitry
    Commented Jun 10, 2023 at 23:44
  • $\begingroup$ That's cool, I just didn't understand what the question was asking. Thanks for the clarification. $\endgroup$
    – Pseudonym Mod
    Commented Jun 11, 2023 at 2:37
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Are you going to go on strike?

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Why do you want to be a moderator?

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Why should we vote for you specifically? Will be something unique about you as a moderator? In case we are convinced that all candidates can moderate reasonably well, what can be that unique thing convincing us to elect you?

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  • $\begingroup$ I like your election campaign. But why did you post it less than only two days before the voting phase started? Now nobody can ask about your views because comments have been disabled. Also, are you aware that moderators have to sign a secret agreement that forces them to do what SE wants even in ways subject to unilateral change by SE, such that the only way out for a moderator who disagrees is to resign? $\endgroup$
    – user21820
    Commented Jun 21, 2023 at 8:49
  • $\begingroup$ I was busy with other stuff, and I think 2 days should be enough to ask the questions. If I'm forced to do something I strongly disagree with, I will resign. $\endgroup$
    – Dmitry
    Commented Jun 21, 2023 at 14:01
  • $\begingroup$ Ok thanks for your response. I wasn't on SE during those 2 days, but never mind. $\endgroup$
    – user21820
    Commented Jun 21, 2023 at 16:14

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