Who should be the Moderators moderators? [duplicate]

Question

If your meta site does not have a post to nominate Moderators, start one now! Pro Tem appointments will begin about two weeks after the site is created. The more guidance we receive, the more informed our choice.

Moderator Pro Tempore

• Each nomination should be a separate answer. Link the name to the user’s profile (parent and meta) so we can see their activity.
• The nominee should indicate their acceptance by editing the answer, adding that they accept the nomination. Optionally they can write something about themselves.
• Self nominations are okay, and even encouraged. Most sites have not had sufficient time for many users to stand out. Self nomination is simply a way to say, “I’m interested. Let my record speak for itself.” Links to other activities may be helpful: Area 51 participation, participation in other sites, blog posts reviewing or announcing the site, etc.

We're looking for members of this site who:

• Have a reasonably high reputation score to indicate active, consistent participation.
• Show an interest in their meta’s community-building activities.
• Lead by example, showing patience and respect for their fellow community members in everything they write.
• Exhibit those intangible traits discussed in A Theory of Moderation.

It's also good if the moderators:

• Are members with participation in both the meta and main site.
• Participated in Area 51, generate social network referrals, or blog about the site.
• Are members who have already shown an interest or ability to promote their community.

Answer 1

I am an administrator/site owner of a medium sized gaming community that runs on a PHPBB3 board. We host multiple game servers as well. I've got a team of moderators that help keep the forum and game servers clean. I've run this site for 5 years, after taking it over from the original creator of the community who wanted to move on. In my time as admin, we've seen the number of participants on the forum increase. We've seen our game server population increase as well. I attribute this to getting the community involved in change discussions.

One of our biggest changes occurred several years ago. Community members complained that our game servers would be over run with trolls at hours when moderators weren't available and spewing filth. The community wanted a cleaner game server experience. Users wanted these players gone immediately. Previous community leaders felt that trolling of this kind was part of the game and did nothing. After some discussions regarding what was and wasn't appropriate, we decided to be (for lack of a better term) "family friendlier". Certain 'extreme' phrases were no longer tolerated at all. A technical solution was built to automatically remove players that violated these rules. This solution allowed users to swear, but once it became excessive (again, defined by the community) they, too, were removed.

The tool we have (PHPBB3) may not have the reputation, badges, or increasing privileges used here on Stack Exchange but for my community that has not been a negative. Engaging with the community in discussions and letting the members provide input that me and my team utilize has been extremely beneficial.

I have no experience moderating a Stack Exchange site. I don't feel that's a down side though. I can provide the "outside" perspective in a Stack Exchange heavy group. That does mean, though, that I'd depend on and expect the community to provide feedback on how moderation in being handled. Much like my existing gaming community, input from the community to the moderation team is important and the moderation team should be listening to that input.

Answer 2

I guess I'll throw my hat in the ring as well. As someone who has been a moderator on IRC, forums, games, wikipedia and currently on multiple SE sites, as well as having led in person debates, I'm familiar with a broad range of moderation environments and topics. This set of experience ideally prepares me for being able to understand the relationships between different types of moderation.

That said, I do also think we should make sure at least one pro temp moderator is someone without previous SE moderator experience that is primarily currently active in moderating another community if such a user steps forward.

Answer 3

I would like to nominate Monica Cellio.

profile for Monica Cellio on Stack Exchange, a network of free, community-driven Q&A sites http://stackexchange.com/users/flair/505925.png

In particular, I've been impressed by the way Monica's contributions on the main site explicitly acknowledge the diversity of perspectives that exist within every community.

Monica's answers demonstrate an ability to communicate clearly and effectively and an appreciation for how nuanced a job moderation and community building can be. Those are precisely the qualities I would look for in choosing a moderator for a community full of moderators.

Hopefully the added responsibility on a fourth (!) SE network site isn't asking too much of this user, who I think would bring a unique and valuable perspective to our übermoderator dream team .

Answer 4

profile for FEichinger on Stack Exchange, a network of free, community-driven Q&A sites http://stackexchange.com/users/flair/1945575.png

As we're setting up for a lot of self-"nominations", I'll join here as well: My name is Frederic Eichinger. I have experience with moderation stemming from various times as administrator or moderator of communities including board game enthusiast forums, official video game communities, and smaller project boards, overall amounting to roughly six years of experience. I have seen different teams handle different situations, and I have been a cornerstone of balanced decision-making in most of these teams. This experience is what drove me towards supporting this site to begin with.

My activity on Stack Exchange is usually related to the meta sites more than the main sites - building the community, helping with site-related issues, and establishing policy. I had been watching the area51 proposal for a while, particularly regarding the community focus, and I'm looking forward to seeing us put the naming arguments behind us so we can actually give expert advice on building, managing, and maintaining communities of all sorts.

With my SE activity spread across multiple sites and focused largely in chat lately, I am easily able to dedicate a decent amount of my currently free time to assisting and cleaning up on moderators.SE as well.

Answer 5

profile for omeinusch on Stack Exchange, a network of free, community-driven Q&A sites http://stackexchange.com/users/flair/2687565.png

My name is Oliver Meinusch (obviously) and I am the administrator of a large community of a game series in the german area. Moderating once a forum for Ubisoft and having my own community with 23k+ users and 560k+ posts, I changed my focused but stack exchange is my favourite forum community network. I am a close to daily visitor and had my experience with IRC, too.

I was never a moderator of any stack exchange network nor am I a high reputation user (~1.7k in total). But I will give my best and I am very very curious how to moderator a stack exchange website. The topic of this new child is still fascinating for me and I am sure that I will give my best to be a valuable member of this community.