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So for those of you in the loop, we have two active moderators pro tempore from the original three that were instated manually by the Stack Exchange staff. After 1001 days in the Beta game, it's not too surprising that at least one of them is occupied with other things for the time being, whatever they are.

Since luchonacho has gone out on a limb and suggested calling for a new moderator, and there seems to be no push back against the idea, we may as well give it a shot.

I'd like to hereby leave this thread open for nominating anyone who you think would make a robust and helpful moderator for representing our humble Stack at large. You may nominate yourself and it is even encouraged, if you feel like you are qualified. A few things to keep in mind:

  • This isn't a formal election. The moderator will as far as I know will be placed in by fiat. Think of it as a referendum. I ain't a representative of StackExchange, but this thread is now Community Manager approved. Presumably, if every candidate gets zero or one votes, it may mean there is no one suitable to become moderator either.(Although we have some good users who I think the community trusts, so I don't think low voting will be a problem.)
  • One nomination per answer below.
  • Vote up if you approve of a nominated candidate and down if you don't. Vote on as many candidates as you have an opinion on.
  • Please discuss any reservations or endorsements you have of someone in the comments. More feedback can help newer users figure out what's what. But of course, you are free to just vote quietly and not rock any boats.
  • If someone nominates you just accept or decline in that nomination's comments. Feel free to add an edit saying a little about yourself if you accept.

You can read the roles of moderators from the help section on them and the theory of moderation post.

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    $\begingroup$ Hear, hear @Kitsune and @luchonacho! Truth is, we (the Community Team) were working in the background to find some fresh blood and getting a public meta question up like this one was our next move. Great to see the initiative come up through the community instead! So, who else wants to throw their hat in the ring? $\endgroup$
    – Ana
    Aug 16, 2017 at 23:44
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    $\begingroup$ @Ana Thank you for your information about the behind the scenes. I didn't know this already being discussed by the SE team, but while you are here, do you want to clarify/elaborate on the process of choosing a new moderator that I may not have covered? Or is the process covered in a post somewhere else? $\endgroup$
    – Kitsune Cavalry Mod
    Aug 17, 2017 at 1:14
  • $\begingroup$ Oh wow, good to see this picked up! For completion, could you add some information about what is the role of a moderator? I don't think I have a clear idea about it, and it might benefit those wanting to nominate themselves. Also, I am a bit confused about the "this is not a formal election but its result will hold through" bit. Finally, is there any sort of deadline for this? $\endgroup$
    – luchonacho
    Aug 17, 2017 at 8:11
  • $\begingroup$ This is mostly just a referendum lucho. It does not necessarily bind. Strict deadlines are not really the name of the game here I think, but earlier nominations are clearly better. $\endgroup$
    – Kitsune Cavalry Mod
    Aug 17, 2017 at 12:36
  • $\begingroup$ Oh and forgot to mention also, I added two posts of interest about moderation at the bottom. $\endgroup$
    – Kitsune Cavalry Mod
    Aug 17, 2017 at 13:45
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    $\begingroup$ Looks like y'all have all the right info at this point. I'll be checking back come Monday to review the folks who've volunteered. The CM team will get someone appointed soon after that, with heavy weight given to endorsements expressed by the community here. Oh, and I featured this post so that it's showing up in the sidebar across the main site, not just on meta. $\endgroup$
    – Ana
    Aug 18, 2017 at 18:46
  • $\begingroup$ Sounds good. Hopefully we'll get some more turnout and we'll be able to move from there. $\endgroup$
    – Kitsune Cavalry Mod
    Aug 18, 2017 at 18:55
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    $\begingroup$ I got a day or so behind being out sick, but a heads up to everyone that this hasn't been dropped. $\endgroup$
    – Ana
    Aug 22, 2017 at 21:27

6 Answers 6

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I would like to offer up myself, Kitsune Cavalry, for nomination.

Now I know what some of you veterans are probably thinking. Kitsune is nothing but a rabble-rousing charlatan, who has built a reputation on answering dumb homework questions, maybe being still kinda wrong after many corrections, and indulging whacky theoretical musings of less interest to the more sophisticated and dignified users of our academic ivory tower.

I am also not terrifically active on meta. I lurk and read, and don't post too much. But I did run that one regression for us, which maybe someone thought was cool. With ye countrymen and women I stood fast against Banned Boy™ and I'm still actively voting, shaking a stick at some of these rapscallions that pass through. And every now and then, I have a few knowledge-y tricks up my sleeve. (Yes, those are multiple links and I do think I'm funny.)

Alright, I've had my fun.

I think a lot of active people have seen me around enough to know what kind of user I am here, so ask me whatever and feel free to snoop around my profile. Beyond my goofiness, I've made my fair share of serious academic contributions to this site, and have brought my peers in here where I could. It was a boon to me while I got my Masters, and I've expressed before that ideally, the site would have more reference request and research level questions. Getting more professional economists here is difficult, but until then, I've always had a heart for helping the undergrads and other various fledglings who come here. I do hope to become a better professional economist myself, so that I can more broadly contribute to this site for a long time to come.

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    $\begingroup$ Please comment on the following proposal, economics.meta.stackexchange.com/a/1647/61 $\endgroup$
    – Alecos Papadopoulos
    Aug 17, 2017 at 0:13
  • $\begingroup$ @AlecosPapadopoulos It is done. Any particular reason you wish to hear our thoughts on that proposal? $\endgroup$
    – Kitsune Cavalry Mod
    Aug 17, 2017 at 0:35
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    $\begingroup$ Last time I heard, voters partly decide who to vote depending on what they are promised in return. $\endgroup$
    – Alecos Papadopoulos
    Aug 17, 2017 at 0:38
  • $\begingroup$ Moving my comment over here: @AlecosPapadopoulos My upvote for your proposal is still sitting there nice and neat. I think my ideal Econ.SE would be everyone from the undergrad level to the professional research level coming in to answer questions. A cursory look at the top unanswered questions however reiterates how hard it is to agglomerate those professional economists, as was touched on above in that thread and throughout our history here. I think your subtitle is still a good umbrella and I still support it. $\endgroup$
    – Kitsune Cavalry Mod
    Aug 17, 2017 at 0:40
  • $\begingroup$ Maybe instead of "those", I would add in, "students and professionals", to more explicitly state the scope of people welcome onto the site. So it would read something like, "For students and professionals who study, teach, research, and apply economics and econometrics." Just my two cents. $\endgroup$
    – Kitsune Cavalry Mod
    Aug 17, 2017 at 1:01
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    $\begingroup$ @AlecosPapadopoulos Looks fine, although I would add the Oxford comma :/ $\endgroup$
    – luchonacho
    Aug 18, 2017 at 7:55
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I am abstaining from making a nomination (but the nominations made so far are great and the extra pair of hands would be very welcome as I have said elsewhere).

As Kitsune said, the best place to look for information about what moderators do is the "A Theory of Moderation" blog post.

I thought would add, more informally (and somewhat belatedly), some notes about what moderating this site is like.

We come to the site regularly to check if there is any tidying up to be done. Mostly, that means that a lot of the times that I come here I will just be busy with the invisible work of addressing flags (deleting bad posts, converting answers to comments, deleting yet another account from everyone's favorite resident troll). From the mod control panel it looks like jmbejara and I have made about 500 interventions in the last quarter, most of them extremely minor. I try to exercise a light-touch approach and let the community deal with as much as possible (e.g., though voting).

This work naturally takes away some time that might otherwise be available for writing answers on the site. But I try to keep an eye out, in particular, for questions where it looks like I might be well-placed to make a pivotal intervention.

It's useful to keep an eye on what the other moderators are up to. Sometimes, a moderator will be away and it is then necessary to increase the frequency of your own contributions to prevent flags from piling up. But even then, the site never demands more than about an hour a day.

Sometimes, moderation requires coordination with other sites (e.g, because we need to check whether they are happy to receive a migration, or because we need to check whether a suspicious econ user also looks dodgy on other parts of the network). For that purpose we have a special moderator chat room (called "Teacher's Lounge"), which is also a good place to talk to more experienced mods about any questions we might have.

It's useful to also spend time reading about how the SE network works more generally (e.g., by browsing the help documentation, blog posts, and meta.stackexchange.com) because people often have requests/questions that boil-down to network-level rather than site-level policy, and because this knowledge is helpful when dealing with new situations for the first time.

I try to contribute to any issues that show-up here in meta. I think that being singled-out as a moderator inevitably lends a bit of extra gravity to interventions on topics like site policy. So I consider it important to reflect on the evolving nature of the community and the ways in which it might be prodded in the right direction.

If anyone has any specific questions, I'd be more than happy to offer my perspective.

Kitsune Cavalry asks: "how much communication [do] you have with the community staff and what [do] the discussions entail"?

The answer is, very little. In fact, in the three years that the site has been up and running I can only remember two occasions on which it was necessary to communicate with the team. The first was for some guidance on how to deal with a particularly problematic user; the second was recently to discuss the need for extra moderation help on this site. In both cases, the team was very responsive and supportive, and one has the real sense that they are there to help whenever needed. But at the same time, the network gives moderators a pretty comprehensive set of tools, which allows the site to be fairly autonomous.

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  • $\begingroup$ First off, thanks for taking some time to offer your thoughts. The only question I have is how much communication you have with the community staff and what the discussions entail. $\endgroup$
    – Kitsune Cavalry Mod
    Aug 20, 2017 at 1:48
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Well I might as well nominate myself, the man, the myth, the legend, EconJohn.

I check the site on a regular basis am actively involved in asking questions that both benefit myself and others.

I am constantly developing my skills and have even answered my own questions keeping the question answer up.

I have very much benefited from this site and I want to help other benefit from it as well.

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Finally, I would like to nominate @denesp. Using business-world lingo, he is a "company man". And very sensitive regarding the rules of engagement here.

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    $\begingroup$ He always has such a wit about his rules though, don't think he is a boring man! Unfortunately, denesp has stated he does not want to be moderator in lucho's thread. $\endgroup$
    – Kitsune Cavalry Mod
    Aug 17, 2017 at 0:36
  • $\begingroup$ ... +1 to him anyway hear ye hear ye $\endgroup$
    – Kitsune Cavalry Mod
    Aug 17, 2017 at 0:37
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    $\begingroup$ Thank you Alecos, but as Kitsune said I do not want to be a moderator. $\endgroup$
    – Giskard
    Aug 17, 2017 at 13:05
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Update: Thanks for the proposition Alecos but I do not want to stand in the election. (luchonacho)

I would like to also nominate @luchonacho. Recently, he has been bulldozing the site the way I did in the past (this is the "young-guns-a-blaze" nomination) and he has cast a tremendous amount of votes in a very short time, something that I consider one of the important contributions in order to energize participation in the main.

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  • $\begingroup$ He got the gold votes badge before I did. I have to give him kudos. $\endgroup$
    – Kitsune Cavalry Mod
    Aug 17, 2017 at 0:37
  • $\begingroup$ I'm humbled by the nomination, thanks! (Didn't know my voting behaviour was odd!) I do want to know precisely what moderation means/entails, and will provide my decision after that (too many commitments starting next academic year). $\endgroup$
    – luchonacho
    Aug 17, 2017 at 8:15
  • $\begingroup$ I updated the post with my choice. I prefer not to stand for the election. $\endgroup$
    – luchonacho
    Aug 18, 2017 at 7:56
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I would like to nominate @EnergyNumbers. He was present in the first failed attempt, and this goes a long way in terms of not-so-easy-to-quantify experience and familiarity with the culture and the atmosphere ... let alone poignant no-BS comments.

Edit by EnergyNumbers:

I regret that I have to decline this nomination

I don't have as much time as I used to have, and I really couldn't give this site an average of 30-60 minutes each day to do the janitorial work needed.

I am touched that I was nominated, and by the kind words from my fellow posters: thank you!

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  • $\begingroup$ I was going to propose him if no one else offered. A solid pick. :^) $\endgroup$
    – Kitsune Cavalry Mod
    Aug 17, 2017 at 0:30
  • $\begingroup$ Notice that this user is not aware of this nomination (he last visited meta on July 22nd). $\endgroup$
    – luchonacho
    Aug 20, 2017 at 8:02
  • $\begingroup$ @luchonacho The inclusion of his username in the post has sent him an alert. He will eventually see it. In any case, here we won't be entering an official voting phase. It will be up to the SE management team to assess the candidates, look at upvotes for each etc, and contact directly the nominated. $\endgroup$
    – Alecos Papadopoulos
    Aug 20, 2017 at 8:10
  • $\begingroup$ Are you sure about it? I don't remember receiving one (but could be wrong). In any case, I gave him a ping in the chat (which in my experience does give you a notification). $\endgroup$
    – luchonacho
    Aug 20, 2017 at 8:22
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    $\begingroup$ @luchonacho he is now! $\endgroup$
    – 410 gone
    Aug 26, 2017 at 11:11

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