2020 Moderator Election Q&A - Questionnaire

Question

In connection with the moderator elections, we are holding a Q&A thread for the candidates. Questions collected [from an earlier thread](In connection with the moderator elections, we are holding a Q&A thread for the candidates. Questions collected from an earlier thread have been compiled into this one, which shall now serve as the space for the candidates to provide their answers.

Due to the submission count, we have selected all provided questions as well as our back up questions for a total of 7 questions.

As a candidate, your job is simple - post an answer to this question, citing each of the questions, and then post your answer to each question given in that same answer. For your convenience, I will include all of the questions in quote format with a break in between each, suitable for you to insert your answers. Just copy the whole thing after the first set of three dashes. Please consider putting your name at the top of your post so that readers will know who you are before they finish reading everything you have written, and also including a link to your answer on your nomination post.

Once all the answers have been compiled, this will serve as a transcript for voters to view the thoughts of their candidates and will be appropriately linked in the Election page.

Good luck to all of the candidates!

Oh, and when you've completed your answer, please provide a link to it after this blurb here, before that set of three dashes. Please leave the list of links in the order of submission.

To save scrolling here are links to the submissions from each candidate (in order of submission):

• jonathan.scholbach
• guidot
• Shegit Brahm
• Wrzlprmft

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1. 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?

2. How would you handle a situation where another mod closed/deleted/etc a question that you feel shouldn't have been?

3. In your opinion, what do moderators do?

4. 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?

5. In what way do you feel that being a moderator will make you more effective as opposed to simply reaching 10k or 20k rep?

6. Wir sind eine bilinguale Community in der wir sowohl auf Englisch als auch auf Deutsch kommunizieren. In welcher Sprache würdest du die Moderation bevorzugt führen und warum?
   We are a bilingual community where communication is in both, German and English. What would be your preferred language for moderation purposes and why?

7. Name an individual action that showcases your suitability as a moderator, for example an individual meta post, review action, or comment (please provide a link to it). Why do you think that this a good example?

Answer 1

Ich bin jonathan.scholbach, und hier ist meine Selbstnominierung: https://german.stackexchange.com/election/2#post-61912

I am jonathan.scholbach, and this is my self-nomination: https://german.stackexchange.com/election/2#post-61912

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?

Ich würde versuchen herauszufinden, was der Grund für die Flags ist, d.h. ob sich Muster erkennen lassen. Ich würde die Userin / den User bilateral darauf ansprechen, dabei den Wert ihrer/seiner Arbeit für die Community betonen und sie/ihn auf die Richtlinien für Kommentare unter How do comments work? hinweisen und auch auf die Diskussion hier: Comments, flags and etiquette

I would try to find out the causes of the flags, i.e. look for recognizable patterns. I would talk to the user bilaterally, while emphasizing the value of their contribution to the site, and make them aware of the commenting guidelines at How do comments work? and also about the discussions at Comments, flags and etiquette

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How would you handle a situation where another mod closed/deleted/etc a question that you feel shouldn't have been?

Ich würde mir als erstes den erklärenden Kommentar des der anderen Moderatorin / anderen Moderators ansehen. Das könnte bereits zur Klärung beitragen, und vielleicht sehe ich dabei bereits, warum ich mich in meiner ersten Einschätzung getäuscht hatte. Falls ich das Gefühl habe, dass ich die Entscheidung nicht mittragen kann, würde ich mit dem anderen Moderator / mit der anderen Moderatorin bilateral darüber ins Gespräch kommen.

I would check for the explanatory comment of that moderator first, this might clarify the situation already, it might already show me why / where I was wrong. If this is not the case and if I feel I could not stand behind that decision and could not justify it, I would talk to the moderator.

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In your opinion, what do moderators do?

(Es tut mir leid, möglicherweise ist diese Antwort nicht befriedigend, vielleicht verstehe ich auch die Frage nicht richtig.) Was ein Moderator tut, steht hier: https://stackoverflow.com/help/site-moderators#:~:text=Moderators%20act%20as%20a%20liaison,and%20administrative%20or%20technical%20tasks. Ich habe dem nichts hinzuzufügen.

(I am sorry, maybe this answer does not fulfill the question, maybe I do not fully understand the question.) I think, it's stated here: https://stackoverflow.com/help/site-moderators#:~:text=Moderators%20act%20as%20a%20liaison,and%20administrative%20or%20technical%20tasks I have nothing to add.

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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?

Ich bin mir der zusätzlichen Verantwortung von Moderatorinnen / Moderatoren bewusst. Ich habe keine besondere emotionale Regung deswegen.

I am aware of the additional responsibility of moderators. This does not give me a certain emotion.

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In what way do you feel that being a moderator will make you more effective as opposed to simply reaching 10k or 20k rep?

Moderator zu sein, sendet ein anderes Signal. Die Reputation auf german.SE sagt etwas über die Kenntnis der deutschen Sprache aus. Ein Moderator zu sein, sendet ein etwas anderes Signal (und geht daher auch mit einer anderen Verantwortung einher): es zeigt, dass man eine besondere Rolle hat und sich auf einen besonderen Stil (auf einen besonders neutralen und deeskalierenden Stil) der sozialen Interaktion verpflichtet

I think, being moderator comes with a certain label. Reputation tells something about domain knowledge, i.e. knowledge of the German language. Being a moderator is a slightly different signal (and hence responsibility) - it shows that you are responsible for a certain style of social interaction, on an impartial and deescalating style.

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Wir sind eine bilinguale Community in der wir sowohl auf Englisch als auch auf Deutsch kommunizieren. In welcher Sprache würdest du die Moderation bevorzugt führen und warum? We are a bilingual community where communication is in both, German and English. What would be your preferred language for moderation purposes and why?

Es ist hier übliche Praxis, englisch gestellte Fragen auf englisch, und deutsch gestellte Fragen auf deutsch zu beantworten. Analog würde ich mit der Moderation verfahren. Das entscheidende Kriterium ist am Ende aber, dass vor Allem die Beteiligten die Moderation verstehen. Im Notfall oder in unklaren Situationen würde ich bilingual antworten, so wie hier.

It is common practice to answer questions in English in English and those in German in German. I would treat moderation analogously. The final aim is of course to be understood by the parties of the argument, in order to provide effective moderation. In case of doubt I would use both English end German, just as in this post.

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Name an individual action that showcases your suitability as a moderator, for example an individual meta post, review action, or comment (please provide a link to it). Why do you think that this a good example?

https://german.stackexchange.com/a/61898/15393

Die Antwort ist gut, daher habe ich ihr +1 gegeben. Ich dachte, sie könnte dennoch verbessert werden, weil sie nicht alle Aspekte der Frage abdeckte. Also habe ich das in einem Kommentar zu Antwort erwähnt. Die Erstellerin / der Ersteller der Antwort machte klar, dass eine andere Antwort bereits die genannten Aspekte enthield. Ich war ursprünglich davon ausgegangen, dass einzelne Antworten Vollständigkeit anstreben sollten. Die Antwort auf meinen Kommentar hat mir vor Augen geführt, dass das in der Tat nicht nötig ist. Also habe ich meine ursprüngliche implizite Prämisse expliziert, aber nicht auf ihr bestanden.

Ich denke, das ist eine gute Vorgehensweise, weil ich die Kritik konstruktiv formuliert habe, und weil ich mich einsichtig gezeigt habe und das auch offen kommunziert habe. Es ist natürlich kein riesiges Beispiel, aber immerhin :)

The answer is good, hence I upvoted it. I thought, it could still be improved, because it didn't cover all aspects of the question, so I mentioned this in a comment. The answerer replied to it, stating that a different answer was already covering the missing aspects. I had thought, that answers should be self-contained, but the answer to my comment made me realize that this might actually not be necessary, so I made the implicit premise explicit which guided my course of action in the first place, but did not insist on it.

I think, this is a good example, because my critique has been constructive, and because it was finally brought home to me. It's not a big example, though, but at least it is an example :)

Answer 2

1. 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?

First of all, I would check whether the user actually incites hostilities or just leaves a lot of constructive remarks on posts and participates in any discussions caused by this. In the latter case, there is probably nothing to be done. In the former case, I will contact the user via moderator message or private chat, trying to make them see why their behaviour is problematic. Should this not suffice, I will resort to more drastic measures such as suspensions.

In general, the contributions of a single member cannot be so valuable that they justify tolerating a disruptive behaviour.

2. How would you handle a situation where another mod closed/deleted/etc a question that you feel shouldn't have been?

I’ll talk to the moderator to find out where exactly we disagree, if at all. Should this not resolve the situation, I will consult a third moderator or the community on meta, depending on the situation.

3. In your opinion, what do moderators do?

Moderators mainly handle issues that cannot be handled by community moderation due to privacy, extremeness, or time pressure. They also act as a liaison between the community and Stack Exchange. Finally, they can steer community discussions.

4. 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?

I have been happily living this for five years now.

5. In what way do you feel that being a moderator will make you more effective as opposed to simply reaching 10k or 20k rep?

Being a diamond moderator is not about doing moderation tasks available to community moderators (based on reputation) more effectively. It mostly is about doing different tasks that require special authority and entirely different tools.

6. Wir sind eine bilinguale Community in der wir sowohl auf Englisch als auch auf Deutsch kommunizieren. In welcher Sprache würdest du die Moderation bevorzugt führen und warum?
   We are a bilingual community where communication is in both, German and English. What would be your preferred language for moderation purposes and why?

In den meisten Fällen wechsle ich die Sprache nicht. Zum Beispiel kommentiere ich in derselben Sprache wie der Post oder der Kommentar auf den ich reagiere. Meta-Posts halte ich in der Regel zweisprachig. Unnötige Sprachwechsel irritieren nur und riskieren, dass ich nicht verstanden werde.

Moderator-Nachrichten hingegen würde ich in der Regel auf Englisch verfassen. Der Hauptgrund hierfür ist, dass diese bei Eskalation auch von SE-Mitarbeitern verstanden werden müssen. Ein zweiter Grund ist, dass es für diverse Standard-Vergehen allgemeine englischsprachige Vorlagen gibt, deren Übersetzung oft einfach nicht die Mühe wert ist. Schließlich gehe ich davon aus, dass die meisten Nutzer hinreichend gut Englisch sprechen, um eine Moderatornachricht verstehen – immerhin ist das gesamte Interface dieser Seite Englisch.

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Usually I do not switch languages. For example I write comments in the same language as the post or comment I am reacting to. I usually make my meta posts bilingual. If I switch languages for no reasons, this is irritating and risks that I am not understood.

However, I would usually write moderator messages in English. The primary reason for this is that SE employees need to understand them in case of escalation. A second reason is that there are several templates for moderator messages, whose translation is usually not worthwhile. Finally, I expect that most user speak English sufficiently well to understand a moderator message – let’s not forget that the entire interface of this site is English.

7. Name an individual action that showcases your suitability as a moderator, for example an individual meta post, review action, or comment (please provide a link to it). Why do you think that this a good example?

And now I am hoisted by my own petard on account of most of my moderator actions being hidden and sensitive information. Anyway:

I choose: Let’s take another approach to close reasons. The ensuing changes to close reasons made them align what we actually see as problematic questions (in particular question that can be answered by dictionaries). This prevented people closing questions because the close reason says so, askers being disappointed and being made jump through hoops. Getting there required understanding why several sides act and react the way they did and what the actual problem was. I am still quite happy with the result and think that it has stood the test of time by now.

Answer 3

My self-nomination is here.

1. 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?

Valuable answers are the crucial point of this site; if my (hopefully channeling) comments don’t improve the situation I would ask other moderators for suggestions.

2. How would you handle a situation where another mod closed/deleted/etc a question that you feel shouldn't have been?

That depends on the intensity of disagreement and experience collected from similar earlier situations. Discussion with the other mod is first, then re-open vote comes to mind, so others can contribute their opinion.

3. In your opinion, what do moderators do?

They add the welcome comments, if no other contributor found the the time or considered the question of a newbie, and take care of flagged stuff. In the background it seems to be a mix of lubrication/encouragement for the positive sides and a break for the negative ones. The available tags already cover an impressive spectrum, so I expect not much maintenance there (except providing the verbose explanations). I consider the selection of tags attached to question as a bit neglected, which is adisadvantage since this could reduce newly arriving duplicates.

4. 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?

Probably I would more carefully check reponses to answers and comments I made in earlier SO days and probably somewhat gravitate to more diplomatic phrasing. I’m a strong believer in the accumulative effect of small improvements.

5. In what way do you feel that being a moderator will make you more effective as opposed to simply reaching 10k or 20k rep?

I guess I would need to pay more attention the the review queues. I consider the efficency of moderation and reaction to comments by most contributors already quite good.

6. Wir sind eine bilinguale Community in der wir sowohl auf Englisch als auch auf Deutsch kommunizieren. In welcher Sprache würdest du die Moderation bevorzugt führen und warum?
   We are a bilingual community where communication is in both, German and English. What would be your preferred language for moderation purposes and why?

For larger set of recipients probably English. This diminishes the advantage of being a native speaker and there is a certain pressure for easier phrasing. (So ganz ohne Schachtelsätze und trennbare Partikelverben.) Deutschen Antworten auf deutsche Fragen sind natürlich ausgenommen.

7. Name an individual action that showcases your suitability as a moderator, for example an individual meta post, review action, or comment (please provide a link to it). Why do you think that this a good example?

I refer to the comments to that fairly new question.

We clearly should not encourage the users, which ask a single awful (i.e. offering a single translation word ) online dictionary and try to collect supplemental explanation here, so time and attention remains for interesting questions.

On the other hand the borderline to individual texts (which are often gladly answered when tagged handwriting with similar low chances of re-use) is difficult. Requiring an attempt to generalize a specific question, just to transform it into an on-topic one seems not a winning approach either.

Answer 4

My nomination is here.

1. 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?

Depends on the flagged content. I prefer a community where people ask each other and are able to clarify problems also in comments or chat. A Knowledge Base without community can everybody create on its own - so when this site does not work without such users, I assume my consequence would be that there is rather no site than a toxic community.

Hängt von den gemeldeten Inhalten ab. Ich mag eine Community, die in der Lage ist miteinander zu reden - via Kommentar oder Chat. Eine Wissenssammlung ohne Community kann jeder selbst aufbauen - funktioniert (viele Fragen/Antworten) die Seite nur mit "Störenfrieden", dann lieber keine Seite als eine vergiftete Community.

2. How would you handle a situation where another mod closed/deleted/etc a question that you feel shouldn't have been?

Difficult. Right now I cannot imagine that the closure of questions is too slow. I assume because I'm just looking as a user. If I find no "hard" argument in the site rule to do otherwise, I would either leave it be and observe - or try to understand it in chat.

Schwierig. Bisher fehlt mir die Vorstellungskraft, dass Fragen-Schließungen generell zu langsam sind. Vielleicht weil ich nur als Benutzer drauf schaue. Falls ich in den Regeln kein klares Gegenargument finde, würde ich es entweder so lassen & beobachten - oder versuchen via Chat zu verstehen.

3. In your opinion, what do moderators do?

The buzz around asking and answering. Simple things like "SE changed something, you need to answer questions of your community" and more complicated things like "this user annoys me" to keep the community some kind of nontoxic.

Das Drumherum um die Fragen und Antworten. Einfache Dinge wie "SE hat was geändert, erkläre es bei Euch" bis hin zu schwierigen wie "der hat meine Schübbe weggenommen. Batsch". Damit irgendwie ein Gefühl des Miteinander bestehen kann.

4. 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?

Responsible. A moderator speaks with power, so he "needs to know how his action looks like". Whatever I claim might sound like "SE said so". Which is technically deniable - just which John Doe cares?

Verantwortlich. In meiner Wahrnehmung wird von Moderatoren verlangt, dass sie "wissen was sie tun". Jegliches Statement kann so klingen als "SE sagt, dass...". Das mag formal falsch sein - Gelegenheitsnutzer mögen diese Unterscheidung so nicht sehen.

5. In what way do you feel that being a moderator will make you more effective as opposed to simply reaching 10k or 20k rep?

In no way. Regarding my current rep (below 3k) it gives me all this power by a fingersnap. Uff! (With 2.5k rep I got access to the "moderator tools". Looked there once, tbu)

Gar nicht. Gemessen an heute (<3k rep) bekomme ich all diese Macht mit einem Fingerschnipp. Hui! (Seit 2,5k rep habe ich Zugriff auf die "Moderationswerkzeuge". Einmal reingeschaut, Nutzen suche ich noch.)

6. Wir sind eine bilinguale Community in der wir sowohl auf Englisch als auch auf Deutsch kommunizieren. In welcher Sprache würdest du die Moderation bevorzugt führen und warum?
   We are a bilingual community where communication is in both, German and English. What would be your preferred language for moderation purposes and why?

If the question is in English or anything not-German, I'd use English. Because the other one chose it by himself and I do not speak anything else than German and English. If it happens the OP is more confident in German rather in English, I'd switch. German post, German moderation.

Falls die Frage in Englisch oder Nicht-Deutsch ist, dann in Englisch. Denn der/die andere hat mit dem eigenen Eintrag die Sprache definiert und ich spreche nur Deutsch & Englisch. Falls OP mit Deutsch besser zurechkommen sollte, wechsel ich auf Deutsch. Deutscher Post = deutsche Moderation.

7. Name an individual action that showcases your suitability as a moderator, for example an individual meta post, review action, or comment (please provide a link to it). Why do you think that this a good example?

As I lack a working test set "being suitabile as a moderator yes/no" and have only my understanding of moderation, I pick this one. I assume it show my reception of this community common sense, I think I stay within the boundaries of arguments (no personal attack) and I think there is not much else to do. From my pov not an outstanding answer, just a slightly questionable area - from a moderation's pov.

Mangels hartem Testkriterium "genau so muss ein Moderator sein" und nur mit meinem Verständnis betrachtet, habe ich den hier ausgewählt. Ich nehme an, meine Kommentare zeigen meine Wahrnehmung der German.SE-Community, ich denke ich habe nur Argumente benutzt (keine persönlichen Angriffe) und ich denke, da war nichts weiter zu tun. M.E. kein Musterbeispiel von Antwort, sondern nur ein bisschen fraglich - hinsichtlich Moderation.

https://german.stackexchange.com/a/61375/36160