2017 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 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 6 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):

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1. How would you improve the voting rate on the site? Since the famous meta post Are SharePoint.SE users lazy voters? was asked back in 2013 I have a feeling the community have improved. Or my questions and answers have increased in quality, drawing more community votes. Still, in comparison to other sites, we have a low voting/post ratio. How would you, once elected moderator, improve the voting rate on the site?

2. 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?

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

4. In your opinion, what do moderators do?

5. 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?

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

Answer 1

I'm M.Qassas. I would like to share my humble thoughts by answering the below questions.

1. How would you improve the voting rate on the site? Since the famous meta post Are SharePoint.SE users lazy voters? was asked back in 2013 I have a feeling the community have improved. Or my questions and answers have increased in quality, drawing more community votes. Still, in comparison to other sites, we have a low voting/post ratio. How would you, once elected moderator, improve the voting rate on the site?

I totally agree with this question, Although the voting is a simple task and the SE users are not lazy. But I think the main reason for this problem is the lack of an ideal guidance for the voting process and its importance, as well as the loss of some kind of encouragement that I think is much simpler than the voting process.

To overcome this problem I think we should find a simple way to guide new users as well as create different kinds of encouragement and appreciation for old users.

Let's start with old users and propose how we can find innovative ways to encourage them:

• Like edits, Why the community didn't grant a 1 point for each upvote for the users who have reputation less than 2000 points? by the way, The maximum number of upvote is already limited with 30 upvotes per day, In this way, most users will exhaust the voting balance in order to get 30 points :).Meanwhile, the upvote rate will be increased.
• I also propose to prepare a weekly, monthly, quarterly and annual report for The Most Active Contributors regardless the type of contributions (Edits, Votes, reputations ... etc). (This information can be easily obtained from SE leader board at site statistics.)

This weekly, monthly, quarterly and annual report will include the following awards

• The 5/10 top contributors award
• The 5/10 top editors award.
• The 5/10 top voters award.
• The 5/10 best questions award.
• The 5/10 best answers award.
• The Most "asked questions" award.
• The Most "provided answers" award.
• The Most upvoted questions award.
• The Most upvoted answers award.
• and other awards based on awesome contributions ...etc.

Once the report has been prepared, one of the moderators (or the Stack Exchange social media admin) should do the following:

• Share & tweet this report via the social media like Twitter and facebook.
• Prepare an email template based on each award that should be used to send an appreciation email for the top contributes.(I am ready to prepare this template regardless I selected as moderator or not)

Based on the achievements of each contributor, the community grants the Excellence Award SE-MVP quarterly and annually. I think the above suggestions will increase the positive contributions on SE!

Regarding the new users, we should guide them to know

• How to use the site?
• What's the importance of badges?
• How to appreciate the provided answers by upvoting the helpful answers and accept the correct answer? This should be highlighted when the user asks a new question.

I also proposed the following:

• The registration process should be a mandatory step for all user.
  • The unregistered user can see questions and answers but can not ask new questions or comment on an existing question before registering on the site.
• During the registration process, the terms of use must be highlighted.
• Once the registration process has been completed, the tour instructions https://sharepoint.stackexchange.com/tour should be highlighted clearly and simply.

• The new user's tab should be exploited to monitor the behavior and performance of new users and try to guide them.

2. 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?

I will appreciate and respect his wonderful efforts and at the same time, I will apply the community rules to everyone with some wisdom and without any distinction.

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

Mutual respect is the secret of any team's success. So I will respect his opinion. I will try to communicate with him personally to find out his point of view and try to round up views.

So I suggest creating a closed chat room for moderators to discuss such issues.

4. In your opinion, what do moderators do?

Besides what I mentioned earlier. I think the main Moderators functions are,

• Serve the community with all his strength.
• Guide the new users to stay on SE and help them to use the site easily.
• Enhance and improve the site contents.
• Approve/reject flags, suggested edits ...... etc.
• Suggest new ideas that help to simplify and enhance the community.
• Upvoting The correct answers and guide the question owner to mark it in case it helped him. so I suggest adding a new feature that allows the moderator to be able to propose an answer as a correct answer by upvoting it and remember the question owner to take action for the provided answers.
• Find problems and fix them if he can,
• Trace the user's behavior and track abnormal actions.
• Keep a friendly environment for users by Communicating and answering users queries as soon as possible, so I suggest besides the META forum, we should have a chat room to can reach and ask the moderators directly. this will activate the aim of chat rooms again.
• Continue answering the technical questions.

5. 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 usually review my old answers and comments to enhance my old answers and remove any comments that are not suitable. I do this weekly specifically on Saturday where there is no heavy load in the community.

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

Helping people is a great feeling especially when you consider this as alms for your knowledge, I think anyone contributes in any community will feel (after some time) he does awesome work rather than he try to gain points, so in my opinion, the reputation is important meanwhile helping people is most important and should be our main goal.

As for the ways that will make me more effective, they are many but the main way as I mentioned earlier is the appreciation of valuable contributions and successful attempts, I also wish supervisors to allow us some of their precious time to talk to them directly. it will lead to a friendly working environment.

Finally, I would like to thank our current loyal moderators, I really appreciate the work done by them, I also learned a lot from their guidelines and I still learn.

Answer 2

I am Waqas Sarwar, I will try to answer the below questions.

1. How would you improve the voting rate on the site? Since the famous meta post Are SharePoint.SE users lazy voters? was asked back in 2013 I have a feeling the community have improved. Or my questions and answers have increased in quality, drawing more community votes. Still, in comparison to other sites, we have a low voting/post ratio. How would you, once elected moderator, improve the voting rate on the site?

That is tough question, I feel the same way. Couple of things I have in my mind.

• As a moderator I will get more powers then regular users so i will read all Q & A related to my field if that marked as answer i will upvote it. that's little effort from my side.
• Also encourage the asking person if he can upvote and also tell him this is important.
• I feel another thing, 1st timer user even do have enough reputation to do upto so i will discuss this with moderators how we can make it better. At-least grant the upvote rights the user who asked the question without reputation constraint.
• I think, we should also think about sending a alert to the user that if any of the reply resolve the issue or help u resolve ur problem than please upvote it and mark it answer.
• Running a competition attract more users to go for voting.
• now a days I noticed couple of community running their own MVP awards ( c-sharpcorner, codeproject), we should also think about it.

2. 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?

• I will follow the community rule and also talk to him in a chat room. I will also discuss it with my fellow moderators to make a decision. All the time teamwork helps to resolve the issue in better way

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

• Always the respect other opinion but it is not necessary that we agree with others opinion. If I feel it that question should not deleted then i will use the dispute option and also discuss with moderator. i will act accordingly after the all options.

4. In your opinion, what do moderators do?

• what i believe, other than the task I can do ( review, upvote, editing, Answering etc), they help the new users to feel welcome in the SE, planning & discussion with back-end people to improve the SE Monitoring spamming or abusing of the system. encourage others to join the community, make efforts to make this place one of the best community

5. 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?

• It will be great honor have diamond with my name but this also give me more responsibility then a regular users, because now everything I say will be accounted. Users follow the moderators, If one action is acceptable from a moderator then it will be from me. It will be great as I love helping others without hurting ego.

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

couple of things i feel - no limit on voting ( that is the only time when i feel i am stuck) - back end access - More powers than regular user, Moderators dont need extra vote to close a question. - future Planning for community improvement - moderators discussion - Much more which i even dont know.

Answer 3

I'm Arsalan Adam Khatri, here are the answers to given questions:

1. How would you improve the voting rate on the site? Since the famous meta post Are SharePoint.SE users lazy voters? was asked back in 2013 I have a feeling the community have improved. Or my questions and answers have increased in quality, drawing more community votes. Still, in comparison to other sites, we have a low voting/post ratio. How would you, once elected moderator, improve the voting rate on the site?

Agree to that, I'm also a lazy voter myself. I think the main reason for this is that SharePoint is very diverse in nature and although I'm working on SharePoint since 2010, there are many areas for me which are still untouched. And I think this effects voting, I can't vote on a question/answer that I don't understand.

Also on this community, mostly people are not concerned with voting, reputation etc. They usually get to this community to ask a problem they are having, once they have the answer to it, poof they are gone. So these are usually new users and I think somewhere on the Ask Question screen or right next to the tags in the question we should show a message which goes like if your problem is resolved from any of the answers, you should upvote or select it as an answer (we can revise the message if needed to be more effective). This can appear only to the questioner.

However I do redirect many users who ask anything from me regarding SharePoint to this community and do tell them all the rules about upvoting or selecting an answer to close the question. That I can do without being a moderator too :)

One more thing that bugs me is the questions which are open to discussion or are opinion based, these are the questions I like the most, but they tend to be closed because of their nature. SharePoint is different and yes opinion based questions should be allowed, I don't know how will I change this as a moderator. But definitely that area needs some working.

2. 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?

Well if the user is giving valuable answers, he is an asset to the community and must be retained at all costs. Also if that's his nature, we can't change that either. So reviewing his flags unbiasly, giving him a proper comment to not get involved in such arguments should be the best bet. We can however ignore his behavior until it gets worse. And I will definitely hope it doesn't get to that point.

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

This is my favorite question out of all, because many questions I think should not be closed; usually get closed. Most of which are based on opinion or discussion. As I said SharePoint is different and such questions should be allowed, obviously if they not completely go against the rules of community.

People can have difference of opinion and we should respect eachothers opinion but there is always a room for discussion. So I will discuss such questions with fellow moderators and if any rule can be applied where they can remain Open, we do apply that rule otherwise will go with the fellow moderators decision.

4. In your opinion, what do moderators do?

Well I don't know what powers are given to moderators, but they review our flags, they settle any disputes, have authority to cancel or abandon someone's account (not sure) or give warnings etc.

So mainly they are responsible to keep the harmony on the community, they are usually involved where human behavior kicks in. Because SO is a strong platform and content integrity is mostly handled with AI or rest of the active members (where they flag, or review).

5. 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?

Well that is a great responsibility. I have to think twice maybe thrice before posting anything as a comment, question or answer. That's why I have been on this community for such a long time before nominating myself as a moderator, I did nominate myself in the last election but I withdrew the nomination for the same reason, as I thought I was not ready for such a responsibility.

But now I think I have spent a lot of time learning from existing moderators on how to tackle different situations and need their support if I get elected. So how do I feel, nervous but very excited.

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

With great responsibility comes great power. So although reaching to any specific number in terms of reputation was never my intention. I just wanted to help and get helped where needed, that's why I joined the community and yes I have learnt a lot on this community. And I can guarantee that becoming a moderator will not change that, I will definitely answer or ask questions which is the core of this community.

I would like to answer some other questions which are asked with other nominees:

WHY?

I definitely don't know, I was thinking since about 3 days why am I nominating myself as a moderator because I think I'm doing a good job without being one. But I saw other nominees and I felt like I should be nominating myself, not that other nominees don't deserve but if they do, I do too!

Again the reason to join this community is to help and get helped. Being a moderator will not change that, but definitely once I become I will share it with people around me, maybe post something on LinkedIn or Facebook, not to showoff but that will be out of excitement.

Moderators must carry great responsibilities in terms of their behavior, communication skills, and how smartly they handle conflicts or difference of opinion with good and polite language. Do you think you need any improvement in these points? Will you be able to do justice to the community? Do you have ability to be polite and calm nature when needed?

As I have already expressed, I feel being a moderator is a great responsibility and yes I will have to think many times before posting anything or making any decision.

But yes I have very polite and calm nature and I don't get burst out of anger or any other emotion. Being here for 5 years, I have never been into any argument and yes I think I will be able to do justice to the community.

Any other questions are welcome!

Answer 4

Here are my answers:

How would you improve the voting rate on the site? Since the famous meta post Are SharePoint.SE users lazy voters? was asked back in 2013 I have a feeling the community have improved. Or my questions and answers have increased in quality, drawing more community votes. Still, in comparison to other sites, we have a low voting/post ratio. How would you, once elected moderator, improve the voting rate on the site?

Well, I think SharePoint, by nature, is a smaller community--we just have to embrace the fact that sometimes SharePoint is a side project. That being said, encourage well thought out posts with CLEAR questions and answers, and be helpful for newcomers and veterans alike to follow the rules and make good contributions. Other than that, if users are lazy to vote, there is no way to force them to vote other than a simple reminder every now and then to vote.

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?

Possibly have a chat with him or her. It depends on the situation what is being flagged. It also could be some tension with another user. Good content is what brings traffic to the site and builds up the knowledgebase of SP.SE, but following the rules and being respectful is equally as important.

Moderators have the ability to privately message those who they need to talk to about a situation. This can be crucial in times of repeat offenses, site misconduct and misuse, and other topics that deem moderators using this method.

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

Talk to the mod about why. I could have missed a reason why he/she thought to close it, but if we have a difference of opinion, we ask for a third vote from another moderator. There can be a chatroom discussion. It would be extremely taboo to have moderators arguing about a topic. It's bad. It's ugly. It's incredibly unattractive. That should be done out of view.

When in doubt, there is usually a rule that can back up any justified moderation. Whether that is closing a question or removing an invalid answer, or anything inbetween, usually there is a rule that governs what and why.

In your opinion, what do moderators do?

Keep questions, answers, comments, and other content CLEAR and STRUCTURED in a respectful fashion, which brings good content, good well thought-out questions and answers, good feedback, and is also great for searchability.

Moderators must have several key traits in order to be successful:

• They must be FAIR. Treating everyone with the same respect and courteousness, from veterans to new users. No favoritism or unequal treatment if an issue or situation arises.
• They must be CONSISTENT. All rules must be followed everyday, for every user. If there is a decision made on how to govern tags, questions, answers, or other moderation tasks, it must be universally carried out--even to other moderators.
• They must GUIDE. That includes showing all users HOW to best use the site and to keep it's integrity and structure. It also means to be a role model for others looking to stay on the site. As a moderator, your moderation badge is tied to everything, so you must be an avid user and lead by example.
• They must be DEDICATED. That means dedicated to stay an active moderator for the time period the system allots. I've been here for 7 years, which should be a testament of the dedication I have.

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?

No problem with me. I think my behavior here has been more than reasonable. Everyone here has been great, polite, and reasonable with their actions. In the 7 years I've been here, I've only seen mods ban 2 people for misconduct. I don't see that kind of behavior here often, but it does happen from time to time. As a moderator you must learn how to diffuse those situations and react in a manner that reflects positively for SP.SE.

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

Reputation has to do with asking and answering questions, which sometimes is a game of chase. Sometimes I don't know the answer off the bat, sometimes someone else has a similar answer, other times I enjoy making questions and answers more clear for others to answer. Reputation isn't as important to me than building good content for this knowledgebase.

Anyone can have a good amount of reputation because of the questions and answers he/she contributes to the site. A moderator will be the guiding light and a lead example of a great contributor.

Endnote:

I'm a stickler for grammar and I feel strong grammar skills are essential in keeping content understandable and reduced the amount of fluff in the comments asking about clarification and gets to the point quicker. If users come to the site and are immediately confused about the explanation of the question, the answers will be fewer. If answers are hard to understand, more comments will be generated and usually users will be deterred to answer a question if there are multiple questions available already--even if those answers are unclear. My point is to moderate those questions/answers/comments in order to make them more clear.