Do you think that you can work well with people that you don't like to solve issues?
You may find yourself needing to work with users you might not like or that you strongly disagree with (whether they are fellow moderators or other users). Do you think that you can avoid taking things personal when doing your moderator job? Do you think that you can be fair when dealing with users you don't particular like?
For example:
- How would you handle flags against your own contributions?
- How would you handle the situation if you noticed that your posts are being systematically downvoted?
- How would you handle a user that is rude back to your after you have given them warning, feedback or guidance about their contributions?
I've hardly ever found anyone who I didn't like here, just people who I can agree with and others who I disagree with, but I must say that coexistence here is always possible and most of the times a little debate leads to peaceful conclussions. Of course I'll have to learn how to handle possible spammers, vandals, trolls and other Internet wildlife, but I count on the current moderators to guide me through my first weeks as a moderator.
About the particular questions, well, I've already handled flags against me. I've been known for pushing the limits of the off-topic in this site and I've already gone too far in some cases. If someone raises a flag against my own publications I'll do the same as always, leaving the decision to the community and accept the result with sportsmanship. If my publications are being downvoted it could be that I'm going off-track and I'll have to get on track again, but if the case is that someone is just vandalising I'd try to speak with them about the reasons and try to find out if there is something I did wrong so I can improve my moderation skills.
Apenas he encontrado aquí gente que me disguste o con la que no me lleve bien, solo gente con la que puedo o no estar de acuerdo, debo decir que la convivencia aquí es siempre posible y en muchas de las ocasiones hablando se entiende la gente. Por supuesto tendré que aprender a lidiar con spammers, vándalos, trols y demás fauna internetera, cuento con los actuales moderadores para que me guién durante mis primeras semanas como moderador.
Sobre las preguntas particulares, bueno, ya estoy acostumbrado a que lancen flags contra mí. Se me conoce por tratar de ampliar los límites del off-topic en el sitio y a veces me he pasado. Si alguien me abre un flag haré lo de siempre, dejaré que la comunidad decida qué hacer y aceptaré el resultado con deportividad. Si veo que mis publicaciones se votan negativa y sistemáticamente podría ser que estoy perdiendo el rumbo, pero si se trata de algún vándalo lo suyo sería hablar con esa persona sobre sus motivos y averiguar si hice algo malo o que le pudiera molestar, para así mejorar mis dotes de moderación.
What do you think Spanish.SE is lacking and how do you plan to improve it?
You could think of this as a broader question, like, "Now that we are no longer in beta, what should be the next 'Big Hairy Audacious Goal' for our site"? or "What are this site's challenges and how do you plan to help empowering the community to work on them"?
I've always thought that the site just lacks participation. Given the international status of the Spanish language we should be receiving as many questions and answers per day as the English language site, but they do not have an organisation such as the RAE to answer everybody's questions in Twitter, so...
The question is that right now I do not know how to improve the participation in the site. We have tried several things before such as scheduling a questioning marathon, setting up prizes for the best answers of the quarter, trying to create ads to show on other sites, but the site has a natural flow of questions that seems hard to modify. So that's really a "big hairy audacious goal".
Mi opinión es que al sitio le falta participación. Dado el estatus internacional del español deberíamos estar recibiendo tantas preguntas y respuestas al día como el sitio de inglés, pero claro, ellos no tienen la competencia feroz de la RAE, que responde a las preguntas de todo el mundo en Twitter, así que...
El caso es que ahora mismo ignoro cómo mejorar esa participación. Hemos intentado en el pasado cosas como hacer maratones de preguntas, otorgar premios a las mejores preguntas del trimestre, crear anuncios para mostrar en otros sitios, pero parece que el sitio tiene un flujo natural de preguntas que parece difícil de modificar. Así que sí, ese podría ser un gran objetivo a perseguir.
- How do you feel about low Meta participation? If you think it is a problem, how would you get more people to join Meta discussions? If you think it is not a problem, what other mechanisms do you intend to use to get input from the community on proposed policy changes, events, etc.?
I consider myself as part of that problem. Maybe a low Meta participation is not a bad thing, just that the users are fine with the site as is. Nonetheless when participation in Meta is required that's when the "featured" tags are used. That way we can always get the feed from the casual users if they want. And I'll try to spend more time to think about Meta and the site itself if I'm chosen as a moderator.
Soy parte del problema, lo reconozco. Aunque una baja participación en Meta no tiene por qué ser malo, puede ser que los usuarios consideren que el sitio está bien tal y como está. En todo caso cuando se requiere participación en Meta se suele usar la etiqueta "featured" y así se suelen obtener más opiniones aparte de las de los de siempre. Por supuesto, si soy elegido trataré de pasar más tiempo en Meta pensando en el sitio en sí mismo.
- What is your timezone? When would you be able to attend moderation duties?
Europe, GMT+1 (winter) / GMT+2 (summer). I usually connect on work days and use the mobile app on weekends. I do not know if the mobile app is prepared to work on moderation duties. If that's not the case I can always connect from a laptop if there's a special contingency the moderators need to tackle.
Europa, GMT+1 (invierno) / GMT+2 (verano). Me suelo conectar en horas de trabajo y a través de la aplicación móvil desde casa y los findes. No sé si la aplicación móvil está preparada para moderar. Si no es el caso siempre puedo conectarme desde un portátil si hay alguna contingencia especial que los moderadores puedan resolver.
- An established user (User A), with good contributions, often comments on posts from another established user (User B), pinpointing some possible flaws. They have a long pattern of disagreement and normally such comments end up with some flags (one against the other one) and/or downvotes. User B asks the moderators to prevent User A from interacting with them (User B). What would you do as a moderator?
The same I would do as a father. I'd try to speak with both users and learn the reasons behind that behaviour and try to make the users reach a peaceful agreement. If one of the users is being unreasonable and just creates noise and chaos in the site the bans will do their work, but I really hope such methods won't be necessary in most cases, as people usually stands to reason.
Lo mismo que haría como padre. Trataría de hablar con ambos usuarios para descubrir los motivos detrás de sus comportamientos, con el fin de llegar a un acuerdo pacífico. Si alguno de los usuarios no atiende a razones y se limita a generar ruido y caos, entrarían en juego los bans, pero espero de verdad que esto no sea necesario en la mayoría de los casos, dado que la gente suele razonar.
- What contribution(s) to Meta (no more than three examples) would you say best exemplify your prospective moderation style?
- As a moderator, how would your current main-site activities such as Q&A, commenting, editing, reviewing and closing/reopening change? Would you increase some activities and lessen others, or would you continue at roughly the same level of activity for these? Would having a binding vote change how you participate and vote in the review queues?
Yes, the binding vote can be dangerous so I would only apply it if I bump into a question or answer that is clearly spam or malicious. Otherwise I'll leave those moderation tasks (closing/reopening questions and deleting answers) to the opinion of the community. As for my participation in the main site I hope it will not be affected. I like to ask questions and write answers too much, and let's not forget that I have an account in Enclave RAE to use for the greater good...
El voto decisivo es peligroso, lo usaría solo en casos flagrantes de spam o enlaces maliciosos. En caso contrario esas labores de moderación para cerrar o reabrir preguntas y borrar respuestas se las dejaría a la comunidad. Mi participación en el sitio principal espero que no se vea afectada, ya que me encantan plantear preguntas y escribir respuestas, y no olvidemos que tengo una cuenta en Enclave RAE que amortizar por el bien común...
- Quite often Spanish.SE gets answers from unregistered users that are extremely short, just in the limit of "not an answer". These answers have their value, normally because they talk about the usage of some expression in the user's location. As a moderator you are quite likely to get some flags on these posts (some automatic from the Community user and some from normal users). How do you think such answers need to be handled?
Once again that's a task that can be handled by the community, so it's up to everyone to decide what to do with those answers.
De nuevo esa sería una tarea más propia de la comunidad, que sería quien tiene que decidir qué se hace con esas respuestas.
I have just read a sentence in a post by Diego that being a moderator is like being a Scrum Master, and I think that being a Scrum Master is just like being a parent: your top priority must be the happiness of the people who depend on you while you watch that nobody goes off-track. So being a moderator must be just trying that everyone in this site is happy with it and watching that nobody (or nothing) comes to break our peaceful coexistence. I have spend three years now here under the umbrella of the current moderators, who have done a great job so far, and it's time for me to start serving the community as one of them.
If you think that I have not answered any of the questions, or you need clarification, or you just have a particular question for me, or anything else, please leave a comment and I'll update the answer in response.
Acabo de leer en un artículo de Diego que ser moderador es como ser Scrum Master, y yo a su vez pienso que ser Scrum Master es como ser padre: tu máxima prioridad debe ser el bienestar y la felicidad de todos, al tiempo que vigilas que nadie se salga del tiesto. Ser moderador es similar, se trata de que todos estén contentos y vigilar que nadie ni nada rompa nuestra pacífica convivencia. He pasado tres años bajo el paraguas de los actuales moderadores, que han hecho un gran trabajo al respecto, así que considero que ya es hora de que una a ellos en el servicio de la comunidad.
Si crees que me he dejado algo sin responder, o necesitas más aclaraciones, o tienes alguna pregunta particular para mí, o lo que sea, por favor deja un comentario e iré actualizando la respuesta.
