2019 Pro Tempore Moderator Election Q&A - Question Collection

Question

Spanish.SE is scheduled for our first election! It will take place next week, September 9th. In connection with that, we will be holding a Q&A with the candidates. This will be an opportunity for members of the community to pose questions to the candidates on the topic of moderation. Participation is completely voluntary.

Here's how it'll work:

• Until the nomination phase, (so, until September 9th at 20:00:00Z UTC), this question will be open to collect potential questions from the users of the site. Post answers to this question containing any questions you would like to ask the candidates. Please only post one question per answer.

• If your question contains a link, please use the syntax of [text](link), as that will make it easier for transcribing for the finished questionnaire.

• This is a perfect opportunity to voice questions that are specific to our community and issues that we are running into at currently.

• At the start of the nomination phase, we will gather the top 8 positively scored questions submitted by the community provided in this thread, to use. The Moderators reserve some editorial control in the selection of the questions and may step in to opt not to select a question that is tangential or irrelevant to moderation or the election.

• Once questions have been selected, a new question will be opened to host the actual questionnaire for the candidates.

• This is not the only option that users have for gathering information on candidates. As a community, you are still free to, for example, hold a live chat session with your candidates to ask further questions, or perhaps clarifications from what is provided in the Q&A.

If you have any questions or feedback about this process, feel free to post as a comment here.

Answer 1

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?

Answer 2

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.?

Answer 3

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?

Answer 4

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"?

Answer 5

What is your timezone? When would you be able to attend moderation duties?

Answer 6

Do you have a strong enough grasp of both English and Spanish to communicate with users in either language without any misunderstandings? How would you approach a situation in which you have trouble understanding what a flagged comment or post says?

Answer 7

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?

Answer 8

What do you think that could be added to our Lista de comentarios útiles para el sitio?

Which message do you find yourself repeating often when working on the review queues or giving feedback on people's contributions that you think could/should be added there (both as a handy template and as a way of reminding the community of some of our guidelines, agreements, hopes, etc.)?

Answer 9

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?

Answer 10

What contribution(s) to Meta (no more than three examples) would you say best exemplify your prospective moderation style?

Answer 11

The scope of the site is generally the result of a consensus. As a moderator, you are expected to participate and to lead that continuous definition. How do you feel about enforcing definitions on which you do not necessarily agree?

Answer 12

Currently, the site allows unregistered users to post answers. This has its advantages and its drawbacks, some of which have already been discussed on Meta. What is your stance on this?