Who should our moderators be?

Question

Our moderators pro tempore have already been selected.

See Moderator Pro Tem Announcement

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Original Post:

If your meta site does not have a post to nominate Moderators, start one now! Pro Tem appointments will begin about two weeks after the site is created. The more guidance we receive, the more informed our choice. Moderator Pro Tempore

• Each nomination should be a separate answer. Link the name to the user’s profile (parent and meta) so we can see their activity.
• The nominee should indicate their acceptance by editing the answer, adding that they accept the nomination. Optionally they can write something about themselves.
• Self nominations are okay, and even encouraged. Most sites have not had sufficient time for many users to stand out. Self nomination is simply a way to say, “I’m interested. Let my record speak for itself.” Links to other activities may be helpful: Area 51 participation, participation in other sites, blog posts reviewing or announcing the site, etc.

We're looking for members of this site who:

• Have a reasonably high reputation score to indicate active, consistent participation.
• Show an interest in their meta’s community-building activities.
• Lead by example, showing patience and respect for their fellow community members in everything they write.
• Exhibit those intangible traits discussed in A Theory of Moderation.

It's also good if the moderators:

• Are members with participation in both the meta and main site.
• Participated in Area 51, generate social network referrals, or blog about the site.
• Are members who have already shown an interest or ability to promote their community.

^{Lifted from the meta.space nomination thread.}

Answer 1

I'd like to nominate Undo for the position.

He's certainly been a big part of the contributions to the site so far, stretching all the way from day 1 to helping in meta, to editing, reviewing and approving. Always free for a chat in the chat room and always constructive, I can think of no reason why Undo wouldn't be a fantastic resource in guiding the site through its Beta stage.

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Thanks Rhys, much obliged!

I'm very flattered that people want me to help moderate this site. I'm certainly willing to dedicate some of my time to this thriving community.

Pros:

• Almost 10k on Meta.SO
• Enthusiastic
• Referred a few users that ended up following through on their commitments.
• The three mods I asked for opinions on me moderating here (TildalWave, Pearson, and Manishearth) all were in favor of it.
• For some reason, the folks in our chatroom seem to want me to do this.
• Active on Space.SE, a probable overlap area.

Cons:

• I've never had a diamond before
• I'd have to learn on the job
• I will most certainly make mistakes.
• The folks in our chatroom seem to want me to do this.
• I'm not really the best at voting consistently - if I had to choose one weakness as my biggest, this would be it.

I've always been very intrigued by the SE system of moderation. I would very much like to help the site more than I currently can without a diamond. If I'm not chosen, I will still stick around and do what I can as a normal user.

Answer 2

I nominate Donald McLean for the moderator pro tempore position:

• Astronomy account
• Astronomy Meta account
• Stack Exchange account

Donald is a software engineer at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland. They provide support to the NASA Hubble Space Telescope and James Webb Space Telescope projects.

I have no idea if he would be interested for the position, but for what it's worth, he swore he had nothing to do with the dropping of the NOAA-19 satellite on the shop's floor so there's no objective reason why we wouldn't consider him as a suitable candidate. :D

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I accept the nomination. If elected, I promise to be a fair and impartial moderator with no agenda other than to make this site the best that we can make it.

Answer 3

I would like to nominate RhysW (myself) for the position

_{(source: stackexchange.com)}
profile for RhysW on Stack Exchange, a network of free, community-driven Q&A sites http://stackexchange.com/users/flair/1797843.png

For the two days I have been a part of this beta I have loved every second of it. Astronomy is one of my favourite topics to the point where I have been taking open university courses on it in my spare time.

In the few days I have been here I have contributed more in questions and answers than I have to every other SE site in the last few months put together.

My main entry into the SE network was about 9 months ago through WorkPlace.SE, another beta site. I have contributed to workplace in many ways:

• Answers
• Meta posts to guide the site
• Welcoming and helping new users
• Encouraging participation to get us a blog
• Participating heavily in chat
• Voting, editing, reviewing
• Creating detailed tag wiki's (a work in progress)

And all of these things I will be doing here on Astronomy too!

So as you can see, Astronomy is something that will have my full dedication and participation and is a topic I fully want to see succeed!

Answer 4

I want to remind everyone to be comfortable enough to stick out your own neck here. Moderating isn't really a position of self-promotion, but a position of self-dedication.

That said, if you feel you have something to offer the community, go for it!

So I'm going to nominate myself, called2voyage!

profile for called2voyage on Stack Exchange, a network of free, community-driven Q&A sites http://stackexchange.com/users/flair/2359501.png

I've been a committed user over at Space Exploration for a while now, and Astronomy has always been an interest of mine.

Answer 5

A man, a legend, an inspiration. I'm nominating Rory Alsop / Dr. Mayhem:

Building Stack Exchange websites on Rock N Roll since est. 1866.

  ► Meta profile

• Rory is an IT security professional: He is a moderator on IT Security Stack Exchange
• Dr. Mayhem is a Metaltech: He is a moderator on Musical Practice & Performance β
• Rory is personally productive: He is a moderator on Personal Productivity β
• Rory and Dr. Mayhem are a star: Now nominated to moderate The Local Cluster

Apparently, a man so nice we nominated him twice! :D

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Well, with 2 nominations, how could I refuse?

I was actually pretty active on the first incarnation of Astronomy SE, before it got rolled up into Physics (which is where I got most of my Physics rep from), so I'm glad this second iteration has come about, and am keen to see it succeed.

As mentioned, I do enjoy the activities that come under the moderation banner - and feel this is a subject area I can be useful and fair, and help another site develop to graduation and beyond.

Answer 6

I'm going to nominate astromax.

profile for astromax on Stack Exchange, a network of free, community-driven Q&A sites http://stackexchange.com/users/flair/1423264.png

• Meta: Meta Account
• Field knowledge (PhD candidate in Physics)
• Delivers excellent answers and knowledge

Answer 7

I'd like to nominate Manishearth for the position.

profile for Manishearth on Stack Exchange, a network of free, community-driven Q&A sites http://stackexchange.com/users/flair/1212053.png

He has experience modding other sites, Physics and Chemistry, and thus would be familiar with the tools already. On top of this he, has shown interest and participation in the site up to its current age. This puts him among one of the top contributors.

No idea if he's interested, though, with the load of modding the two other sites.

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I'm afraid I have to decline this. I'd really love to relive the experience of watching a beta site grow and slowly start handling itself¹, but I have multiple reasons as to why this isn't possible for me:

• Firstly, while I'm very enthusiastic about this site now, I have no a priori plans of staying active here. Don't get me wrong — I've always enjoyed astronomy — but I'm not sure if I can sustain longterm participation in this site. Sites like IT Security and Robotics are other examples of sites on topics I'm enthusiastic about, but where I'm unable to sustain regular participation (mainly due to time constraints)
• Time. I'm already extremely busy these days and not able to give enough time to Phys and Chem as I'd like. Fortunately, neither site is suffering due to this, thanks to the community and the mod team. But I'd rather not have to divide my time further.
• Conflict of interest. Technically, Astro.SE is a proper subset of Physics.SE, scope-wise. A lot of the community members on Phys would prefer to avoid the fragmentation of the community caused by this new site. I'd rather not step in the middle of that.
• I'd also prefer to see some fresh hands at the stern of this site. Moderation experience is a good thing, but given that this site failed in the past we may need some new ideas to get it going. Of course, one doesn't need to be a moderator to do that; but usually its the mods who end up with the job of stoking the flames of meta. I'm not saying that the mod team of the previous Astro site was incompetent (far from it!), but a fresher perspective is always good. Rhys and Undo are two users who I particularly feel could provide this.

That being said, I'll certainly try to keep up a modicum of participation on this site and work with whatever mods it gets when it comes to the cross-site overlap.

^{1. It really is an awesome experience. At first you start off with editing and nurturing almost every post you see, but slowly the community takes over some of the various jobs you used to do, usually performing them better than you did! From a moderator's perspective, this is something that feels really nice :) For those hesitant to nominate, you may wish to take this into account!}

Answer 8

I'd like to nominate TildalWave:

He's already the moderator of Space Exploration SE, so he may be a bit busy, but on the other hand, that site is partially related to Astronomy, so he may be helpful and may have useful information, even on this site.

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Much obliged, but I respectfully decline my nomination.

This idea of me nominating for the Astronomy Stack Exchange has been mentioned before in both Space Exploration and Astronomy main chat rooms, where I have listed several reasons why I don't think it would be the best idea:

@RhysW You're spot on the money there, I don't plan on nominating. If it will end up being a call of duty, then I probably wouldn't say no and pretend I'm hard to get, but I'd much rather see exclusively to this site dedicated pro tem mods. We'll work together a lot anyway. ► Transcript

and

@RhysW Honestly, it's not because of the workload, it's more trusting oneself to not become partial to one site more than the other, when they're quite similar in nature. If it was two utterly distinct sites and I'd be into both, I wouldn't hesitate. But with these two, I'm not even hesitant, I know it wouldn't be the best idea. It's just human to compare two similar things, but is not good for either of the sites, they should evolve independently. ► Transcript

Just to be clear, these are my replies to suggestions I take on moderating a new, beta Stack Exchange website that has its scope partially intertwined with Space Exploration, where I'm currently a pro tem. Most of these arguments of course fail for already graduated sites, and I'm not saying I might not consider such nomination on future elections. So, with my honest wishes this Astronomy 2.0 site makes it, and my intention to of course still participate here in a non-moderating capacity, I have to decline this nomination for a pro tem.

Whoever the Stack Exchange community managers choose for Astronomy pro tempore moderators will be working fairly tightly with Space Exploration and Physics Stack Exchange websites both in refining their respectful websites' scope, as well as sharing and migrating contents, so mixing these positions between too similar in contents websites might not be in the best interests of any.

You all deserve to get your own, 100% dedicated to this website moderators that will never be in doubt which site's interests to put in front first. Thank you for your trust though, the nomination is still very flattering!