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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. Not every question was compiled - as noted, we only selected the top 8 questions as submitted by the community, plus 2 pre-set questions from us.

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.

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!

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?

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

What can you do as a moderator to be welcoming to new site members if their questions or answers are flagged?

What unique value will you add to SFSE as a moderator compared to your current member role?

Other than yourself, and existing moderators, who of the other nominees is most worthy of a moderator position?

Is it possible to prevent degradation of quality in questions and answers as the membership grows, and if so, how?

What do you see that you can do as a Moderator to encourage new users to both vote up the helpful answers they receive and accept answers when questions have been solved; in essence educating them on how SF.SE is intended to work?

What do you plan to do to see that questions are appropriately preserved for posterity; ensuring they'll show up in a useable manner when searched in the future?

How much time do you believe you have available each week (on average) to devote to moderation and how do you see yourself allocating that time among the responsibilities you'll have?

How, if at all, do you see the 3 moderators dividing up some of the responsibilities of managing this Q&A site between the three of you?

12

Hopefully my current moderation stats speak for themselves, but here's my answers! Wish I'd spent longer on the nomination thing, meant to edit it before the initial period closed :)

Moderator Stats

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'd leave some extra comments where appropriate suggesting how to better go about things in the future, perhaps highlighting the use of chat over comments when discussion is required. If the activity doesn't change then it'd be time to send a moderator message to the user, encouraging them to maintain their enthusiasm and engagement but to try and make changes to their approach.

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

First check to see if the question has been modified since, this has happened a few times and often the edits make the question suitable for reopening. If that's the case then I'd reopen it, otherwise I'd probably have a quick chat with the other mod to discuss the question.

What can you do as a moderator to be welcoming to new site members if their questions or answers are flagged?

Same as I do now, leave a comment welcoming them to the site and suggesting how to best proceed, i.e. do research, post code etc. depending on the scenario. Out of the box comments aren't all that friendly towards new users.

What unique value will you add to SFSE as a moderator compared to your current member role?

I'm a moderator right now! My ultimate goal is for SFSE to be the best resource it can be. It still feels like my baby even though it's all grown up and I think my moderation activity shows that I care about the site a lot.

Moderating SFSE does take a good chunk of my time, but if I didn't enjoy it or care then I wouldn't be doing it!

Other than yourself, and existing moderators, who of the other nominees is most worthy of a moderator position?

I think Samuel is the clear choice here, though I'd like to see some more personalised comments to new users etc. when dealing with reviews as opposed to out-of-the-box comments. His enthusiasm is clear to see to everyone though!

Is it possible to prevent degradation of quality in questions and answers as the membership grows, and if so, how?

It's definitely possible, through more moderation from the community at large. There's been a huge influx in the number of new users quite recently, and often it appears that they have not read the help and FAQ. Commenting with friendly suggestions is a good start, but we need more people to spend time reviewing and flagging. Also users need to be encouraged to actually take their time when reviewing, there's been a few cases where things have been reviewed and left as-is when something is clearly wrong, and the posts have been subsequently flagged.

It also takes effort from the moderators and power-users to spend time cleaning up questions that they see.

What do you see that you can do as a Moderator to encourage new users to both vote up the helpful answers they receive and accept answers when questions have been solved; in essence educating them on how SFSE is intended to work?

Generally when I see these scenarios I add a comment (being sure to mention them where required) explaining why voting/accepting is important so that they have the opportunity to take action.

What do you plan to do to see that questions are appropriately preserved for posterity; ensuring they'll show up in a useable manner when searched in the future?

I check that questions are tagged properly, and do make edits where new releases have changed the status quo, but also I tend to edit questions that use abbreviations. For instance, many questions include "VF" instead of "Visualforce" in the title/body, and that's not going to help people searching the net. Although we all know what "VF" means in the context of the site, I don't think many people are likely to use it when looking for information in a search engine, they're far more likely to type "Visualforce" in full.

How much time do you believe you have available each week (on average) to devote to moderation and how do you see yourself allocating that time among the responsibilities you'll have?

Right now I probably spend anywhere between 4-10 hours per week on the site, and with every visit comes moderation. More than a few times I've come here to look for an answer to a problem, gotten distrated by moderator flags and then closed the site 30 minutes later having totally forgotten what I was doing in the first place.

How, if at all, do you see the 3 moderators dividing up some of the responsibilities of managing this Q&A site between the three of you?

To date there's been no need to divide the work up as such, with three of us being in substantially different time zones it's been a rather natural process. Personally I believe that unless the workload becomes overwhelming (which it shouldn't on a community moderated site) that there should be no artificial division of labor. Moderation should be dealt with in a timely manner, which is why if I see a flag when I visit the site, I deal with that before anything else.

I want to keep doing this because I love this site. Thanks for reading :)

  • In addition to changing the titles of posts, any thoughts on posts that primarily have lots of comments but no posted answer that summarizes them? – crmprogdev Sep 30 '14 at 13:10
  • Generally in those scenarios you'll see me comment, mentioning the person who's written an answer in a comment, asking them to post it as an answer so it can be accepted. – Matt Lacey♦ Sep 30 '14 at 23:59
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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?

Often users genuinely aren't aware of the effect their behavior is having on others. If I was not able to defuse the situation by commenting, I would send the user a private message, thanking them for their valuable contributions, but explaining that they would be an even bigger asset to the site if they could tone down the comments.

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

I would contact the mod out of band, to check if there was something I was missing, and negotiate a consensual outcome. Worst case, appeal to the third mod.

What can you do as a moderator to be welcoming to new site members if their questions or answers are flagged?

Gentle encouragement in the comments, links to more appropriate forums where necessary - for example "This is a great question, but Salesforce StackExchange isn't really design for discussion and opinion. Maybe https://developer.salesforce.com/forums/ would be a better place to ask this?"

What unique value will you add to SFSE as a moderator compared to your current member role?

Um - I'm already a mod, so MORER AND BETTERER OF THE SAME!

Other than yourself, and existing moderators, who of the other nominees is most worthy of a moderator position?

I think Samuel de Rycke has made an outstanding effort in guiding new members.

Is it possible to prevent degradation of quality in questions and answers as the membership grows, and if so, how?

I think the key to scaling here is to engage the non-moderator community in 'tending the garden'. Mods really do notice those flags!

What do you see that you can do as a Moderator to encourage new users to both vote up the helpful answers they receive and accept answers when questions have been solved; in essence educating them on how SF.SE is intended to work?

When I notice an answer that seems correct, has upvotes, but has not been accepted, I often leave a comment on the question encouraging the user to accept an answer.

What do you plan to do to see that questions are appropriately preserved for posterity; ensuring they'll show up in a useable manner when searched in the future?

Editing the question title is very effective - "OAuth fails with error 400" is much better than "App can't log in", for example.

How much time do you believe you have available each week (on average) to devote to moderation and how do you see yourself allocating that time among the responsibilities you'll have?

As much time as it takes. Seriously - I probably spend about 4-8 hours a week on the site right now/, maybe half moderating and half answering. A luxury I have is that this is part of my day job.

How, if at all, do you see the 3 moderators dividing up some of the responsibilities of managing this Q&A site between the three of you?

Division of labor between the mods so far has been very informal, since we were pretty evenly spaced in terms of timezone. I would probably just see how things pan out in terms of "Whoever notices first fixes the problem" before trying to figure out something more formal.

Thanks for reading, and thank you for considering me as an elected moderator.

  • In addition to changing the titles of posts, any thoughts on posts that primarily have lots of comments but no posted answer that summarizes them? – crmprogdev Sep 30 '14 at 13:11
  • Good question, @crmprogdev. There are definitely opportunities for editing questions/answers to summarize the comment stream! – metadaddy Sep 30 '14 at 15:37
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Let me start with stating that I find most of these questions rather vague, non-specific and very un-stackexchange-like :P.

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?

That would of course depend on the nature of these arguments and flags and their validity. I would most likely add comments explaning that polite conversation usually leads to better understanding and progress. I'm not aware (yet) wat specific mod tools are available additionally.

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

I would contact him/her privately and discuss or just respect their judgement. Which of those would depend on the question and the strenght of my own opinion. If closed and the communication to the user might be extended or improved imo I may add additional comments (explaining or tips on getting a question re-opend).

What can you do as a moderator to be welcoming to new site members if their questions or answers are flagged?

Depends on the type of flag (auto vs low quality or user-flagged) and the quality of the post itself. A lot of new user are clearly already familiar with stackexchange or have profiles on other sites. In that case I rarely do something unless their posts warrants so. If a new post has code format issues I would explain them how to fix it or do it myself + comment. If the content is too little or a url-only I'd comment in relation to that. ... It all depends on the context really. I believe in personalized and context specific comments and write a lot of them.

What unique value will you add to SFSE as a moderator compared to your current member role?

I love how the stackexchange format is so community moderated, and most of what can be done can and should be done by all users anyway. If that is the case there should be little need for additional moderation. Right now being a very active member I'm sometimes restricted or forced to delegate to an admin by flagging issues I could be handling. By being a moderator I'd be able to solve these myself. etc.

Other than yourself, and existing moderators, who of the other nominees is most worthy of a moderator position?

Actually, i was surprised that Keith C didn't nominate himself. His activity has sort of exploded and besides all the answers he's also been posting a lot of valueable comments to new users or where improvements could be done in answers/questions.

Is it possible to prevent degradation of quality in questions and answers as the membership grows, and if so, how?

Voting! Voting! and some comments to explain why you're downvoting and what could be improved. Leaving a comment also helps, because they'll reply when they disagree or do an edit, so you'll get a reminder/notification and you can change your downvote to an upvote. From a moderator perspective I think it's mostly trying to lead by example here, but this surely is a community responsibility.

What do you see that you can do as a Moderator to encourage new users to both vote up the helpful answers they receive and accept answers when questions have been solved; in essence educating them on how SF.SE is intended to work?

Not sure how to understand this question. It's sort of self-answering: comment on how the vote/accept process work and explain or guide them to the help page. I don't believe there's any special mod possibilities here, this is a shared community responsibility. Lead-by example.

What do you plan to do to see that questions are appropriately preserved for posterity; ensuring they'll show up in a useable manner when searched in the future?

Edit, title, tags and keywords in the question itself if needed. Cutting out irrelevant parts if needed. Summarize comment answers or extend given answers with documentation references where needed. Again, this is not a moderator-specific responsibility imo, it's a shared community responsibility and all of us could still improve a lot on this! I already try to bookmark and keep track of much asked questions so that I can easily close duplicates. The prevention of duplicate questions & answers helps in discoverability of answers.

How much time do you believe you have available each week (on average) to devote to moderation and how do you see yourself allocating that time among the responsibilities you'll have?

I'm really bad at statistics. I don't spend huge blocks of time here, but rather small moments of time throughout my days. I considered this before nominating myself and except some mountain/jungle hollidays without internet I don't expect my activity to decrease. enter image description here activity log

How, if at all, do you see the 3 moderators dividing up some of the responsibilities of managing this Q&A site between the three of you?

I think it's a sort of everyone does everything whenever they are around job. Talk to each-other when needed. I don't really see a big challenge or dormant problem here.

6

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?

This depends so much on the person and their personality. But, in general I'd first comment to let them know that comments should be used minimally. I may also show them how an answer or question could be enhanced by edits instead of comments. I'm not sure what moderator tools there are available to me, but I'd also reach out with a private message as well.

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

This is a pretty tight knit group and I think we can resolve issues through a private discussion. Sometimes the reasons for closing a question are vague and a more detailed discussion can reveal why the mod felt it should be closed. I think a bit of debate is healthy for the site and will overall improve it. Don't want any group think going on here!

What can you do as a moderator to be welcoming to new site members if their questions or answers are flagged?

I don't think this is just a moderator role. Any user can and should comment why something is being flagged. My first experience on Stack Exchange was a rude one - I didn't have comment permissions yet, and I had an alternative solution to a question that was really (IMHO) the better way to go. It involved changing the approach completely so it wasn't an answer to the question. My answer was swiftly deleted with no comments and I was soured. Having that experience, I always try to comment on why we do something rather than just do it.

What unique value will you add to SFSE as a moderator compared to your current member role?

As the site grows, I find myself being able to answer less questions. A lot of this is because we have a lot of really smart people answering questions now. I've got a lot of Salesforce experience and can tell when a question or answer needs work, so I'd like to devote more time to the moderator side of things. As an MVP, I have connections at Salesforce to bring in expertise when needed and can relay concerns and issues on to Product Managers.

Other than yourself, and existing moderators, who of the other nominees is most worthy of a moderator position?

I think Samuel De Rycke is one of the best choices. He devotes a lot of time to commenting and welcoming users to the site.

Is it possible to prevent degradation of quality in questions and answers as the membership grows, and if so, how?

Yes, but it is going to take more than just the moderators. As a moderator I would watch edits and flags carefully and make sure they get resolved quickly while also educating the users about proper etiquette.

What do you see that you can do as a Moderator to encourage new users to both vote up the helpful answers they receive and accept answers when questions have been solved; in essence educating them on how SF.SE is intended to work?

I would spend some time looking at questions with answers that haven't been accepted yet. If I feel the answer is a good one and hasn't been accepted, I would add a comment encouraging the user to accept it and provide a link to the FAQ.

What do you plan to do to see that questions are appropriately preserved for posterity; ensuring they'll show up in a useable manner when searched in the future?

Again, I think this is the responsibility of the entire community, not just the moderators. The moderator role is to ensure that edits to questions and answers add value. When we see a question that can be improved, we should feel comfortable editing it.

How much time do you believe you have available each week (on average) to devote to moderation and how do you see yourself allocating that time among the responsibilities you'll have?

I currently spend about 6 hours a week on the site. Some weeks are better than others as the demands on my job fluctuate. If I were a moderator, I'd devote more of my time to watching the review queue and welcoming new users. I think that diamond really adds a lot of credibility to what you say.

How, if at all, do you see the 3 moderators dividing up some of the responsibilities of managing this Q&A site between the three of you?

I think that depends on who is elected moderator and each of their strengths. I don't necessarily think we will need to split up responsibilities, but instead we should be aware of holes and communicate with each other about areas that need attention. I also hope the community will help and let us know when something is being monitored or needs a mod's attention.

  • I happened to notice that both YTD and ALL Time, you're in the middle of the 2nd page among Users Ranked by Votes. Would you share with us how you feel about voting since its an important part of the SE model and seems vital to the success of this Forum as it continues to grow? Users will look to moderators to set the example for how this Forum works, thus the reason for my question. – crmprogdev Oct 5 '14 at 10:34
  • I'm not a prolific voter for sure. A couple of reasons for that: First, I think my standards for a question or answer to get a vote are probably [too] high. I usually don't vote up basic functionality questions or questions about specific code unless they are well written and show research. For answers, I only vote up well written answers I know are true. Finally, I just plain forget to vote - I'm more focused on finding questions I can answer. If I find I learn something, then I definitely vote. Conversely, I'm also reticent to vote down a question and would prefer to comment instead. – Daniel Hoechst Oct 5 '14 at 13:47
  • I agree with your reticence on down votes as I rarely downvote myself and always comment when I do. Based on the rest of your response, do you believe your voting style would be supportive and encouraging of users who are new to the forum? – crmprogdev Oct 5 '14 at 15:06
  • I'm not sure voting encourages new users that much. I think getting good answers encourages users. I definitely try to vote up new user questions more than veterans as I want people to get to the point they can comment and do other basic site stuff. So, yes I think my voting style in addition to commenting is encouraging of new users. I also think I could spend more of my time voting! – Daniel Hoechst Oct 6 '14 at 3:19
  • Thank you for the response. I think voting does encourage new new users and here's why. I believe people have a need to be acknowledged; to know that they've been listened to and their question has been heard. And yes, they also come here to receive useful answers to their questions. Ultimately, that's what will keep them coming back to become active participants. Good luck to you in the election. – crmprogdev Oct 6 '14 at 13:19
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Everyone's role (not only mods) is to protect the signal-to-noise ratio, encourage appropriate individual course correction and identify spam. This site will only scale if everyone steps up :-)

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?

SFSE is about crystallizing knowledge from contributions. If flags are handled according to normal guidelines, unconstructive arguments should disappear. IMHO such users aren't likely to suddenly become less argumentative, but they may get exhausted in time. Flagging is crowdsourced!

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

A few questions may get lost, and that's ok.

What can you do as a moderator to be welcoming to new site members if their questions or answers are flagged?

Be grateful for contributions, show positivity and enthusiasm. Edit to exemplify better practises. Some members will adopt better Q&A style. Others will continue to denormalize the internet.

What unique value will you add to SFSE as a moderator compared to your current member role?

None, really - I'm impatient and this isn't ideal :-)

Other than yourself, and existing moderators, who of the other nominees is most worthy of a moderator position?

Samuel de Rycke

Is it possible to prevent degradation of quality in questions and answers as the membership grows, and if so, how?

No. Degredation is inevitable with growth. It'll feel like wak-a-rat unless every member helps de-duplicate and curate contributed content. Carefully encouraging the right culture is a big part of that.

What do you see that you can do as a Moderator to encourage new users to both vote up the helpful answers they receive and accept answers when questions have been solved; in essence educating them on how SF.SE is intended to work?

Act immediately and visibly in a grateful and positive way. When askers don't upvote and vice versa, be that guy who encourages otherwise in a comment. Sometimes that means being a scapegoat.

What do you plan to do to see that questions are appropriately preserved for posterity; ensuring they'll show up in a useable manner when searched in the future?

Qualify platform features with their proper names. Gently genericize (and encourage others to genericize) questions and answers to make them more widely applicable.

How much time do you believe you have available each week (on average) to devote to moderation and how do you see yourself allocating that time among the responsibilities you'll have?

A couple hours.

How, if at all, do you see the 3 moderators dividing up some of the responsibilities of managing this Q&A site between the three of you?

Most important is all efforts be multiplied. Educate or flag. Not every homework can be helped. Reward ownership of the same process by community, otherwise it will get very mechanical.

4

First of all good luck to all candidates. Here's my answers about how I'd deal with questions. You can always ask me for clarification.

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 encourage the user to move the discussion to chat when there are too many comments. I will make user aware of effect of comments on site. As well as I will provide some tips to make their answer better instead of providing valuable detail in comments.

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

First thing I will try to understand why this question is closed/deleted/etc. If It still makes me to think the question should not be closed I would like to quick chat with mod for clarity.

What can you do as a moderator to be welcoming to new site members if their questions or answers are flagged?

I will try to explain the user that your question lack some useful details which should be their and how they can provide that information. This will be done after examining the reason of flagging the question only. There may be scenario that flagging the question was inappropriate.

What unique value will you add to SFSE as a moderator compared to your current member role?

I will make SFSE more cleaner and would move the site towards more precise and valuable answers. I will encourage users to accept answer when they get the solution instead of leaving the site. This can be a tough task but will try my best.

Other than yourself, and existing moderators, who of the other nominees is most worthy of a moderator position?

Samuel has good number of actions on site and already doing a mod job. He is the most active member on this site.

On other note I would like to see a moderator who can deal in iOS, Android, Amazon, HTML5 frameworks integrations with Salesforce. I always see questions unanswered or answered very late.

Is it possible to prevent degradation of quality in questions and answers as the membership grows, and if so, how?

Encouraging users to upvote/downvote questions would prevent degradation of quality. To prevent degradation the first thing should be to make new users aware of site and how does it work. As moderator a feedback on right time will make quality increasing.

What do you see that you can do as a Moderator to encourage new users to both vote up the helpful answers they receive and accept answers when questions have been solved; in essence educating them on how SF.SE is intended to work?

I most cases new users are not aware of how this site works. They through the question without providing much information which causes question to delete/hold. I will provide a comment how they can ask a question which can have more probability of answer. And will provide information how they can increase the rate of getting answer by up-voting.

What do you plan to do to see that questions are appropriately preserved for posterity; ensuring they'll show up in a useable manner when searched in the future?

Question's title play a good role in this. I will try to make title more better so It can be found in search results.

How much time do you believe you have available each week (on average) to devote to moderation and how do you see yourself allocating that time among the responsibilities you'll have?

I probably spend about 3-4 hours a day on the site in answering question or in editing/reviewing. I keep myself active around 10-12 hours a day seeing what new happening on site.

How, if at all, do you see the 3 moderators dividing up some of the responsibilities of managing this Q&A site between the three of you?

I don't think moderators need to divide responsibilities. I have a different time zone than other so dividing responsibilities may not work. Instead we should take decision which are acceptable by all mods and share information to prevent disconnection.

These are my personal thoughts and doesn't question on current moderators contribution any way :)

Thanks for reading. I am not the current moderator but I would like to provide positive values to site as a moderator.

  • 1
    Based on your answer to the 5th question, my impression is that you see part of a mod's job as one of answering questions & adding SF expertise rather than primarily dealing with concerns related to flags on posts, flagged users and managing/editing the repository of posts. Is that correct? – crmprogdev Sep 30 '14 at 13:08
  • 1
    @crmprogdev No it is not correct. Dealing with flags is the most important duty as a moderator. Taking action on flag makes the site cleaner and filter useless posts. I have plan to close the flag as soon as possible, for me flags will have highest priority than other activities on site. – Ashwani Sep 30 '14 at 15:32
  • 1
    Thank you as I didn't see the relevance of having a moderator with iOS, Android, Amazon or HTML5 skills. That would seem to be a matter of drawing in users to participate who have those skills and experience to share. It doesn't seem necessary that a moderator have them to manage those posts. – crmprogdev Sep 30 '14 at 19:10
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    I happened to notice that YTD you've cast 21 votes and ALL Time you've cast 36, putting you on pages 6 and 7 among Users Ranked by Votes in the respective time frames; the lowest among all the candidates who've responded to this questionnaire. Would you share with us how you feel about voting since its an important part of the SE model and seems vital to the success of this Forum as it continues to grow? Users will look to moderators to set the example for how this Forum works, thus the reason for my question. – crmprogdev Oct 5 '14 at 10:47
3

Better late than never, if you have any questions or want clarification please let me know in the comments.

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 would first try and disfuse the situation within the comments to try and steer the conversation down a less controvershal path. If that didn't work I'd send them a private message and explain to them that whilst their contributions are valuable the way they are perceived could be improved and try to point them in the right direction.

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

I would review the question careful and make sure I hadn't missed anything before reaching out to the other moderator and asking them to clarify their position. Assuming they have a compelling reason that would be the end of it, otherwise I'd try and see if we could come to a concensus on what should be done.

What can you do as a moderator to be welcoming to new site members if their questions or answers are flagged?

Make use of comments to guide users on how to improve their questions and answers to avoid flags in the future. If minor edits could make their post acceptable then I'd make them and let the user know.

What unique value will you add to SFSE as a moderator compared to your current member role?

Personally I already do, and will continue to focus on the quality of the content on SFSE. Improving question and answer formating, suggesting additional details that users could include to improve their answers and trying to reduce the amount of 'noise' that we have that can put new users and answerers off.

Other than yourself, and existing moderators, who of the other nominees is most worthy of a moderator position?

Samuel De Rycke is the clear choice, despite being hamstrung by being a regular user he still performs the duties of a moderator and really embodies the spirit of the StackExchange with his activities.

Is it possible to prevent degradation of quality in questions and answers as the membership grows, and if so, how?

The simple answer is yes, but it's a complex issue. This will be driven more by the community than the moderators and above all voting, which we don't have enough of around here.

What do you see that you can do as a Moderator to encourage new users to both vote up the helpful answers they receive and accept answers when questions have been solved; in essence educating them on how SF.SE is intended to work?

As above, I think this is more driven by the community rather than moderators, as a moderator we can do our best to be good citizens and vote where appropriate, but we can't force others to do the same. We can however encourage them to do so through the use of comments and by pointing people to the FAQ where appropriate.

What do you plan to do to see that questions are appropriately preserved for posterity; ensuring they'll show up in a useable manner when searched in the future?

The easiest way to do this is to improve the title and tags of the post. Further to that ensuring that grammar and punctuation are correct goes a long way to ensure that questions and answers are taken seriously and become the canonical answer is important to reduce duplication.

How much time do you believe you have available each week (on average) to devote to moderation and how do you see yourself allocating that time among the responsibilities you'll have?

I'm not going to promise that I have a certain amount of hours to devote to SFSE each week, but I do visit here at least once a day and more often or not multiple times throughout the day. The time I do spend here is quality time and I try to make the most of it. I currently split my time fairly evenly between moderation and answering questions and I wouldn't see that changing, although the balance would shift more in the moderation direction.

How, if at all, do you see the 3 moderators dividing up some of the responsibilities of managing this Q&A site between the three of you?

I personally don't think there is any need for an explicit division of work. So long as everyone is fulfilling their responsibilities and the community keep up the work they already do everything should keep ticking over nicely. That said, if ever there were any concerns it's unlikely to be anything a quick chat amongst the team couldn't solve.

Thanks for reading. With the candidates we have I think that any 3 would do a great job moderating and leading this site and I wish everyone the best of luck in the election.

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