A Leadership Vacuum: Please Step Up

For the last two months, we have been seeking an additional moderator for this site. Your community has grown and you need a new person to help assist the current moderation team in nurturing and monitoring your site! Unfortunately, I have had a bit of trouble finding this additional enthusiastic soul.

So, I am turning to the community and issuing a call to arms. This community needs people to lead it! Moderation is about accepting edits and handling flags, yes, but it's also about serving as a role model to the community. It's about helping shape the site, policy-wise and scope-wise, into something that can -- nay, will! -- be truly successful, valuable, and makes the internet better! The many things a moderator does are covered at greater length in A Theory of Moderation.

This position may seem like a tall order, but I am confident that there is someone who is dedicated to this site enough that he or she wants to take on the role. Furthermore, you would not be going at it alone. Moderators work as a team to address issues, move the site forward, and clarify the breadth of the site itself. It is a privilege (and a joy!) to be able to look at a community and know you've had a direct hand in building it.

I'll stress this much: this is a voluntary activity. If you opt to step in and then find yourself overwhelmed by Real Life or work or some such, you're free to leave or take a leave of absence, but you'd need to let the Community Managers and your fellow moderators know.

This site needs someone willing to stand up and say, "I want to make this place better!" If you're that person, please leave an answer! We'd love to have you.

Aarthi

• discussion
• moderation

Comments

• jonsca: Thanks Aarthi, we had been talking about this with Grace Note, but you probably knew that!
• jonsca: and Site Members please, even if you have an inkling that you might enjoy, benefit, profit from such an experience, put your name in the ring. Don't be shy!!
• jonsca: Yep this is about right.
• Jakob: I'd also like to help the site by moderating and I've some experience as Wikipedia admin, which is a similar task, but I fear my time is too limited, at least until June. How do community managers and moderators coordinate?
• Aarthi: That might be a good question for @jonsca, who can give you a front-line answer. From my perspective: I ping in chat, send an email, or make meta posts in order to reach mod teams.
• jonsca: @Jakob we have a dedicated chatroom for the moderators, so mods can correspond in there if necessary. Other than that, we don't have any preset meeting schedule, just when something comes up. All of the above that Aarthi cites certainly work, too. If our traffic were to step up (which we are hopeful it will!!), we might need some more infrastructure, but this works for the time being.
• jonsca: @Jakob Honestly, toss your hat in if you'd like, we'd be glad to work around your schedule. Don't let a short period like that be a deterrent.
• Tim Post: We _really_ need to hear from folks if they have an interest in this - it's a bit concerning when we're unable to find moderators in a community. If you think you'd like to give the job a try, please let us know :)
• Wooble: Well, I haven't been very active on the site, but I am a 20K+ SO user who works in a library. I'd be happy to help out if my meager 201 rep doesn't dissuade you. (Although honestly given the number and quality of questions from the last month, this may be a lost cause. :( )
• Tim Post: @Wooble I'm not really looking at rep here. Libraries doesn't get a lot of traffic, thus doesn't get a lot of voting. Primarily, I'm after someone that wants the job, and wants to help lead the community into turning this into a successful site. We are in a bit of a slump, so new energy and new ideas on how to get the right people here would be welcome - and of course have our support. If you're really interested, please go ahead and leave a short answer and we can go from there.