2020 Moderator Election

Greeting everybody, my name is DarkCygnus (Mike IRL) and I would like to serve you as a Moderator on this site.

I think that now more than ever this Community (and the whole SE) needs our help and support; surely most of us are aware of the current situation we are in and that action is needed desperately.

It's been about 5 years since I joined the Network, and since the beginning I quickly grew fond of it. At first I was amazed by the variety of sites and help one could get, and then I was positively surprised to see that the Community and the people that make it was also kind and supportive.

I'm not going to lie, I have had my ups and downs regarding this whole situation. At some points I've been with zero to no hope that this can be saved... but we will never know if we don't try!

And, at this point, only our positive and constructive actions and feedback will bring any help. This is the stance I'm taking, and I have high hopes that together we can venture into this new era of the SE network.

Link to my answers to the Questionnaire

Hello, I'm Magisch.

To say I've not been a fan of the recent actions by Stack Exchange is probably a vast understatement. Yet, I still like this site and its community and believe it is worth preserving.

In my view the moderators serve the communities they're elected by, not the company. So if elected I will operate by exactly that principle. Besides the day to day activities of moderating the site, I will use every opportunity I can to make known the interests of this community to the company, and to make sure that we have a voice when it counts.

Big changes are coming to the network, and small sites have to make their needs and voices heard to the company to not be overlooked and to have their perspectives considered in changes made.

Giving feedback is possible without being a moderator, and I've been doing that, but moderators have extra avenues for that feedback. I believe this is an important new task for any future moderators of small communities.

My answers to the questionnaire

My interest in becoming a moderator is based on a desire to facilitate the site focusing on what it does best: provide a Q & A resource for people who need help with career and workplace topics.

One of the headings near the top of our site tour is,

Ask questions, get answers, no distractions

Ideally, that's the environment moderators are here to foster: helping people ask questions, write answers, and avoid distractions.

As I've grown in rep and earned additional rights, I've tried to be mindful of following the community moderator guidelines outlined in A Theory of Moderation. I see becoming a moderator as the next logical step in that progression, and I believe I possess the traits that make for a good moderator: active participation in the site and the meta site, leading by example in terms of focusing first on helping people, and most importantly, the ability to reflect on challenges or feedback from others in the community and adjust my approach as appropriate.

My answers to the candidate questions

Like many others I haven't exactly been enamored with some of SO Inc's actions of late, and I've been vocal about that elsewhere so I'm not going to rehash that here. Also there's the looming shadow of the yet-to-be-released new moderator agreement, which may or may not present new problems and I've expressed concern at that uncertainty too.

So why am I running? I guess it boils down to the same reason why I'm still here answering questions and trying to help people. Because I still think this site has value, regardless of what's happening in and around the SE network real people are still going out to work everyday, they are still trying to find jobs, to keep jobs, to understand jobs - and sometimes they are going to need a hand figuring that stuff out. In spite of taking a series of hefty blows during the recent tumult, with losing multiple moderators etc. The Workplace has trucked on and largely just got on with the business of helping people navigate the world of work.

No-one can completely predict the future, and maybe this will all go down in flames but we've made it this far so I'm betting on TWP.

Q&A response