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UPDATE: Given the level or interest in an election expressed on this post, the Community Management Team has scheduled an election to start on September 26th. See more details on this post.

Politics Stack Exchange graduated late last year. After discussing with the current moderators and the community management team, we're looking at scheduling the graduation election to start somewhere in July late September of 2022. To avoid finding ourselves in a situation where an election would fail due to an insufficient number of candidates, though, we’re posting this to try to assess the community members' willingness to step up and nominate themselves, when the actual election's nomination period starts.

Please leave an answer if you'd be willing to run for a moderator position. As mentioned, we're looking at scheduling the nomination period to start some time in July late September '22.

Since post-beta elections need to be competitive, the interest check will help us determine how many slots we should have. To run a four slot election, we would need at least five candidates.

The winners of the graduation election will make up the new moderation team. As then community manager Jon Ericson wrote in 2018:

On graduation, all moderators must stand for re-election if they wish to continue in the role. There will be no difference between moderators who ran for an election during beta and moderators we appoint.

NOTE: This is not an official election nomination thread, just a "pulse check" to get a notion of how many people here would be willing to step up, so you don't have to put up your whole election nomination.

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  • We currently have 3 moderators, is there a need to add more?
    – Joe W
    May 13, 2022 at 17:39
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    @JoeW It's a graduation election; the current moderators are still pro-tem. In other words, me and the other mods will have to get (re)elected if we want to stay on as mods.
    – JJJ Mod
    May 13, 2022 at 17:45
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    I understand that and what I was asking is that if the current number we have is enough or that there is a need for more.
    – Joe W
    May 13, 2022 at 18:24
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    @JoeW ah okay, yea I think we're aiming for three or four. Three works, but four is a bit more flexible when not everyone is here (both in terms of daily routine and being busy in real life for longer periods).
    – JJJ Mod
    May 13, 2022 at 18:45
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    The moderator team here is top-notch; speedy and responsive yet open and operating with a "light touch". The mod work load must be enormous in Politics SE compared to other sites already asking for a fourth moderator.
    – uhoh
    May 19, 2022 at 1:21
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    @uhoh we used to have four mods since the last election. I'm not sure about the size of the mod team over the years before that.
    – JJJ Mod
    May 19, 2022 at 1:51
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    We reached out to some more active community members in hopes that they'll consider running as well. That message is posted here in chat.
    – JJJ Mod
    Jun 9, 2022 at 2:50
  • 2
    I've been asked in the chat, and so far I had not considered it. I'm not sure if I am the right personality for a moderator ...
    – o.m.
    Jun 9, 2022 at 4:04
  • Ditto as o.m. , I'll try my best in the future to be constructive when I can with comments, votes and flags, but it's both a big time commitment and something my rather snarky self does not seem ideally suited for.
    – Italian Philosophers 4 Monica
    Jun 15, 2022 at 20:55
  • one thing that comes to mind, and I wonder if it would be worth asking about: what, if anything, can we do to help existing moderators? As an example, when we see a borderline problematic comment, is it better to flag it, so that moderators don't need to spend too much time proactively reviewing comment threads? Or is that just adding noise and volume to their work? Ditto with overlong comment threads, especially ones we haven't participated in?
    – Italian Philosophers 4 Monica
    Jun 15, 2022 at 20:59
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    @ItalianPhilosophers4Monica long comment threads get flagged automatically. In my view it's best t just flag individual comments if you think they should be removed. Other than that I don't think we need specific help. We have grip on the flag queue, it's just we need enough mods to have coverage. By that I mean throughout the day but also at longer time scales when we're off for longer times (e.g. on holiday or busier times at work).
    – JJJ Mod
    Jun 15, 2022 at 21:11
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    Could you maybe fix the language that describes a specific time as "fall". SE might be US-based and get most of their traffic there, but there's a very large userbase for whom it makes no sense - autumn has already come and gone this year for me, let alone that it's approximately three months long, and September has now been specified as well.
    – Nij
    Jun 24, 2022 at 23:00
  • @nij yes made it a bit more specific, thanks.
    – JJJ Mod
    Jun 25, 2022 at 5:48

7 Answers 7

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I was elected as a pro tempore moderator in October 2020, and I’ve found the last year and a half enjoyable and engaging, so I intend to nominate myself once again in the upcoming graduation election. I highly encourage anyone else considering doing so to throw their hat in the ring as well!

While we’re on the topic, I’d also like to thank yannis who has stepped down as a moderator. He was very welcoming when I was elected and helped me learn the ropes, not to mention his near-decade of service since being appointed back in 2013.

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I plan to run in the graduation election too. I enjoy the moderation aspect to the site, especially with the current affairs angle on Politics keeping things interesting.

I’d like to take this opportunity to thank the other moderators as well as yannis who’s recently left the team. Though we mostly act independently, it’s always been nice to have the support and counsel of my fellow mods.

If this appeals to you too then I look forward to seeing you join the race. :)

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I would really prefer not to run, since while I am quite a regular participant, responsibilities litigating trials or conducting appeals IRL can take me away for as much as a couple of weeks at a time, and I'd prefer not to shirk my responsibilities when this happens one to three times a year.

But, if it makes a difference to the ongoing ability to the Politics.SE to operate, I could be dragged reluctantly into to running (I'm allowed to campaign for the other candidates, aren't I?)

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  • 2
    Hey! You expressed you might be interested in running. I’m just adding a comment here to remind you that the nominating phase is set to close in a few days and we’re at 4 candidates only; we’d need at least 5 for a competitive election.
    – JJJ Mod
    Sep 30, 2022 at 8:21
  • O.K., how do I even nominate myself?
    – ohwilleke Mod
    Sep 30, 2022 at 17:37
  • The option should appear toward the bottom of the page here politics.stackexchange.com/election. We did get a few more nominations since, though please don't let that scare you off! Being away for some weeks every now and then is totally fine, we mostly call them vacations here (even if it's not really a vacation for the one taking a break from the site). :D
    – JJJ Mod
    Sep 30, 2022 at 18:23
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I'm vaguely interested. I might be a little too busy by the time the actual election comes around, but I'll give it some thought.

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    Hey! You expressed you might be interested in running. I’m just adding a comment here to remind you that the nominating phase is set to close in a few days and we’re at 4 candidates only; we’d need at least 5 for a competitive election.
    – JJJ Mod
    Sep 30, 2022 at 8:21
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    Thank you for the reminder. Unfortunately my current schedule is a little too tight for this. Best of luck to you and everyone else running though!
    – Joe
    Oct 4, 2022 at 10:39
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I don't think I'll win by any margin, but I'll put in my candidacy :-)

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    Hey! You expressed you might be interested in running. I’m just adding a comment here to remind you that the nominating phase is set to close in a few days and we’re at 4 candidates only; we’d need at least 5 for a competitive election.
    – JJJ Mod
    Sep 30, 2022 at 8:21
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I could serve if the other candidates are absent or poor, but hopefully there will be enough suitable candidates who can put in more time than I can.

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  • Hey! You expressed you might be interested in running. I’m just adding a comment here to remind you that the nominating phase is set to close in a few days and we’re at 4 candidates only; we’d need at least 5 for a competitive election.
    – JJJ Mod
    Sep 30, 2022 at 8:21
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    @JJJ Ah, ok. Well then. I give in.
    – gerrit
    Sep 30, 2022 at 9:01
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I will throw my hat into the ring and will work on a more exciting post in the next couple of days.

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    Hey! You expressed you might be interested in running. I’m just adding a comment here to remind you that the nominating phase is set to close in a few days and we’re at 4 candidates only; we’d need at least 5 for a competitive election.
    – JJJ Mod
    Sep 30, 2022 at 8:21
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    @JJJ Thank you for the reminder, I haven't had time to dedicate to filling out the form and I still plan on getting to it.
    – Joe W
    Sep 30, 2022 at 12:20

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