

Stack Overflow Moderator Election - rob-alarcon
http://stackoverflow.com/election/4?tab=election

======
throwaway420
Anybody who promises to stop deleting and locking interesting questions on
Stack Overflow gets my vote.

Wikipedia has the same problem.

~~~
Smudge
Stack Overflow should realize that they're actually the perfect platform for
asking open-ended _why_ questions. Not having a definitive answer is what
makes many of these questions so _interesting._

Who would be harmed if those questions were left open (other than the anally-
retentive)?

~~~
spolsky
That is not our opinion ;-) We believe that the highly open ended,
conversational questions generate heat, not light. They are AWESOME and we
LOVE THEM, but NOT ON STACK OVERFLOW. Stack Overflow is a place where you go
to get an answer to a programming problem, and what you find there should be
just that -- the answer to a programming problem. It's not an online forum or
a place to discuss open ended "why" questions. There are a million of those on
the Internet already.

(Personally I'm a fan of a little site called Hacker News for this purpose...
but I've never found the answer to a programming problem on Hacker News. And
I've never found french fries at a Pizza store, and I don't fault Pizza stores
for not selling french fries)

~~~
Achshar
While I agree it's your call to make entirely but those "million of [sites] on
the Internet" don't have the community like SO. I cannot expect Jon Skeet to
answer my question on yahoo answers or experts exchange or any other site for
that matter. Sometimes products have to change according to user's needs.

~~~
pseut
The community isn't a given. Some of the stack exchanges that allow more open
ended questions are somewhat useless. I'm thinking of the stats one in
particular[1]: you get a ton of questions where it is clear that the
questioner will be unable to determine which answer (if any) is correct.
Here's a random example I found after 3 seconds of looking:

[http://stats.stackexchange.com/questions/32007/which-
statist...](http://stats.stackexchange.com/questions/32007/which-statistical-
method-should-i-use-to-prove-significant-difference-for-my-pic)

Fairly open ended, possibly answerable, but the OP will have no fucking idea
if an answer is good or bad. (Apologies if the OP reads Hacker News).

Now, the fact that the stats stack exchange also encourages students to ask
questions about homework introduces the similar problems, so I can't be sure
that the open-ended nature of these questions is the _main cause_ of the
site's suckiness, but I'm pretty sure it contributes. And I don't want to
participate in that forum even though I waste a shit-ton of time online on
places like HN and prefer stats to startups.

[1] <http://stats.stackexchange.com>

------
antman
A moderator that saves me from having to type long queries on google has my
vote. I currently have to type: termtosearch site:stackoverflow.com "closed as
not".

------
wfunction
I'll be looking for moderators who won't close "Why?" questions on the basis
that knowing "why" doesn't solve an existing problem.

------
freework
Why does an upvote/downvote community need moderators? Isn't the whole point
of letting users upvote and downvote content to avoid having moderator
overlords?

------
Encosia
Should be closed as _not a real question_ and _too localized_.

------
rebelde
A popularity contest to choose moderators? I wouldn't run my forums that way.
We would end up with the wrong people in charge.

~~~
McGlockenshire
It's not just a popularity contest. Each of the candidates had a dedicated
comment discussion during the nomination phase. These comments were frequently
focused on how the nominee already participated in the community moderation
process.

On the other hand, sometimes is really is a popularity contest. My number one
pick is someone from the tag community I hang out with the most. I already
trust his judgement.

------
singular
I'd vote for moderators who punish people for answering:-

X. It took me Y seconds to google your problem and find that solution.

It'd save me downvoting every time I see that kind of ridiculous passive
aggressive bullshit.

~~~
eliben
Feel free to propose edits to such answers with constructive criticism. In
practice, there aren't many of these on SO.

~~~
singular
You say that as if you know that for a fact, I've seen them over + over again
(anecdote, but still), as well as many other such passive-aggressive
responses. I often do take action on them, however the prevalence makes me
think that not enough is done about the standard developer issue of people not
knowing how to behave civilly to one another.

Frustrating to be so downvoted for raising something that is so rotten by the
way, presumably it's ok to talk down to somebody simply because you feel they
haven't put in enough effort in asking a question?

Or perhaps it was the language? That stems from being frustrated with the
nasty culture that seems to be seeping in to so many corners of our
development communities.

