In connection with the moderator elections, we are holding a Q&A thread for the candidates. Questions collected [from an earlier thread](https://unix.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/5210/2019-moderator-election-qa-question-collection) 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](https://unix.meta.stackexchange.com/revisions/d7b90237-6262-465d-8416-b65ff5e1f827/view-source).Please consider putting your name at the top of your post so that readers will know who you are before they finish reading everything you have written, and also including a link to your answer on your nomination post. 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! **Oh, and when you've completed your answer, please provide a link to it after this blurb here, before that set of three dashes. Please leave the list of links in the order of submission.** To save scrolling here are links to the submissions from each candidate (in order of submission): --- >1. A common issue with volunteer posts like moderators is for the volunteer to simply not have enough time to devote to his or her mod duties. This isn't a theoretical question. It's not restricted to SE, either. It's a common issue with volunteer work. And I've seen situations in SE (and indeed elsewhere) where most of the work fell to a subset of moderators/volunteers because the remaining ones were not very active. In this situation, there are at least a couple of ways to go. (I can't think of any other alternatives, but there might be.) [A] Do nothing. Carry on being a mod to the extent of ones diminished capacity [B] Resign, citing lack of time, other commitments, whatever. In your opinion, what is the better choice, [A] or [B], and if [B], what is the level of threshold activity that would make you think that it was time to give up the post? How would you quantify activity for this? >2. While it says on the tin, at the [Stack Overflow blog: A Theory of Moderation](https://stackoverflow.blog/2009/05/18/a-theory-of-moderation/), that the moderators should do as little as possible, we're having an election because the site has "grown and it would be nice to have a larger team" (paraphrasing terdon from chat), so I assume that there'll be moderator tasks for you to do. *If* you plan on spending about the same amount of time on U&L, what *other* U&L activities (such as Asking, Answering, Editing, or Reviewing) that you currently do today do you see yourself doing *less* of when as a moderator? How much time do you think you'll spend here at U&L? >3. Do you have any visions or plans to enhance the U&L community? Specifically around community guidelines such as welcoming new users, as [slm commented in their answer at "What’s it like being a Unix & Linux moderator?"](https://unix.meta.stackexchange.com/a/5219/117549), but it could be around voting or tags or any other area where you see room for improvement. >4. Have you ever identified questions from people attempting to cheat on school/university tests or coursework? What actions did you take? What actions do you think should be taken? How would having the extra voting weight of being a diamond moderator influence your actions in such circumstances? (See: [1](https://unix.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/4206/) [2](https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/108136/65097)) >5. 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? >6. How would you handle a situation where another mod closed/deleted/etc a question that you feel shouldn't have been? >7. Given that a diamond moderator can close a question with a single vote, how will you be construing the "Request for learning materials" closure reason? >8. On some other StackExchange WWW sites, question comments and answer comments are regularly deleted by diamond moderators for straying from [the purpose of clarifying/improving the relevant question or answer](https://unix.stackexchange.com/help/privileges/comment). On Politics, for example, diamond moderators regularly step in when comments are abused to argue people's personal political opinions ([example](https://politics.stackexchange.com/questions/38651/#comment148687_38654)). Does this WWW site have an analogous problem needing diamond moderators to do the same, in your view? Where would the line be drawn, if there is a line at all? >9. Suppose a user expresses disagreement with you over a closed/deleted question or an edit to their post that you've made. How would you handle it? Do you think you always need to explain your moderation decisions to ordinary users and if not, where would you draw the line? >10. On some other StackExchange WWW sites, it is routine practice to protect questions that come up on the Hot Network Questions list (a list that is, to put it mildly, controversial). Given that diamond moderators can protect a question with a single vote, will you be doing this for Hot Network Questions here? Please give your reasons for whatever your answer is.