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The purpose of this thread was to collect questions for the questionnaire. The questionnaire is now live, and you may find it here.

Ask Ubuntu is scheduled for an election next week, May 6th 2019. In connection with that, we will be holding a Q&A with the candidates. This will be an opportunity for members of the community to pose questions to the candidates on the topic of moderation. Participation is completely voluntary.

Here's how it'll work:

  • Until the nomination phase, (so, until May 6th 2019 at 20:00:00Z UTC, or 4:00 pm EDT on the same day, give or take time to arrive for closure), this question will be open to collect potential questions from the users of the site. Post answers to this question containing any questions you would like to ask the candidates. Please only post one question per answer.

  • We, the Community Team, will be providing a small selection of generic questions. The first two will be guaranteed to be included, the latter ones are if the community doesn't supply enough questions. This will be done in a single post, unlike the prior instruction.

  • If your question contains a link, please use the syntax of [text](link), as that will make it easier for transcribing for the finished questionnaire.

  • This is a perfect opportunity to voice questions that are specific to your community and issues that you are running into at currently.

  • At the start of the nomination phase, the Community Team will select up to 8 of the top voted questions submitted by the community provided in this thread, to use in addition to the aforementioned 2 guaranteed questions. We reserve some editorial control in the selection of the questions and may opt not to select a question that is tangential or irrelevant to moderation or the election.

  • Once questions have been selected, a new question will be opened to host the actual questionnaire for the candidates, typically containing 10 questions in total.

  • This is not the only option that users have for gathering information on candidates. As a community, you are still free to, for example, hold a live chat session with your candidates to ask further questions, or perhaps clarifications from what is provided in the Q&A.

If you have any questions or feedback about this process, feel free to post as a comment here.

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How would you handle a user who gets annoyed at you (if you were a moderator), over moderator actions taken against one of their posts or comments?

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How do you think Ask Ubuntu is doing at being welcoming? In what areas could we improve? Could you have any impact on this as a moderator?

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    Posting a question in the answer section feels so wrong...
    – Zanna Mod
    Commented Apr 30, 2019 at 16:35
  • This type of question often comes up in elections and I admit I've never understood it. Mods are the least important when it comes to being welcoming, that's something that's down to each individual user and our interactions with new users. Mods need to be even more welcoming than your average user, yes, but apart from that there really isn't much a mod can do. Unless there is and I've never realized it which would be a whole different problem!
    – terdon Mod
    Commented Apr 30, 2019 at 22:29
  • @terdon it's funny you say this since I specifically thought about 2 examples where you did something that made a positive difference to the welcomingness of AU when I posted this er "answer"!
    – Zanna Mod
    Commented May 1, 2019 at 1:10
  • ha! Well, I'm glad to hear that, but was whatever I did something that required mod powers? Or could anyone have done it?
    – terdon Mod
    Commented May 1, 2019 at 7:53
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    @terdon no, but I personally think that what mods do sets the tone. That's what I felt as a new user anyway.
    – Zanna Mod
    Commented May 1, 2019 at 8:30
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    OK, fair enough. I'm glad I helped in any case :)
    – terdon Mod
    Commented May 1, 2019 at 8:40
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If you are asked to defuse a situation between two users who are angry at each other, what would your approach to the resolution of this dispute be?

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What does Ask Ubuntu get when you become a moderator?

That is to say, what do you think makes you different —better or not— from the existing talent pool in terms of your aims, drives, focus, etc. What effect do you think this will have on the site and its community?

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In your opinion, what does it mean to be a moderator, and what role do you believe a moderator plays here on Ask Ubuntu specifically versus other sites?

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Here is a set of general questions, gathered as very common questions asked every election. As mentioned in the instructions, the first two questions are guaranteed to show up in the Q&A, while the others are if there aren't enough questions (or, if you like one enough, you may split it off as a separate answer for review within the community's 8).

  • 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?
  • How would you handle a situation where another mod closed/deleted/etc a question that you feel shouldn't have been?
  • In your opinion, what do moderators do?
  • A diamond will be attached to everything you say and have said in the past, including questions, answers and comments. Everything you will do will be seen under a different light. How do you feel about that?
  • In what way do you feel that being a moderator will make you more effective as opposed to simply reaching 10k or 20k rep?
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Looking at your personal profile, personality, qualities and background, in your opinion/expectation, what would be your biggest pitfalls you'd have to consider if you become a moderator?

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