Ask Ubuntu currently has the lowest Percent Answered of any Stack Exchange site. What do you feel caused this, and what is your personal opinion on whether - and how - to change that?
What do I feel caused this? I feel that a lack of voters (both up/down and close) is one of the main reasons. Questions that have good, but unaccepted, answers are never marked answered if no one upvotes the answer. Questions that are duplicates or low quality never get closed if no one flags are votes on them.
One thing we (as a site) can do is close unclear questions immediately. This will help with drive-by askers who never reply to comments. We also need to use up/down votes more, because these things drive the site.
I often wish the moderators we have would help with the close vote queue a bit more, when it gets too big for the Community to handle (like it is now, over 200 questions). If elected, this is something I plan on keeping an eye on.
What is, in your opinion as a potential future moderator, the biggest problem that Ask Ubuntu faces? If you were to get elected, what actions would you take towards resolving this issue?
In my opinion the biggest problem Ask Ubuntu faces is probably lack of question moderation. I would encourage users to downvote badly written and unclear questions, to edit and improve titles and grammar and to use close votes and flags. If you are answering a question, try to clean up the grammar, tags and title if possible.
I'm also interested and seeing Oli's question wizard implemented to help users ask good questions and not ask dupes.
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?
I think this question is a bit too broad, there are many things that could be going on here. It could be users being overly sensitive to language, it could be an OP (OP in this case meaning answerer) that is too chatty, an offensive OP, or just someone being too assertive of their opinion.
In any case I would leave a comment for the user explaining what they are doing wrong and politely asking them to stop. If the user(s) persist I would talk to another moderator about the situation, to first make sure that I'm not the run in the wrong then decide what action to take next. It could be anywhere from editing, deletion, and, in extreme cases, bans.
How would you handle a situation where another mod closed/deleted/etc a question that you feel shouldn't have been?
First I would ask the moderator that did the action what his/her reasoning was, and present my own view of the case. I would then try to come to a agreement with the moderator on how to leave the situation. Additional steps may be taken if the Community is especially worried about it, including posting to meta.
As a moderator, your votes become binding. Actions you used to take like flagging, closing, and deleting will take effect immediately without any input from any other users or moderators.
How will you adapt the way you currently flag and vote to deal with this change?
The fact that my actions will take effect immediately will certainly make me think a little longer over decisions and review them to make sure they were correct.
As the old saying goes: "Measure twice, cut once!"
Getting a reputation on this website is based on your technical skills/knowledge. What proves us that you know how to handle people? How do you feel current moderators go about handling people?
Tough question!
The only proof I can give that I know how to handle people is with my current conduct. Patience is key in the job of a moderator.
I believe the current moderators are doing an ok job handling people; although I sometimes think a little more patience would be useful.
A new user has arrived and doesn't really understand the way the Stack Exchange system is supposed to work. They're complaining that people keep editing their posts and a roll back war has started on a question that they've asked. You need to step in and moderate the situation. What actions do you take?
The first thing I would do is lock the post and stop the edit war. Then, depending on the situation, I would leave a comment for the OP explaining how the Stack Exchange system works and that there is nothing wrong with having your question/answer edited.
I might also leave a comment (depending on the situation) for the other user, asking them to not be so picky (changing American/British spelling and stuff like that).
While the moderator position you're nominating yourself for is a voluntary position, there is a minimum amount of time that you would need to be available in order to be an effective moderator. How much time do you currently spend using Ask Ubuntu and are there any known circumstances in which this will change in the future?
I usually spend from 30 minutes to and hour and a half or so actually using Ask Ubuntu on a good day, but I check the flag and review queues on and off all day. I won't be available quite as much in the summer, but it doesn't usually effect my participation much.