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2018 Moderator Election

On Stack Exchange, we believe the core moderators should come from the community, and be elected by the community itself through popular vote. We hold regular elections to determine who these community moderators will be.

Community moderators are accorded the highest level of privilege on our community, and should themselves be exemplars of positive behavior and leaders within the community.

Our general criteria for moderators is as follows:

  • patient and fair
  • leads by example
  • shows respect for their fellow community members in their actions and words
  • open to some light but firm moderation to keep the community on track and resolve (hopefully) uncommon disputes and exceptions

Every election has three phases:

  1. Nomination
  2. Primary
  3. Election

Please participate in the moderator elections by voting, and perhaps even by nominating yourself to be a community moderator!

This election ended Sep 11 '18 at 20:00.

The results of this election can be viewed online via OpaVote. Anyone may download the election data. Voters have access to pre-built OpenSTV software to audit the results; all others may use this source distribution


2,261 voters were eligible, 553 visited the site during the election, 320 visited the election page, and 173 voted

2 Candidates

Hi. You would already know me as Michael Karas because I have been around the site for a number of years now. I am throwing my hat into the ring for the moderator election because I already spend time here every day and this seems like the next logical step to be able to contribute more to this community.

I am an avid DIY type person that will always strive to find a way to undertake a project myself whether that be a repair or building something new. With years of experience doing this and having spent multiple years in an earlier time working with my father building and remodeling houses I know how a lot about things are put together and how things in the home work.

See my answers to the questionnaire here.

If you have any questions for me please ask. Please look over my history here and if you think I can add value by being a moderator here I would appreciate your vote.

link | history
reviews | meta posts
  • You've been a site member for 5 yrs and contributed a great number of high quality answers. There's no doubt you have the subject matter knowledge; thanks for throwing your hat in the ring. But you've spent very little time at moderation activities, like the review queues, or even answering questions on HI Meta. Can you comment on your sudden interest in moderation, and where we can see examples of the style and philosophy of moderation you would bring, or examples you may have had of dealing with problem situations or users such as you may be responsible for handling as a moderator? Thanks. – fixer1234 Sep 2 '18 at 8:48
  • @fixer1234 - My answer to your question will really be an extension of the answers I wrote up in the questionnaire. I think I am prepared to take on what is required for shaping the future of this site. If the qualifications for being elected moderator are all about pre-work and time spent in review queues then I would expect people will vote according to their views. I am very much a person to take things on and adjust to the situation at hand. I do not have a grandiose vision and plan to talk about. – Michael Karas♦ Sep 2 '18 at 10:51
  • @fixer1234, Good points. So few election voters realize that the best indication of a good mod is the moderation history the candidate already has. And one of the cheapest/easiest mod helps is to vote. If a long time user hasn't even voted all that much, then they will usually be a poor mod. I look for # of votes > (reputation/10). Also more upvotes than down (except for some (poor) question-closing warriors, but then those folks tend to have high mod stats all around). – Brock Adams Sep 2 '18 at 17:15

Hello, I'm Machavity and I'd like to be the next DIY moderator.

I've been hanging around DIY for a couple of years and have been chipping in answers here and there, but I've been helping out in the moderation queues for quite some time. DIY is a little stranger than the other SE site's I participate in, in that there's not a lot of people out working the queues. I'm in the top reviewers for all queues (which isn't saying much), and I have 4 silver review badges (am close to a gold in First Posts).

Don't let the low reputation fool you. I have 20k Trusted User Privileges on three SE sites (SO, SFF and Politics[beta so 5k for Trusted]). I am a room owner in SOCVR (a chat channel devoted mostly to trusted user moderation) where I've been very active (I've cast nearly 30,000 close votes on SO) and I have been active in some SO mod projects involving tagging, answer and comment cleanup. I've been active on DIY meta as well.

My Meta Questionnaire

link | history
reviews | meta posts
  • Thanks for your activity! How do you decide what to close and what to give more time for edits/clarification? – Joe Phillips Aug 27 '18 at 22:05
  • @JoePhillips Thanks! The first thing to look for is being on-topic. If it's not on-topic it gets a close vote. Beyond that, most DIY questions are asked by new users and the #1 mistake they make is not including enough details (like a photo). Like most regulars, I often leave a comment asking for more details. Once in a while you'll find one that's fine as-is or needs some minor cleanup – Machavity Aug 27 '18 at 22:39
  • I'm surprised that the previous candidates aren't running again. Looks like you're going to get this uncontested. Congrats. – Brock Adams Aug 31 '18 at 23:38
  • @BrockAdams Maybe but Travel.SE recently held theirs and a lot of nominations were on the last day. Thanks for your support, though. – Machavity Sep 1 '18 at 1:02
  • Huh? Only 1 of 6 nominated on the last day (he didn't win). 4 of 6 stood in the first 3 days. Anyway, I'm rooting for you as I didn't like the previous losing candidates here. – Brock Adams Sep 1 '18 at 1:18

This election is complete.