Since ServerFault is holding community-moderator elections, I figured I'd weigh in with my opinion of what I look for in a mod-candidate. I've been at this a little under a year now, and have a vastly better understanding of the challenges a mod faces.
Some of what I look for can be found in the numbers, flag-rank, meta-activity, chat activity, what badges they've earned, but others can only be learned by watching them.
Meta Activity
As a moderator I have to keep an eye on meta. So much so that any time someone posts a question there, I get notified in my system inbox. What this means is that I read just about every Meta question that comes up. A good mod-candidate will be familiar to me from those questions and answers, since it shows they are actively interested in how the site runs and how to make it better.
Flag Activity
Since a very large part of my job is handling mod-flags, a good mod-candidate should be both familiar to me, and known to be trustworthy with the flagging. A high flag-rank is a fair proxy for this, though there are some exceptions. A better but nigh impossible to produce statistic is the flags to actioned-flags ratio, since a higher 'actioned' number suggests the flagger has a very good grasp of what really needs action. It is quite possible to have a high flag rank and have only a small number of them actioned because the flags are on the wrong side of the edge-case, but not off enough to incur the Nose-bop of Unhelpful.
Good at Conflict Management
Since the moderators get involved whenever there is a temper flare-up there are some users that I routinely see in those. Some of them are there urging the combatants on, if not starting the fight. Others are de-escalating. A good mod candidate will be in there de-escalating, or otherwise attempting to turn the tempers down.
This is especially important since it is guaranteed that some decision you make as a mod will be second-guessed by someone (why was my question closed is a popular one). And sometimes, the person doing the second-guessing is someone you consider to be barely worthy of being on the site, or is edging towards that indignant stridency that encourages a heated response. A good mod-candidate will have proven to me that they can take criticism from any quarter without responding with heat.
Badges
There are certain badges that are interesting to me, since they touch on engagement, interest in the community, and judgment:
A lot of the above are things that I'm well positioned to see. There is a reason that the Deputy and Marshal badges aren't on the list, and that's because I'm the one handling the flags needed to get those badges. Conflict management is something I'm in the middle of, so I see the action more than most. Meta-monitoring is an ongoing thing, and hard to really get a feel for when browsing the archives after the fact.
I do plan on endorsing candidates, since I do have a vested interest in who I work with. However, I won't post that until after the primary. If we stay at 10 candidates we'll go straight to the general, if so I'll post my endorsements at that time.
Some of what I look for can be found in the numbers, flag-rank, meta-activity, chat activity, what badges they've earned, but others can only be learned by watching them.
Meta Activity
As a moderator I have to keep an eye on meta. So much so that any time someone posts a question there, I get notified in my system inbox. What this means is that I read just about every Meta question that comes up. A good mod-candidate will be familiar to me from those questions and answers, since it shows they are actively interested in how the site runs and how to make it better.
Flag Activity
Since a very large part of my job is handling mod-flags, a good mod-candidate should be both familiar to me, and known to be trustworthy with the flagging. A high flag-rank is a fair proxy for this, though there are some exceptions. A better but nigh impossible to produce statistic is the flags to actioned-flags ratio, since a higher 'actioned' number suggests the flagger has a very good grasp of what really needs action. It is quite possible to have a high flag rank and have only a small number of them actioned because the flags are on the wrong side of the edge-case, but not off enough to incur the Nose-bop of Unhelpful.
Good at Conflict Management
Since the moderators get involved whenever there is a temper flare-up there are some users that I routinely see in those. Some of them are there urging the combatants on, if not starting the fight. Others are de-escalating. A good mod candidate will be in there de-escalating, or otherwise attempting to turn the tempers down.
This is especially important since it is guaranteed that some decision you make as a mod will be second-guessed by someone (why was my question closed is a popular one). And sometimes, the person doing the second-guessing is someone you consider to be barely worthy of being on the site, or is edging towards that indignant stridency that encourages a heated response. A good mod-candidate will have proven to me that they can take criticism from any quarter without responding with heat.
Badges
There are certain badges that are interesting to me, since they touch on engagement, interest in the community, and judgment:
- Strunk & White / Copy Editor -- Because editing content is important, and I was big on that before I got the diamond.
- Yearling -- Because they've been around long enough absorb the culture.
- Sportsmanship -- Because they vote up good answers, even if they're competing with their own.
- Badges on Meta -- Since you can earn badges there too.
A lot of the above are things that I'm well positioned to see. There is a reason that the Deputy and Marshal badges aren't on the list, and that's because I'm the one handling the flags needed to get those badges. Conflict management is something I'm in the middle of, so I see the action more than most. Meta-monitoring is an ongoing thing, and hard to really get a feel for when browsing the archives after the fact.
I do plan on endorsing candidates, since I do have a vested interest in who I work with. However, I won't post that until after the primary. If we stay at 10 candidates we'll go straight to the general, if so I'll post my endorsements at that time.