Due to a continual and ever-growing stream of moderator flags on the classic trilogy -- and a desire to be respectful of the time our existing community moderators are so generously contributing to our community -- I recently proposed on meta that we add moderators to each classic trilogy site:
Stack Overflow
(came in 3rd and 4th in our 2010 election)
Super User
Server Fault
Please welcome our newest community moderators to the family!
As always, I recommend reading through our theory of moderation which is best summarized by moderate as little as possible. Our community moderators are human exception handlers, but as the sites continue to grow (Stack Overflow's growth is particularly extreme) those unusual exception conditions happen more often.
Will there continue to be future moderator elections? Absolutely. My experience so far has taught me that -- all other things being equal -- it's better to have more moderation than less. I agree that appointments aren't ideal, I would prefer to run elections, but we have urgent needs on the trilogy. I believe that every moderator we've appointed today lives up to our moderator selection ideals:
- Must be a currently registered user in good standing.
- Must have a reasonably high reputation score to indicate active, consistent participation.
- Should exhibit patience and fairness at all times in their questions, answers, and comments.
- Should lead by example, showing respect for their fellow community members in everything they write.
- They should want the responsibility. Being a community moderator isn't an obligation, it is completely voluntary.
As Robert alluded to in his excellent Stack Exchange 2.0 beta primer, The 7 Essential Meta Questions of Every Beta, we will be building out community moderator election support as a standard feature of all Stack Exchange 2.0 sites in the near future.
We're not there yet, but soon!