Janos
A question is flagged: Please delete this question - my boss has seen it and says it contains confidential code - he's freaking out and wants me to remove it, but I can't delete it. The question was asked 3 days before, it has 2 answers, one is accepted. How do you respond?
First of all, it's suspicious that somebody would post confidential content by mistake and leave it around for 3 days. Our site has a very attentive user base, and if something looks like potentially confidential or sensitive content, somebody would have nudged the user. I've actually seen this happen a few times.
That being said, if the request looks credible and legitimate, I would discuss with my fellow moderators, and ultimately ask the Community Manager for assistance.
What do you think about the new possibilities of migration coming with graduation? Graduation means we will get the ability to migrate questions away by community vote. It also means we may end up on the migration path of other sites. These user-migrations can be notoriously bad (see the old programmer's dilemma). I personally fear they will be. This means an additional moderation duty and quite possibly drama with other sites on the network... How would you address problems coming up with large-scale low-quality user migrations?
Thanks to Simon's @Duga, we could get a glimpse to what is to come. And so far, it's not so bad:
- Several bad migrations from SO have been successfully averted
- The SO community is hopefully starting to get the hang of this site
If large-scale low-quality migrations do happen, we should:
- Contact the moderators of the originating sites, to explain clearly why the migrated posts shouldn't have been migrated
- I would expect those moderators to disseminate our conclusions in their community, and educate their users, perhaps in meta and blog posts. We would work together with them to make the message as clear as possible, and prevent further bad migrations
As a moderator on Code Review you will also become a moderator on all of chat.stackexchange.com - which has rooms for most sites (all except Stack Overflow and Meta.StackExchange). A heated discussion is flagged in "The Suspension" chat room which is associated with BridgeBuilding.stackexchange.com - there is swearing and name calling. What do you do?
Take action:
- Kindly ask everybody to mind their language, please, calm down, and move on. Swearing and name-calling are inappropriate on the SE Network
- If they don't listen, ask again more assertively
- If they still don't listen, kick them
Cleaning up:
- Copy the conversation with relevant context to a private room for evidence, forensics
- Remove offensive messages to prevent further damage
- Contact the mods of the site, to give them the heads up, as there might be further hostility, backlash, or even vandalism by the misbehaving users
A user has an issue with an action you, as moderator, took; calling you out on meta, a chat room, comments, or otherwise. How do you handle this?
If I'm called out publicly on meta or chat, I'll respond right there. Comments are not suitable for discussions, so I would respond and at the same time invite to public or private chat, depending on the situation.
I'm a nice guy and I don't bite. I treat people with respect in general, and as a mod, I would have to be especially careful and reassure the user that I'm not just abusing my position. If I was out of line, I'm sure I can be convinced, and we can move on. If we cannot agree, then we can include the other mods and users in the discussion, or take it to meta and let the community be the judge.
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?
If the flags/comments are not appropriate, I'd invite the user to a private chat, explain why the flags/comments are not appropriate, and hopefully we'd work something out. If we cannot agree, then we can open the question on meta and let the community decide.
How would you handle a situation where another mod closed/deleted/etc a question that you feel shouldn't have been?
Invite to a chat, work it out. If we cannot agree, invite the other mods too. If we still cannot agree, then post on meta.
"Moderators don't vote. They decide." Making binding decisions instead of voting will be a paradigm shift for nearly all of the nominees. How do you plan on making this adjustment?
There are clear-cut cases. The power of the moderator is useful there, to spare the rest of the community from crap. Even as regular user, I sometimes wish for such power.
Even as regular user, I'm extremely careful with my close/reopen/delete votes. That's why I have low score on the review queues: it's not that I don't review, but I don't like to misjudge, so I very often just hit "Skip".
I've been wondering about the binding votes of moderators, and if they have two buttons: one as regular user, and one as moderator. I would like that, and vote as regular user in the less than 100% clear-cut cases, which is most of the time.
If there is no vote-as-regular-user button (probably), then I'd prefer to wait for 4 other votes, and cast mine as the 5th, when it makes no difference that I'm a mod.
As one of the Revivalists, I have seen some users come through chat that are active and excited about Code Review, and they do well for months at a time, but then they drop off the face of the planet Code Review, sometimes they come back and some haven't come back yet. Are you in it for the long haul? Are you going to stick with us for the long haul? Are you ready to spend hours on Code Review, just for the love of the site? Are you Addicted to Code Review? How can you show us that you are serious about Code Review?
I'm not a big fan of promises. Promises by other people don't mean a lot to me. Do, or do not. Don't promise. I give you the following facts that might guide you better than promises:
- History: I'm known around here as a slow & steady contributor, putting in 2-3 answers a day on average.
- Commitment: with 1179 total answers, I'm the 2nd top contributor of answers, giving answer to 4% of all questions.
- Motivation: I have a vested interest in the practice of code reviews. I'm extremely critical: I look around in the world, and see poorly done software everywhere. It doesn't have to be that way, and I believe that code reviews would be instrumental to making a difference. I'd like to think that the increased popularity of Code Review will inspire more developers in real life to spread the practice of code reviews, leading to better software, for the benefit of all
Code Review has approximately at 15-to-1 upvote-to-downvote ratio, nearly double Stack Overflow's approximate 8-to-1 ratio. As a moderator, you'll be regularly viewing the worst of the worst posts made to Code Review. Do you consider up and down voting of a moderation tool at all? Do you think you downvote enough questions? Do you think you upvote enough questions?
I'm very conscious of my vote actions, especially when casting the first vote, because sometimes it can start an avalanche, which can go both ways.
The first downvote can trigger gang-downvoting by trigger-happy users. Downvotes also bruise egos, so for the friendly image of the site, I very rarely downvote inexperienced users, and guide them with comments instead.
The first upvote is also dangerous on poor posts, as it misleads those wanting to learn, setting a bad precedent.
I often hover the mouse over the arrow buttons to re-read their tooltip, which either help making the final decision, or I just move on without voting.
I don't vote up-down willy-nilly. I often remind the Santas of the chat room to not upvote without thinking. I think I downvote enough. But maybe I upvote a bit too much.
In what way do you feel that being a moderator will make you more effective as opposed to simply reaching 10k or 20k rep?
I will be more committed to moderation activities. So far I've been just a user, and focused more on enjoying the site than participating in moderation. The moderator role comes with serious responsibilities that I will have to fulfill. I take responsibilities seriously, and make sure I don't let down those counting on me.