2014 Moderator Election

I don't actually want this job. I have no great love for hard work or thankless tasks, and moderation involves a lot of both. I'm running because I believe there is a sickness at the heart of this site, and I feel I should at least try to help fix it.

I've been a member of EL&U since the early days, and I have seen it grow into an arrogant, insular community that has lost sight of its mission. Questions are closed for spurious reasons, with no real effort made to improve them. New users are not only not welcomed, they're made to feel positively unwelcome. Straightforward questions about practical English usage are treated like distractions from someone's ivory-tower idea of perfection. I'm far from the only one who feels this way, as a perusal of the top-ranked questions on our meta site will reveal. It's one of the biggest complaints people have about us.

This is the 7th largest SE site in terms of total questions. It's too big to be this elitist. And it has to stop.

If elected I'll take the job seriously; I'm not trying to be disruptive. I have no desire to be a spoiler candidate and will withdraw from the election if necessary to assist other candidates who share my values.

Although I seem a little lacking in reputation to be a moderator, I am committed to the duties that I currently hold on the site; I check my review ques several times a day.

Of all of my accounts, ELU has the the most rep, as of now, and is the account which I've been the most "successful" with.

Since I have several fairly low rep accounts, I am not oblivious to the feeling of being a new user.

I'll make it easy for anyone looking to find out more.

• Here's my asking history
• Here's my answering history

I’m 81-years old Japanese, perhaps one of the oldest of EL&U users. I’ve been with this site for 3 years and 5 months. I’ve been learning English language since the age of 13 in middle school immediate after the end of WW II, without much improvement. My interest in English was rekindled after retirement.

I’m thankful to EL&U for providing me with unique opportunity to keep learning English and getting access to the knowledge of day-to-day, live English that I cannot aquire from ordinary English text books on sale, through pertinent answers and comments from users.

Almost of all my posts are questions. As being a non-native English speaker who’s never lived outside Japan, I don’t think I’m qualified as an answerer to provide confident answers.

However, I can understand the handicaps, problems, needs, and feeling of non-native speakers in learning English language.

I would like to give a voice in the site as a non-native English speaker, and contribute to the Site as the international communication crossroad.

I would like to prove that even an old Asian can be a candidate for moderator of the international language enthusiasts’ web site to my peers and contemporaries.

I'm Andrew, and I've been a member of the community for over two years.

I've tried to guide new users to get to grips with what makes a useful question; to stamp on spam; to participate in Meta — and Chat — as time has allowed; and to use voting privileges to the good of the community. That's included leaving a comment and waiting for questions to be improved: nowadays I tend to see how others in the community view a question before voting myself.

I've always been transparent, patiently expressing what I honestly believe and not being afraid to admit a mistake. Currently, I don't think I'd be unhappy with a diamond appearing beside any of my contributions. I'm a member of a number of SE sites, and I've been on the receiving end of untoward actions too, so as well as using the high-rep tools here, I've been able to see moderation from different perspectives.

I believe that my efforts so far have demonstrated that I have had a useful input to this site in terms of content and working with the community. I hope that what I've been able to do has helped to make the community’s experience of the site better, and I’d like to be able to take an even more pro-active role to assist.

I have been a member for 3+ years but took a break due to career responsibilities. I returned to full activity in October and over the past few months I have focused on answering old, unanswered questions.

I see the primary purpose of ELU as helping solve problems related to the English Language. I find questions from both expert and novice speakers worth answering and spend a great deal of time searching for more efficient ways to solve these problems. My goal as a moderator would be enabling regular contributors to let them focus on answering questions as effectively as possible. This means protecting the site from malicious users and seeking to resolve and avoid drama as much as possible.

During both periods of my ELU activity I have also been active on Meta.ELU. These meta posts have (a) asked the community for best approaches to problems, (b) proposed solutions to problems, (c) participated in discussions started by others. Similarly, when I was an active user on Skeptics.SE, I spent a great deal of time on its Meta helping to define the purpose of the site. As a moderator, this activity would continue with the explicit goal of reaching consensus without drama.

Every race needs an underdog. That's not me, of course; I'm a giant, flying orc head. Very much an overorc.

When I first joined EL&U, some 3 and a half years ago, I was overjoyed to find a place where I could impart my understanding of English. However, it quickly became apparent that I don't know nearly as much as I thought I did.

Since then I've spent a lot of time learning about English, here and elsewhere.

In order to help other people learn, too, I try my best to keep the site tidy, neat and noiseless. I like to direct people to the best place to learn what they need to know. Sometimes that's not here.

Vote for the overorc!

Having been around for only about half a year (why did I lurk for a month?), I am certainly not the most seasoned user on the site.

However, in that relatively short period I have found myself dragged into the site, the community and the English language. I believe in the idea that answering questions is a great way to learn, and I have certainly learned a lot here.

When it comes to moderating, I actually have extensive experience, not on stack-exchange, but on a (Dutch) IT-discussion forum. Although the rules and guidelines were different (and in quite some ways, a lot more strict) there, the principal of moderation remains the same, in the sense that A Theory of Moderation was a feast of recognition for me.

One of the recurring themes here seems to be the relationship between us and ELL. I have become active on both ELU and ELL at the same time, and I have developed a quite clear idea about the distinction between the two, and I would like to explore ideas on how to make the roles of both more clear- especially to new users.

I've been a member for only 6 months, but have been a very enthusiastic participant during that time. Although a native speaker of English, I have enjoyed learning more about it than I thought I ever would, and continue to look forward to learning more.

I love language and care a lot about the site. I’ve tried to contribute by providing quality answers and conscientiously using the rep privileges as I’ve been given them. I try to be respectful, encouraging and friendly, especially to newer members. I want people to feel welcome here.

I haven’t been as active on Meta.ELU as I usually tend to wait a bit to see how a site works before offering my opinion.

I hope you will consider me for this position.

Thank you.