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The 2021 Community Moderator Election is now underway!

Community moderator elections have three phases:

  1. Nomination phase
  2. Primary phase
  3. Election phase

Most elections take between two and three weeks, but this depends on how many candidates there are.

Please visit the official election page at

https://writing.stackexchange.com/election

for more detail, and to participate!

If you have general questions about the election process, or questions for moderator candidates, feel free to ask them here on meta -- just make sure your questions are tagged .

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  • I just checked the Nomination tab and I can't see any comments whatsoever. I know comments are disabled once the Election phase starts, but they are not hidden, right? Does this mean that there were indeed no comments to any of the candidates' nominations during the Nomination phase? Has there been any kind of interaction between the candidates and the community this past week at all? Chat, maybe?
    – walen
    Nov 9, 2021 at 10:31

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
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Posting this as an answer, since my comment got no replies.

I just checked the Nomination tab and I can't see any comments whatsoever. I know comments are disabled once the Election phase starts, but they are not hidden, right?
Does this mean that there were indeed no comments to any of the candidates' nominations during the Nomination phase?
Has there been any kind of interaction between the candidates and the community this past week at all? Chat, maybe?

For the record, I also checked the transcript for the Election Chat Room and there's been zero activity there, too.

So... 5 people (including the 3 current pro-tem mods) have nominated themselves for the stack's first "full" election. And...

  • Nobody thanked them for their nomination (not even the current mods).
  • Nobody questioned their reasons to step up.
  • Nobody asked them for clarifications on their answers.
  • Nobody spoke in their favor.
  • Nobody made any claims against them, either.
  • Nobody posted a single thing on Meta about the election (besides Catija ofc).
    • No, wait: Chappo suggested a couple questions for the Questionnaire. That's... something, I guess.
  • Nobody joined the chat room, much less say anything while on it.

Isn't this... weird? Am I missing something?

PS: Heh, it has some rythm, hasn't it?

Nobody thanked them for their nomination (not even the current mods.)
Nobody questioned their reasons to step up; none in their favor spoke.
Nobody asked them for clarifications, nobody made any claims.
Nobody greeted, departed nor chatted; empty chat room for eight days.
Nobody posted about them on Meta (except Catija-- no, wait:
Cappo suggested two questionnaire items... that counts for something, I guess.)
No one replied to my comment on Tuesday, the silence unbroken, my doubts yet uncleared.
So here I am, asking again as an answer:
Folks... ain't this a bit weird?

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  • 3
    I think what you may be missing is that Writing.SE was hit harder by Monicagate than most other SE sites. We lost all our moderators and most of our power users, and with that, activity on both Meta and the chatrooms plummeted to almost nothing. The site itself is healthy again, but Meta and chat are still pretty much ghost towns. So this lack of engagement would be strange on almost any other SE site, but here, I honestly feel like it's not that unusual. Disappointing, yes, but not unusual.
    – F1Krazy Mod
    Nov 10, 2021 at 16:56
  • @F1Krazy No, I know that. I remember Neil resigning and how Writing.SE was one of the more vocal stacks and the first? to actually go ahead and leave the SO network to build a parallel, healthier Q&A site (which I visited a couple times, btw-- is it still going?) But... (1/2)
    – walen
    Nov 11, 2021 at 11:43
  • (2/2) ... 1. That was over 2 years ago... There must be some users who have already healed themselves, and some new ones that didn't even live though that. And 2. I'd get it if no one but the existing mods, participated on Meta; but not even you? You did nominate yourselves, so it's not like you weren't paying attention to the election. So... Not a single comment or question for these users that want to be part of your team? (There's 3 positions and only 2 non-mod candidates, so even if they both won, at least one of you would have to work with them.) Not even a sporty "Good luck"?
    – walen
    Nov 11, 2021 at 11:51
  • (3/2) I don't know... I still think it's strange none of you said anything. Maybe these are disruptive/troll users who don't merit your attention (and in that case, I'd like to know). Maybe there's some kind of internal battle for power... Maybe there's a different Writing.SE chat room or even a Discord server where you all meet and talk and that's why no one said anything here. It's hard to accept that the site is so dead that not even the current mods participate in the election.
    – walen
    Nov 11, 2021 at 11:52
  • (PS: I just checked in at the Hotel and noticed there was some talk about this a week ago... but that was it.)
    – walen
    Nov 11, 2021 at 12:10
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    I had been checking the nominations every now and then, but the last time I checked, the only ones there were mine and motosubatsu's. I didn't see Laurel's or aniline's until voting opened. Perhaps I should have checked more often, I'll own up to that. If I'd seen them, I probably would have said something. I can't say why my fellow mods didn't comment on any of the nominations; they would have to explain that themselves. (1/2)
    – F1Krazy Mod
    Nov 11, 2021 at 12:18
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    (2/2) As to whether there's an "internal battle for power"... if there is one, I'm not privy to it. We do have a mod-only chatroom (that's standard procedure, all SE sites have one), and while I'm generally not allowed to divulge what's said there, I can say that we've collectively expressed our relief that we have enough candidates for a full election and can therefore finish graduating. Aside from that, and confirming our own nominations, we haven't discussed the election much there, either.
    – F1Krazy Mod
    Nov 11, 2021 at 12:21
  • @F1Krazy Well, at least you (singular) replied, and I appreciate it a lot. Thanks!
    – walen
    Nov 11, 2021 at 12:41
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    I'm around too. I invited people to leave comments on my nomination but nobody did. (I don't see anything sinister happening here, no secret chat, just a barely active meta/chat.) Anyway, enough users nominated themselves that I think I'll be happy with the results, even if it's not me being elected.
    – Laurel Mod
    Nov 11, 2021 at 17:42
  • Thanks Laurel for your response. And thanks to whoever downvoted, too! I'd rather have a negative vote than no votes at all xD
    – walen
    Nov 12, 2021 at 10:44
  • @walen I've also been around keeping an eye on the election. Basically in this case I think "no news is good news" The fact that no comments were left on nominations was a case of there were no issues to discuss. In contrast to the recent RPG.se election where we had a huge amount of discussion both in chat and comments on posts due to concerns we had with the nominees, I prefer this version.
    – linksassin Mod
    Nov 16, 2021 at 4:38
  • @linksassin I cannot agree with your POV, sorry. "No news is good news" is used when talking about hospitalized patients. Is that how you see the site? I agree that no comments is better than bad comments, but good comments is heaps better than no comments. If no one else, mods at least should've left a couple comments thanking people for their nomination, wishing good luck. A line in the Election Chat Room encouraging people to vote. An Meta post explaining how participation can help the site heal. The issue was even brought up in TOH... still nothing. As JNat himself said: "that's a first"
    – walen
    Nov 16, 2021 at 19:34
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    The election's over, so I'd say let's put that behind us and look forward. (We're all looking to help the site get more activity.) For now, maybe see you in chat? I've been trying to be in there in case anyone else is around.
    – Laurel Mod
    Nov 19, 2021 at 2:02

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