There are few tasks yet to complete in our bid to move from private to Public Beta. One of the questions that is always posted around now is asking people to volunteer and/or proposing others as candidates for the moderators.
If you would like to be considered for the moderator role, or if you would like to nominate someone else for the role; post the name as an answer here, with the rational for selecting them.
I am also interested in becoming a moderator for this site.
We've all seen how terrible it is to find the right answer from any of the woodworking forums out there. I created this proposal to solve that problem and have demonstrated my commitment to making this site a success.
I have already spent a lot of time nurturing and promoting this site through the definition and commitment phases. Before we had enough momentum to make it past the definition phase in time, I started a discussion about how to promote it, including creating a flyer to post in local woodshops. Eventually, I created Woodworking ads on the Home Improvement Stack Exchange site, which garnered the publicity to push us past the definition phase just in time. I've maintained the ads through each of the phases. I have also been active in discussing issues that have come up.
As a user with a diamond by my name, the way that I engage with others will represent the attitude of the community as a whole. My highest priority will be to appear welcoming to the users of our young community. I will make every effort to moderate in a nice, clear, and understanding way. In the worst of circumstances, users will get upset and bitter. It's important for moderators to remain level-headed, as I have done here.
As a moderator in the beta phases, I will continue to devote time to nurture and promote this site in a way that gives it the best chance to succeed.
I would be willing to be a moderator for the Woodworking site. I've been rooting for this site to come about since the first time I saw the proposal on Area 51 and tried to get the word out.
I've been learning the ropes at WorldBuilding and I like how we do things there, very open and I try to help the new people improve their questions and answers. I think the moderators are best when they only step in when it is needed, but should keep an eye on things.
I humbly offer my services as a moderator for the Woodworking Stack Exchange site. I've been an active member on several Stack Exchange sites dating as far back as far as Jan 2009, and have promoted the Woodworking Stack Exchange site on another popular woodworking site and on Facebook from its proposal stage thru the beta launch.
In the past I've served as a moderator for various online communities, including Excite Virtual Places chat in the late '90s and public and private message boards/forums since then. These communities were all precursors to the Stack Exchange platform, but were all similar in that the moderator's role was not to blindly enforce a set of rules upon the hapless users of the system. Rather, it was the moderator's duty to understand the reasoning behind the rules and to let the community largely govern itself, only intervening as necessary to maintain a well-oiled machine.
I think it's amazing how well the Stack Exchange platform works, and I've waited a long time for the same type of resource to come to the woodworking community. I want to do what I can to make sure this site is as successful as Stack Overflow, Superuser, and the other Stack Exchange sites that I use on a daily basis. Regardless of whether or not I start out looking for an answer on a Stack Exchange site, I almost always find a definitive answer on one. It only makes sense that this is how it should be when I go in search of answers to my woodworking questions.
There's sometimes a fine line between what is considered on-topic or what constitutes a duplicate question. I've personally felt the sting of having my questions closed and when I couldn't figure out why it was closed I followed up with the mod(s) and on meta. Because of this, I not only have sympathy toward new users who may get frustrated and lose interest in the site, but I also have an appreciation for the complexity that moderators must face in their efforts to maintain order over a constantly-evolving compendium of human knowledge.
But most of all, woodworking is my passion outside of my day job, and although I may never get rich off woodworking, I find it to be a highly enriching hobby and want to help build a legacy for current and future woodworkers alike.
So far this site has gotten off to a great start. And...and I'd like to see more of that. If you vote for me, all of your wildest dreams will come true. Thank you.
I would love to be considered for moderator on this site. I am very familiar with how Stack Exchange works both as a user and as a moderator.
I am very cognizant of issues that can arise on SE sites with regards to being welcoming to new users. On some sites it is tough to have new users feel included and that their contributions are worthwhile. I am diligent about trying to make new users feel welcome even if their questions get vote-to-close. There are a lot of people who know a lot about woodworking, but might not know how to write a good question or phrase a well-penned answer to a question. We should be helping these woodworkers to produce amazing content, not turning them away with snark.
I love woodworking, and the people I work with know that if I'm not around in chat, I'm probably down in my wood shop!
