Standing moderators, could you tell us a bit more about the circumstances of the election?

Question

When the moderator election was announced with 2 slots, that was surprising enough it prompted some remarks in chat. I agree it's interesting since moderation teams this size have often only grown one at a time (I think), and when RPG.SE decided to grow from a moderator team of 2 to 4 (not counting one third/fifth moderator absent due to life circumstances) they decided on that to help avoid burnout, support unpredictable life circumstances, etc.

So to the elected moderators: Could you tell us more about the circumstances on your end that prompted the election and request for 2 extra moderators? Is there stuff in particular you need assistance with? Is there more volume than you can keep track of, or something like that?

I'm not sure I'll run myself — I haven't been very active on mainsite for years — but this information might be useful to those considering running, and to those of us who will be voting for the potential new moderators.

Answer 1

There are two main reasons:

• Mainly, we'd like to bolster the ranks. Real-life circumstances ebb and flow and always impact one's ability to focus on the site. Right now we're in a phase where the vast majority of the moderation workload is falling on a very small percentage of the moderators. The workload of this site is relatively small, so this isn't problematic, but we'd like to have more moderators available just in case.

• Secondarily, we want to head off having a "moderation monoculture," caused by having a lack of new ideas and perspectives in the team.