2011 Moderator Election

For my self nomination (I wish this wasn't the only way for someone to be nominated) I'm just going to copy verbatim my response to Robert Cartaino when he emailed me to ask if I'd like to be considered for a temporary moderator position. Please know I'm not just copying this out of laziness - it just captures how I feel about online communities as well as WordPress.

I have a great deal of interest in growing/moderating/helping online communities mature in general. I'm involved with a locally-focused discussion forum where I live, and have started taking a more active role in the management of the site, and consequently have developed even more of an interest in what makes an online community work well, mature, and be a great place for members to spend their time and efforts.

I find the SO model quite intriguing, and thus far (I've been an on and off user on Superuser.com before participating in some of the beta SE sites) have been impressed with how well it works. I very much agree with the SO vision of 'self moderation' by communities, with 'official' moderators there to mainly deal with exceptional/outside the norm cases.

Regarding WordPress, I will caution that I am relatively new to the "professional" WP community - I've been a WordPress user for quite some time but have only recently started using it professionally and begun moving down the path of developing for WordPress. I say that to explain that I'm certainly not a respected figurehead in the community. That being said, regardless of whether I'm chosen as a moderator, I will continue to extol the virtues of the WordPress Q&A site to the people I do know in the community. I see a great deal of potential in the site and wish to see it grow to be a tremendous resource for users and developers.

I hope that's a sufficient response to help you understand a bit more about me and how I feel about the WordPress Q&A community and moderation/growth of online communities in general.

I'll add that since joining the site in August, I've been incredibly impressed with the community that has sprung up here. I think there's enormous potential for WordPress Answers to be the best resource on the internet for serious users and developers of WordPress (if it isn't already so!). I also think (and already see this happening to some degree) that there's great potential for having a really fun, engaging community of people here.

I will start by saying that I'm not here from the start like many great guys (Rarst, Mike, EAMann) but my affair with this site as started about two months ago and ever since it's basically my Home page and I'm always here so why not as a moderator?

On WordPress Answers - My statistics here are of the chart:

at the time of writing

• Member for: 63 days (63 consecutive).
• reputation: 5,756.
• Answered : 353 Answers.
• that's about 5-6 answers a day.

I love helping and guiding new users who ask the simplest question and love it even more when advanced users ask question that make me thinker for a while. I strongly believe that answers should be explanatory and generic instead of specific use cases, So when another person is facing the same issue he can get his answer even if the use case is a bit different.

On WordPress - I have been developing Websites and web applications on WordPress for over 4 years of with only one choice in mind (you guessed it: WordPress) when it comes to Platform or CMS. I publish open source , GPL plugins and i keep a blog where i post articles and tutorials for working with WordPress (there is also an Hebrew version). Other then that i help Translate WordPress core and plugins to Hebrew.

On Moderation - I'd love to be a moderator so I'll be able to contribute even more to this community, Because i really see WordPress Answers becoming the best resource site for WordPress developers online (if not already). Don't get me wrong, I think that the current moderation team is doing a great job and joining them would be great.

I'll sign off by saying good luck to everyone.

I am a Meta man. I like watching the site and the community, and thinking how we can improve it. But I also know that many people are not very interested in discussing how to do something, but just do it. That is great, that is what the site is all about, but that also means some discussions on meta stay around too long without any actual action taken as a result.

If you would elect me as a moderator, I would execute more of these actions. With community discussion of course, but also with a timeframe. Expect discussions like "We still have this problem we discussed two months ago, but no action was taken then. Unless there is any opposition, I plan to do X and Y in one week time." I think this is the best way to keep the decision making process democratic without letting it becoming lethargic because not enough people have the time to discuss it.

I have been involved with Stack Overflow and its meta community (meta, the blog and the podcast) to think I know and agree with the vision of the creators and the limitations of the system. On the other hand, I have not been very involved in the WordPress meta community (wp-hackers, development chats, WordCamps, ...), which means I don't have strong opinions (and conflicts) about what WP.org should do with its product and its community. I think this makes me see the strengths and opportunities of this platform, and keep the lines open for co-operation with the larger WordPress community and their leaders.

I doubt I need to break the ice. :) I am Rarst (here, there and elsewhere). If there was a badge for being hyperactive on site I'd probably have a handful by now.

WordPress experience

I had started Rarst.net blog in 2008. Most of you can probably guess the rest of the story. One thing led to another. Tinkered with small thigns, moved to child themes and since recently I work full time with WordPress in small company that has big things planned.

I am not releasing much of code publicly, but I do want to take those steps as well.

WPSE experience

• six months, 700+ answers (top tags plugins,plugin-development and theme-development), never missed a day
• I don't mind discussing and helping with stuff (and voting of course)
• started community wikis on frameworks, books and contribute to others

Why running for mod

Aspiring for official moderator position for me is simply about extension of awesome tools I am already given by platform to contribute more, more easily and more often.

I believe that this site is enormously important to WordPress ecosystem and I am committed to being here and learning from my peers.

My answers to canidates Q&A

Like Eric Mann I have also served as a Moderator Pro Tempore. Early on I did a lot of "marketing" for this site, recommending if far and wide on Twitter, in comments on WordPress-related blogs and more.

My focus has been on working to make the site a great resource, often editing questions to improve the clarity of the question asked (but never to change their meaning) and hopefully to help keep site as cordial a place as possible rather than the flame wars that so often erupt on mailing lists and in forums based on other software. I very much want to see WordPress Answers be a great place for serious WordPress Pros to ask and answer questions without having to worry about being treated with disrespect by any perceived "in crowd."

As for my use of WordPress, I develop vertical market CMSes based on WordPress for software company clients, and plugins for software-as-a-service (SaaS) company clients. I use WordPress (almost?) exclusively for any web work I do for myself or for others, and I have plans to distribute a large number of free-to-acquire GPL plugins in the near future. I also contribute patches on WordPress trac when I see a need. I've been very active for probably 80% of the days since WordPress Answers was launched and plan to continue the same level of participation for the foreseeable future.

In summary I'd like to continue being a moderator as I believe by interests and the interests of the community as in very close alignment.

I have served so far as a Moderator Pro Tempore; hopefully I've been doing a good job so far, and I would welcome the opportunity to continue functioning in that role. As such, I would like to nominate myself as a community moderator.

I use WordPress to develop sites for my clients. I use WordPress to develop and maintain my own sites. I build and distribute open source plug-ins. I build and sell themes. I even contribute patches to core development. Over the past several months I've been very active on this site, at least as active as my schedule allows.

As a Moderator Pro Tempore I've always tried to be fair and respond quickly to community concerns regarding post quality. I'm also active on the Meta site, contributing to as many conversations as I can.