2011 Moderator Election

As a frequent visitor of StackExchange (and a migrant from the StackOverflow days), I feel that the quality of posts and promotion of best practice processes and methods is critical to the successful implementation and adoption of SharePoint projects. Accurate voting, correct tagging, and the use of best practices are the three core things I look to when reviewing a post for quality, answering, or commenting.

I have been working with SharePoint since mid-2007, I specialize in SharePoint Branding, UI and UX, I have been involved with the moderation of the SPServices discussion forum on Codeplex since November 2009, and of late have been focusing on PowerShell and farm configuration. I’m also very active in the local SharePoint community, a member of the leadership council for the Triangle SharePoint User Group, and a frequent speaker on the SharePoint Saturday circuit.

You can learn more about me on my blog, twitter, or linkedin.

My approach to moderation is to do as little as possible, which fits well with the Stack Exchange ethos. Sometimes this is out of necessity. I spent quite a bit of time on SPSE leading up to graduation, to try and get us over the finish line. I have done less over the last couple of months due to work pressure, but I answer questions when I can. If elected, I will do what I can to maintain the quality of the SPSE content.

I have been following the progress of StackOverflow (as recorded in a series of podcasts by Jeff Atwood and Joel Spolsky) since it was in beta, and I think StackExchange is a great Knowledge Exchange platform. It isn't based on SharePoint, but nothing is perfect...

This is a nomination on behalf of Alex Angas courtesy of the Community Team.

As Alex is out for the month of October (which extends longer than the nomination process), he is without internet and unable to submit his own nomination. We feel that he would nominate himself, as he had warned us ahead of time about his month-long absence.

The following nomination is from fellow community members on meta

In general:

• Owner of the site's previous incarnation (SharePoint Overflow)
• Tireless dedication to the site's community and future
• Helped co-ordinate the site's transfer to SharePoint 2.0

Some specific examples of community guidance and dedication:

• The site's most prolific editor
• One of the most frequent voters (if not the most frequent) with over 2000 votes
• Either answered or asked (sometimes both) pretty much every question on meta
• The only user to get the silver SharePoint badge on StackOverflow

After being the Pro Tempore moderator, I can honestly say moderating is something I'm proud of and something I've enjoyed doing. We have a lot of very qualified nominees so far and I am happy to just be among them.

Why am I qualified?

• 1.5k rep on SharePoint.SE. Most of my 3k+ rep on SO is within the SharePoint tag
• My blog is about mostly SharePoint stuff and programming
• I maintain a small, open-source JavaScript library for SharePoint.
• I vote.. a lot.. 495 votes on SO and 739 votes on SP.SE
• Lots of meta participation!

How do/will I moderate?

• I try to maintain a good balance between my desire to help people and our established FAQ/meta policies.
• I try to leave comments to explain why I did something and provide a course of action if possible.
• I'm always open and willing to discuss changes on meta/chat.

In the end, it comes down to what is best for the community as a whole and how we can keep contributing the best questions & answers.

I hope my actions will speak for me, so here are some highlights:

• Highest flag weight on the site (the three highest can be found here)
• Prolific editing
• Appreciation of experts through voting
• Firm, fair, clear, and (reasonably) concise meta answers with the community in mind
• Suggestions for bringing traffic and improving answer rates
• Blogging to build and publicise the community
• Awful humour
• Limitless patience

I would really like to help improve SPSE further by being a moderator. The quality of questions and answers on this site far outstrips any of its peers, and I want to carry on the good work we started to get out of beta:

• Keep our answer rates spectacularly high
• Maintain our (well known) high quality of questions and answers
• Recognise the under-appreciated experts of the SharePoint world
• Continue to build the definitive site to find the answer to any SharePoint question

In my understanding, moderators have a very important role here on SPSE. Note: not dominating, but important. So, what are their responsibilities?

Quality

First of all, moderators are the people who keep up the quality. That's an essential point, because quality provides the whole site reputation. And moderators can influence community to care about it. Not by force - mostly by posting comments or reproofs, and also by leading by example.

I'm always trying to do my best in terms of quality: you probably have noticed :) I have now a bunch of article-like answers here on SharePoint SE. These answers are my input, my contribution, my blood and tears.

And cannot resist to mention: it is not the luxury rush! You can check it yourself: comprehensive answers are rarely earn many upvotes. I know this, and consciously, not going to change. Because I like the site, and that is what I can do for it: post qualitative answers.

Climate

The other thing which is also very important here on the site - is a positive climate. Community there people are exceedingly jealous, is fragile. Noone wants to upvote answers of their fellow community members, because there is a kind of greediness competition between them. But when one rarely gets upvoted, sooner or later, he will leave...

So, one of the responsibilities of moderators here - is to always upvote decent answers. To keep people on site and to maintain their good mood by respecting their effort :)

Btw, that's why moderators have to be competent (to recognize good answers). The only measure of competence here is the rating points. And I'm now the 11th in the list of top-rated users here - although my first answer is dated Apr 8, 2011 (so I'm only 6 months aboard).

Summary

I'm ready to devote myself to SharePoint SE, because I love it, and I want it to become even better. Also I have a deep experience with SharePoint, good rating, I'm active expert here, and also active blogger, opensource contributor and speaker.

After having followed this site from the very beginning, watching it evolve to a great Q/A site that literally have helped thousands of SharePoint'ers, I want to stay a part of the moderation team if you guys will have me.

I was a bit hesitant accepting the job as a temp-moderator during the SP.SE beta, but think i have found a good balance between moderation duty, answering questions and doing my job as a SharePoint professional.

Lori regularly participates in answering and reviewing questions. She upvotes and downvotes when necessary to ensure the most accurate answers are viewed appropriately. She has answered many questions and has a strong technical knowledge of the subject. Lori is also one of the first members and asked the very first question when this forum started as SharePoint Overflow. It is a forum that she values highly and wishes to see continue for many years to come.