2014 Moderator Election

Hello all! Having been a part of this site right from the initial stages, I thought I should throw my hat into the ring. Some points about me, in no particular order.

I come second in the list of users who have asked the most number of questions, and most of my questions came during the early beta phase. I helped new users understand what's kosher to ask and how to frame questions.

I voted a lot during the initial days in the beta, thus building the critical mass of reputation necessary for a healthy stack exchange site. As of today, I stand 11th among voters with 1517 votes, 97% of which are upvotes.

I also stand fifth in the list of editors with a total of 176 edits. Besides, being an Indian, I have used my specific knowledge to help the community.

I am a second-year doctorate student and I feel student representation in moderator-ship could offer a fresh perspective to potential issues.

One of my favourite quotes on governance is this one by Thoreau: "That government is best which governs least". I'd love the community to be largely self-governing.

Kind regards

I remember being excited about this site when it was first released into beta, and I've watched it grow rather proudly. I've been active in trying to maintain the site's quality and content since I unlocked the moderator tools (and then, to my chagrin, lost them when we exited beta).

I'd like to think I'm a productive member of the community, and especially try to provide answers for areas that aren't as well represented by the CS/Math/etc. fields that understandably provide a lot of StackExchange's user base. I'd like to continue to do this as a moderator to help this site reach its potential.

To address some comments: I visit Academia as a user ~ once/day. During that time, I always check my review panel, and before we left beta, the moderator tools. Often, there'd be two or three things to address, and then I'd be off. When I encounter questions when reading the site as a user that need closing/flagging I do so, but generally it's in support of people who previously flagged the post. As a mod, I'd expect I'd be on a great deal more. And generally speaking, no, I don't downvote often - I much prefer to comment to see if a question can be improved before I pass judgement on it.

As a participant on this site since the earliest part of the beta phase, I have watched this site grow from nascence to full-fledged "adulthood." As part of the moderator team during this transition, I have tried to leave things to community decisions as much as possible, although I, just like every other aspiring academic, can be strongly opinionated. However, I believe that my experience thus far as a moderator and as a member of this site has provided the background needed to continue to be a moderator in the future.

I've been part of this site since it was proposed, and was one of the most active users during the private and public beta. As a pro tempore mod, I've been handling moderation duties for a few months now, and I've helped out with many different kinds of issues that can come up. I'm active on chat and meta, as well as answering questions as best I can.

As a mod, I've learned that this community strongly values light-handed moderation, but also appreciates quick and decisive action when necessary. We also feel deeply that we should set our own community standards—differing from the rest of the Stack Exchange network, if necessary—and I've participated in many discussions on meta helping define who we are. I believe that, thus far, I've moderated towards these standards, and I would love to continue into the future.

I am tremendously grateful to all of the mentors I have had so far in my academic career, and I am always looking for ways to pay this debt forward. For this reason, I am interested in volunteering my time as a mod on Academia.SE. This site is an unprecedented resource for academics that don't have mentors, or need information and advice outside their mentors' areas of expertise, and I would love to help it keep growing.

Unlike the other nominees (so far!), I have only been a part of this site for a few months. However, in that time, I think I have contributed some high-quality questions and answers. I also do my part towards improving the quality of other questions and answers on this site: flagging spam and not-an-answer posts, commenting on answers when I think they can be improved, downvoting answers that I think give misleading information, retagging, fixing unclear question titles, and casting close votes with comments. I think this history speaks towards my ability and willingness to engage with this site as a moderator.

I will throw myself into the moderator ring. I am a top 25 user in terms of reputation, number of votes cast and number of edits. According to Area 51 I was one of the top ten beta users. I have both up voted and down voted questions and cast 115 helpful flags (and a few unhelpful ones to). In addition to asking, answering, and commenting on questions, I try and use the review queues and participate in meta and chat on a regular basis. During beta as a regular user I often expressed strong opinions which I think are useful for forming a site. As a moderator, moderation is key. I am currently also active on TeX.SE and am a moderator at the new Expats.SE beta.

In terms of academic experience I am an American who did my undergraduate and graduate studies and a post doc in the US before moving to the UK to be a lecturer in a Russell Group University (i.e., research active). I was trained as an Engineer but work in a Psychology department.