Meanach

I have found Philosophy StackExchange to be a useful resource in my own studies and thinking. A philosophical question is qualitatively different from a technical question. However, in my view, philosophy has a social purpose and philosophical ideas have practical consequences. I am interested in ethics, politics, and science, in particular. The philosophy behind all of these has social effects. So, just as it is important to signpost people to appropriate reading, it is also important to remember that there may not be a right answer. An element of debate is therefore necessary on this site. As regards my attitude to moderation, it is necessary to weed out duplication and vacuous questions, for example. But it is also important not to shut down discussion of developing ideas. This is how philosophy develops. My career was in scientific research and I served for ten years in political office. I currently chair a mental health charity, and have an interest in neurodivergence. Moderation is a big responsibility, and, if elected, I would take it seriously.

How why e

I got the notification that this stack exchange needed more candidates and so I have decided to nominate myself as to make sure that the empty candidate positions are filled and the process can carry on and culminate with the decision for moderators.

I have been active here for a while now even though it's been under a year. Given the duration, I have made some low quality post reviews as well as suggested edits reviews and first question reviews, even though the amount of reviews I have conducted is not a lot partially due to duration of my membership in the community.

About me: I am an enthusiastic Christian first and foremost and this is immediately evident by anyone who has peeked at my bio. My main interests are metaphysics, consciousness, thought-experiments and existence specifically. I am interested in Descartes and his meditations and seem to be well versed in it (even though my favorite philosophers are Socrates and Kant). This is partially because I was formally introduced to philosophy as a sophomore in college through Descartes and I had adopted and familiarized myself with Cartesian metaphysics. My current top tag is existence.

David Gudeman

I don't know if I would be a good moderator or not. I have strong opinions and I'm not particularly diplomatic, but on the other hand, it would never occur to me to remove a question or answer because I disagreed with it. My instinct is to oppose wrong ideas with better ideas, not with censorship, but if I were moderator, I probably would to use my vast powers to reduce what I see as other sorts of poor questions, in particular:

1. Users who generate a lot of questions that display AI-like misunderstandings of the topic.

2. Users who post many variations on the same question.

3. Users who seem to just be trying to start political or religious arguments.

4. Users who repeatedly use questions to continue arguments from previous questions.

5. Questions that sound like Philosophy 101 homework.

So, if you think the site is fine as is, I'm not your moderator. If you think it needs to be cleaned up a bit, then maybe I am.

causative

I don't like deletionism/over-moderation. So I am throwing my hat in the ring not because I want to moderate, but because I don't want a new excessively strict moderator who might restrict what people are allowed to talk about on this stackexchange.

For example, I'm opposed to closing questions as "opinion-based." 99% of questions here are opinion-based anyway. Most questions are asking what the truth of the matter is about a philosophical dilemma, and there are always multiple possible sides to any philosophical dilemma. If we get a new moderator who strictly enforces the "opinion-based" rule, it would drastically change the nature of the conversation here. I've seen strict and capricious moderation on the worldbuilding stack exchange, and I don't want to see that here. If a question is sufficiently bad, let non-moderators vote to close it.

If elected I promise to use my moderation powers a minimum amount, only if there are genuine bad actors such as spammers.

I have a BS in computer science and math. I am a lifelong amateur philosopher. Everyone has the right to their opinion.

Annika

I have not been on this site for a long time, but I've found it very enjoyable. However, I think it could be even better! In particular, I think too many questions (not usually mine) are closed prematurely. Thankfully many are re-opened but if even a philosophy page is closing so many questions, then we are not serving our goal of being a strongly open community.

As a member of MathStackExchange, I can attest to how discouraging it is to be a new user and be hammered with "here's how we do this here" comments and downvotes. If we want to grow, we will need a graded moderation approach, where we seek to encourage and guide new users, who often are not philosophers and whose first posts will be pretty rough.

My moderation philosophy ;-)

1. No questions off limits as long as they are about conceptual analysis, not political statements

2. Weight my moderation based on user tenure and reputation - if you've been here a year and have some decent rep you know better ;-)

3. I'd rather keep a question open and unanswered than close it for technical reasons (e.g., unclear, opinion based)

Look forward to the opportunity to join the moderation team :)

Peter Rankin

Since there are no current nominations, I am throwing my hat into the ring to ensure that there will be at least one "safe option" in the election; i.e., someone who would at least be ethical, fair, and patient when moderating. The downside is that my philosophy knowledge is rather narrower than many, and I do not have prior moderation experience; and so if you'd like, you can consider me to be The McDonald's Option, to allude to a recent post on this site. :) But I would be respectful and patient. I would have time to pop in a couple of times a day, on most days, to check the moderator queues. My favorite philosophy topics include morality and ethics, origins, the existence of God, and logic.

As for a little about me personally; I am a Christian, a software developer, and one of the hobbies I enjoy in my spare time is playing the piano. When I get some time to read something new, I enjoy reading from a variety of non-fiction.

Julius Hamilton

• I don’t lose my temper or use harsh words

• I leave supportive comments for many

• I come to the defense of people receiving flak

• I flag comments that are rude or hostile.

• I am welcoming to beginners

• I help people having their questions shot down by editing the question or suggesting ways they can improve it.

• I prefer to help people get information they want rather than turn them away for “not posting a good question”.

• I am tolerant

• I don’t discriminate against posts with a different epistemic viewpoint than my own

• I would not flag or try to close a post because it has a politically controversial viewpoint.

• My posts have gotten better over time, and will continue to

• I’ve been studying logic for the past year

• I am now tutored by a professional mathematician

• I go through the moderation queues now and then

• My next badge is “Archaeologist”; I’ve edited 70 old posts

• 285 helpful flags

• I regularly vote

• I’m just stepping forward as a moderator because I like the site and am willing to contribute to moderation as a form of community service

• I’m an agreeable and non-bossy person