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We are making questions to nominees (2015 Moderator Election Q&A - Question Collection), however until now we have only two nominees while there are two moderator positions, so the questions and voting would be a formality.

Why there is so little interest in being a moderator?

I personally would consider it, but I am afraid I could not have enough time for moderator duties.

Any ideas or comments? This one seems quite important for this site but there is very little interest in Moderator Election in our community.

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    $\begingroup$ We can't impute reasons reliably unless people explain, but lack of time surely is why many people rule themselves out, just as you have done. Many people are very positive about the forum and don't just post many answers, but do much work on improving questions and bouncing poor questions away, just as you do. But the precedent of outstanding moderators who have done a spectacular job is difficult to follow and the precedent of moderators who have accepted but seemingly had too little time to do much is a warning to those who are very busy (and who isn't?). $\endgroup$
    – Nick Cox
    Mar 20, 2015 at 12:28
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    $\begingroup$ Not also that there are (at the time of writing) three days to go before the nomination period ends; if previous elections are any guide we can still expect more candidates to come forward. $\endgroup$
    – Scortchi - Reinstate Monica Mod
    Mar 20, 2015 at 13:54
  • $\begingroup$ @Scortchi I am hoping so and this is one of the reasons I am bringing this subject. $\endgroup$
    – Tim Mod
    Mar 20, 2015 at 13:55
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    $\begingroup$ @Scortchi: personally, I hope that you, yourself, will consider to nominate. You would be one of my favourite candidates, if I am allowed to say that. I said it before on chat: perhaps we should have some way to root for people in advance, as it might motivate somebody to nominate... $\endgroup$
    – amoeba
    Mar 20, 2015 at 14:32
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    $\begingroup$ This is a good place to echo amoeba's suggestion, which I have wanted to make also. @Scortchi is abundantly qualified in statistical expertise and forum experience, but also just a while ago quite brilliantly handled a difficult comment elsewhere. I suppress the details out of delicacy, but most people likely to read this will have noticed an inappropriate criticism that lingered briefly and was (I imagine) noted with some horror by people who knew that it would be wrong to get into a fight at that time and place. Scortchi's comment defused it utterly and showed real but firm diplomacy. $\endgroup$
    – Nick Cox
    Mar 20, 2015 at 15:08
  • $\begingroup$ @Nick Cox It is part of SE policies I think that you can propose for nomination somebody else than yourself. I understand that this may feel "pushy", but I have seen it happen on other SE sites, and I have also seen such proposals effortlessly declined, no hard feelings on any side. $\endgroup$
    – Alecos Papadopoulos
    Mar 20, 2015 at 16:52
  • $\begingroup$ @Alecos I think that's right, but at this moment I would rather people felt encouraged to nominate themselves. As we're speaking frankly I will add that you would in my view also be an excellent candidate. I do think we need at least two strong candidates; enough (perhaps too much) said. $\endgroup$
    – Nick Cox
    Mar 20, 2015 at 16:55
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    $\begingroup$ @Alecos As far as I know you can only nominate yourself: you cannot nominate someone else. If you have found a mechanism to nominate others in this election, could you provide a link to it? $\endgroup$
    – whuber Mod
    Mar 20, 2015 at 19:50
  • $\begingroup$ @whuber Hmmm, maybe this was a left-over reflex from "Moderators pro tempore" which were recently appointed in Economics.SE, meta.economics.stackexchange.com/questions/88/…. There people proposed others. $\endgroup$
    – Alecos Papadopoulos
    Mar 20, 2015 at 21:53
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    $\begingroup$ I can speak only for myself: I would be happy to nominate myself as a moderator and to fulfill its duties, except that I feel there are many potential nominees who are more active in the community and would make better candidates. If they nominate themselves (@Scortchi is certainly a great example!) I would much rather cast my vote for them than nominate myself. $\endgroup$
    – David Robinson
    Mar 20, 2015 at 23:06
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    $\begingroup$ @DavidRobinson nominate yourself! Nothing wrong will happen if we had "too many" nominees. $\endgroup$
    – Tim Mod
    Mar 21, 2015 at 7:21
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    $\begingroup$ Thank you for your encouragement. The two reasons I hadn't put myself forward were being busy & knowing that there are others who could do a better job. But your comments made me think - people who aren't at all busy, & have no other impediment to standing, & know they're among those who could do the best job, must be few & far between; & the CV community deserves a wide choice of candidates to pick from. I hope more people will consider nominating themselves, including the commenters here. $\endgroup$
    – Scortchi - Reinstate Monica Mod
    Mar 21, 2015 at 21:03
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    $\begingroup$ @Scortchi Excellent news! Thanks very much for nominating yourself. $\endgroup$
    – Nick Cox
    Mar 21, 2015 at 23:07
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    $\begingroup$ I was traveling during the nomination period >.> $\endgroup$
    – Fomite
    Mar 24, 2015 at 10:19
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    $\begingroup$ @Fomite That's a pity. I recall voting for you as one of my choices last election (I think it may have been under your previous name at that time, but I'm uncertain of the relative timings); the reasons to do so this time around are substantially stronger. $\endgroup$
    – Glen_b
    Mar 24, 2015 at 22:37

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In the end it does not matter how many people ran for these positions: two extremely well qualified and respected people won. I am glad to welcome them to the moderator pool. I trust that in future elections we will be equally well served by community volunteers coming forward in this manner.

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