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In connection with the moderator elections, we will be holding a Town Hall Chat session with the candidates. This will be an opportunity for members of the community to pose questions to the candidates on the topic of moderation. Participation is completely voluntary. I am working with the candidates to find a time that allows the most participation.

The Town Hall Chat took place Tuesday the 25th at 11pm UTC, or 6pm EST.

(view in other timezones)

Here are the details so far:

  • I have coordinated with the candidates and believe that we may just have all candidates involved. Yay! I would like to schedule this towards the beginning of the election phase. As of now, it does not look like Server Fault will have a primary stage, so I am looking at the 25th-27th. As soon as I coordinate with the existing moderators and candidates to find a best fit based on availability, I will edit this post with details on the "when".
  • The Town Hall Chat will be a one-hour event using our chat platform. You can register for the event here.
  • You must have 20 rep on Server Fault to speak in the chat room.
  • The format will be an open discussion. Users are encouraged to pose questions to the candidate regarding their thoughts on moderation.
  • After the chat session, the transcript of the event will be permanently linked here.
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    If it makes sense with SF's activity distribution and it's possible for the candidates we should try for 2 sessions -- I know the candidates have personal & professional obligations but I'd like the broadest swath of the SF community to have an opportunity to interact with them "live". Just my $3.50
    – voretaq7
    Commented Jan 23, 2011 at 19:38
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    In addition to the candidates having other commitments the timezone issue also needs to be considered. Any attempt to find a single time must work out badly for either the candidates, the general population, or both. I for one was still asleep when you wrote this notice.
    – John Gardeniers
    Commented Jan 23, 2011 at 21:02
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    +1 John. I have no problem with this in general but it may turn out rather difficult to make it work in practice. Finding time when everyone can 'talk', not only when they are awake but not tied up with work or any other 'real life' thing may be an issue.
    – Rob Moir
    Commented Jan 23, 2011 at 21:05
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    @vore rebeccca is working on scheduling software and she'll update the post to clarify that
    – Jeff Atwood
    Commented Jan 23, 2011 at 21:35

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Thank you to everyone who participated, particularly the candidates! Virtual coffee is on me!

The full transcript to the Town Hall Chat can be found here.

Despite being in timezones all over, all 7 candidates were able to attend!

Whether you were able to attend or are just reading the transcript now, I hope this helps get to know the candidates before you vote. (:

The following questions were asked (click to be taken directly to that point in the transcript):

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Given the scheduling difficulties, I wonder if it would be easier to just ask all the candidates to hang out in a room created just for this purpose as much as they are able during one day. Then anyone can go into that room and ask questions to who is present, when they are available.

If we do something like the above we can still try to find a time during that day when the largest number of people will be available, and also announce that time as well, so interested parties can go into the room and ask questions at that point in time.

If anyone happens to be reading this, and doesn't regularly go into the chat please understand that most of the current candidates are pretty active in chat already, and lots of questions and discussions have already been happening. So it may be a good idea for anyone interested to go back and review the chat transcripts for the last few days from 'The Comms Room' http://chat.stackexchange.com/transcript/127.

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  • Agreed - I'm not in chat very often normally, but with the election coming up one of the ways I'm judging candidates is by watching and interacting with them in the chat room...
    – voretaq7
    Commented Jan 24, 2011 at 5:49
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Whilst this is a good idea I can't see that it will work very well given that there is currently an 11 hour time difference between the candidates in the UK and the candidates in Australia. If you choose a time which is good for one group then it's unlikely to be good for the other. Choosing a time good for either will most likely be the middle of the business day or the middle of the night for US candidates.

Perhaps we should just continue to use meta?

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  • I agree that the use of meta would be better than chat. Even better yet would be to use a more traditional discussion forum. Pretty trivial to set up and it can be removed again when the election is over.
    – John Gardeniers
    Commented Jan 24, 2011 at 20:55

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