11

I'd really, really like to know what times each moderator and candidate feels are their most SF-productive expressed in UTC.

The reason for the question is that SF seems to have users - and consequently problems needing moderator attention - from all over the world, now, and I sometimes get the feeling that the existing moderators are clustered in terms of what times they tend to be on. At some times of day, I see flags getting attended to with super efficiency, but at other times, I get the vague impression that they languish somewhat.

It seems to me that if we ended up with, say, most moderators being in the US, and some in the UK, and they all did most of their moderation in working hours (and I'm not saying that's the case, only using a hypothetical example), we'd have good moderator cover from about 0900UTC to 2400UTC, but not so much in the remaining time. In such circumstances, I'd look more favourably on a candidate from, say, Vietnam or Australia, who spent most of her time on SF during her working day, than on an otherwise-stellar working-hours candidate from, say, Germany, or an evening-hours candidate from the UK.

So, existing moderators and candidates: if you don't think this is a completely stupid question, would you mind saying in UTC what your "core SF hours" tend to be?

Edit: they say a picture is worth a thousand words, so I've tried to express people's estimates of their core hours on weekdays into the diagram below. Current moderators are in green, candidates in red; solid boxes are people's "solid" hours, whilst boxes in outline are maybe/sometimes hours. I hope it's OK to do this, and that it will be helpful.

The statistic of "number of current moderators online" is derived by treating a "maybe" hour as half a "core" hour.

diagram of moderators core hours

Edit 2: Nominations have closed, the primaries are well underway, so I'm ceasing active maintenance of this diagram. If anyone would like to repeat the exercise in future moderator elections, the .dia source file, available under GFDL with no invariant matter nor back nor front cover sections, can be found on teaparty.net.

3
  • Haha we both had the same idea. See my answer below. Jan 10, 2012 at 20:57
  • Mark: <grin> good for you! Would you prefer to use your version, or mine? I must demur in that I won't use google SaaS generally, so you'll be doing the upkeep if your version is used.
    – MadHatter
    Jan 10, 2012 at 21:09
  • Im happy to maintain my one, but it's your question so you do what you like :) Jan 10, 2012 at 21:23

13 Answers 13

9

This is how it looks graphically: enter image description here

Legend:

  • Red = Moderator Primarily avaliable
  • Blue = Candidate Primarily avaliable
  • Green = Elected in 2012
  • Lighter colours = Maybe avaliable
  • Bold Text = Confirmed in meta thread
  • Normal Text = Taken from nomination

It's a google doc spreadsheet, so for new entries please modify it here, take a new screenshot and replace the one in this post.

6
  • Ya know... it would be good to get chopper3's historic schedule. Just so we know.
    – sysadmin1138 Mod
    Jan 10, 2012 at 23:35
  • I agree. I'll ask him if I see him on chat Jan 11, 2012 at 1:50
  • It's very obvious where our time deficiency is (00-09), and there's scarilly low numbers of candidates in that timeframe as well (from 00-07 anyway). Jan 11, 2012 at 6:55
  • I agree. I was much better positioned when I was on the US West Coast (three hours ---> thataway).
    – sysadmin1138 Mod
    Jan 11, 2012 at 12:33
  • Is there any data that can be shared about flags and other moderator activitys over the same time period?
    – user9517
    Jan 11, 2012 at 13:45
  • @Iain - not that I can find :( Jan 11, 2012 at 19:38
3

It depends on my work pensum and the level of concentration I need for my work, but usually I'm checking the site (at least hourly / every two hours) between

0700UTC - 1700UTC (core time)

and between (not every day)

2100UTC - 2300UTC

"Session length" between 2 to 10 minutes depending on how much time is at my disposal (I spend more time during my lunch break at ~ 1330UTC.)

Obviously, I don't maintain that rhythm when I'm not in the office or at home – which is maybe once or twice in two weeks.

Related answer here on Meta SF.

2

Depending on how much work I've got on, in usually pretty active between 10am and 6pm GMT an then again from 8-12pm GMT. Unfortunately I have limited access to chat a lot of the time but I try to keep up with the flags.

2
07:00 UTC - 16:00 UTC on the site/in chat

..with some additional check-ins up until 00:00 UTC on weekdays. Weekends would vary.

Sorry for copying your answer Bart, but we're very similar in terms of work hours :-)

1
  • No problem :) I get it :) Jan 11, 2012 at 8:06
2

Variable, but for the most part:

  • Weekdays:
    15:30 – 00:00 UTC on-site and/or in chat, barring Real Work.
    02:00 - 05:00 UTC occasionally depending on boredom and what else I'm doing to alleviate it.

  • Weekends
    Randomly, again depending on boredom.

2

I can generally get on between 07:00 and 22:00 (ish) UTC work and life depending.

2

I'm definitely much more active in the evenings, but I do pop in during the day at work. On weekends it depends on what's going on in real life, but I can usually get at least a few hours in.

My core hours are probably between 09:30 and 23:00 UTC, but that's obviously all dependent on what life throws at me.

1
  • 4
    That's very suspicious. Who ever heard of a sysadmin having a "real life". Jan 10, 2012 at 20:46
1
0700 UTC - 1600 UTC on the site/in chat

with some additional check-ins up until 2300 UTC on weekdays. Weekends would vary.

2
  • so that would be between 0600UTC and 0300UTC?
    – splattne
    Jan 10, 2012 at 10:09
  • Nope, edited for clarity. Jan 10, 2012 at 10:31
1

From my nomination blurb:

I work in a relaxed Higher-ED environment, which makes me available from about 1300-2200 UTC during the work day, as well as the time I spend on SF at home, which is sporadic from 2300-0300 usually.

1

Datacenter-day turned into a fair amount of firefighting (fiber-channel switch failed, fun times).

Translating for UTC...

Weekdays:

  • 1230 - 1300 UTC (breakfast)
  • 1600 - 2300 UTC (couple times an hour if not more)
  • 0100 - 0300 UTC (infrequent, with long breaks between)

Weekends:

  • 1330 - 0300 UTC (once or twice an hour)

That's when I moderate. I'm occasionally there before 1600 UTC, but that's infrequent enough that it isn't worth mentioning. I'll be in chat if I have time for a semi-continual attention suck, but with the work cycle where it is that isn't happening much these days.

3
  • Not that you're not a wonderful moderator, but may I say that graphing that half-hour from 1230-1300 was a right pain in the bum? ;)
    – MadHatter
    Jan 11, 2012 at 8:02
  • @MadHatter "But it happens a lot," he said, over cereal.
    – sysadmin1138 Mod
    Jan 11, 2012 at 12:28
  • 1
    If you find that a pain in the bum happens a lot over cereal, you should probably cut down on the high-fibre ones ;-)
    – MadHatter
    Jan 11, 2012 at 14:54
1

My time online seems to vary a bit more than others', but here goes:

0500 - 0800 UTC (9pm-mid)   Almost always online
1500 - 1600 UTC (7am-8am)   Almost always online
1800 - 2200 UTC (10am-2pm)  Online during these hours, 4 or 5 days a week
0200 - 0500 UTC (6pm-9pm)   Online during these hours, 2 or 3 days a week 

For purposes of entering this into Mark's answer, I'm going to put in the first three slots and leave out the fourth. That's probably the best overall representation.

1
  • OK, I've honoured that decision in my graph also.
    – MadHatter
    Jan 11, 2012 at 8:17
1

My chat graphs says I'm:

  • primarily active from 12:00 to 23:00 UTC
  • partially active from 23:00 to 5:00 UTC
0

Primarily available:

  • Mon-Sat 2AM UTC to 5AM UTC
  • Sunday Variable 11PM UTC until 7AM UTC
4
  • Wesley, do you mean 7pm-10pm local time, being UTC-7, or do you mean 7pm-10pm UTC because you're in UTC-7? I'm assuming the latter, but will correct my graph if you clarify.
    – MadHatter
    Jan 11, 2012 at 22:52
  • The former, not the latter. 7-10PM my local time which is -7UTC
    – Wesley
    Jan 12, 2012 at 1:07
  • Which confusion is kind of why I asked people very clearly to give the times in UTC; but not to worry, thanks for clarifying, I've updated the graph.
    – MadHatter
    Jan 12, 2012 at 8:07
  • @MadHatter Fixed!
    – Wesley
    Jan 12, 2012 at 16:58

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