@Iain what's going on with you? It's no secret that you and I have never been on the same page in regards to this community, but you seem to have lately taken a pretty direct path of opposition to me in particular. I don't think I've done anything to wrong you, have I? In the past when I have been wrong, I have withdrawn my comments and personally apologised to you directly. This sort of arguing that you're trying to do is beneath you.

I feel much the same way. It saddens me to see so many people basically being told "You're too dumb, go away from me before I catch your dumb disease". I, for one, am guilty of doing this in part. This was wrong of me to do this. I back Shane's proposal for the same reasons you do. I want to give back. But I want to give back to a community that I am proud to be a part of.

Uhhh, ok. I'm not chasing votes? I am not interested in being seen at all. I prefer to work behind the scenes, quietly. It's what I've been doing for years now. You seem to want me to be all loud and shouty. Also, as you of all people should know, moderators are not officials. We have no say or sway in official SE politics. We are janitors with a special star on their name. Nothing to be particularly proud of there.

I think you're reading too much into what Shog and I are saying. I mean nothing more than what I said: sometimes this place can be poisonous. Sometimes. Not all the time. Not always. Not to everyone. And nobody has given up. If I had given up, I wouldn't be here, and I wouldn't be voicing my concerns. There are those that have given up and left. And there are people in this community that need to have more empathy for their fellows. That's all I'm saying and I think that's all Shog was saying. There's nothing wrong with introspection.

Shog felt the need to call out Hopeless on what he felt was a problem in his nomination spiel. Again, I don't see what the problem with asking people the hard questions is. Additionally, I happen to agree with Shog's sentiments. The existing community here can be poisonous at times. And some people are just too blind to see that, and need to have it shoved in their faces. I can't comment on specific cases, but there are moderator nominees (plural) that have had serious moderator actions against them in the past. These people had better make a damn good case why we should vote for them.

Just as an aside, the vast, vast majority of flags come in when North America is awake and working. As someone from the Pacific side of the globe, I literally only see maybe 5% of the flags being raised, because I'm fast asleep when the rest come through. This sort of thing leads to a very single-sided view of who is perceived as active.

For what it's worth I'm going to refrain from voting on answers to this question. I'm interested in what the community genuinely thinks and don't want my personal opinions to impact what others see float to the top.

It is true that I was once way more active than I am now. Before I was a mod I had edited hundreds of questions. However my interpretation of being a "leader" is different to others perhaps. When I say being a "leader" I don't believe moderators are meant to lead people into battle. We are here to clean up the mess that remains. So in this part, I guess I have worded my intentions poorly.

I usually just use lang-cs when doing PS. It's close enough.

Heh, I might get up early but I do very little moderation past 1630+10 (or +11 as it is now).