Since we have had the ability to track the hot network question (HNQ) list, we have been doing this in a private moderator room. The idea being that it would help us stay on top of potentially problematic questions that need moderator attention before things get out of hand. It has helped, but we have a lot of HNQs and most of the things that need to be done can be done by regular users with enough rep (e.g., protecting the question, closing questions that are off topic, and flagging answers as low quality and comments as rude).
In the community moderation spirit of SE, I have created a public chat room that has the HNQs for Academia.SE. If you pop in you will see questions that are on the HNQ. Read them and enjoy or moderate them or just ignore it all together.
