In connection with the moderator elections, we are holding a Q&A thread for the candidates. Questions collected [from an earlier thread](https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/q/4537/32458) have been compiled into this one, which shall now serve as the space for the candidates to provide their answers. Not every question was compiled - as noted, we only selected the top 8 questions as submitted by the community, plus 2 pre-set questions from us. As a candidate, your job is simple - post an answer to this question, citing each of the questions and then post your answer to each question given in that same answer. For your convenience, I will include all of the questions in quote format with a break in between each, suitable for you to insert your answers. Just [copy the whole thing after the first set of three dashes](https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/revisions/e8d27060-4042-427c-8243-033b830481fa/view-source).Please consider putting your name at the top of your post so that readers will know who you are before they finish reading everything you have written, and also including a link to your answer on your nomination post. Once all the answers have been compiled, this will serve as a transcript for voters to view the thoughts of their candidates, and will be appropriately linked in the Election page. Good luck to all of the candidates! **Oh, and when you've completed your answer, please provide a link to it after this blurb here, before that set of three dashes. Please leave the list of links in the order of submission.** To save scrolling here are links to the submissions from each candidate (in order of submission): --- > 1. What is your time zone? What is the time period you are available for moderating our site everyday? Please specify the answer in UTC format. > 2. New users and posters tend to struggle more than experienced users. What would you do as a moderator to improve the onboarding and also improve the welcome felt by new posters to Academia SE? > 3. Do you have any previous experience as a moderator, either on Stack Exchange or on other kind of communities (e.g. newsgroups, forums etc.)? > 4. What question or answer of yours on meta best exemplifies your philosophy on moderation? Why do you feel this is the best example? > 5. In what way do you feel that being a moderator will make you more effective as opposed to simply reaching 10k or 20k rep? > 6. How would you deal with a user who produced a steady stream of valuable answers, but tends to generate a large number of arguments/flags from comments? > 7. How would you handle a situation where another mod closed/deleted/etc a question that you feel shouldn't have been? > 8. What do you think the moderators' role should be with respect to Hot Network Questions list questions, given their potential for controversy and "passerby" users from the network? How do you think presence on the HNQ list should affect moderation decisions, given its frequency? > 9. Comments can be tricky to deal with, and are often flagged as obsolete/no longer needed. Under what circumstances will you delete comments? > 10. What is your stance about the current scope of Academia Stack Exchange and how this is enforced? Should we close any question that does not strictly comply with the current scope? Should we be lenient and keep open questions that can potentially generate good answers even if borderline off-topic? Should we narrow or broaden the scope?