A very little announcement

[Velasco]

Personally, I think it would be better if Al only half-quits and stays at least as honorary friendly neighborhood dictator. It's his personal 'chose'. All this succession debate is fascinating. I guess Al will make his proposal at the right time.

• Franknburger has made a name for himself, being an expert on German politics. Two problems are his short presence on Atlas and the concentration on a single country. For what it's worth, he has made one post on the opebo issue.

 

I'm kinda surprised seeing a relatively new member nominated by the people. Anyway, it's well deserved because he's really a good poster and makes contributions outside German-related topics (indeed, he's an expert). As to the the opebo-gate, I think you didn't follow the discussion.

Hash is indeed very qualified and the obvious choice. I miss Lewis and the other guys are fine.

[politicus]

Hash is a great poster, but not moderator material. He is far to acerbic and quirky for that and Frankenburger is too new. Smid seems perfect. Hatman or SweedishCheese would be good too.

[Vosem]

I have to say that I hadn't thought of Smid for some reason; he, too, seems like a great candidate for successor.

[Velasco]

Hash is a great poster, but not moderator material. He is far to acerbic and quirky for that and Frankenburger is too new.

In a perfect world, some of the current mods should never be allowed to moderate. Hash may be rude sometimes -as Al is often sarcastic- but he's honest and tries to be fair-minded.

[Grumpier Than Uncle Joe]

Smid is the best.

[Tetro Kornbluth]

Count me out. My life is up in the air right now.

P.S: I've been away for the last couple of days. Any news ?

[Oakvale]

Guys, don't bicker, I've got the perfect successor. I will be in charge.

But really, Hash or Jas.

[Hatman 🍁]

Hughento is another choice, I don't think anyone has mentioned.

[Serenity Now]

Sorry to hear you're having troubles.  All I can say really is thank you for your years of good work, and that I'm glad to know you'll still be posting

[YL]

Sorry to hear you're having troubles.  All I can say really is thank you for your years of good work, and that I'm glad to know you'll still be posting

Seconded.

[Linus Van Pelt]

Moderators have been shuffled around before, so it doesn't absolutely have to be someone new. Tender Branson or Ag would make an excellent moderator of this board, and Afleitch would be fine too, though he has a busy load already.

Smid, Jas, Oakvale and Hashemite (assuming he could keep his temper in check in his mod duties) all strike me as good candidates among the non-mods.

Although I have the highest admiration for Franknburger's electoral and demographic posts, the arguments he makes in this post give me some reservations about him as a moderator. Even though it is exceedingly unlikely, a moderator should appreciate that the forum does exist in the real world and in principle could face a risk of de-anonymization or shutdown in the event that it drew the negative attention of the media or law enforcement. In such a case an excessively legalistic understanding of the forum's internal rules could be problematic.

[Talleyrand]

I am certainly sorry to see you go, Al. This sub forum has been generally free of drama and major controversy, and you've always been very fair in moderating as far as I've seen.

As for the issue of the new moderator, I think Hashemite would obviously be one of the top choices, and his occasionally acerbic comments shouldn't prevent him from taking the position... I think the current moderator has a similar reputation, and it hasn't interfered with his duties. His interests seem to encompass nearly everything on this board, so he wouldn't be a Canada-centric mod (like Earl) or Germany-centric (like Franknburger).

Besides Hashemite, it does seem like Platypus/Hughento or Smid would be good choices too.

[Hatman 🍁]

I am certainly sorry to see you go, Al. This sub forum has been generally free of drama and major controversy, and you've always been very fair in moderating as far as I've seen.

As for the issue of the new moderator, I think Hashemite would obviously be one of the top choices, and his occasionally acerbic comments shouldn't prevent him from taking the position... I think the current moderator has a similar reputation, and it hasn't interfered with his duties. His interests seem to encompass nearly everything on this board, so he wouldn't be a Canada-centric mod (like Earl) or Germany-centric (like Franknburger).

Besides Hashemite, it does seem like Platypus/Hughento or Smid would be good choices too.

For the record, I do lurk in other threads, I just don't have much to say.

Moderators have been shuffled around before, so it doesn't absolutely have to be someone new. Tender Branson or Ag would make an excellent moderator of this board, and Afleitch would be fine too, though he has a busy load already.

Smid, Jas, Oakvale and Hashemite (assuming he could keep his temper in check in his mod duties) all strike me as good candidates among the non-mods.

Although I have the highest admiration for Franknburger's electoral and demographic posts, the arguments he makes in this post give me some reservations about him as a moderator. Even though it is exceedingly unlikely, a moderator should appreciate that the forum does exist in the real world and in principle could face a risk of de-anonymization or shutdown in the event that it drew the negative attention of the media or law enforcement. In such a case an excessively legalistic understanding of the forum's internal rules could be problematic.

With everything that's been going on lately, we do need some fresh blood on the mod team.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Thank you for all you've done for this board, Al.

I'd be very much in favor of Hash or Smid, although of course there are other great candidates as well. I would love to recommend Antonio, but he's involved himself in the recent controversy to the point where now is probably not the best time, and besides, his personal life is really busy.

[morgieb]

Would love to see Hugh or Smid take over. Yes I am letting my patriotism get the better hold of me (though given Smid is pretty knowledgeable about Canadian politics, he has a pretty solid case if he wants the job)

[Tender Branson]

Moderators have been shuffled around before, so it doesn't absolutely have to be someone new. Tender Branson or Ag would make an excellent moderator of this board, and Afleitch would be fine too, though he has a busy load already.

Smid, Jas, Oakvale and Hashemite (assuming he could keep his temper in check in his mod duties) all strike me as good candidates among the non-mods.

Although I have the highest admiration for Franknburger's electoral and demographic posts, the arguments he makes in this post give me some reservations about him as a moderator. Even though it is exceedingly unlikely, a moderator should appreciate that the forum does exist in the real world and in principle could face a risk of de-anonymization or shutdown in the event that it drew the negative attention of the media or law enforcement. In such a case an excessively legalistic understanding of the forum's internal rules could be problematic.

No thanks, I am already a moderator on several boards - so I prefer someone else to get this honour ...

(the people mentioned in this thread already would all be good choices)

[Sol]

RogueBeaver might be a good candidate also.

[Zioneer]

RogueBeaver might be a good candidate also.

I would second RogueBeaver if this were a democracy. On the two boards he and I have both been members of, he's been nothing but helpful, polite, and well-reasoned, even if he and I have wildly different ideological views. He's also got a tremendous amount of knowledge, and seems to be fair when arguing almost any issue.

[Franknburger]

Since this is evolving into a "Who is going to replace Al" thread, here a few thoughts/ questions:

1. My impression has been that moderating the "International Elections" board requires not too much effort. Italian elections may get a bit heated, but otherwise the community here is quite self-constrained. This impression may, however, also relate to Al having done a pretty good job behind the scenes, without his efforts becoming obvious. As such, I think a short statement from Al on the effort/ time needed for moderation might help everybody, including those that have been named as possible moderators.

2. I think it could make sense to integrate the moderator teams of the "International General Discussion" and the "International Elections" boards, since many posters are active in both, and, in an election year, a "Country X General Discussion" thread will evolve into a "Country X Election" thread. A larger team could be better able to bridge individual periods of leave, which everybody might need to take from time to time. The drawback, however, is such a team needing to develop a consistent moderation approach.

As to myself: I am honoured to have my name put forward by several posters. I myself am yet unsure whether I would like to be moderator or not. Issues here are personal time constraints,  short forum membership, and also the recent "drama". So if anybody else (ideally with knowledge of both the non-Anglo European and the Anglo-Canadian political scene) volunteers, I an fine with it. Rogue Beaver could be a good choice. After this exchange, I have some question on oakvale's ability to constrain his temper.

Since people have been starting to look into my position concerning the opebo drama, here a full list of my contributions in that context:
https://uselectionatlas.org/FORUM/index.php?topic=184774.msg3999449#msg3999449   (a second post follows a bit further down the thread)
https://uselectionatlas.org/FORUM/index.php?topic=185236.msg4006214#msg4006214 (already cited by Linus van Pelt)
https://uselectionatlas.org/FORUM/index.php?topic=185537.msg4012852#msg4012852
https://uselectionatlas.org/FORUM/index.php?topic=185590.msg4013803#msg4013803 (a second post follows a bit further down the thread)
https://uselectionatlas.org/FORUM/index.php?topic=185622.msg4015261#msg4015261 (already cited by Foucalf. Mr. Morden answered on that post of mine, and I should have given him a reply, but I was a few days busy with other things).

For the record: I am generally no fan of bans - not only in the case of opebo, but also as concerns Gully, or whoever now might be offered as sacrificial lamb to calm down the pro-opebo faction.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Basically I read through new posts - which doesn't take very long and some regulars here do that anyway - on a fairly regular basis and make appropriate modifications when required¹: I prefer to edit posts rather than delete them (but will do these when there's no other than personal abuse) and I prefer not to use forum bureaucracy². Posted warnings are also sometimes preferred. Generally I prefer to nip confrontations in the bud. I have been known to deport arguments to other parts of the forum. None of this takes very long.

Then there's keeping the place tidy, handling thread mergers and thread splits and so on.

There's also sometimes additional stuff during high profile elections: switching from general elections threads to results threads (because this is better for the speed of the forum).

<sub>1. Over time this has become less frequent.
2. Basically only doing so when there's a spammer or whatever.</sub>

[RogueBeaver]

Thanks to Sol and Zioneer, but I'm not at all interested in modding. I don't have the time, breadth/depth of knowledge required or patience for forum drama. For the record I support Smid or Frankenburger.