10

I'm looking for some volunteers that are willing to step up and help lead this community through its final stretch to graduation. What will I do? Who should apply? Well, I'm glad you asked!

About the job:

Parenting SE is still in beta, but it is a very established, mature and friendly community as far as betas go. As a moderator here, you won't have to process as many flags as you might on other sites. Your job is mostly:

  • Help this community reach consensus on important issues where there's a clear divide
  • Help the community maintain the site using your new found super powers
  • Help the community continue to promote the site, and keep an eye on its health through the tools you'll have access to as a moderator
  • Communicate the needs of this community directly to us at Stack Exchange, you'll have our ear for anything you might need
  • Be ready to spend a few hours per week on average doing moderator sorts of things

Who should apply?

If you're:

  • Consistently patient, fair and level-headed
  • Inspired by our theory of moderation
  • Able to contribute a few hours of time each week on average
  • Enthused about this community and where it's going
  • Reasonably knowledgeable about parenting, as far as our major tags go
  • Finding that you want the responsibility of being a moderator

... then you should definitely nominate yourself by writing an answer to this post indicating that you're interested, and why you'd like to be a moderator. Feel free to include as much information as you'd like, anything relevant to moderation on the site is fine.

Remember, this is a strictly volunteer activity. We know that folks have lives, taking a break whenever you need to is perfectly fine. All we ask is that you let us know if you think you might be gone for an extended amount of time. No part of the job is compulsory.

Think this might be for you? Nominate yourself below, and I look forward to working with (at least) two of you! If you have any questions about the job, feel free to leave a comment :)

Thank you, to all that applied

We're extremely grateful to all that volunteered their time to help lead this community on the last leg of its journey to graduation. Thank you, everyone, for your desire to pitch in.

Karl Bielefeldt and balanced mama have been appointed, and are already doing a fantastic job at their posts. Our thanks to both of them for stepping up to help!

2
  • 2
    We had some questions about what being a moderator entails in chat that might be useful for anyone who might be interested in volunteering.
    – user420
    Commented Dec 19, 2013 at 13:14
  • 1
    Just an observation that I don't think Tim included... parenting is very different than programming... being well versed in "the SO culture" is great in so far as you understand the tooling, but it's important to realize that this stack needs to be moderated differently.
    – cabbey Mod
    Commented Jan 2, 2014 at 16:24

6 Answers 6

Reset to default
18

I would like to volunteer as Moderator for ParentingSE. I have come to care about the community here as well as appreciate the resource it offers.

I like to think I have already contributed in positive ways through asking, answering, review and editing as well as commenting on the site itself, but also by being involved in meta discussions and communicative in the associated chat room.

While I have never been a moderator before, I found SE through this parenting community and truly by in to it's standards for questions and answers. I hope I can help the community grow further in positive ways and even see ParentingSE graduate out of BETA in the near future!

Additionally, I see myself as well suited within the parenting community as I have experience with children from a variety of perspectives. I spent a decade as a classroom teacher and while most of those years were taught with adolescents, I also taught preschool. Before officially becoming a teacher, I worked in a couple of daycares and currently nanny. I have a daughter of my own, two parents that are considered "expert parents" in Washington state (and a lot of their training rubbed off - as much as the teenager in me hates to admit it) and I am beginning the process of adoption through fostering in a different state.

If you'll accept me as one of the new moderators, I will take the role seriously and do my best to serve the community well.

6
  • 4
    I'm glad you nominated yourself, I think you would do a good job.
    – beansa
    Commented Dec 15, 2013 at 8:48
  • 1
    gods. . . THERE GOES THE NEIGHBORHOOD (= (btw, this is my vote of confidence in this individual)
    – monsto
    Commented Dec 21, 2013 at 2:28
  • I think you'd be great too!
    – SomeShinyObject
    Commented Dec 31, 2013 at 5:11
  • 1
    I second this nomination. Not only have you done a lot to improve this site as a reference. Not only do you have a great depth of experience. Not only are you a great contributor of both questions and answers. I just think it's weird to have a parenting site where all the moderators are men!
    – Karl Bielefeldt
    Commented Dec 31, 2013 at 22:29
  • @KarlBielefeldt - lol! Have you seen these? thestir.cafemom.com/baby/156530/10_of_the_best_dad
    – balanced mama
    Commented Jan 1, 2014 at 14:41
  • HAHA, Just for the record @KarlBielefeldt, while it's true all of us are currently men, that's not always been true... there have been two women involved in the moderation in the past. :) But I agree, it would be good to bring back that balance.
    – cabbey Mod
    Commented Jan 2, 2014 at 16:26
8

I'd like to throw my hat into the ring. I've been active on here practically since the beginning and really enjoy this community. My parenting experience is fairly broad: I have a daughter with cerebral palsy, an adopted son with ADHD, and another younger daughter. We were foster parents for a year, which included quite a bit of training, and fostered kids with rather severe behavioral issues, as well as kids with a different ethnicity than ours. We started homeschooling this year after determining that public school was not meeting our children's unique needs very well.

I am also fairly active on Programmers SE. I believe I have a reputation on both sites as being friendly to newbies, and as someone who is able to read between the lines and salvage questions that are good at their heart. As a moderator, I would make a point to be more active on meta than I have been, but I believe I have already made a couple of useful contributions to the direction of this site.

I was invited a year or so ago to volunteer as a moderator and declined back then because I didn't feel I had the time, and because I felt a parenting site needed at least one mother as a moderator to help broaden the perspective and appeal of the site. The time constraints are no longer a factor, and I hope you will select Balanced Mama along with me.

1
  • 1
    Can I just repeat what you said to me and subtract the part about all men?
    – balanced mama
    Commented Jan 1, 2014 at 14:43
5

I would like to be considered for becoming a moderator. Here is a list of my qualifying factors:

I'm a Parent

I am a parent of 2, a boy and a girl. I will have a broadening range of parenting perspectives across both genders as they continue to get older. I love being a parent. Watching them grow brings me continual joy.

My Family is Multi-Cultural

My wife is Japanese and I am an ex-pat American living in Japan. I have learned parenting ideals from across two extremely different cultures in terms of the subject.

I Know Stack Exchange

I have been a member of the StackExchange community for a bit over 2 years, originally on Stack Overflow. I also participate on the Meta site.

Parenting.StackExchange is Excellent

This is an excellent website. After using StackOverflow for a time, I began to wonder if there was a similar site dedicated for parenting, and here it was. This has been a great resource for all my questions and uncertainties about being a parent. If I could contribute just a tiny fraction back to it, that would make it all worth it.

4

I am a relatively new member of the community, but since I became one I visited this site every day. And since I visit it anyway, I apparently have the time to do it:)

I read all questions that appear on the site and most of new answers - I will be able to react if there is a problem with any of those.

I don't fit the parenting experience requirement - but I do have experince with SE sites, lookup my profile at StackOverflow.

And, perhaps most importantly: so far this community has been the most helpful and positive of all the communities I have been involved with in the Internet. As a mod I'd like to make sure it stays that way.

1
  • 1
    In total agreement: "this community has been the most helpful and positive of all the communities I have been involved with in the Internet. As a mod I'd like to make sure it stays that way".
    – balanced mama
    Commented Jan 1, 2014 at 14:44
1

I moderate on a different Stack Exchange site, and would just like to say to anyone considering volunteering that it's very worthwhile, you will get to know the other mods very well, and find yourself engaging in ways that you cannot necessarily do as a simple user of the site. The work is by no means difficult or onerous and usually pretty rewarding, plus there are a few nice little perks to being a Mod, and if getting a moderators baseball cap isn't your thing, then being able to choose a charity at Christmas that SE will donate $100 to on your behalf is always a nice feeling.

Although I am not a heavy contributor to Parenting, I would gladly Mod on here temporarily if volunteers were required and not forthcoming just to keep things on an even keel until enough people are selected.

1

I'd like to put my hand halfway up as the underdog that came out of nowhere. :)

I just became a new parent so I'm not exactly a fountain of experience for the knowledge base, but I've been known to ask a few good questions now and then.

I'm well aware of the rules of SE and the etiquette of the site and I would like to become a moderator.

I enjoy proof reading, editing and improving, and best of all (for me), it would give me a damn good excuse to read about parenting ideas and theories every day.

I plan to spend a lot more time here anyway, and if I was a moderator I'd be able to help out with oiling the hinges on the staff room door etc..

1
  • 3
    Being a new parent is no obstacle! My son was a few months old when this site launched, so I've certainly contributed a fair bit with infant- and toddler questions too. What counts to be a parenting moderator is an understanding of the SE system and the ability to look objectively at borderline issues and carefully find the right level of intervention. Often, no action is required because the community system works well, but occasionally a little trimming helps. We don't generally do proof-reading except for major issues. The art is to do as little as possible, but as much as necessary.
    – Torben Gundtofte-Bruun Mod
    Commented Dec 18, 2013 at 19:49

You must log in to answer this question.