In my 4 months career here on Sports beta, I've asked 11 questions. Two out of the three moderators get stuck asking only 2 questions in approximately 1.5 year.
Should moderators, especially in beta sites, be involved into asking questions?
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4Personally I don't see any reason that they shouldn't ask questions, but also no reason that they have to?– NickCommented Oct 29, 2013 at 13:05
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@NicholasV. That's mighty indifferent. Unfortunately I can't down vote your comment.– Jacob JanCommented Oct 29, 2013 at 13:25
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I don't think it's a yes/no question... If that's what you want, then, yes. They should.– NickCommented Oct 29, 2013 at 13:41
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@NicholasV. Your right, I will rephrase my question.– Jacob JanCommented Oct 29, 2013 at 13:57
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3In PhotoSE out of five top reputation members there is two who have never asked any questions. Both have a very high rep in PhotoSE, they answer a lot of questions, and obviously they have such a high level of expertice that they do not need to ask anything. Now, read again the About-page where advice is given on asking questions. Quote: "Focus on questions about an actual problem you have faced." If you have faced no actual problem yourself then you should think twice if you really need to ask something. Focus on answering the questions of other members instead.– Esa PaulastoCommented Nov 21, 2013 at 8:35
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@EsaPaulasto See answer I gave to your comment: meta.sports.stackexchange.com/a/465/1455– Jacob JanCommented Nov 21, 2013 at 10:23
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5 Answers
Who are the site moderators, and what is their role here?
To engage in the question at hand, the following is stated in the link above:
We generally expect that moderators:
- lead by example
If "lead[ing] by example" is asking questions, then sure, moderators should be involved.
However, unless a moderator has a question to ask, why would we, the community, hold them to do so?
Why single-out moderators? Sure, the site needs more questions, and if you have some good questions, then ask them. However, forcing users to ask questions when they don't have any just leads to poor, hypothetical questions that no one cares about the answers to.
I've been involved with the Pets beta site, which just came out of private beta not long ago. With everyone trying to fulfill their area51 committments, and lots of people trying to get their rep to climb, there have been some truly terrible questions asked. Many of them are hypothetical pet questions, asked by people that clearly don't actually own the animals they asked about and don't know anything about them.
Questions that are asked by people that actually have a question (rather than people just trying to fill up a site with questions) are much better.
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+1 for your opening and closing statements. However, to relate pets to sports, is there a correlation between dogs and popularity in american football?– user527Commented Oct 30, 2013 at 20:00
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@edmastermind29 Good question. Which site is that on-topic for? :) Commented Oct 30, 2013 at 20:10
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My guess is both :)– user527Commented Oct 30, 2013 at 20:25
I've only asked a couple of questions on this site (but many more on StackOverflow and other SE sites) - mainly because I grew up playing and watching lots of sports and am generally pretty knowledgeable about the sports I'm interested in and follow. I just don't have that many questions about them.
I suppose I could ask questions and then answer them myself to knowledge share but I don't think that's really what the SE sites are about. I'd rather see questions stem from where interests lie - not where moderators knowledge lies.
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2SE sites are driven by the community...– user527Commented Oct 30, 2013 at 1:55
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You've asked only one question on main (dated 1,5 years ago) and a total of 22 across SE. You don't need to answer your own question every time! This site is still in beta, so every help is appreciated/needed. Commented Oct 30, 2013 at 11:39
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I think moderators (at least the pro temp ones) should participate in the Q&A. Asking a good question is way more difficult than answering questions.
If they are to lead by example, then asking questions should be part of the deal.
Thanks for voicing your opinion here Esa.
- First, I was talking about moderators, and more specific towards the pro tempore ones
- Secondly, I posted my own answer, allowing me to express my opinion.
- Thirdly, I accepted the answer given by @edmastermind29, partially residing in the answer given.
Another thing that came into my mind where the bonus points (after reading the Moderator Pro Tempore post):
- Members with participation in both meta and the parent site (i.e. interest in both community building and expertise in the field).
- Area 51 participation, social network referrals, or blogging about the site.
- Members who have already shown an interest or ability to promote their community.
Promoting (and community building) the community would, for me, imply to ask questions on tags that don't exist or can use more exposure.
@Esa: if you posted your comment as an answer, I would've down voted it. Feel free to down- or upvote this answer.
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3My point is just that I, personally, don't like forced questions. That's all. If I don't have a problem or immediate need to learn something new, then I don't make up fake questions. Ordering someone else, moderator or not, to ask fake questions is in my opinion simply wrong. By the way, I am voting answers here, just so happened that I did not vote yours, not up, not down. Commented Nov 21, 2013 at 21:14
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@EsaPaulasto Status Quo. I understand your approach, but I expect more from Pro Tempore moderators, that all. Like politicians, they need to stand in between the people. Commented Nov 21, 2013 at 22:23