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Your friendly neighbourhood moderators are fairly active in chat in The Sphinx's Lair, but we realize that we can only do so much.

We would like to add some new room owners, who will inherit certain privileges to help with moderation of The Sphinx's Lair.

A room owner has the following privileges (in addition to whatever privileges are afforded them by their reputation):

  1. edit the room name and description
  2. pin a message (a pin is a super-star)
  3. remove stars from messages
  4. grant explicit read or write access (for when a user might not otherwise have it)
  5. grant room ownership
  6. modify chat feeds
  7. move messages to a different room
  8. schedule chat events
  9. kick-mute disruptive users

(see A guide to moderating chat for a more detailed explanation -- Thanks, rand al'thor!)

We are asking for your nominations of people who would make good room owners. The criteria we feel are important for this job are:

  • fairly active in chat (specifically in The Sphinx's Lair)
  • have demonstrated maturity and impartiality
  • are positive contributors to the site

Each answer should contain one nomination. Please structure your nomination like the example below. Feel free to share whatever you think is relevant to your candidate’s ability to perform well as a room owner.

[example]

Sphinx Of Black Quartz

Sphinx of Black Quartz has been an active and polite user in The Sphinx's Lair. She always judges my vows with impartiality, and is welcoming and encouraging to new users. She calls out inappropriate behaviour when she sees it.

SoBQ has posted many well-received questions and is also active in answering.

I believe SoBQ would make an excellent room owner in The Sphinx's Lair.

Sphinx of Black Quartz, judge my vow!

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    $\begingroup$ I am not a regular in the chat room, but do you guys frequently kick-mute disruptive users? Do you frequently schedule chat events? What is the problem you are trying to solve by granting new privileges to certain users? $\endgroup$
    – Matsmath
    Dec 14, 2016 at 22:18
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    $\begingroup$ @Matsmath That's a good question. There is no huge problem. We did encounter a problem a couple of days ago where a user was being disruptive and there were no mods around. So it could potentially have a small benefit to add more owners, and really has no downside. $\endgroup$
    – GentlePurpleRain
    Dec 14, 2016 at 22:20
  • $\begingroup$ Fixing CCCC super-stars is another (very) minor benefit. $\endgroup$
    – Alconja
    Dec 14, 2016 at 23:01
  • $\begingroup$ It's worth noting that a significant proportion of the most active meta users (and therefore those most likely to vote on this post) are also active chat users in the Sphinx's Lair. $\endgroup$
    – Rand al'Thor
    Dec 16, 2016 at 22:17
  • $\begingroup$ @CipherRiddle I think it's OK to nominate yourself. You're not really active in chat anymore, though, so you'd have to give some very convincing arguments... (having puzzles that stayed unsolved for a long time isn't necessarily a good thing, but I guess you can mention it) $\endgroup$
    – user14478
    Dec 17, 2016 at 11:52
  • $\begingroup$ Now that we have two nominees already, it would perhaps be the best if you could clarify how many openings are there. Imagine a situation where user A nominates B (who is a strong candidate), and then user B nominates user C (who is not as-strong, but since it was nominated by B, perhaps OK), and then C nominates D, etc., and eventually one should argue, why nominee Z did not get elevated privileges. $\endgroup$
    – Matsmath
    Dec 17, 2016 at 13:13
  • $\begingroup$ @GentlePurpleRain I think it would be a good idea to select people from the frequently in room list. We do want active users after all... $\endgroup$
    – Beastly Gerbil
    Dec 17, 2016 at 14:05
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    $\begingroup$ @Matsmath i don't think there is any vacancies or anything of that sort. It's just to give active chat users to control the official chatroom without having to wait for mods to rescue them. You see,mods can't be online all the time. $\endgroup$
    – Sid
    Dec 17, 2016 at 17:03
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    $\begingroup$ What tools are available to room owners? <--- very useful link $\endgroup$
    – Rand al'Thor
    Dec 18, 2016 at 21:42
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    $\begingroup$ I'm marking this as done, not because we'll never add new room owners, but because I think it's not too likely that we're going to add more any time soon. $\endgroup$
    – user20
    Dec 25, 2016 at 18:00

6 Answers 6

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Gareth McCaughan

Gareth McCaughan has been an active and polite user in The Sphinx's Lair. He always strikes me as level-headed and insightful, and is willing and able to give helpful tips on improving puzzles when asked.

Gareth is one of the most prolific answerers on the site, with over 20k reputation earned from answers alone. While he has posed no questions as of yet, he has contributed to puzzles under construction in the Sandbox and Has come up with a few entries in the Community Cryptic Clue Challenge

He also has over two and a half thousand messages in The Sphinx's Lair, and may be able to provide better coverage for European hours. Because of these reasons, I believe Gareth would make an excellent room owner in The Sphinx's Lair.

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    $\begingroup$ Totally agree, Gareth would've been my nomination too. (and as an aside, I love the fluid nature of the CCCC acronym) $\endgroup$
    – Alconja
    Dec 15, 2016 at 5:53
  • $\begingroup$ Gareth, you have my bow. $\endgroup$
    – IAmInPLS
    Dec 15, 2016 at 7:54
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    $\begingroup$ Consider it done. $\endgroup$
    – user20
    Dec 15, 2016 at 8:12
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    $\begingroup$ I want an axe too. Where's my axe? $\endgroup$
    – Gareth McCaughan Mod
    Dec 15, 2016 at 21:07
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Rubio

It isn't clear to me whether we need more room owners at this point, but if so then I think Rubio is an obvious choice.

Rubio

  • is one of the more active chat users
  • isn't already a mod or room owner
  • is somewhat active in chat at times of day when the existing owners/mods are usually not around
  • is consistently reasonable and sensible in chat
  • seems well-liked by other participants.

Rubio is also an active puzzler, having contributed some very nice questions (random recent example: Birdies and Tigers and Bears, Oh My!) and many good answers. (At the time of writing Rubio is at the top of the "most rep gained recently" lists for both the last week and the last month.)

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  • $\begingroup$ I second Rubio's nomination, I had it half written to do myself, but I thought it would look weird if I was the only one nominating people. $\endgroup$
    – Sconibulus
    Dec 17, 2016 at 14:04
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    $\begingroup$ While I have absolutely nothing against Rubio and his behaviour in chat has never been problematic, he is fairly new to SE (only been a member for 2 months) and may not be familiar with all the tooling. $\endgroup$
    – Rand al'Thor
    Dec 18, 2016 at 21:42
  • $\begingroup$ @randal'thor I had the same thoughts in chat : chat.stackexchange.com/transcript/message/34172033#34172033 $\endgroup$
    – IAmInPLS
    Dec 19, 2016 at 7:41
  • $\begingroup$ Consider it done (posted a lil' late) $\endgroup$
    – user20
    Dec 25, 2016 at 7:02
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Beastly Gerbil

Split original answer into 3 to be voted on separately

I am in the top 10 of the frequently active list.

The fact that I am in the top 10 of the list shows that I am very active in chat. I am very active on site too.

I am rated third most active in chat overall.

I am English which means I am in a different timezone from the majority of people, and will be active when other's aren't.

I (hope I) seem well-liked by other users, as well as being friendly and open.

I am an experienced puzzler:

Upvote this answer if you think I should be a Room Owner.

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dcfyj

Split original answer into 3 to be voted on separately

dcfyj is in the top 10 of the frequently active list.

The fact that he is in the top 10 of the list shows he is very active in chat. He is active on site too.

dcfyj is rated fourth in the list.

He is American which means he may not be active at different times to the majority, but he still will be active when others aren't

He seems well-liked by others, and open and friendly.

He is an experienced puzzler:

  • dcfyj 4k rep, member for 7 months

Upvote this answer if you think that he should be a Room Owner

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The Sphinx's Lair doesn't need additional room owners.

Compared to places like the Bridge, the Nineteenth Byte, and a certain wretched hive of scum and villainy which I frequent, the Sphinx's Lair is pretty inactive (the number of messages in a given day usually isn't enough to go over the limit that fits on a single page in the transcript) and almost totally drama-free (how many tSL users have been kickmuted or suspended in the last year?)

Mos Eisley needed new room owners during a period of intense drama, involving dozens of flagged posts and active chat users, culminating in a CM forcibly shutting the room down for an entire week. The Nineteenth Byte needed new room owners due to incredibly restrictive 'chatiquette' rules which were frequently being violated, leading to highly-voted meta posts publicly calling for the suspension of certain named users. Nothing remotely approaching that level of drama has happened in Puzzling chat for over two years now.

Add to this the fact that four of the room's most active users are chat moderators (myself and the three Puzzling mods), and chat mods have all the same powers as room owners plus more besides. So if anything happens in the Sphinx's Lair which requires a room owner's presence - a disruptive user, say, or a message which needs pinning or unpinning - it's more than likely that one of us will be around to deal with it. We don't really need any extra help with this very minimal amount of work.

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    $\begingroup$ I agree that we don't need more room owners. But we can certainly use more room owners, even if their "powers" are only exercised rarely. As I mentioned in my comment on the question above, we did encounter a recent situation with a disruptive user where there were no mods available to kick-mute them. It wasn't serious, and it was handled, but if one of the regulars who were there had been a room owner, the situation could have been nipped in the bud. Since there is really no downside to having additional owners (assuming they don't abuse their "powers"), let's err on the side of too many. $\endgroup$
    – GentlePurpleRain
    Dec 17, 2016 at 1:48
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Sconibulus

Split original answer into 3 to be voted on separately

Sconibulus is in the top 10 of the frequently active list.

The fact that he is in the top 10 of the list shows he is very active in chat. He is active on site too.

Sconibulus is rated eighth in the list.

He is American which means he may not be active at different times to the majority, but he still will be active when others aren't

He seems well-liked by others, and open and friendly.

He is an experienced puzzler:

Upvote this if you think he should be a Room Owner.

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  • $\begingroup$ I just noticed that you said both Sconibulus and I are 4th on the list haha $\endgroup$
    – dcfyj
    Dec 23, 2016 at 19:05
  • $\begingroup$ @dcfyj oops! Will fix $\endgroup$
    – Beastly Gerbil
    Dec 23, 2016 at 19:09
  • $\begingroup$ Wow, that's a big difference haha $\endgroup$
    – dcfyj
    Dec 23, 2016 at 19:10

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