EJoshuaS - Reinstate Monica
I would like to nominate myself. I've been involved in Stack Exchange sites since around 2017, and I have participated extensively in asking and answering questions and in community moderation since then.
- 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?
Clean up the comments and warn them to stop doing that. Eventually, if they persist in the behavior, a short suspension may be required to help address the problem. I certainly hope that it wouldn't come to that, though, and I would try to make sure that we didn't lose them as a participant as a result.
- How would you handle a situation where another mod closed/deleted/etc. a question that you feel shouldn’t have been?
I would discuss it with them directly and privately.
I would certainly not, however, override their decision or be publicly critical of it regardless of my agreement/disagreement.
- How do you distinguish questions that are about systematic theology (even ones that cite the Bible) from exegetical questions that touch on theological matters?
Systematic theology questions may cite a text but are fundamentally about a doctrine. Exegetical questions are fundamentally about the text (even if they touch on questions about systematics).
- How would you deal with a poorly written or worded question from a first-time poster to this site?
Edit where possible. Direct them to appropriate resources in the help center, and comment on things they can do to improve. I'm not always perfect in this area, but these comments are usually the most effective when presented positively (along the lines of "you'll have the best odds of getting a helpful answer to your question if you be sure to do x, y, and z, and the reason is the following:...") as opposed to being an implied criticism for them not knowing and following site rules. This sometimes gets lost, but the motivation for leaving comments on a low-quality post is to encourage the OP to improve it, not merely to point out their mistakes.
- What are comments for, and what are the signs that comments have turned into a debate that needs to be handled by a moderator?
If comment threads start becoming too long or too heated. Also, people should be strongly discouraged from answering in the comments. Answers should be written as answers so that they're easier for future readers to find (and so that people can vote on them properly).
- How does the purpose and scope (allowed questions) of this site differ from Christianity.SE?
This is not, as I understand it, intended to be an exclusively "Christian" site. While in practice most people approach the text from that perspective, that's actually too bad in my opinion because other perspectives should be encouraged too. I would love to see greater participation from the perspective of Judaism (although some people have indicated a discomfort in doing so, which, again, is too bad) and literary and historical analysis - perhaps even having some kind of joint events with those respective sites to encourage cross-participation.
- Sometimes comments are written on this site complaining that a question does not come from a place of genuine inquiry, but instead is a "stump the chump" or "gotcha" question for people of some other theological camp. Do you think questions like these are a legitimate problem, and if so, how do you identify these questions?
Yes, I do think this is a problem. I've actually previously written about "soap-box questions" that are little more than opportunities to advocate for a specific perspective.
Ideally, I'd like to have a community-specific off-topic reason for these questions, but in lieu of that this kind of question should be promptly closed as "Opinion Based" or "Needs Details or Clarity".
As to how we identify such questions, the Help Center's don't ask page is a good start for subjective questions that are not considered constructive. In particular, this type of question tends to fall under points #3 ("there is no actual problem to be solved") and #5 ("[the] question is just a rant in disguise").
- How have you contributed to the [community moderation](https://meta.stackexchange.com/q/160960/256282) of this site?
I have admittedly been somewhat more involved in moderation on Stack Overflow, where I have been a long-term participant in Stack Overflow Close Vote Reviewers (SOCVR) and, to a lesser degree, Charcoal, and where I have gold badges for most of the review queues. (That's partially due to the fact that Stack Overflow's review queues are typically so backlogged). However, I feel that I will be able to apply that knowledge here as well.
- In your opinion, what do moderators do?
Moderators primarily handle things that the community cannot. Ideally, most content problems should be handled by the community through editing, downvoting, upvoting, closure, flagging, or deletion. (Not that moderators can't do that - after all, moderators are still community members - but that function isn't delegated specifically, or even primarily, to moderators). However, many non-content problems (e.g. behavioral issues) should be dealt with by moderators.
- A diamond will be attached to everything you say and have said in the past, including questions, answers and comments. Everything you will do will be seen under a different light. How do you feel about that?
While I'd hardly say that I'm perfect, I'm totally fine with that.
