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I'll soon be stepping down as a ♦ moderator here on workplace at my request; I'm currently sticking around while the Stack Exchange team picks a suitable replacement (there will still be 3 mods for the beta period). To stem any confusion I thought I'd go ahead and announce it myself.

Why am I leaving? That's easy; this is extra work and time and I'm not all too interested in the topic honestly. A better question is why I signed on in the first place.

Why did I want to moderate? When I saw the proposal for Workplace all everyone could talk about is how it would be "Not Programming Related" version 2.0; it would be full of all the crap the other sites don't want, it wouldn't be a useful resource, it'd either be shut down or be a huge mess like the one Programmers found itself in, blah blah blah. I didn't want that stuff to happen. Worse, it seemed like a self-fulfilling prophecy; everyone doubted the site before it even existed.

What I wanted was to guide the site to a higher standard; the basic assumption seemed to be that this place would have rock-bottom quality standards. That's crap. I knew this community would have growing pains, but I believed a strong culture of quality and well fleshed-out site policies could guide this site to be something useful.

I look around now and I see community closures within hours. I see users defending, editing and reopening closed posts. I see massive piles of downvotes for zero-substance answers, little tolerance for low quality material, meanwhile helpful, detailed answers are rewarded. I see regulars explaining the policies and helping new users along, and helping flesh out the sites' policy on Meta.

This site, and more importantly, it's community, is in great shape. I knew this could happen, but was worried it wouldn't; that's why I wanted to lend a helping hand. I like a challenge, and I like making awesome things. You're all doing a great job now, as are Nick and Julie, so I'm going to duck out and leave matters in your capable hands.

Keep making this an awesome place, Workplacers.

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  • 11
    Thank you so much for everything you've shared in teaching NickC & I the moderation ropes. It's been greatly appreciated.
    – jcmeloni
    Dec 5, 2012 at 2:52
  • 9
    btw I downvoted, I disagree with this.
    – yannis
    Dec 5, 2012 at 3:52
  • 16
    A moderator consciously making the decision to resign when they feel it's not the right position for them anymore is somewhat a ...*sunglasses*... rarity. YEEEEAAAAAAHHHHHHHH (Thanks for all your hard work here. We'll go through the replacement motions here ASAP.)
    – Adam Lear StaffMod
    Dec 5, 2012 at 17:04
  • 1
    Thanks for taking it on and all your work up till now!!
    – bethlakshmi
    Dec 5, 2012 at 21:25
  • 3
    So... not to be insensitive - cause Rarity's awesome and I'd rather he stayed - but what are the replacement motions?
    – bethlakshmi
    Dec 5, 2012 at 21:44
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    @bethlakshmi We basically do the same thing we do when we pick the initial set of pro tem moderators. We look at site activity, participation in community moderation, etc. Then we'll approach a few candidates and pick one to take Rarity's place. And by we in this case I mean me.
    – Adam Lear StaffMod
    Dec 6, 2012 at 4:08
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    @bethlakshmi More details on the process here: blog.stackoverflow.com/2010/07/moderator-pro-tempore
    – Adam Lear StaffMod
    Dec 6, 2012 at 4:12
  • 7
    Where will I get my little pony moderation fix from now on?
    – Oded
    Dec 7, 2012 at 13:52
  • 2
    @Oded BoltClock can help you with that ;}
    – yannis
    Dec 7, 2012 at 15:14
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    @Anna Lear: Is jmort253 a candidate?
    – Jim G.
    Dec 11, 2012 at 1:27
  • @JimG. meta.workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/248/…
    – Adam Lear StaffMod
    Dec 11, 2012 at 1:32

3 Answers 3

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I thought Workplace SE was going to be a disaster. Instead, it's a thriving beta Stack Exchange site. You were a big part of seeing this happen, and this is a disappointing moment.

People do have lives, and sometimes we do have to take a break. I hope you stay engaged as a user here and continue to provide the outstanding leadership you provided that helped this community get where it is today. Thank you!!

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Thank you for the time and effort you've put on the site. Hopefully you'll stick around as a regular user and continue helping the site grow, as you did from day one.

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Thanks so much for all your work. I really wanted this place to succeed because I see so many people who are totaly clueless about how the work world works, especially early in their careers. You were critical in making it happen and in getting the beta going in the right direction.

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  • especially early in their careers 5 years later, we can still see a lot of question from young people as they don't know how to behave, most of them are closed as duplicate/( or unclear/off-topic) since they're being quite newcomers in the workplace in 5 years.
    – Walfrat
    Nov 7, 2017 at 16:01

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