A few days ago I made the following posts. I don’t bring it up except to raise a question: what sort of forum do you want to have? Do you want to have a forum where discussion is free and open and wide-ranging? Or do you want to have a forum where the UPerton Window of acceptable discourse is tightly policed by posters and moderators? I’d be an excellent moderator of the former type of forum and a terrible moderator of the latter.
Is it the job of the moderator to foster an environment conducive to vigorous debate? I would say yes. But we need to decide what sort of forum we want. One where the UPerton Window is actively policed through various tactics, leaving a narrow slice of acceptable opinions on certain topics? Where accusations of trolling, entreaties to ignore, and accusations bad faith are used as toys against those expressing forbidden opinions? That’s fine by the way if you guys do want that sort of forum. But it wouldn’t be a good fit for me as a mod or probably a poster, and I think a lot of my friends agree.
Which brings me to the other reason I might be a good moderator. It would be a gesture of goodwill towards a certain faction. Entrusting someone who is closely identified with that faction with the terrible and sacred powers of Moderator would be a powerful gesture. It might help heal the wounds. It would make them (and me) feel like they are part of the community with a stake in what happens here.
And I’d finally be able to split off my own derails.
In short:
Merry Christmas!