Thanks to Mnementh! Also, what?

Question

I understand from the edit history on our moderators pro tem post that we've had a (partial) changing of the guard.

Let me start by saying that I know nothing about what's happened; but I think that, whatever it is, it is worthy of more than an edit to an old meta post. Regardless of why Mnementh has ceased to bear a diamond, thanks are due for his service (I don't think I'm making assumptions by adopting the masculine pronoun, but I apologise if this is not correct).

Secondly, thanks are also due to apsillers, for picking up the load - and to our other stalwart mods, ArtOfCode and Zizouz212, for having shouldered it for so long. God knows, the site's been in beta for nearly three years (this is not a complaint about that, as the criteria for leaving beta are clear and well-defined - it's just that I'm not sure that anyone who signed up as mod pro tem on day one was agreeing to do it forever!). This may all sound a bit OBN, but I have some form for dodging diamonds on ServerFault, which I do because I have a pretty clear idea of how much (thankless) work a diamond can be, and I'm lazy.

But I do feel that I detect the silent-yet-omnipotent hand of site management. There is no procedure in the pro tem mod definition for a change of guard whilst in beta. Whilst I for one am happy with the result, I am less happy with the process, which seems to have been some ad hoc arrangement that doesn't involve the community, carried on under the usual panoply of silence.

Could we get some kind of statement about the change, even if it's only an official acknowledgment that the change has happened, perhaps coupled with an admission that it all might have been done a little less sub rosa?

Answer 1

Standing (sitting?) moderator here. For what it's worth, neither Zizouz212 nor I knew about this change until it happened either - I took a look at the admin dashboard on Friday and, lo and behold, the people had changed. I will admit to thinking it was a bug at first... but a quick look at people's histories confirms it's not.

apsillers' history shows a standard pro-tem moderator appointment:

That's not particularly useful in explaining why, though. Fortunately, Mnementh's history is:

In other words, Mnementh was contacted by the team at the end of February since he hadn't been seen on-site for a while. After a couple of months, when that email hadn't been responded to (or perhaps Mnementh responded saying he'd rather not continue), his moderator status was removed.

De-diamonding moderators like this is part of a relatively new process that's there to make sure all sites have the moderation capacity they need. All moderators are contacted each year to check in and make sure they're happy to continue as a moderator, and to check whether the site needs any additional help. If a moderator hasn't been seen for a while, then their diamond is removed to secure an unused account, and another moderator is elected or appointed to fill the gap.

I should stress that this isn't a bad thing or a punishment - we all recognise that life happens, and sometimes things you were involved in once have to suffer in activity so you can do more important things instead - and that's okay. I believe the policy is that if Mnementh returns to activity here, he'll be welcome to his diamond back as well.

As you say, thanks to Mnementh for his help moderating and getting the site off the ground, and thanks likewise to apsillers for agreeing to step up and help us fill the gap.