We now have a draft of a possible update to the Moderator selection criteria to prepare them for the introduction of global moderators (now called site moderators to prevent confusion with moderators of international categories).
What follows are the relevant sections from the draft. We welcome your feedback!
On-boarding and responsibilities
By putting themselves forward for a category moderator position, candidates commit to:
[… unchanged sections regarding category moderators]The primary responsibility of site moderators is to implement sanctions that require higher account privileges, which they would do upon request by category moderators. Site moderators should generally not exercise their elevated privileges on their own initiative or within a category they moderate as category moderators. However, site moderators can act as a backup if a category moderator team is falling behind on handling flags.
New moderators process for new categories
[… process not changed]
The proposed moderator team as a whole will be confirmed by a discussion and poll as described below.
Applications for site moderator status
Any user who is already moderator in at least one category is eligible to (additionally) become a site moderator. They can volunteer for the role at any time and are confirmed individually through a discussion and poll as described below.
Polls
Polls are used during category creation, during applications for site moderator status, and sometimes during health checks.
They are preceded by a community discussion which is open for at least 5 days (always including weekend days), allowing anyone in the community to share their thoughts and additional suggestions.
After these 5 days, a public forum poll will be called to (Approve, Reject) the candidate or list of candidates.
The poll will be open for another 5 days (always including weekend days), and it will be approved with least 80% of “Yes” votes.
Voters are encouraged to comment on the topic explaining the reasons for their votes.