2014 Moderator Election

Ever since I received an invitation from Chris Rea to join the group, I've been a regular, consistent, contributor.

I hope my record speaks for itself. I have recognized expertise in the topic of Personal Finance, and have been a contributor at the blogs for both TurboTax and H&R Block. I keep links to my own blog to a select few, and only when my own longer article is a worthy complement to an answer offered at Money.SE.

On a personal note, I was retired from a position in high tech sales where I made use of an undergrad degree as a BSEE (Bachelor Science Electrical Engineering) and MBA with finance concentration.

In my second life begun after retirement didn't stick, I passed exams for my state's teaching license and real estate license, and now hold two jobs. Working at the math center in a nearby high school, I make use of the patience I acquired as the father of a teen age daughter. I believe it's one thing to know something, another thing to be able to explain it to a friend, and most important, to explain so a teen can understand it. I will continue the kind atmosphere here, we can accept conflicting opinions while remaining polite to other members.

In the grand scheme of this SE, heck the whole SE-verse, my stats are of a little fish. As such, I don't hold a lot of hope that me throwing my had in the ring will be very constructive but potential is as valuable, so we'll see.

I have had 20+ years of moderation experience, going back to the days of IRC, did I just date myself? I am currently an active mod/admin on many forums. This brings me to my experience here, which is nothing like the forum moderation as politics seems to run a lot deeper than value.

I have sympathy for the weary new user who wants to know something but doesn't know how to ask it and gets buried in so much vitriol, downvotes, sarcasm, quips and jabs that they often leave. I wonder how many quality members of SE community we have lost because of this and how many quality sites have failed their beta because of this and how may undeserving stat pumpers we have that are not worth the bytes that stores them.

To conclude, I will bring my experience in this subject and life, my experience in moderation, and my eye for the diamond in the rough to support the success of this site. Treat everyone firmly but respect that judgment without teaching is just bullying.

I'm willing to give moderation a shot if the community will have me.

Moderation Experience

Never been a formal mod on a SE site, but I have Trusted User privs on StackOverflow (22.7K rep) and am getting close here (18.8k rep). I've used the review/mod tools a fair amount.

Other reasons to consider me

• Active on this site almost daily for 4+ years (1,177 days active) including the beta.
• SE user for more than 5 years.
• Have Announcer badge on this site for promoting it.
• 19 helpful flags on this site and 300+ on SO.
• Copy Editor (Gold) badge on SO for editing over 500 posts.

Moderation philosophy for this site

Growing the community is a priority. That means being welcoming n00bs who aren't used to the SE format. I'd be aggressive at removing snarky, mean-spirited, or condescending material and encourage constructive comments/edits. I'm more carrot than stick as shown by my vote history (1,525 up / 7 down)

I also favor (limited) tolerance of slightly off-topic questions (e.g small business questions) if they are high quality and could drive traffic to the site.

Greetings and Salutations.

I would like to continue my time as a moderator on the site. I hope to provide a few things:

• Experience with Money.SE. Other people may have a mod background on other sites, but I think my memory of what happens in this community will be valuable so soon after graduation.
• Patience. I am not prone to lashing out with emotions in my responses or moderation.
• Open minded. I hope I present myself as equally skeptical and open to new ideas. I am very willing to disagree with somebody while welcoming and letting their opinion stand over mine in votes. I tend to vote quite a bit, which reflect my natural inclination to think that everybody adds something.

Those are my best traits as a moderator. Of course I am not the smartest end-all be-all when it comes to personal finance. I learn something on this site almost everyday. Frequently I learn many things a day here. While I am not the greatest at answering or racking up points, I am consistently here and consistently welcoming our new members.

As a mod my focus is on building a welcoming and friendly community.