In connection with the moderator elections, we are holding a Q&A thread for the candidates. Questions collected from an earlier thread have been compiled into this one, which shall now serve as the space for the candidates to provide their answers.
Due to the submission count, we have selected all provided questions as well as two of our back up questions for a total of 10 questions.
As a candidate, your job is simple - post an answer to this question, citing each of the questions and then post your answer to each question given in that same answer. For your convenience, I will include all of the questions in quote format with a break in between each, suitable for you to insert your answers. Just copy the whole thing after the first set of three dashes. Please consider putting your name at the top of your post so that readers will know who you are before they finish reading everything you have written, and also including a link to your answer on your nomination post.
Once all the answers have been compiled, this will serve as a transcript for voters to view the thoughts of their candidates, and will be appropriately linked in the Election page.
Good luck to all of the candidates!
Oh, and when you've completed your answer, please provide a link to it after this blurb here, before that set of three dashes. Please leave the list of links in the order of submission.
To save scrolling here are links to the submissions from each candidate (in order of submission):
A question is flagged as "off-topic" because it only peripherally involves an Arduino. For example "How do I get my Arduino to turn on a motor using a transistor?". Should it be closed altogether, migrated to Electrical Engineering Stack Exchange (where they are used to questions about transistors), or left here as a good beginner's Arduino question? Alternatively would you dismiss the flag and let the community handle the question via down-votes or vote-to-close?
A question has a lengthy number of comments under it suggesting various possible solutions to the asked problem. Once the number of comments reaches 20 the system (Community) automatically flags it suggesting that the comments be moved to chat. You move the comments to chat as suggested, and then get a complaint from a user that "valuable information is now hidden away in chat rather than under the question where it should be". How do you respond?
A question is flagged as "not an answer" because it basically only has a link in it. The question is "Where can I find the datasheet for the Atmega328P" and the answer is a link to the datasheet. There is a school of thought that link only answers are not good answers. However in this case there isn't really any other way of answering the question. Copying and pasting a huge datasheet into the answer isn't really an option. Also see Should I flag answers which contain only a link as “not an answer”?. As a moderator, would you delete the answer, or let it stand?
How would you deal with a user who produced a steady stream of valuable answers, but tends to generate a large number of arguments/flags from comments?
How would you handle a situation where another mod closed/deleted/etc a question that you feel shouldn't have been?
Regarding why something has to be flagged/closed, do you believe that the actual system (a fixed list of reasons) can be improved or changed for a better one? If you do, how do you propose it could be accomplished?
What level of knowledge do you demand from users asking questions? Do you believe there's a minimum standard required?
What would you do if two users start insulting each other about not having sufficient knowledge to post on this site? Assume that both users have flagged each other's comments as rude or abusive.
In what way do you feel that being a moderator will make you more effective as opposed to simply reaching 10k or 20k rep?
In your opinion, what do moderators do?