1) How much available time do you have to perform moderation activities and when (time of day and timezone) do you expect to perform most of these activities?
On weekdays, I'm around from about 5:30am until 10pm; weekends a little later. I look in on my SE sites several times during the day, and typically have a chat window open so I'd hear any pings from there if I'm near a PC.
Most of the moderation issues I see here can be handled quickly (spam, non-answers, etc.) and I already spend a lot of time on SE sites, so I could easily divert some to things that require more attention.
2) Do you have experience moderating, either on other StackExchange sites or on other online communities? If so, what has that experience taught you?
I've been more engaged with Stack Exchange than anything else on the internet, so I don't have much moderation experience elsewhere. I've been moderating on Gardening & Landscaping since February 2013. In that time, I've learned that sometimes, no matter how much you try to help them, people don't want to be helped. I'm learning that you can't let yourself get upset about that.
3) 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?
Anyone can have a bad day, but if someone has a pattern of abusive behavior over time, then regardless of their contributions, they need to be calmed down. They don't have the right to ruin the site for everyone else.
I'd start by cleaning up the comments or chat messages where the argument is occurring: sometimes, all that's needed to calm things down is knowing that a "grown-up" is watching. Next up is pulling them into a private chat room and asking them to desist. If that doesn't work, I'd escalate with mod messages and timed suspensions.
4) How would you handle a situation where another mod closed/deleted/etc a question that you feel shouldn't have been?
Discuss it with them; depending on the context and content, either via the moderator-only channels or in the public chat room. Questions can often be interpreted different ways, so if there's something wrong with the question that I don't see, I'd like to know so I can learn and do better next time a similar situation comes up. Likewise, knowing that the question is ambiguous means that we could leave comments asking the OP to improve it.
5) How would you balance the often conflicting roles of maintaining a welcoming site to new users while avoiding questions that are off topic?
I do a lot of this on Gardening & Landscaping: close a question or delete a follow-on post that's not an answer and leave a comment welcoming them to the site, explaining what they did wrong, and pointing them to the appropriate meta, /about or /help page for more information. My hope is to have them come back and become useful members of the community.
6) What is the purpose of down votes and how would you promote that purpose?
On questions, I generally down vote when it's obvious nonsense ("How do I build a bear pit in my backyard?") or the OP ignores our conventions ("I know this is off-topic, but here goes anyway..."). We get a lot of new users that are well-meaning but don't know how to ask a good question; I don't like to downvote these when commenting and editing in details can improve the question enough to make it useful.
I'll downvote an answer if I know it's wrong, or if it's completely at odds with the question ("You asked about X, let me tell you about Y"). New users asking follow-on questions, forum-style, I generally just flag and leave alone.
7) Are there things with the current site you wish to change (e.g. the site scope, moderation policies) and if so, how would you make that change happen?
I'm fairly happy with the site's scope, though it would be great if we could solve the perennial shopping question for once and for all. If we were to expand the scope, I'd like to include more woodworking: over time, my interests have expanded beyond nailing 2x4's together prior to attaching drywall, and towards making things that I'd actually want to see in my house.
I think the current moderation team are doing a good job, and they've coped well with the occasional bit of insanity on the site. The things I'd do differently are minor, like leaving more explanatory comments on deleted posts, and adding the "insufficient explanation" notice where appropriate on one-liner answers.
8) Close votes and some flags cast by a moderator are binding, resulting in immediate action taken without further agreement needed by the community. Will this change alter how you use the site, and if so, how?
For some things, no. We get some spam, offensive posts and obvious nonsense that I'd close and/or delete without hesitation, exactly the way I'd flag it now (and maybe call attention to it in the chat room if people are in there).
In other cases, I'd let the community weigh in before I make a move. As a 3k rep user, I can cast the first close vote knowing that I need the agreement of other users for it to take effect. As a moderator, I'd have to wait for the post to gather some close votes before casting the deciding one.
9) In what way do you feel that being a moderator will make you more effective as opposed to simply reaching 10k or 20k rep?
I occasionally see a post late at night that deserves immediate deletion. It would be great to be able to do that instead of leaving it on the site for moderators to take care of some number of hours later.
We often get posts from new users that promote a product, and it can sometimes be hard to distinguish the well-meant advice from the spam. If I had suspicions about a post's legitimacy, I'd be able to do some digging to find out if there's any connection between the poster and the product. I don't generally flag this because I don't want to bother the moderators on a hunch.
10) Please weigh in on the great screw debate, Torx, Robertson, Phillips, or some other screw?
Phillips head if it's in a drywall screw and I'm using a drywall bit. I can't recall ever using a Torx screw in a home improvement project, only on electronics. I've used Robertson trim screws for some woodwork and been very happy with them.
