Language Learning left beta in December 2021. This meant, among other things, that we might have "full-site moderator elections" (or "graduation election") scheduled in 2022 or 2023. (Organising elections for 59 sites takes time.)
What's the difference between a pro-tempore election and a graduation election, you ask?
- In a pro-tempore moderator election, there would be as many slots as there are moderators who are stepping down. Two mods on our site would likely step down. (The third fellow, who wrote this meta post, wishes to continue as a moderator.) So in our case, we would have a two-slot election.
- In a graduation election, there would be as many slots as there are moderator positions, i.e. three on small sites such as our own. This means that even moderators who wish to continue moderating would need to nominate themselves and stand for election.
In a graduation election (and in full elections generally), the number of candidates must be higher than the number of open moderator positions, otherwise the election is not competitive. Non-competitive elections get cancelled, after which moderators and community managers figure out how to continue. (For a recent example, see Moderator election canceled due to insufficient nominees; what happens next? on French Language SE.)
A pro-tempore election only gets cancelled if there are no candidates. If there is only one candidate but no more than the number of open positions, the candidate(s) win(s) the election at the end of the nomination phase without going through the actual voting process.
The intent of this post is to find out how many users would be willing to nominate themselves as potential moderators. So please comment on or respond to this post if you would be interested. If we have at least four potential candidates, a graduation election is feasible. If we have at least one potential candidate but fewer than four, we can have a pro-tempore election. If we have no candidates, there will be wailing in all the moderator chat rooms - or perhaps not; we'll figure something out.
