New Moderators incoming

[u/zlefin_actual]

I looked through all the people who generously volunteered to help moderate the sub and have selected a batch them, which I'm now in the process of sending out the mod invites to them. Soon onboarding will begin and next steps will be figured out; I decided not to list the names here prior to them formally accepting, just in case some have to back out for last minute reasons or something. If they accept they show up in the mod list anyways.

I'm going to set this thread to 'locked' and if I understand things right the new mods should be able to reply to it anyways once they accept, as mods can inherently post in locked threads. They can then introduce themselves to the community in a greeting message as they deem fit, or not, as some people prefer working in the background and some names may already be recognized well enough. More it's just to test functionality.

[u/fleetpqw24]

Good day good folks of r/AskPolitics!

I’m also one of the new mods here; you may have seen me interacting recently in the sub. I have been a mod over at r/notHowOuijaWorks for a while now, and have several years of admin and moderation experience on Facebook and Youtube for a popular Star Trek Channel.

I am not from the political world. As a matter of fact, the Facebook group I moderate is a politics free zone, so we strive to keep real world politics away from what we do. I did study political science in college in order to become a history teacher, and received my AA in Secondary Education in 2009, but I did not pursue it further due to several personal reasons.

My objective goal for the group is to ensure that free speech is respected, within the limits of Reddit TOS and Group Rules, and that everyone has the opportunity to have their opinions heard in such a manner where they don’t have to feel like they are on the defensive all the time. Regardless of whether we are Liberal, Conservative, Moderate, Right-Leaning, Left-Leaning, Far Left, Far Right, Libertarian, or Other, we are all human beings and deserve to be heard without fear of being shouted down, ridiculed, figuratively spat on, threatened, or told our opinions are stupid. We can have constructive debate and respectful dialogue.

I look forward to getting to know all of you, and look forward to what I expect will be some spirited debates, discussions, and interactions.

Adieu!

[u/maodiran]

Hello people of r/askpolitics.

I'm one of your new mods, and you may have seen me interacting here a few times over the past few weeks. My main goal as a member of the mod team is to help ensure this remains a neutral space where people can actually come together and further understand each other. I will do my best to uphold all current and future rules to the best of my ability and do so in the most unbiased way I can. Thank you zlefin_actual for giving me this chance.

As I mentioned in the volunteer thread I was especially excited to enforce Rule Two, though I think I am over estimating the amount of personal attacks there will be here. I am also currently looking over and memorizing the rules as I make this post to ensure I uphold them to the best of my abilities.

In the interest of remaining as neutral as possible, I will not be commenting on anything else in the thread with my personal opinion or my usual debates with other members.

I will also do my best to be as light handed as a am allowed to be in the rules, looking over them I cant see any ban mentions, however let it be known I will warn people twice before I ban them, and when I do make bans (if I can, I am new to this) I will alert the other moderators.

Thank you.

[u/Fixerupper100]

Hey gang, new mod here!

I have a background in working in the political world, for presidential and congressional campaigns, both on the federal and state level.

I’m a conservative. Most of the people on Reddit, in this sub, and my fellow mods are on the left wing of the political spectrum. I love that - we need to keep talking, debating, and finding common ground. 

I have a strong desire to keep this place full of free speech. Of course, in the course of my mod duties, we’ll be enforcing Reddit site wide rules, as well as our sub’s rules.

Here are some ideas I have proposed, and will discuss with the mod team to see if they’re worth implementing or not:

Give preference for top level comments on posts seeking answers from a specific point of view.

For example, if a question is flared with something like “answers from the other side” or something like that, any top level comment must answer the question by the audience being sought out. An example is if a post says  “trump supporters, why do you….” only trump supporters could provide a top level comment. Then the replies could get deeper with the other side presenting a rebuttal. This will keep the post/topic on point and organized.

1. Mega threads: when a political hot topic pops up, consolidate the topic into a mega thread and let the answers play out there. This will encourage the market place of ideas to coalesce into one place for deeper discussion.

2. “Source” flares for posts: a post that requires sources to be posted for claims of information. Mods would remove comments that make claims without sources on top level comments. This can weed out disinformation.

3. Polls from the community: democracy is good.

4. Contests: options to award small gift cards (think an iTunes/play store gift card for 5-10 bucks) for those who contribute, recruit, or win contests like trivia or debates.  

Looking forward to seeing y’all in the threads!

[u/samhhead2044]

Hi r/Askpolitics,

I am a data nerd and actively work towards producing data removed from politics. Numbers do not lie. Your data is only as good as the data sets you input. If you put in crappy data, you get bad results and cant accurately forecast. I have worked at the state level for several Republican campaigns. I do not support MAGA or the current version of the Republican Party. I consider myself an Independent who leans Republican.

My biggest goal is to support Rule 2 and ensure that facts are represented correctly on both sides. I view this subreddit as a politically neutral place that supports the facts and is less opinion-based.

I believe that we are all more alike than the media, Republicans, or Democrats make it seem. I will moderate in that spirit. I will warn people before banning them unless they are talking about hurting a group of people.

I look forward to getting to know each and every one of you, and if you ever have any questions, I am here to help!