In connection with the moderator elections, we are holding a Q&A thread for the candidates. Questions collected [from an earlier thread](http://meta.japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/1438/2015-moderator-election-qa-question-collection) have been compiled into this one, which shall now serve as the space for the candidates to provide their answers. Just shy of the maximum allotted submission count, we have selected all provided questions as well as our back up questions (one of which was split off anyway) for a total of 9 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](http://meta.japanese.stackexchange.com/revisions/f8114d2e-7ecf-455b-98ad-672a483dda38/view-source). Oh, and 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. 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! --- >1. Some users believe this site has a negative atmosphere, and that this is a problem for the site. Do you agree? If so, what should moderators do to foster a more positive, friendly environment? >2. Many users post answers as comments. Do you think this is a problem? If so, what do you plan to do about it? >3. Japanese.SE has lost, or almost lost some of its most active members: sawa (account deleted), Tsuyoshi Ito (mostly no longer answering), Dono (mostly no longer answering), Derek Schaab (gone), Matt (gone), l'électeur (periods of not answering), Choko (left for a period of time). While there are probably multiple factors involved (burn out, real life, etc.), over half of those users have cited issues with other users or the site itself. (Also, over half of them are Japanese; there may be a cultural issue intertwined.) What will you do to prevent the site from continuing to slowly lose its most engaged users? >4. What will your approach to the Japanese.SE chat room be as a moderator? For example, do you plan to make yourself available in chat? Do you believe the chat room needs more moderation? >5. In what way do you feel that being a moderator will make you more effective as opposed to simply reaching 10k or 20k rep? >6. 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? >7. How would you handle a situation where another mod closed/deleted/etc a question that you feel shouldn't have been? >8. In your opinion, what do moderators do? >9. A diamond will be attached to everything you say and have said in the past, including questions, answers and comments. Everything you will do will be seen under a different light. How do you feel about that?