** CCC Moderator Nominee Information **

[TCAdmin]

The following members have been nominated to serve on the moderation team for the Computer Chess Club:

Name and Status (A=accepted, D=declined):

Graham Banks (A)
Ryan Benitez (A)
Uri Blass (D)
Steve Blincoe
Fonzy Bluemers (D)
Ross Boyd
Sean Brewer
Mike Byrne
Christopher Conkie
Dann Corbit
Nicolai Czempin (A)
Thorsten Czub (A)
Jon Dart
Olivier Deville (D)
Henrik Dinesen
Christos Gitsis
Aaron Gordon
Eelco de Groot (A)
Andreas Guettinger
Stephen Ham
Roman Hartmann (D)
Tony Hedlund (D)
Robert Hyatt
Enrique Irazoqui (D)
Derek Jones (D)
Marc Lacrosse (D)
Sune Larsson
Odd Gunnar Malin
Evgenii Manev (D)
Thomas Mayer
Daniel Mehrmann (D)
Sean Mintz
H. G. Muller
Richard Pijl (D)
Norm Pollock
Charles Roberson
Ed Schröder (D)
Alessandro Scotti
Albert Silver (A)
Guenther Simon (A)
Peter Skinner (D)
Robin Smith (A)
Kaj Soderberg (D)
Ted Summers
Swaminathan
George Tsavdaris
Tony van Roon-Werten (D)
Ernst Walet
Robert Weck
Zach Wegner (A)
Chris Whittington (D)


Nominees should PM or e-mail their decision to accept or decline to the admin no later than November 1. Nominees who do not respond by the deadline will be assumed to have declined. Those who accept nomination may post a short self-description and moderation philosophy as a reply to this announcement (no other posts in this thread, please).

[nczempin]

I accept the nomination.

As a moderator my policy will be light-weight/hands-off.

I would prefer first staying out as much as possible, next posting a comment like "Gentlemen, let's try to get along" in a heated thread to simply deleting posts at the first sign of trouble.
I believe the moderator's role is mainly to keep out the spammers and constant trouble-makers, not to interfere in the discussions.

This should be a place for engine programmers, current ones and potential ones, as well as testers and interested end users, to discuss their hobby.
I have very low tolerance for people who come to these boards mainly to argue, but seem to have no connection at all to the hobby. I think it's good that we have CTF as a place where those who regularly post in CCC have the opportunity to discuss other things, but it sometimes seems to me that that forum has been hijacked by "outsiders". I don't see how this can be avoided, because those people can always claim that they have a Fritz 8 on their PC or whatever. But I'd like to point out that I don't like it.

I also don't like the general idea that this forum is somehow "owned" by those who generously provide the web space. While I am grateful for their generosity, I feel that they should not interfere with the running of the forum, which should be left to its members and their _elected_ representatives. While I can understand that their needs to be assistance in doing the jubd of background work that TCAdmin currently takes care of, I believe we still need to find a solution that everyone can live with to make sure that the role is not abused, and I am sure that trustworthy candidates for the role will have no problem with measures that make their actions somewhat more controllable (by the general membership) than they are now.

In working with the other moderators, regardless of who they are, I feel decisions should be unanimous if possible. If there are disagreements on important issues, we should work them out, and if we can't, present them to the membership.

I am a freelance software developer, some of my spare time is spent working on the UCI and WB engine Eden written in Java, aimed mainly at not-too-strong chess players. I am also working on an as yet unnamed chess engine written in C++. I have been interested in computer chess ever since I started programming in 1982; in 1989 I made my first post on rec.games.computer.chess. My own engine I only started programming in 2004, and I have posted on and off in CCC only since 2006.

For any further information, please don't hesitate to send me a pm.
(note that I will be away until November 5 though, and may not have Internet access during that period).

[mclane]

I do accept the nomination.

The charter of CCC that was created 10 years ago, by the founders of this newsgroup, says very clear:

The posts on the Computer-Chess Club message board do not necessarily agree (nor disagree) with the opinions of Your Move Chess & Games, I.C.D. Corporation, or Computer Chess Reports, and these companies do not control, and have no say in, what is posted or how it is posted. Nor do any of these organizations have any say or control over decisions made by the moderators.

this means the host has no right to interfere in decisions of moderators.
in our case: if 5 from 6 moderators invite a member, his account should not been deactivated by an admin.

this kind of overruling the moderators decision is a break of the charter.

the moderators got their power from the people here, the members.
the admin was implemented and never elected.

he can be a helping hand, IF the moderators wish so, but not against their will.


we have 10 years of a working charter, where this contract between
the host and our community was respected.

10 years we guaranted that computerchess-topics can be discussed here without trouble-makers stopping us from doing so, as it was in the unmoderated newsgroup RGCC in the past.


since march we have a different situation. that resulted in a major problem a few weeks ago.

when i made this public i felt it my duty to inform the members of this forum what is going on. that the situation we had for 10 years had changed.

now you have the chance to decide via elections what you want.

please use this chance.

[Graham Banks]

If I get re-elected as a CCC moderator:

1. I will delete posts as required after copying them into the moderation archive. Those affected will be notified by pm.
I will not edit posts.

2. I give an undertaking to my fellow mods not to post private discussions in public or share them with others. To do so would destroy the trust in a team.
Having said this, I have always tried to be open and honest with members and will continue to do so.

3. If ICD insist on the moderators coming up with policies, my view is that any such policies would need to be ratified by the membership before being implemented.

4. My belief is that in a team of three moderators, a 2-1 vote should be respected by the third moderator in any cases not involving a ban.
A ban should have a unanimous vote.

5. As a long term moderator, I would support a TCAdmin (whoever it might be) continuing to weed out bogus accounts and spambots.
I have experienced the system where mods used to be responsible for doing this and I can assure you that it requires a lot of work each day. We could well have to do such a task without the knowledge and tools known and available to a TCAdmin.

6. Those who become mods should be prepared to communicate via messenger. It is quick, convenient and easy. It also helps to build up a relationship and understanding between the moderation team members.

7. My main aim as a moderator would continue to be helping keep CCC a forum where members are respectful of each other, even when their views differ strongly.

8. My main motivation to be a mod is to give something back to the computer chess community - my time. This as a way of thanking all those involved in making our wonderful hobby what it is.

9. If re-elected, I am perfectly happy to work with anybody else that is also elected.

10. My belief is that CCC should be a place where members can enjoy all aspects of their hobby - programmers discussing their craft, testers sharing their results, members asking advice or questions when stuck, discussions about computer chess in general.

Regards, Graham.

[Ryan Benitez]

I accept the nomination.

Well I never intended to run for moderator but I decided that actions speak louder than any words so it’s my time to throw my name in the hat. If the people think I am the right person for the job, I owe it to the computer chess community to do my best.

1. I believe that a moderator should be a representative of the people not him/her self.
2. I believe that no moderator should be a proxy of another moderator. Everyone should be able to have their own opinions and respect the opinions of others. To give a blanket “I agree with what you agree with” to another moderator is nothing short of cowardly.
3. I think at least one of the moderators should be a programmer and hope the public agrees with their vote regardless of who that programmer is.
4. I believe that the people own this forum, that is the point of democracy.
5. I do not support an unelected Admin taking an active roll in decision making of any kind. I know that spam bots can be filtered with software and save a lot of time and effort for everyone.
6. I am happy with any election outcome as long as the people know what they are voting for and get what they voted for.


Thanks,
Ryan

[Olivier Deville]

Thanks for the nomination, but I must decline again.

Being a tournament director and ruling my own chat is enough for me.

Olivier

[Daniel Mehrmann]

Hello folks,

i must decline as well for the following reasons:

1) My english skill level isn't good enough to do this job on a manner way, i would like to do so.

2) I'm busy to be a moderator in the german CSS forum already and i like this job.

3) Basicly it's not a good idea that the same person is a moderator on two big forums with the same topic (computerchess)

However, i hope the CCC finds the right way back soon and we can enjoy our hobby again. The last weeks wasn't a nice time and I hope this moderator elections makes it possible to find a solution for the members.

Good luck to all other candidates.

Best,

Daniel

[GS]

Dear members,

Despite my initial immediate declining of my nomination, constant
begging, nagging(from several members) and how all developed so far,
I was forced to rethink all the pros and cons and came to the
conclusion that I should stand for the elections.
Ok, I would like to throw my hat in, if it is still allowed.

There is a celebration day here in this part of Germany today,
thus I can't promise to deliver my moderation philosophy before
tomorrow. You can still read the one though I wrote around 2 months
ago for the previous elections. Probably I will just add a few more
lines concerning some of the recent problems(which caused the reelections),
anything else should be already covered here IIRC.

Regards,
Guenther

[Uri Blass]

Thanks for the nomination but I decline.
I think that there are enough good people who accepted.

Uri

[GenoM]

Hi all

First of all, I feel myself honoured for being in the list of nominated persons.
But I am declining my nomination because of 3 reasons:

1/my command of the english language is not as good as I wish it to be;
and
2/I see that in the list of accepted nominations people there are few that would be good moderators here;
and
3/I am declining the nomination in order to avoid a possible diversion of the votes.

Thanks for the nomination. From accepted till now people I am supporting Czempin, Czub, Benitez and Whittington. I wish them success in the election.

The most important thing is that this place is governed by democratic principles.

Regards from Bulgaria,
Geno