1. 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?

I'll contact him to make clear that kindness and politeness are also an important part of the community.

2. How would you handle a situation where another mod closed/deleted/etc. a question that you feel shouldn’t have been?

I'll contact another mod privately in a chat so we can share our reasons for closing/opening that question. If no consensus was reached, I invite other mods to discussion. I bet we all together can handle everything by voting. This is how SO works. :)

3. In your opinion, what do moderators do?

• Handle flags.
• Answer on meta.
• Organize tags.
• Make users believe they are in a place where everybody glad they're here.

4. 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?

I'm ready for it. And I believe I've never said anything I should be ashamed of.

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?

Mods are faster in reaction. You can close or delete a post with a single vote. Speed is most important for the most violating posts.

1. 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?

People who generate valuable answers usually generate valuable comments too. Arguments and flags more often than not mean the problem is with the delivery, not with the message.

I would try to reformulate their questions or remarks in a meaningful and a respectful way, focusing on the message and not the sender or the recipient, and they would hopefully pick the tone of the discussion.

2. How would you handle a situation where another mod closed/deleted/etc. a question that you feel shouldn’t have been?

I'm yet to see a question closed for no obvious reason whatsoever, but I sometimes see an off-topic but otherwise quite good question which is easily fixable.

In this case, I fix it using my own best judgement, or ask the op for clarification. When the question looks good to me, I ask the original closer if they are OK with me reopening it. So far, as long as I remember, the answer has always been "yes".

3. In your opinion, what do moderators do?

They make sure the site stays what it says on the tin: a Q&A answer site on well-defined topics, where good questions and answers are encouraged, bad are discouraged, and the place looks well-tended so people want to come here.

4. 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?

I will try be extra clear to specify when I do act and talk on behalf of the community and when I don't, otherwise I just be my regular self.

This includes explaining my moderatorial actions, like editing posts, deleting comments and similar.

1. 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?

First of all, I've never encountered such situation. Well, in theory, of course, anything is possible, however from my experience here a steady stream of valuable answers usually correlates with very little number of arguments and flags from comments.

Second, our system of flag approval/disapproval actually works and anyone who generates a fair amount of valid flags will face inevitable counter-action regardless of how valuable their questions are and how high their rating is. However valuable the content generated by them is in average, we just can not afford to scare away user community by ignoring any kind of behaviour that bring damage.

However it's important to note that even when in comes to counter-actions in the majority of cases it's about giving users an idea of what works better here on Stack (like moving comments or converting answer to a comment etc.)

2. How would you handle a situation where another mod closed/deleted/etc. a question that you feel shouldn’t have been?

I always rely on the opinion of other mods whenever I'm doubt and/or whenever they raise their voice to disagree with my decision. In the majority of cases this process of respectful disagreeing leads to more transparent rules by which this community is moderated. For me moderation is a collegial activity and shared responsibility.

3. In your opinion, what do moderators do?

We serve for two main purposes: a) Make the moderated resource relevant and focused on the topic this particular resource is supposed to be about (in our case - to help Russian language learners) and b) To help people who want to participate but not necessarily know how interact here how to do it in a more efficient way. This two goals are important for creating a comfortable and useful resource for anyone who learns Russian or interested in Russian language.

4. 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?

I'm already a mod and the only type of situation when I used anything close to "hey, I'm a mod"-rhetoric were when one user was offensive to some other user. And even in such situations I tend to reach users privately. 99% of my public activity is about being a regular SE user and I just don't think about diamond at all.

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?

Moderator still has reacher set of tools for, well, moderating and just can intervene faster when it needed.