In connection with the moderator elections, we are holding a Q&A thread for the candidates. Questions collected [from an earlier thread](http://meta.chemistry.stackexchange.com/questions/3324/2016-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. Not every question was compiled - as noted, we only selected the top 8 questions as submitted by the community, plus 2 pre-set questions from us.

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.chemistry.stackexchange.com/revisions/0e32524a-b910-4114-a43c-9ecabc388e13/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!

**Oh, and when you've completed your answer, please provide a link to it after this blurb here, before that set of three dashes. Please leave the list of links in the order of submission.**

To save scrolling here are links to the submissions from each candidate (in order of submission):


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>1. [tag:Homework] is a topic that has been hanging over our heads for some time now and we as a community still have not found a solution on how to effectively handle such questions. What is your opinion on the various types of homework questions and how should they be handled? What do you think about our [current homework policy](http://meta.chemistry.stackexchange.com/q/141/4945)? Do you think it needs to be improved or would you deem it sufficient? If you have not weighed in yet, [what should be closed as homework and what not](http://meta.chemistry.stackexchange.com/q/3181/4945)? What is your takeaway from our [not-closing experiment](http://meta.chemistry.stackexchange.com/q/3302/4945)?



>2. How would you handle a user that has blatantly plagiarized material for use in multiple answers? Assuming you have dealt with the matter appropriately, what would you do if the user continued to offend in this manner?



>3. 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?



>4. How would you handle a situation where another mod closed/deleted/etc a question that you feel shouldn't have been?



>5. Is there something you think the current community moderators are not doing or doing wrong? How would you fix it, or what would you try to do to fix it?



>6. As the site grows, how do you intend to keep the quality of questions and answers high - not just in terms of weeding out bad Q/As, but also attracting good Q/As?



>7. Have you ever been in an argument with another user (on this site)? If yes, how did it come about and how was it handled in the end? Have you ever flared up on this site? If yes, how did it end? As a moderator how would you handle an argument/ someone being rude if it came to your notice?



>8. How would you handle the situation if you had a user whose questions were being received negatively by the community for being "out in left field" or not based in scientific truth? At which point would you intervene, if at all?



>9. Do you have any specific focus in moderation duties (or otherwise!) you intend to bring to the table?



>10. The Stack Exchange model can be challenging for new users to grasp. Exposition of various details of what users can/cannot do, what moderators can/cannot do, how the internals of the SE sites work, etc. can be difficult to find, except by trial and error or by happenstance conversations with other users. Imagine that you have encountered a user in the transition from just learning the ropes to becoming a stable, upstanding member of the community. This user is frustrated by their inability to find detailed information about aspects of the inner workings of the SE site model. Do you engage with them and try to help them out? If yes, how would you go about it? What sorts of tucked-away resources would you direct them to?