(SEJPM) Stepping Down as a Crypto.SE Moderator

Question

it's been a while. As you may have noticed, my activity levels on Crypto.SE are down, by quite a lot, for quite a while (since the beginning of 2021 essentially). This is why I have asked StackExchange (the company) earlier this year to remove my diamond and hold elections for a successor. This election is the one currently underway.

To be clear: Both Maarten Bodewes and Fgrieu will continue to be moderators (along with the new electee), my diamond will be gone. Moderators do not need to be confirmed, they are elected for life or until they screw up majorly. However, if things change signifcantly for me in the future where I consider myself to be a viable moderator again, the reinstantiation process can be used to skip a re-election.

Now you may feel like "yeah, I noticed that your activity has gone down from 'I see it on most questions' to 'I don't see any at all', but why is that and why didn't you step down earlier?" (well, I guess most of you would have formulated this less harshly). To be clear though, for the first few months of my absence I was genuinly busy and a few months (1-2) can happen and is acceptable. Then however, I just didn't feel the "drive" / motivation to be active significantly on here. So I wasn't. Then after a few months, I briefly discussed this with the other moderators and I informed them that if I wouldn't find myself being more active on the site until the end of 2021 (which coincided with the transition from student to worker), I'd step down. I didn't find myself being more active here, I didn't find myself routinely watching the new questions and actively seeking out the new questions to handle them (neither as a user nor as a mod). So I stepped down.

Finally, I'd like to thank all of you. For accepting me as a mod even though I was essentially gone for a year. For accepting and supporting the policy changes I brought up over the years. And of course I want to specifically thank fgrieu and Maarten for handling a job on their free-time that was intended to be handled by 50% more people for so long _{I know how this feels as the situation was similar with Codes and Sushi for a while}. I'd also like to thank the other mods I served with over the years (e-sushi, CodesInChaos, and Ella Rose) for teaching me the ways and hows. And of course I'd also like to thank you, the users, for making Crypto.SE a place I was proud to be a moderator of for so many years.

👋 Your moderating potato

Answer 1

Let me first start off by thanking SEJPM for all the work he's done. Let's not forget that many changes in policy did come from his hand. Before the slowdown our potato was a fast moving taterhead indeed, handling most of the flags on top of all the introduced changes. Furthermore, SEJPM had -in turn - a big hand in learning both me, Ella Rose and fgrieu the ropes.

I hope you can join me in wishing him all the best in the corporate career ahead. Although Cryptography.SE is probably the best Q/A site regarding crypto that's around, we need not to forget that we're a relatively small - but warm and helpful - community in the big sea that is cryptography. Let me express the hope that like e-sushi and others that you find the time to rejoin us in the side channel and have a relaxed chat.