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I'm just wondering and this is not anything particular to this site but is it really a good thing for a site's mod to not have the personal details part of his user page filled in?

Should we not know something about the people who are given the responsibility of being moderators? I don't really see how you can be anonymous and a mod.

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    I'll fill it in eventually, but I think what I actually do on the site holds more weight than the personal fields in my profile. TBH, between chat, the main site posts, and meta post you could probably fill out 90% of what I would put in my profile anyway so it's not like I'm hiding anything.
    – Dom Mod
    Commented Jan 30, 2016 at 17:46
  • Why do you think this? There are a number of mods that go purely by usernames on SE with no other detail -- even one SE employee, I believe.
    – user28
    Commented Feb 1, 2016 at 1:54

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I'm not a mod, but I am kind of biased, since I like all of our mods (I'm pretty sure all the ones I voted for were elected).

Personally, I find the bio section of a Stack Exchange profile to be one of the least interesting and informative parts of a user profile. If you want to learn about a mod (or any user), their activities will tell you much more than they could fit in a bio.

Right off the bat, looking at their network reputations tells you a lot. You can guess what kind of job they most likely have (it may not be their top rep, but likely in the top five), and you can quickly get a sense of how active they are on Stack Exchange in general.

If you're curious about knowledge, check out "all answers". The highest and lowest voted answers are often the most interesting. Looking at their questions also tells you a lot about what they don't know and some about what they do know. Looking at top voted questions from any user is a good way to pick up tips on how to ask good questions.

If you're more curious about someone's personality, I think that comes through more in comments. For instance, I suspect five to ten minutes perusing my comments will correctly suggest I'm an uptight know-it-all. It's not as obvious how to get there, though. Click on either all question or all answers, then all actions, then comments.

Finally, regarding mods in particular, they were all elected. During the election process, there are "campaigns" of a sort, including statements from the mods about why they think they should be mods and mod answers to user questions. Right now there's a related question listed for this question which is 2015 Moderator Election Q&A - Questionnaire, which is one meta post that will give you plenty of info about our mods in particular.

Looking at the activities, and particularly the comments (which are often left by our best users when there is a problem or down vote) was pretty much how I chose who to vote for in the mod election. People's comments tell you about how they view Stack Exchange and their fellow users. What more would you really want to know? (Ok, maybe the name of Dr. Mayhem's band so you can check out some YouTube videos).

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    Lol - thanks Todd :-)
    – Doktor Mayhem Mod
    Commented Jan 31, 2016 at 7:32
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I'm a mod so you may see my opinion as biased (I don't think so, but your opinion may be different)

Moderation is about behaviours. We don't actually need to know who someone is in real life in order for them to moderate well. All mods have visibility of there other mods, and we are all overseen by the CMs so it's not like a mod can go rogue without being caught.

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