When do I vote?

• I rarely vote on RfAs even though I routinely read and review most of the RfAs that are submitted. One big reason for this is that my standards appear to be very close to the community standards overall. I would have voted support just about every person who passed RfA in the recent months. I also agree with most of the rejections, although there are one or two each week that fail that I would have passed (I guess I think adminship is a little bit less of a big deal than the community at large, and would promote a few more into the ranks than actually get there).
• I prefer not to vote for the first two or three days of an RfA. I will watch the RfA develop and vote only when my vote will count in the later days of the process. If a candidate is clearly headed for success or is clearly headed for failure, I usually decide not to vote at all. The remaining close votes (where the reaching of consensus is still at issue) are the votes that I focus on, and am likely to cast a vote. This allows for tactical voting at times when it matters, and I can take the time needed to study the candidate using my RfA standards only when my vote may tip the balance.
• There are exceptions, of course. If I feel my vote may start a trend, or is needed to buck up a candidate, or I have something very insightful ;-) to say, I may vote earlier in the process.
• Because of my voting practices described above, I frequently do not vote in support of candidates that I think would be good admins. You should not think that a failure to vote on my part indicates a lack of support for a candidate. I often will congratulate a candidate on their success even though I did not vote for them. This probably means that I wanted them to be promoted to admin status, but they just didn't need my vote and I didn't throw an unnecessary vote their way. I also often say nothing, and the candidate may incorrectly feel that I did not support them, or that I did not notice that they were a candidate. Odds are, I did notice, and I did support them (even though I did not cast an actual vote).

See my RfA standards.