Moderator
Essentially, moderating a forum is to manage the day-to-day affairs of a forum or board as it applies to the stream of forumers contributions and interactions. The relative effectiveness of this forumers management directly impacts the quality of a forum in general, its appeal, and its usefulness as a community of interrelated forumers.
The moderators (short singular form: "mod") are forumers (or employees) of the forum who are granted access to the posts and threads of all members for the purpose of moderating discussion (similar to arbitration) and also keeping the forum clean (neutralizing spam and spambots etc.).
Moderators also answer forumers' concerns about the forum, general questions, as well as respond to specific complaints. They also can do anything to lend a helping hand to a forumer in need.
Moderators themselves may have ranks: some may be given mod privileges over only a particular topic or section (called "local"), while others (called "global" or "super") may be allowed access anywhere.
Common privileges of moderators (subject to Admin's authorization) include: deleting, merging, moving, and splitting of posts and threads, locking, renaming, stickying of threads, banning, suspending, unsuspending, unbanning, warning the members, or adding, editing, removing the polls of threads.
A forum moderator oversees the communication activity of an Internet forum. They monitors the interchange of contributors and makes decisions regarding content and the direction of threads.
Moving discussions from one section to another to keep topics organized is also a common job for a forum moderator.
If the tone of a forum becomes hostile or starts to move in the direction of personal attacks, the forum moderator usually has the discretion to lock the discussion to prevent heated, interchanges.
Moderators may also be able to hide discussions they deems unworthy of further discussion.
Moderator duties are as diverse as the forum topics themselves.
Some moderators are virtually invisible; they surface only when situations arise that do not seem likely to resolve themselves. Other forum moderators are always there, ready to intercede at the smallest hint of discourse.
Public forum moderators often have to enforce many rules of conduct and decorum, as public contributors tend to communicate without abandon, which can sometimes upset other commenters.
Private forum linked to a website or group often operate a bit differently. The forum moderator is likely to be familiar with the members, and may be more lax in enforcing rules if he is aware of bantering members and their tones. Standards differ greatly in forums, and newcomers are advised to post with caution until they get the general feel of the forum's atmosphere. Regardless of the forum topic or ambiance, most prohibit the exchange of illegal or copyrighted materials and pornography and many shun swearing or using inappropriate language or images.
Moderators are sometimes encouraged to join in discussions, especially if they have expert experience or advice to contribute. Other forums prefer their moderators to remain totally objective and mainly serve as impartial enforcers. Occasionally a forum moderator will pose as a contributor to steer a discussion in another direction or offer input without fear of posing a conflict of interest.
In addition to acting as the parent or guardian of forum content, forum moderators are also responsible for maintaining the integrity of the forum in other ways. This requires knowledge and acuity at moving, merging, adding, and deleting text, graphics, and links. Forumers will often ask moderators to assist them with technical problems with site access and posting.
Supplementary duties of a forum moderator may include relocating discussions to more appropriate sections, closing or locking threads based on dwindling interest or lack of recent activity, editing posts for clarity or content, and deleting threads. Thread deletion can either be temporary or permanent, depending on the wishes of the forum moderator.
If an abusive forumers refuses to cease unacceptable behavior, the forum moderator usually has the discretion to ban the user (by submitting names to Admin). If the offender continues to post and eludes the ban, the moderator may opt to seek Admin's permission to access the forumer's IP address. This enables the Admin to ban the address instead of banning the forumers by name or email address.
Some may behave like a moderators
"Junior Modding", "Backseat Modding", or "Forum copping" can refer negatively to the behavior of ordinary forumers who take a moderator-like tone in criticizing other members.
Ref:
www.wisegeek.com
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_forum
www.artismelayu.net