Gleff .. as you remind us the initial 2 moderators were simply:

Moderator 1
Moderator 2

Being Burkey and Craig6z.

Who as you also point out, quickly decided they could stand the heat of their decisions and chose to identify themselves, and did so on every post closure I ever saw them make.

SINCE then unless someone can correct me, all OTHER moderators:

(a) Volunteered for the job

(b) Have used exclusively their FT handle to do the job.

Randy and staff always have had, and always will have the final call, and that is not in any debate at all here IMO.

I agree with tom911 comment above. It seems pretty farcical that if a thread is closed that you need to email 4 Moderators on AA to ask who did it and why, and you "may" get a response it they are in the mood to reply. It really is 'Secret Service' stuff. And quite needless IMO. And certainly not open or transparent.

It takes me a lot of keystrokes too to type posts, but that is my choice. A moderator who avoids a few keystrokes as it is too hard to identify themselves might perhaps have thought of that when they applied? It seems only the other 3 AA Moderators find it so difficult among all the forum Mods.

And for the record the Delta forum (with also 4 moderators) has an unlocked current thread 4 pages long about Moderators there and thier policcies and methods.

And a moderator on the UA forum recently sought Member thoughts on whether fare glitch threads should be locked. So discussion of Moderation WITHIN forums does not seem to be verboten per se on FT.