I hate to parse language here, but I said that a situation may make it "appear" that the moderator has license to be a jerk. I seriously doubt that most of us intentionally try to sound like one. Regardless, I don't think it would be wise to accuse any moderator of that here and then have THAT debated.

I think this is a problem. If the powers that be don't, then, as I said above, so be it. If I subsequently have an issue of this nature, I'll deal with it on an individual basis "out of the public eye." I did notice, however, that several of the moderators who posted on this issue seem to wish there could be a differentiation.

IMHO, a significant point has been raised herein, and it surely is an issue.

And I believe that there are other very important related issues as well:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showt...=322795&page=1

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showt...70#post2965170

-Mark

I believe that designating us as moderators is what gives us access to the Moderator forum and the tools that we use as moderators. The IT team is able to give us certain software privileges as a group. Thus, removing this designation would give the IT team additional work.

I'd wonder... perhaps this is a larger problem then one might think:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?p=2965458

Any thoughts?

aloha

Slippahs, your link is broken. Perhaps the thread was removed?

FewMiles..

I think all the moderators do a good job of making it clear when they are wearing their moderator hats. At the same time, Randy Petersen has made it quite clear that any FTers who happen to be moderators also are members first, and moderators second (and only when needed). This environment provided by Randy has allowed those who moderate to be comfortable using their own handles to handle (pardon the pun) their moderation duties without having to be questioned on separation of their roles. While many of the mods acknowledge that they would prefer not to be labelled as a moderator outside of the forums for which they are responsible, this has been shown to be a technical issue that can't be easily solved. So let's not all harp on this.

FewMiles..

Thanks to you and SanDiego1K, the technical issues are clear to me and I'll rest my case with one final comment. Perhaps I'm missing something, but I do not think all moderators do such a good job of making it clear which hat they are wearing. Absent profile information or a signature, how is this obvious? As I look at the posts above, SanDiego1K and skofarrell are the only two who are moderators that have a signature that says which forum they moderate.

I have to admit being surprised by how many people are on FT with "moderator" under their handle and it would be nice to know what forum each is associated with. Since I only visit a select group of forums regularly, those are the respective moderators I am aware of and I have no clue as to where the other moderators moderate . I don't have an issue with the "Moderator" tag line being there, as these folks are volunteering their time and deserve to be recognized for it, but I would like to be able to easily know (somehow) what forums they moderate.

I'm not pushing for any change necessarily, IMO this is a "nice to have" type of thing. I also don't want to see something changed that requires either the Moderators or the HOM to have additional work as we're talking volunteers and a group with enough on their plate already. Perhaps something simple like posting a list of all the FT moderators are their associated forums in one location somewhere on FT, a "Meet the Moderators" link, if you will .... don't know where (or if) it would fit within the board. Just a thought.

You can see the list of moderators here:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showgroups.php

It's a public link that has been at the bottom of the board since day 1 of the new software. FT has 59 moderators, for a board with 37700 members I hardly think there are that many. With the amount of posts on this board I'm always amazed how well we do with so few moderators.

I never said there were too many, just that there is a lot. FT as a whole is more aware of the moderators with the tagline displayed, than we (general members) ever were before. My perspective is based on my experiences on the board which are limited to a handful or two of forums I visit most frequently, not on the board as a whole. I've definitely become more aware of the sheer volume of posts & forums since the new software was released.

Thanks for the link. I would never have found that link without your pointing it out. I don't use the main page very often as it is, and it's kind of buried between the sections. It's also pretty slow to load with that coupon connection enabled list displaying there (I'm assuming that is a software requirement, but what a pain). I think having that list available is a good thing, but I would submit that few people are aware it exists.

The thread was deleted per my request by a NW moderator. The thread basically congratulated me for becoming a NW moderator (which I am not).

aloha

There is an easy solution to this....

Give the moderators a second id that is very close to their personal id.

For example, ScottC could become mScottC; Slippahs becomes mSlippahs, or something similar.

Since the mods are members first, they should use their original id for non-moderator duties and put them in the security user group with the rest of us mere mortals .

I must be the "brown shoes with a black tuxedo" of moderators. I don't have a "Moderator" designation under my name .
I never heard of this (since the change to the "new and improved FT"):"I believe that designating us as moderators is what gives us access to the Moderator forum ".
What Moderator Forum??
And finally,I can't open the link to see if I'm on the list of moderators.
Maybe that's how we can find out if we've been "let go" as a moderator. Log in one day and see your title gone.

FWIW, for those interested, here's the List of all Mod's with their fora:

Moderators User Name / Location Forums

777Brit
London, England American AAdvantage
askworldtraveler
Santa Monica, California,AA EXP - 5M++ American AAdvantage, JetBlue TrueBlue
AZ Travels the World
Phoenix, AZ, USA Starwood Preferred Guest, America West FlightFund
B747-437B
Exile Trip Reports
bdschobel
Princeton, NJ Delta SkyMiles
businesstraveler
Boston, MA, USA Las Vegas, Travel Technology
B Watson
Grand Rapids, MI USA UA 1K, AA EXP 1MM, SQ PPS, BA GOLD, Hyatt D, Hertz Plat and AMEX Cent Cathay Pacific Asia Miles, Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer
ByeByeDelta
RDU/TPA Amtrak Guest Rewards
catwood
Philadelphia, PA GLBT Travelers
cblaisd
East Bay Area, California -- soon to be appearing near ITO. UA PremierExec ; HHonors Diamond United Mileage Plus, The Coupon Connection, Hawaii
chrislacey
Green Island, NY US Airways Dividend Miles
ClueByFour
Location, Location. TSA Random Selectee Platinum, * Gold, OneWorld Emerald, and a tiny bag of pretzels. US Airways Dividend Miles
dctorres
ORD/IAD/CDG/123, baby you and me, yeah Air France Frequence Plus
dhacker
Silver Spring, MD, USA Diners Club, LatinPass/GlobalPass
DLSIZE
KEWR / SPG Plat, HH Diamond, DL Plat, ZE 5*, AA Plat, UA Nobody MilesBuzz!, Mileage Run
dmfriedman
Furniture lives in LAS, I live on HP in protest of UA's TED Mileage Run, The Coupon Connection
essxjay
PDX -- UA 1P, Hilton Squat � IWNLMOF CommunityBuzz!, Hilton HHonors
flipside
NYC - GIG MilesBuzz!
gleff
DCA - My status used to matter. But I'm no longer me. I'm just my rate or fare. Delta SkyMiles, MilesBuzz!
influential
London, England. Moderator BA/VS. Virgin flying club, British Airways Executive Club
jabez
Alpharetta,Ga ,usa Travel Bidding
jfe
El Paso, TX, USA S.P.A.M., OMNI
jsm
Northridge, CA, - AA PLT, Lots of miles in a lot of places. S.P.A.M.
kawoh Star Alliance
ldsant
Seattle WA refugee now in Raleigh NC Starwood Preferred Guest
Markie
London, UK Hyatt Gold Passport, Starwood Preferred Guest
Moderator2
La-La Land MilesBuzz!, United Mileage Plus
obscure2k
Los Angeles-GM delta Delta SkyMiles
Ocn Vw 1K
San Francisco, CA CommunityBuzz!
onedog
los angeles, CA, USA Trip Reports, American AAdvantage
pallensf
San Francisco, CA, USA Trip Reports
Patron
VIE Lufthansa Miles & More, Star Alliance
PaulGQ Hilton HHonors
peteropny
CVG - DL-GM, Hyatt-Diam, Hilton-Gold, National-Emerald, Hertz-Gold Hyatt Gold Passport, GLBT Travelers
Plato90s
Boston, MA AA EXP-1MM, UA 1P, HHonor Gold, SPG Gold American AAdvantage
Radiocycle
CMH Northwest WorldPerks, Newsstand
ralfkrippner
FRA/STR/NUE KLM Flying Dutchman, CommunityBuzz!
Randy Petersen
Colorado Springs, CO Only Randy Petersen, OMNI, Travel Safety/Security
richard
source of weird and eccentric ideas Newsstand, TravelBuzz!
RichardMannion
Reading/Swindon - UK: Virgin flying club, American Express
robb
Burbank, CA. GLBT Travelers
Rssrsvp
NYC, Demoted to a DL FO by MQM's. Delta SkyMiles
safetymom
MCO US Airways Dividend Miles, Hertz
SanDiego1K
Anywhere warm The Coupon Connection
ScottC
Moderator Omni and BA. AYBBABTU/COE? Moderator Omni/BA clandestine sub-group founder. Lt.Cmdr. OP-FOP. OMNI, British Airways Executive Club
skofarrell
IND American Express, OMNI
slippahs
Honolulu, Hawai`i Airport: HNL Hawaii
smantl01
Bellevue, WA America West FlightFund, Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan
sowalsky
Austin, TX, USA LocalTalk
Spiff
Louisville, KY TalkBoard Topics
squeakr
San Francisco CA United Mileage Plus, Hilton HHonors
techgirl
DFW, TX CommunityBuzz!, Women Travelers
thezipper
Alexandria, VA, USA - NW Platinum Elite Since 1999, UA Premier, CO Roach, Hyatt Diamond, SPG Gold, Hilton Gold, Hertz #1 Gold Northwest WorldPerks
TravelScholar
Erie, PA, USA US Airways Dividend Miles, Starwood Preferred Guest
umguy
Hollywood, FL Northwest WorldPerks, Continental OnePass
wharvey
North Chili, NY, USA (suburb of Rochester) The Coupon Connection
willyroo
Brisbane, or the nearest Qantas Pub err Club Qantas Frequent Flyer
xyzzy
EWR-land Northwest WorldPerks, Continental OnePass
zrs70
Los Angeles United Mileage Plus

---

Hope this helps!

-Mark

Thank you for your input, doc.

However, please allow me to offer another method to anyone who is interested in seeing who are the current forum leaders...