Identifying People as Moderators
 

I have noticed that people who are moderators in a particular forum are shown as "Moderator" in every forum in which they post. While we certainly should be grateful for the work that they do, showing them as a moderator in every forum gives them a certain "moral authority" which I do not believe they have.

My experience is that they generally seem quite level headed when actually moderating in their own forum, but occasionally "let loose" in other forums. While they are certainly entitled to their opinions, I don't think there should be a suggestion that their opinions are the official opinions of Flyertalk, particularly when they are posting a controversial opinion or, even more importantly, are being "blunt" or even threatening with another Flyertalker.

ILP,

You may get a quicker response from Randy in the ORP forum... do not believe the Talkboard controls the system issues.

NOTE: This is a personal opinion, not one based on my role as a Moderator of CC. :)

William

FWIW, I would prefer if the tagline under my handle only read Moderator in the forums that I moderate.

All moderators are Flyertalk Members first and foremost. Believe it or not, I'd personally like to be seen as such over the entire FT community, and just as a "keeper of the peace" in the board I moderate.

This is, of course, my opinion. I don't pretend to speak for the other mods or Randy.

I agree with CB4.

This is also a question of both policy and technology. Istm the technical question needs to be answered first (is it possible) and only then will the policy question fruitfully be able to be addressed.

So, imo, the first thing is to ask in the Tech forum whether such is possible. If so, then reference the answer and raise the question about the policy in ORP. If not, end of discussion.

My understanding, and I may be wrong here, is that all Flyertalk members are assigned to 'groups' and that group name is displayed underneath the member's handle.

Some groups are:
Moderator
TalkBoard Member
Flyertalk Evangelist
Original Member
etc.

And I think it has to do with (at least in some cases) granting system permissions.

It might be possible to grant the relevant moderator permissions without creating a moderator 'group' - that is, to have Dan grant the permissions one member at a time (and then remember to take those permissions away individually if appropriate, rather than just take a member out of the moderator group).

My sense is that the user 'group' feature was the easiest way for the FT admin folks to tackle the issue, though it might be possible for them to add a bit of work to the process to change the way this is done if it's widely considered to be a problem.

[Posting in a personal capacity only and not as a member of any group, and probably wrong in any case]

Gary

Works for me, so off to the tech forum it goes.

My tag never reads "moderator" so I guess I'm ambivalent.

I'm not sure how the formatting of this may actually work. Dan's on vacation but perhaps we can re-configure this to be less of an issue. I think on several occasions I have pointed out to members that I can not be party to anything that would prevent Moderators from also being members. They must first and formost be able to participate as regular members on issues and opinions and that may on occasion include being a bad boy. But, in those situations, they will be dealt with just as any other member - the difference of course as with any other situation, it depends on if you are any other member with a reputation and history of being a bully or bad boy or if you are just a member who just happens to step over the line in this one occasion.

Again, perhaps there is a way to change this so it's less intrusive in other forums they post.

I doubt that this is possible.

Looking at the settings there is no option to display the moderator tag only in that user's "home" forum. User titles seem to be an all or nothing proposition.

The only way I think you could do this is to make a new user group for each moderator, and name that moderator group after the boards the moderator works in...

Would be a few hours work for all the moderators and to me that would seem like too much work for a minor problem...

Why not just require all moderators to show their "credentials" in their signature line?

As a moderator, I only use my OMNI/Amex sig when posting on "official business".

I don't post creds in my .sig unless it's official business in the US forum, and sometimes not even then.

Member first. Moderator second.

OK. But that begs the question - b/c when you post it is "moderator first" (and only - there is no second), since that is how you are identified off to the left under your handle.

Randy doesn't share that thought. We are members first, and then moderators. Just because some have the title next to their name doesn't make them "more" than others.

You are confusing a feature of the software's defaults with something substantive, imo.

When I'm acting as moderator I "sign" it as moderator. When I'm not, I don't.