Forum Moderators

A forum moderator, often shortened to just mod, is a person granted special powers to enforce the rules of an Internet forum (message board). Almost all moderators on all forums can move discussions to different sections of the forum, close discussions, edit the content of individual postings, answer questions (or help people with problems). Different forums may give their moderators further powers.

Role

The roles of moderators can vary from forum to forum, just as the purposes of the forum themselves can vary. Moderators are generally accorded additional powers. This allows them to enforce forum rules and conduct administrative tasks that the forum owner does not trust ordinary users to perform.
Among a moderator's enforcement duties is often the duty to stop flaming and keep the board a friendly place, free of personal insults, to ban illegal material (such as warez) and outright pornography and also restrict the use of profanity and any violent or sexual images.
Moderators may participate in all contentious debates just as any normal member, provided they remain civil and generally obey the site rules. Moderators are not to moderate any discussion or topic they're involved in to avoid conflict of interest and bias.

Powers

On this forum Moderators have the following powers:

* Moving conversations to a different section of the forum. Virtually all forums are organized into various sections by topic to allow users to more easily read what interests them without having to sort through many topics of discussion they find boring. Moderators are able to move a conversation to a section more suited to it. A notice may be left in the original section so that those who contributed to the conversation earlier will be able to find it where they left it, at least for a few days.

*Closing/locking threads. Moderators are allowed to close a given thread to further posting, effectively ending the conversation. This allows the existing content to remain fully visible, so that readers can easily see the moderator's reasons for closing the thread (it's generally customary for the moderator to post an explanation immediately before or after closing a thread).

** The closing/locking of threads by Moderators my only be done after consulting an Administrator **

*Editing posts. In the event that a post is made that contains only some content that breaches forum rules, moderators are able to remove that content while still leaving any legitimate content. Even if an entire post is removed via editing, users will still be able to see who originally posted it and when it was originally posted, so that users who view the thread later won't be confused by any references to it. Usually this method is used to remove illegal or grossly offensive material that would remain visible in a closed thread, or else to stop a single post from derailing an entire thread.

*Deleting posts and threads. There are different kinds of deletion. In general, something that's deleted vanishes from public view, if it continues to exist at all.
The simplest form of deletion is variously called hard-deletion, physical removal, or simply deletion. Essentially, content deleted in this way is not recoverable through the forum software.
Other deletion methods can be collectively referred to as soft-deletion. The most basic of these is to move the content in question to a hidden section of the forum, so that only authorized users can view it. Anyone with the proper powers can then move the content back just as easily.

*Splitting and merging threads. If two threads exist on similar topics, or multiple topics are being discussed in one thread, the threads can be merged or the thread can be split.

*Viewing IP addresses. An IP address is the way Internet-enabled computers communicate with each other, and most forums log the IP address that all postings are made from. In general, this serves to aid identification of users, in combination with less technological means such as writing style, but it is by no means foolproof. IP addresses can therefore assist in stopping ban evasion, for instance. In general, ordinary users are prohibited from seeing others' IP addresses for reasons of privacy and security—if a hacker or otherwise technologically-savvy individual knows an IP address, it's possible for him to "attack" it in various ways, possibly taking revenge for the expression of views he disagrees with or the like.

All actions done by the Moderators are recorded so that the Administrators can view them at a later time. This way Moderators can not do any special actions in the forum without the Administrators knowing who did them...