Become a moderator

When you become a Board Moderator you will see some changes in the appearance of your board and in the way some of its features behave versus the appearance and behavior the membership general experiences.

First, what a Moderator sees: In the Author area of any of your posts on the board, even ones from before you became the Moderator, you and the membership general will now see your Member Group listed as "Board Moderator". On all other boards you will retain your normal Member Group status. At the bottom of any given topic screen, under the last post of the topic, you will now see additional buttons and tools that were not visible before you became the Moderator. Those tools are defined below.

The behavior of certain tools on the board you moderate will change to recognize your new abilities as Moderator.

Edit/Delete Any Post

You will now be able to modify or delete any post on the board, not just your own. When you modify another member's post, that member's name and information is retained as the author; your name will not replace his even though you were the last to modify the post (you're name will be displayed in the post last modified by box). This is one of the primary reasons why being a responsible and trustworthy Moderator is so important.

Lock Topic

You may lock or unlock a topic, preventing or allowing new replies to be added. One of the functions of a Moderator is to keep the board organized and easy to use. Topics are allowed 15 posts per page; after 15 posts a new page is created (this is the default, it can be changed). While the pages are easy to navigate either from the topic list or the bottom of the messages pages, a popular topic can grow unweildly fairly quickly. If one topic is too big, in your opinion, you should lock it and begin a new topic continuing the first. Don't delete the first topic, leave it there for future readers as long as it has relevance. It's always a good idea, when splitting topics, to make note that the active topic is not the the first. The best way to do this is to cite it in the topic title, for example when locking a topic called "special fx in film", make the new topic title "special fx in film (part 2)".

Move The Topic

This tool only applies if you wish to move a topic from one board to another and you moderate both boards. If you don't moderate both the source and destination boards, you will not be able to move it. Request that a Board Staff member or the Administrator move it for you.

See Also:

The Responsibilities Of A Board Moderator
What A Board Moderator Can See & Do
Actions A Board Moderator May Take
Tips For Being A Good Board Moderator