Separating moderation from discussion: A proposal

Mods basically wear two different hats on their subforums. They act as official authority figures, but they’re also just regular users jumping into the mix. Those two roles are totally separate, and honestly, they’re worlds apart in terms of what they actually mean.

I’ve definitely run into situations where I couldn't tell if a mod was actually moderating or just chiming in as another person on the board.

Hypothetically speaking—say a mod gets sucked into a debate as a regular user, sharing their take on a topic, and then suddenly drops a line like, "Man, you guys are being boring." Are they acting as a user who thinks the conversation is circling the drain? Or are they stepping in as a mod warning people that the thread is turning into a flame war or just getting too tedious and needs to be shut down before someone starts handing out bans?

That's happened to me personally, and honestly, I usually just bail on the thread rather than trying to guess what the mod actually intended. Pretty sure I'm not the only one who's felt that way either.

My suggestion would be this: when mods are just hanging out as users, they should stick to the default black text. Then, when they’re officially performing mod duties in a thread, they could use a specific color.

I know some mods currently use a colored font even when they're just making casual comments, which can get pretty confusing.

Is it possible to implement an OFFICIAL moderating color?

That way we’d know exactly which posts are just a user chatting and which ones are an actual moderator stepping in, because sometimes that line is super thin.

Does anyone think this idea makes sense?

I bet most mods use that exact same tactic. The only difference is there’s no set rule for what counts as "official" text... it’s just left up to whatever each person feels like doing.

Kevin Williams56 said:I think most mods use that kind of method. The thing is, there isn't a set color for "official" posts; it’s just left up to whatever each person feels like using.

Look, the whole thing about an official color was just a suggestion.

They might use it, but here are a few examples—not to be negative, just to show what I mean.

Blue text—does that count as moderating?—what do you guys think?

Black text—is this moderation too?

Black text

I pulled these from the exact same mod on the same thread during the same timeframe.
If there's some unwritten rule in play, then the first one is a mod post and the other two aren't... even though, honestly, I don't see much difference. At least between the first two, where the mod seems to be giving the OP a heads-up rather than actually joining the chat. That's just how I see it, anyway. Maybe I'm off base? But the line is super thin. I don't think making a formal rule saying "colored text = moderation and black text = regular talk" would actually help anyone understand things better, and it'd probably just feel like unnecessary red tape.

We only bother using color over at the FTC when we’re actually moderating.

steeleagle70 said:That bit about the official color was just a suggestion.

He might be using it, but here are a few examples—not to be negative, just to show what I mean.

Blue text—meaning moderation—is that how it works?

Black text—is that also moderation?

Black text

I looked at posts from the same moderator in the same thread at basically the same time.
If there’s some unwritten rule in play, then the first post counts as moderation while the other two don't... even though they look similar to me. At least in those first two, it feels more like the mod is giving the OP a heads-up rather than actually joining the chat. That's just my take, and I could be off, but the line is thin. Honestly, making an official rule that colored text means "moderation" and black doesn't wouldn't really clear things up or stop people from getting confused.

Since this is about me, I should probably weigh in. When I'm acting as a moderator, I use blue. When I'm just chatting, I use black. That first post was me trying to clarify what the OP was actually getting at. I used blue because I wasn't sure if the thread was being provocative or if the author just wrote it in a super vague way.

Once the OP clarified what he meant in the second post, I just jumped in to discuss the topic normally without the "mod" hat on.

Anyway, hope that clears things up.

Daniel Ward87

The Rock
So, I stumbled onto a total goldmine with this thread 🤣🤣

lock