Forum Moderators are trusted users granted the tools necessary to keep watch over the forums by making sure topics are posted in the correct forum, removing inappropriate threads, editing out image violations, neutralizing spam and spambots and also answer users' concerns about the forum, general questions, as well as respond to specific complaints. Only bureaucrats and admins are able to grant their forum moderator user rights.
It is the duty of a forum moderator to manage the day-to-day affairs of the forums as it applies to the stream of user contributions and interactions. The relative effectiveness of this user management directly impacts the quality of a forum in general, its appeal, and its usefulness as a community of interrelated users.
Becoming a forum moderator
Apexpedia has no official requirements to becoming a forum moderator. Anyone can apply regardless of their experience. Forum moderators are expected to have the trust and confidence of the community, however, requests from users who do not have considerable experience are typically not approved.
Before requesting or accepting a nomination, candidates should generally be active in the forums or be a regular Apexpedia contributor for a few months, be familiar with the procedures and practices of the wiki, respect and understand its policies, and have gained the general trust of the community.
Forum moderator abilities and obligations
- Keep watch over the forums by deleting inappropriate topics and posts.
- Editing out policy violations image uploads, or pyramid quotes from user topics and posts.
- Moving threads to the correct forum.
- Tagging threads with a correct topic.
- Reporting vandalism to the notice board or notifying an admin on their talk page or through the chat. In the event that an admin is unable to block a vandal, place a warning on the users talk page. This may discourage further vandalism.
- Maintain an overall mature and friendly demeanor when interacting with other users.
- Practice diplomacy when users make mistakes.
- Pointing new or existing users to policies and guidelines wherever applicable.
Retaining the forum moderator title
- Forum moderators who have not managed the forums in exactly 30 days are considered semi-active, and will be moved to the semi-active list, until they prove they have made a steady return.
- Forum moderators who have gone "rogue" and turned into obvious vandals will have their user rights removed automatically. They can petition to have it returned on the consensus track form.
- Forum moderators will not lose their user rights if marked as inactive, although the "cyan" coloration of their name and their moderating tools are indefinitely revoked. To request that a user be relieved of their user rights due to abuse, please petition on the consensus track form.
Procedural removal for inactive forum moderators
Forum moderator accounts which have not managed the forums or edited for at least 6 months may have their rights removed. This action may or may not be permanent, or be construed as a reflection on the user's use of, or rights to, the forum moderator tools. The forum moderator must be contacted on their user talk page and via e-mail (if possible) one month before the request for removing their rights and again several days before the action goes into effect. Removing user rights on grounds of inactivity should be handled by bureaucrats. The summary in the user rights log should make it clear that the action is purely procedural.
Accountability
Forum moderators are accountable for their actions involving forum moderator tools, and unexplained forum moderator actions can demoralize other users who lack such tools. Subject only to the bounds of civility, avoiding personal attacks, and reasonable goodfaith, editors are free to question or to criticize actions of a forum moderator. As such forum moderators are expected to respond promptly and civilly to queries about their Apexpedia-related conduct and their actions and to justify them when needed.
Forum moderators who seriously, or repeatedly, act in a problematic manner or have lost the trust or confidence of the community may be sanctioned or have their access removed. The following is a reference for such cases:
- "Bad faith" forum moderators (sock puppetry, gross breach of trust, etc.)
- Breach of basic policies (attacks, civility, edit warring, privacy, etc.)
- Conduct elsewhere incompatible with forum moderator (off-site attacking, etc.)
- Failure to communicate – this can be either to users (e.g., lack of suitable warnings or explanations of actions), or to concerns of the community (especially when explanations or other serious comments are sought).
- Repeated or consistent poor judgment.