[Max Taxable]

Originally Posted by cellarius

Its called transparency. I would much rather have my users know who is maintaining the forum (and that's basically what admins and mods do in perspective of regular user joe), so they know whom they can turn to if they're having problems. Plus I want them to know who is "policing" the forum when it comes to rule issues or conflicts between users. With status comes authority, and everyone who runs a forum knows that from time to time not only help, but also authority is needed. I much rather have that happen open than running some sort of "secret police".

I can (sort of) see that. I just never saw the need for moderators, especially not a whole gaggle of them. The "report post" feature works, and by and large people will behave if they know it's expected. At least in my experience. No need for any "police" secret or otherwise.

90% of what moderators do is mop up spam, and when spam is eliminated you don't really need moderators anymore.

It's more like a "everyone else does it" kind of thing.