Trying to determine a user's level by their title is not a very good way of doing it. Nor do I think embedding HTML code in the custom user titles is. These both work of course but are quick fixes and not flexible. Not only that everytime a Moderator is created or one leaves, there is a lot of maintenance to be done.
However if you program the code correctly, you only have to do things once and the program will adapt to the environment it is in including creating and deleting moderators.
Look at this thread for a better way of determining who is a moderator or admin and let the program do the work.
http://vbulletin.com/forum/showthrea...ighlight=stars