# admins **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [September 23, 2001, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/admins/83376 "2001-09-23T19:39:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Anubis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dfb087/32.png) [@Anubis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anubis)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2001, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/admins/83376/1 "2001-09-23T19:39:35Z")
How do you become a moderator, administrator, etc? ---
**Author:** ![waterj2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/858c86/32.png) [@waterj2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/waterj2)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2001, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/admins/83376/2 "2001-09-23T19:41:59Z")
You email TubaDiva for an application, she sends you one, you fill it out, the higher-ups decide. ---
**Author:** ![Eutychus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Eutychus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eutychus)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2001, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/admins/83376/3 "2001-09-23T20:55:42Z")
I should also note that it doesn’t hurt to have compromising photos of some of the other mods as well. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![LifeOnWry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/96bed5/32.png) [@LifeOnWry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LifeOnWry)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2001, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/admins/83376/4 "2001-09-23T20:57:26Z")
I just wanna say if I ever get to be a Mod, I am gonna change my name to MsBossyPants. Just so you know. ---
**Author:** ![tavalla](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tavalla/32/89_2.png) [@tavalla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tavalla)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2001, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/admins/83376/5 "2001-09-23T21:33:40Z")
Before you send in your application, please decide whether you’re going to be a commie, a Nazi, or just a common- or garden-variety dictator. And make sure you get your Nomex underoos… ---
**Author:** ![LifeOnWry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/96bed5/32.png) [@LifeOnWry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LifeOnWry)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2001, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/admins/83376/6 "2001-09-23T21:43:04Z")
Couldn’t I be like, you know, a kinder, gentler Mod? Like, maybe instead of a thread commie, I could be a thread Mommy? Instead of closing threads, I would just shake my head and say things like “My my my. Were we raised in a barn? Aren’t you ashamed? I want this thread cleaned up spic and span by dinnertime!” And instead of banning people, I would kindly say, “Now, if you can’t play nice, I am going to turn this thread around and we are going to go home! And no comic books!” ---
**Author:** ![tavalla](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tavalla/32/89_2.png) [@tavalla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tavalla)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2001, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/admins/83376/7 "2001-09-23T22:11:59Z")
From what I remember of being a kid, the most effective Mother Weapon was the “Don’t make me come over there” look. Quelled resistance at twenty paces, cut through 80dB of kid noise. How are you going to do that in a thread? We’ll need a new smilie for it, at the least. ---
**Author:** ![xanakis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/7bcc69/32.png) [@xanakis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xanakis)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2001, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/admins/83376/8 "2001-09-23T22:30:37Z")
Do mods get paid or is it a voluntary position? Seems like a good job if you get paid for it. ---
**Author:** ![tavalla](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tavalla/32/89_2.png) [@tavalla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tavalla)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2001, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/admins/83376/9 "2001-09-23T22:32:44Z")
Volunteer, although they do get to wear special “Straight Dope” tiaras on special occasions. ---
**Author:** ![xanakis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/7bcc69/32.png) [@xanakis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xanakis)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2001, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/admins/83376/10 "2001-09-24T02:25:42Z")
Hmm…seems like they’d have a valid argument to put to the Chicago Reader for payment considering the hours they must have to put in protecting them from libel or copywright violations etc. Maybe they should threaten to go on strike? ---
**Author:** ![xanakis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/7bcc69/32.png) [@xanakis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xanakis)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2001, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/admins/83376/11 "2001-09-24T02:27:20Z")
umm…that should be “copyright”. ---
**Author:** ![erislover](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/71e660/32.png) [@erislover](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/erislover)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2001, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/admins/83376/12 "2001-09-24T03:40:26Z")
What exactly _are_ the duties of a mod/admin? Is everyone required to do mailbag columns, for example? ---
**Author:** ![C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2001, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/admins/83376/13 "2001-09-24T12:52:20Z")
Required? No. Eligible? Yes. However, generally, Staff (the folks who do Staff Reports) is a larger group than the Message Board Police Force. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2001, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/admins/83376/14 "2001-09-25T05:16:41Z")
Well, we’re not officially _required_ to do them, but if we don’t, then Dex sends us e-mails continually “reminding” us of the dire consequences which would befall if ever we didn’t have one to put on the page when it was due, and how it would be **all our fault** , and wouldn’t we feel sorry then? And yes, Dex, I will get cracking on mine, as soon as my PhD oral is done, and I’ve delivered my Current Topics in Astrophysics seminar. ---
**Author:** ![SPOOFE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c5a1d2/32.png) [@SPOOFE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SPOOFE)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2001, 8:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/admins/83376/15 "2001-09-25T08:26:45Z")
> [@](#): > > I should also note that it doesn’t hurt to have compromising photos of some of the other mods as well. Oh good. Coldfire’s coming down here soon, I’ll get some pictures of him then. If I had known about this rule back in February, Euty, I would have gotten some REALLY risque’ pics of Arnold Winkelreid (you shoulda seen what he did to the sheep!) > [@](#): > > Before you send in your application, please decide whether you’re going to be a commie, a Nazi, or just a common- or garden-variety dictator. Well, since I plan on asking Tuba for an application as soon as I turn 21 (less than nine months from now), I think I should mention that, if I were a Mod, I’d be the only Imperialistic Dictatorial Emirate Advocate on the Boards. (Get it? IDEA? Ha ha! Actually, I didn’t plan it to turn out that way… it just sorta happened.) Yeah, I know. I’m counting my chickens before they hatch. But with the truckloads of chocolate I’ll send to Tuba’s house, I’m a shoe-in! I hear that’s how Czarcasm got his job.