Citizen, be thankful you weren’t around when manhattan was a mod.
That distant whoompf was the sound of my joke crashing in flames. 
Since the subject has come up, I suggest that if posters are not allowed to pit mods, mods should not be allowed to post in the pit.
My understanding, just as one of the unwashed non-moderate multitudes, is that we can pit mods, but not for their actions as mods. So that, if I form the opinion that Moderator M is a lousy scumbag in his arguments in Great Debates, I can call him that in the Pit. If, however, I think that M is a lousy scumbag in his moderation practices, I can only rake that to ATMB, where I can call him a scumbag, but can just call his actions as not adhering to the finest in moderating practice.
This is correct.
You may not see it but that Ed Dude is a fair mo/fo.
I’m a dick of the highest order but I’ve spoken to him personally and he’s not a man without reason.
Spoken as a member who was about to be banned.
This is a ridiculous idea, and I say that as someone who strongly oppose(d) the decision to forbid the Pitting of mods-acting-as-mods. Modding this board is a thankless enough task as it is – removing the mods’ ability to fully participate like anyone else would make it that much harder to recruit and keep the good unpaid volunteers needed to keep this place running.
ATMB is a Zen garden?
A Zen garden where I didn’t fix typos. I should have said:
My understanding, just as one of the unwashed non-moderate multitudes, is that we can pit mods, but not for their actions as mods. So that, if I form the opinion that Moderator M is a lousy scumbag in his arguments in Great Debates, I can call him that in the Pit. If, however, I think that M is a lousy scumbag in his moderation practices, I can only take that to ATMB, where I can’t call him a scumbag, but can just call his actions as not adhering to the finest in moderating practice.
As you should be aware, posters are allowed to pit mods when they are acting as posters. In fact, just a few weeks ago I was pitted by another poster for remarks I had made as a poster. (Actually, the thread was started in ATMB, but was moved to the Pit exactly because I was not engaged in moderating when I made the remarks.)
The one restriction on us is that we are not allowed to initiate Pit threads about other posters. We are, however, permitted to participate as posters in Pit threads that have been initiated by others.
We’re unpaid volunteers who basically do this job because we enjoy participating in the boards as posters. I think restricting our ability to participate would be a strong disincentive to becoming a moderator.
I’d almost certainly step down as a mod, if that rule were instituted. Being a moderator here means a ton of additional duties, and very few additional perks. If you start to pile restrictions on where and what we can post, the incentive to volunteer here fades pretty quickly.
'Course that was before suspensions became the rule for someone who had temporarily lost all sense.
Umm . . . you have sense now. Don’t you? 
In general:
I can’t think of any mods before, during, or after my tenure that would have accepted the position if it meant that we couldn’t have also acted as a regular poster. Enjoyment of the board, participation on the board, knowledge of the board–those are all critical to being selected as a mod. If becoming a mod meant losing the ability to participate, well, I’m not sure who we’d have as mods, but it’s unlikely that it would be people who like the SDMB.
Quitter. 
Perhaps in addition to the mod tag, official mod comments/instructions/warnings can be posted in red? At a glance there can be no confusion or ambiguity.
Ahahahahahahahahahaahah**ahahahahaahahaahahahaahaaaa…
sobs quietly in the corner
Until The Redist shows up.
[bold added]
They’re still working on that criterion. 
I guarantee that anyone who can’t figure out the difference between a regular post and one set off by mod tags won’t pay any attention to what color it’s posted in either.
I’d just like to state that, many years ago, I grabbed Ed’s crotch at a ChiDope.
You weren’t supposed to tell Gukumatz about that.