# Should A Mod Who Participates In A Thread Be Its Moderator, Too?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-a-mod-who-participates-in-a-thread-be-its-moderator-too/526187>\
**Category:** About This Message Board\
**Created:** [January 24, 2010, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-a-mod-who-participates-in-a-thread-be-its-moderator-too/526187 "2010-01-24T02:24:47Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 2

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9a28c/32.png) [@pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pseudotriton_ruber_ruber)\
**Post date:** [January 26, 2010, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-a-mod-who-participates-in-a-thread-be-its-moderator-too/526187/21 "2010-01-26T13:02:26Z")

</div>

forgot to add:

:rolleyes:

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\
**Post date:** [January 26, 2010, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-a-mod-who-participates-in-a-thread-be-its-moderator-too/526187/22 "2010-01-26T18:51:44Z")

</div>

Yeah, that makes sense. :rolleyes:

There are already complaints “hey, why did you take that moderator action, the offense was umpteen hours old by then and nobody was following that hijack”.

Maybe if moderators were paid employees by the Reader, they could afford to read through all threads in their forum and police them as third party non-participants. But if people are volunteering time to help keep the Straight Dope running, they shouldn’t be penalized by being restricted from participating because they have to enforce the rules.

As long as the mods are reasonable people making a best effort and there is a system to review moderator actions\*, it’s a reasonable system.

* * *

\*I’m hoping this is the case, but my attempt to find out has so far fallen on deaf ears.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**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:** [January 26, 2010, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-a-mod-who-participates-in-a-thread-be-its-moderator-too/526187/23 "2010-01-26T19:59:21Z")

</div>

> [@pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](#):
>
> yes, either that disaster would ensue, or else (horrors!) Tom might have to recuse him from participating AS A POSTER for the duration of that lengthy, often endless, process.

The other side of the coin is that moderators were once posters, and generally LIKE to post. You’re suggesting that a mod can’t post to a thread (in which she has heretofore been active), once someone ELSE starts misbehaving? That doesn’t seem either fair or reasonable to me.

[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-a-mod-who-participates-in-a-thread-be-its-moderator-too/526187.md?page=1)