Some communities have moderators who only have power in individual forums. This post is not about these communities. This post is about communities who give their moderators power in most if not all forums. Some would call them “Super Moderators,” but I just call them moderators because, for the most part, the guidelines will be the same across your entire site, so they may as well have power in all forums, in case they spot something.

On forums like this, you want to make it clear to your moderators that if they see it, they deal with it. The report posts function is for regular members to help staff members. It is not for staff members to be lazy or, worse, condescending, by dumping violations onto other moderators.

I don’t care if they are “officially” the moderator of an individual section. If they have power in all forums, they should be expected to handle what they see and it should be a part of their responsibilities. I have seen moderators report something and leave it for days and days because they expected a certain moderator or group of moderators to handle it, full well knowing that it was a violation. This is unacceptable and this attitude would tend to betray a lack of understanding of what a moderator is actually supposed to do.

Moderators are there to support one another and the administrator. They are not there to bicker over which violation is whose responsibility.