Anonymous Moderators

[kfander]

Some years ago, I owned a regional forum in which several local political issues were discussed and debated. It had the potential of becoming volatile so I looked for ways in which to encourage the discussions but curb the personal attacks which, in a local area, could easily spill over beyond the comfort of an online forum.

I chose people from both sides, where there were clear sides, of the most intensely debated topics, and asked them to become moderators. Most of them stepped up to the plate, as best they could and tried to moderate fairly but, since these were among the most active participants in the forum, they also wanted to participate without the burdens of objectivity.

First, I allowed them to have another forum account which they could use for moderating, and that helped. But other forum participants would try to figure out who they were, from posting styles and perceived biases, and were often successful. Of course, once it became known that a moderator was someone on a particular side of an issue, no matter how fair they were trying to be, they were accused of bias. In a couple of cases, this occurred even when they were wrong about who it was, but it still caused problems.

Then, I set up accounts for Moderator-1, Moderator-2, Moderator-3, Moderator-4, and Moderator-5, each with the same login information. When one of my moderators wanted to take part in the discussions, they could use their regular login an argue as strongly as they wished. But when there were moderating tasks to be done, they would login in to whichever of these moderator slots that weren't being used at the time. In other words, if someone was logged into the Moderator-1 and Moderator-3 accounts, they could choose 2,4, or 5.

If it were necessary, I could have figure out who it was from the IP but it worked perfectly. The membership gave up trying to figure out who was who, and one of my moderators complained in the forum of being fired as a moderator even though she was still moderating, so that she could throw off suspicion.

What I found that, with assurances of anonymity, moderators found it to be far easier to be objective, even in favor of people they disagreed with.

We also had a private moderator area where problems could be discussed, although there rarely were any.

 

[Deka]

Thank you for sharing this idea. Actually, it's a fairly clever strategy that can certainly help lots of forums. With forums, such as politics or even religion, debates are inevitable, that's for sure. And of course, some moderators would want to be part of discussions. The thing is, some members wouldn't want to be in a debate with a moderator. They would think that doing so can get them warned especially if the debate becomes a heated argument. This isn't always the case but I think this does happens a lot.

So if you have anonymous moderators, it's easier for everyone involved. The moderators can participate in debates without bringing in fear to the members. The members can share their thoughts and opinions as well without thinking of the moderator's biases or powers. I do think it's such a nice way of having that balance in the forum.

To be honest, I haven't tried having anonymous moderators in my forum. But this gives me a great idea and look into it. Debates aren't that common in my forum though but sometimes they do happen.