If the moderators are coming from members within the community, then you are correct taht no matter what forum they moderate, they will be moderating people that they know from other forums, especially because so many people from different forums know each other from forum feedback.

However, even if a mod may know one or two people at the forum they are moderating that is vastly different than having that Mod responsible for moderating their "home" forum.

For example, if I were a Mod and my area of moderating was the gluten forum I would know you (jcc) because we have met in forum feedback (both here and at BT1), and likewise, if you were a Mod who was moderating the Chronic Pain forum you would know me from forum feedback.

But knowing a person is vastly different than having a vested intrest in the actual forum, and knowing one or two people is different than knowing the entire group.

Being a member of a certain forum topic creates relationships with everyone else that posts regularly on that given forum topic, and that's where the difficulties arise for both the moderator and the group.

No matter what the Mod does, the group would feel as if the Mod is 'taking sides' with friends, or the group would feel as if the Mod is 'taking sides' with foes to avoid the appearance of 'taking sides' with friends. It would be nearly impossible for a member of a group to assist with conflict resolution within that group.

My point is that by using members of BT as mods of BT there are always going to be times when a Mod knows someone that is in the group that they are moderating, but by making sure that the Mod is not allowed to moderate the group where they spend the most time will greatly cut back on problems.

I hope that all made sense.... my pain is a bit high today, so I apologize if I repeated myself or if my post needs double reading in order to be understood.

Liz