Having looked at the Psych Central forums, it looks like there's a reasonable protection of mods privacy as well as the openess (I was initially concerned when people were saying there were pictures up etc - as that could stop someone becoming a moderator). I know that people have been talking about the 'multiple names' issue - which I think can be appropriate depending on circumstances.

I co-moderate a national charity forum (which can be interesting work at times as it's for 16+ year olds, so every comment has to be premoderated (well, it's when I get back from a weekend to find my e-mail box full of spam saying 'forum x has y unapproved messages', 'forum x has y+1 unapproved messages' etc.)). Now on that forum, I can choose to post as me or as 'Moderator'. Even though that forum doesn't have the same level of emotive discussion/difference of opinion any more (as most of the 'interesting' characters left when they started to pre-mod everyone), if I was posting as myself I'd far rather post as 'me' for a couple of reasons:

i. People have feelings associated with 'Moderator' - and may (at least with the age group the board's for) take more account of what I'm saying - not a good thing if I'm just talking about my personal experiences.

ii. It's an odd thing, but if you watch threads closely the actual effect of 'Moderator' posting on a thread can be big - in some forums you actually see people compete to get a 'Moderator' posting on their thread.

That said, I don't think that it's acceptable to deal with differences of opinion (that break t&cs) on a thread that I've posted on as 'me'...it just doesn't feel right - and I'd expect my co-moderators there to treat 'me' exactly the same as any other poster - but maybe I'm being idealistic?

xxx
Swift
PS before anyone goes looking, it's one of the few forums that I actually post on with my real first name.