The Personalities in a Forum

A person who has the ability to edit, delete, move or otherwise modify any thread on the forum is referred to as the forum administrator.  An administrator has the ability to close the board, change major software items, change the skin, modify the board, and delete or create members.  Moderators commonly help the administrator but with considerably less abilities.  These may include editing, deleting, moving threads, mass pruning, warning members for offenses and changing minor forum details.  Peace is maintained and rules are effectively enforced through these abilities given to both the administrator and the moderator.

The basic rights of a forum member include posting in threads, editing their posts, starting new topics and changing their settings.  A small picture located around the user’s name called an avatar appears on most forums.  Members can send personal messages aside from posting and responding to each other.  There are certain cases where members can choose their own topics or delete posts in topics they have started.

Various monikers have become widely used in Internet forums.  A grave digger refers to one who will posts in a topic that is very old and bring it up for discussion.  A godmodder is one who stacks abilities to appear all powerful.  A spammer is one who continually posts random, offensive or mindless posts in a certain topic.