I'm with Kathleen on this. I moderated a public forum for 6 years. I posted on it mostly with my moderator hat off - in fact, on the forum if I posted as a moderator, I always said "moderator hat on" - I handled most of my moderation privately, so as not to embarrass the other party, who mostly broke forum rules unknowingly.
After all, I wouldn't have been on the forums at all if I didn't love the subject matter, and disallowing an opinion to me just because I was a moderator didn't seem fair.
Now, that said, there are people who moderate huge forums who are "professional moderators" They read it all, so as to determine if there's something that needs moderating, but they usually have several boards they're moderating, and they don't become involved in the subject matter. Hard to believe, I know, but I know of at least one other person who is like that, actually, more than one. LOL
I also found that there were forum members who resented the fact that "anyone" had powers over them (most of these were guys in the 18 to 40 age group), in any way (which you could say a moderator does) and they tried over and over to put the moderator in a little box so they (the forum member) could control the moderator (and it was particularly noticeable with the female moderators). And then there were the members that thought because something was done one way on one board, it should be done the same way on all boards, and frequently would post "instructions" to the moderators. (As if somehow PMs wouldn't do.)
Feh -
Carry on, Kathleen
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IMHO we've got a good set of modertors here, and I"ve now hijacked this thread
I'll return it to the earlier argument about whether a person can "believe" another person without "hearing" or "seeing" that person, and whether taking someone else's word for it is sufficient. (knowing in my heart that the answer is different for everyone)
alys