Moderating while in debate

L1011

Just a query here:

Is it acceptable for a moderator to be actively moderating (in the case I'm thinking of, handing out rather a lot of infractions) a debate while they're actively and fully taking part themselves?

Infractions appear to be flying to anyone who disagrees with the *other* people that hold said moderators viewpoint.

On other forums I use, moderators are obliged to refrain from moderating a debate they're actively involved in, to prevent this kind of thing - or the perception of it for that matter - from occurring.

Spear

In short, yes, it is acceptable.

In a longer, and more useful answer:

mods are made mods because they're active contributors to a forum. If moderation duties required them to stop participating it would diminsh a forum a little, and allow mods to have their input and views curtailed as soon a troublemaker wished to do so by causing trouble. Ideally if a mod is engaged with a troublemaker on a thread already, then the second mod would be the one to handle it to ensure neutrality. Hence in turn why every forum normally has a minimum of two mods. And as a follow on, many mods adopt a convention of posting in bold if it's a moderatorial statement.