User blog:Yami riku/The Reality of Being a Global Moderator for Town of Salem

Over time, I have seen people voicing their opinions and complaints on the forums, on the wiki, and on the subreddit. There is without a doubt many issues with Town of Salem, but this post focuses on the life of a global moderator.

How is a moderator selected?

 * Mature, active, and helpful users are candidates. If you want to be noticed, be active in BMG's forums and follow the rules.

What powers does a moderator have?
Forum:
 * Can move posts, can remove posts
 * Can approve users to be "Trusted Users"
 * Can approve a user's first post [to make sure they're not a spambot]
 * Can punish those who break the forum's rules

Game:
 * Cannot kick someone out of a match or lobby
 * Can use a command to send a message out to the lobby which will be in yellow text

Trial System:
 * Can close a report (innocent or guilty)
 * If found guilty, the person's punishment begins shortly.
 * Moderators cannot select how long a person's punishment will be for. It goes up in tiers.
 * Manually pull up all reports made against a player
 * Cannot unsuspend or unban a player

Can moderators help make suggestions happen?

 * For the game? No. People have complained in the past saying that the moderators ignore a lot of suggestions, but here's the reality! The mods have zero influence on that. It's not that they don't like your idea, it's just that unless an actual paid staff member happens to visit, your suggestion will be buried. The staff do come at times to read and won't necessarily respond but let's be real.... The game's updates are extremely slow. There are "planned ideas" from 2014 that aren't in place yet, so don't have high hopes of seeing suggestions coming quickly.

Why do so many appeals seem to be ignored?

 * The moderators have no power to unsuspend or unban someone. Only admins can do that. So please don't be a doodle to the mods. They have no control over that.

What are the perks of being a moderator?

 * You have a little power to help the community out, as listed above. It's a free to play game though so.... don't whine about people ban evading and say that mods aren't doing their jobs. Mods do this in their spare time. They do not receive a benefit for it. (No Town Points, no Merit Points, no Avatars, etc.) In addition to the benefit of being able to help out, you get to know your fellow mods a little better. The current staff are actually quite lovely and genuine people.

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In conclusion, the mods don't have -that- much power and they are volunteers.... so people need to stop being so harsh. Complaining to a moderator about the game is like complaining to an unpaid cashier that the store is too expensive.

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