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I have no idea if any other moderator has been abusing their powers, and at the end of the day that's for Adam to deal with it has been happening. I just wanted to post a few things after reading a couple of the points in this thread.
I moderate the Newbie Help and MUD Humour sections. I do read both regularly, and both are pretty quiet so I rarely have to do anything. Apart from moving a couple of topics I felt were in the wrong section the only three times I've had to take action during the 18 months or so I've been a moderator were the following:
1 - A topic in MUD Humour contained "jokes" insulting disabled people, which I felt was uncalled for, so I cut them out.
2 - A topic in Newbie Help started with a valid question, then a few of the respondents descended into thinly-veiled insults against each other. After a warning, I deleted the offending posts and left a message saying not to repeat the behaviour.
3 - A topic or two in Newbie Help dealt with ways to get around MUD rules on multi-playing, which I felt was against the spirit of the board and closed.
In all three cases I left behind a message saying why I took the action I did, and if it was an edited post I left a coloured snip message detailing why I edited it. Although I feel this is a good way of moderating, everyone has their preferred way of doing things and there is no right way.
I was a MUD player for at least 8 years before I lost interest, although I do still log in to one or two games occasionally. I also code, although not in an advanced enough way to moderate coding sections on the here. I consider myself pretty impartial since I have no friendships on this board outside of Adam, care nothing for the sniping that goes on between regulars, and will happily deal with problems that I see without worrying about annoying people. I don't post regularly enough to get drawn in to the arguments.
It is possible to have moderators that are mostly unbiased, but the issue here is that many of the sections of this forum deal with technical issues that require people familiar with the issues to moderate them successfully. I feel this is the reason the moderators of the technical sections have their positions, whether you agree with the appointment or not.
As far as Matt goes, as long as he moderates his sections correctly it shouldn't matter what position he holds outside the forum. If you feel he is not doing his moderation correctly, then last time I checked Adam was still happy to deal with any issues emailed him. I will admit I don't read other sections enough to notice any moderating going on unless it's blatantly obvious because I concern myself only with my sections, so it's up to you as users to report anything you think is inappropriate, but I would caution you to be sure you have a basis for your complaint and not just a general "I hate <moderators name>" cause of how he/she/it posts.
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