Do volunteer moderators have the authoritay to ban or suspend people?
Who can ban/suspend people?
Do they ever. I believe there is only one vol at the moment, at least active, and a cagy one at that.
Hey how do I sign up to be a moderator?
Yes, volunteer mods have the authority to suspend people. But almost always all three mods agree on any course of action any individual mod takes. We are usually discussing contentious issues over email before we decide to take punative action.
I can't although sometimes I'd like to.
While I'm sure that was a joke, P4, I will respond in all seriousness.
We will occasionally have call outs for volunteer moderators, and if you look in some past reactions threads you will find the list of criteria, if you're serious.
The hours and the pay suck for volunteer moderators, by the way, and I was one for close to four years. Our current volunteer moderator, oldgoat, for those who don't already know, was a paid moderator on the staff team since 2005, until he resigned in March of this year. He's got the chops.