Moderators are members of the Newgrounds community that have voluntarily accepted invitations to become members of the outside ring of site staff. Moderators are typically selected from long-time BBS regulars, though different moderation areas will call for different qualities when moderators are selected: for instance, a review moderator may be picked based on his review quality and whistle status as opposed to their helpfulness on the forums.
Asking to be a moderator is and always has been discouraged by staff. When needed, new moderators will be selected from the community by popular vote among the current standing moderators in the particular field requiring more members. Contrary to popular belief, most moderators are chosen by current moderators, and not the staff as originally thought.
Types of Moderators[]
An example of the golden moderator aura.
- Art Moderators – Review art submissions that have been flagged as violating the Terms of Service. They can delete submissions, ban users from submitting art, prune trees of scouted artists, and unscout individual artists.
Audio Moderators – They are in charge of dealing with audio that is reported as stolen, or contains copyrighted material. They can also change the genre and search tags of any audio submission.
The pre-2012 style for golden moderator auras.
Forum Moderators – The forum mods enforce the forum rules, and they can lock threads, delete threads, posts, signatures or signature pictures, and ban users. When a user is banned from the Forums by a moderator it only affects his posting privileges; the rest of NG is still accessible. It is rumored that moderators have, as of 2015, received new, more far-reaching abilities.
Review Moderators – They enforce the review guidelines, and judge whether reviews flagged as abusive are deleted or not. They can also ban users from submitting reviews.
Portal Moderators - Enforce the Game and Movie guidelines in relation to the Game and Movie portal. They monitor the portal and accept reports from the community via PM or the Elite Guard Barracks and delete submissions that violate the terms of service. They can also ban users from submitting to the portal, delete a user's submissions, and change genre and tags.
Moderator Powers[]
The above list refers to some powers that moderators have, however various users talk of other powers that can be used. According to Rucklo and others, the understanding is that Admin/Moderators do not want the average Newgrounder to know just what they can do and how they can do it. However, there is a thread about Moderator powers, which gives some speculative and humourous ideas.
Asking moderators about the nature and extent of their powers is highly discouraged, as they often become irritable and suspicious when asked.
Standards and Operation[]
Here is a thread where users are invited by (then) Moderator Jonas, to politely comment on the operation of Moderation on Newgrounds. The moderators will have their own personal preferences and interpretations of the rules and they often have their own written set of rules,in which they set out examples and their detailed interpretation of the general list of rules. HERE is Zerok's rule list, for example.
It is speculated that the moderators may have their own forum where they discuss issues related to site security and moderation.
How users become Moderators[]
According to the FAQ: "Q: How does one become a moderator?
A: Do not ask to be a mod! Users who are model poster, act mature, and help point out problems to the current moderators if they appear to have overlooked something (without being annoying about it) are invited to become mods themselves. If we decide we need more moderators, this type of consistent, helpful user will be more likely to receive an invitation. "
In practice, Newgrounds is a site based on humour and pushing the boundaries of taste, so "Acting mature" etc. is a relative term and in practice mods may join in with jokes at users expense, subjects of a sexual nature and various things that might not be everybodies idea of "Model" or "Mature". HERE is a thread where the moderator joined in to mock someone's post, by changing their sig at the time, but still gave practical advice on a better place to post and dutifully removed an inappropriate picture.
Moderators are typically selected by the current standing moderators by a popular vote. Although Wade retains the ability to veto this choice, he has been said to listen to the current mods more than anything.
Demodding[]
Moderators can lose their Moderator status by their request, or at Wade's descretion. HERE is a post where SBB explained reasons why he no longer wanted to be a Moderator. A number of mods have gained, lost and regained mod status, including, for example, EyeLovePoozy.
"Moderator" versus "Admin"[]
Moderators are volunteer (unpaid) users selected from the community to maintain and police various areas of the website. The extent of their power is limited to moderation abilities, and does not extend to site updates and changes.
Admins are paid employees of Newgrounds who develop, run, maintain, and update the website on a daily basis. They are entrusted with developing for the site, and also have access to moderation abilities such as locking and deleting threads, though it is rare to see them online enough to use them.
Current Moderators as of 2018[]
Replacement of Icons/Genre Mods[]
The following users are still listed as Icon mods: Captain • EyeLovePoozy • FBIpolux • Joe • Krinkels • life • Luwano • Magical-Zorse • Mr-Shark • NegativeONE • Rage • shunshuu • ThePigeonMaster • CarterSterling
While they still have access to adding and editing icons, this ability is no longer required, as flashes now require an icon to be made for it in order to be submitted. As well, Portal mods have now taken over Genre modding duties.
See Also[]
Moderation information on 2007 Style FAQ (Out of date)
Moderation information on current 2012 design (Due to a glitch this is also out of date)