In the world of the User Friendly Comment Board, "moderating" means that one of several User Friendly moderators have marked a comment as being unacceptable because of some rule violation. By default your comment board account is set to hide these comments from view. If you really want to read those comments go to your settings page and check the "Show comments that have been moderated" checkbox (and don't say we didn't warn you about the quality of those comments). Post are not moderated just beause we don't like something or think someone is being stupid or silly, we try to err on the side of free speech whenever possible, but if the rules are broken a post will be moderated.

A post with the <Deleted> or <MODERATED> tag is one that's been moderated, or removed from the basic view. Specifically, <Deleted> means that it has been moderated, but you don't have "Show moderated comments" turned on or you aren't logged in. <MODERATED> means that you are logged in and have "Show moderated comments" enabled. Unfortunately there is a long term bug that sometimes turns this off. Just go into your settings and save them with this turned on and all will be well.

Things that might cause a post to be moderated are offensive or adult content, links to offensive or adult content, duplicate posts, being a first post attempt (real or joking), software piracy, trolls, spam, and anything else the moderators may deem improper for the board. For the morbidly curious, you can view the contents of moderated posts by checking the Show comments that have been moderated box on your My Settings page. For the terminally confused, keep reading. First post, troll, and spam will be explained. Honest.

Yes, occasionally posts are moderated for space and technical reasons. So if someone posts something twice (due to browser glitches), they post something that's too wide and forces the board to scroll horizontally, or the post something with a large amount of vertical whitespace, a moderator will moderate the post in order to make the board easier to read. Posts that use the <pre> tag can often cause these formatting issues. If you need to use <pre> please be sure that you use line breaks often, and use the preview to be sure the formatting hasn't been messed up.

Illiad, Kickstart, Yohimbe, WebDiva, sanity, Nea, Nawft, and DragonLady are all blessed with moderation powers. Of these, Kickstart, Nea, Nawft and DragonLady are the active moderators, with the others stepping in as needed. You should care because moderators are one step below Jehovah (I haven't blown the whistle!), and they are essentially the friendly neighborhood policemen (or women) of the board. They're the ones who, as you might guess, do the moderating and look out for fourteen-year-old sisters everywhere.

If there is a question about board rules or other board business these are the people you should go to for definitive answers.