OK, sorry for any confusion… Where to begin?

First lets clarify a few roles. Jerry and I (Admin) are Forum Administrators, with Dog-like power to really mung up the works here if we don't pay close attention to what we're doing. So, no offense, but we will not be extending Administrator capabilities to any other Tripawds members for the foreseeable future. Moderators are listed in the footer of every Forum page and have enhanced capabilities we will discuss in a moment. Tripawds Members have their own capabilities listed below. And, even Forum Guests have access to many Forum functions, but they must have their posts approved before showing up for others to read or reply to. That's where you Moderators come in!

So, who can do what?

All Members Can:

• View forum
• Start new topics
• Reply to topics
• Edit own posts forever
• View members profiles
• Bypass post moderation
• Use signatures
• Use private messaging
• Subscribe to topics
• Watch topics

 In addition, Moderators can:

• Edit any topic titles
• Move topics to other forums
• Move posts to their own new topic
• Edit any posts
• Report objectionable posts to admins
• Bypass spam control
• Moderate pending posts
• Use images in signatures
• Change topic status (if applicable)
• Change topic tags

How can they do that?

Moderators view these Forums a bit differently since they are given access to certain administrative tools. The most noticeable may be the Admin Bar. This strip at the top of all Forum pages includes a New Posts button to display the Unread Posts Queue. This drop-down management view is constantly updated with all new unread Posts from all Forums. It provides quick access for reading the latest posts and approving any that require moderation. A text box is available for quick replies, as is a direct link to the topic for using the fully functional Post Editor.

Certain Admin Tools  are also available to moderators.

From the Forum View – where all topic titles are listed within a specific forum.

• Edit This Topic Title: Use to ensure topic titles are relative to their content
• Change Topic Status: If applicable, Topic Status Sets currently only enabled here in Technical Support 
• Move This Topic: Use to move topics to anther forum where they should belong 
• Edit Topic Tags: Use to tag topics with relative keywords
• View Properties: More info than you ever need to know!

In Topic View – where all post replies are shown for a topic. Moderators have the following options:

• Edit a Post: Use for fixing formatting, correcting Image URLs, embedding video from links provided, etc.
• Move a Post: Use to move a specific post from its current topic to a new topic of its own, within any Forum.

But wait, there's more!

It doesn't end here in the Forums. Moderators can configure certain Forum Display Options* from within their Tripawds Dashboard. This is different from the Forum Profile – accessible via the button above – which includes a Dashboard link. The site Dashboard is where users upload their Profile Avatar, and manage their blog, if they have one. The Forums Display Options described below are accessible via the Dasboard -> Forum -> Admins tab. For members with blogs, click on Dashboard -> My Blogs to switch to the Tripawds Dashboard where Forum options are set.

• Display the Admin Bar: Turn the Admin Bar on or off
• Fix Admin Bar to top of Window: Fix the Admin Bar (if on) to the top of the browser window so it is always in view. Note that some older browsers – such as IE6 – do not support this.
• Notify Admin (email) on new Topic/Post: Select this option and every time a new post is made, an email will be sent to you.
• Display Unread Posts on Front Page: Use to show the list of most recent posts on the main/front forum page where the post content can be quickly viewed.
• Custom Offline Status Message: Not Applicable, yet.

*Please see the Help menu in the Dashboard for complete details.

 Phew! Any questions?

It also hides the blog ring navigation strip when at the very top. But it does seem to scroll with the page properly, and still works fine!

Update: Moderators should be able to use quick-reply function from the Admin Queue successfully now. Please advise with a reply to this topic if problems persist, or quick-reply posts don't save (indicated by the page reloading instead of the queue fade effect).

Update: Moderators do not have the ability to change status of topics until further notice as that seems to break the quick-reply function.