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I recently passed the 10k reputation milestone to be granted moderator privileges. I'm enjoying reading deleted questions. But I'm curious what exactly else are my new moderator privileges? I saw the page privileges help page of course, which lists

  1. view deleted posts
  2. cast delete and undelete votes
  3. access moderator tools
  4. edit tags inline

But is that the exhaustive list? In particular, I recall reading (I think here in meta), that moderators can edit their comments after 5 minutes, and see edit history of comments. But I don't seem to have that ability (or if I do, I can't find it), and it's not listed on the help page.

Am I remembering correctly? Is that a privilege that some reputation gains? I also didn't see it on the help page for the higher reputation levels.

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    $\begingroup$ Only diamond moderators can edit comments after 5 minutes (their own and other's). $\endgroup$
    – Sera Gunn
    Commented Jan 15, 2018 at 4:38
  • $\begingroup$ @TrevorGunn oh. What's a diamond moderator? $\endgroup$
    – ziggurism
    Commented Jan 15, 2018 at 4:40
  • $\begingroup$ These people math.stackexchange.com/users?tab=moderators and certain Stack Overflow employees. $\endgroup$
    – Sera Gunn
    Commented Jan 15, 2018 at 4:42
  • $\begingroup$ @TrevorGunn these are the people elected by the community in annual elections? $\endgroup$
    – ziggurism
    Commented Jan 15, 2018 at 4:50
  • $\begingroup$ Not quite annual: math.stackexchange.com/election but they are elected. $\endgroup$
    – Sera Gunn
    Commented Jan 15, 2018 at 4:55
  • $\begingroup$ @TrevorGunn and they have privileges beyond what's listed on the help page? Is there a list somewhere of diamond moderator privileges? Not that I want to run for office, but I'm just curious... $\endgroup$
    – ziggurism
    Commented Jan 15, 2018 at 4:57
  • $\begingroup$ First of all, they also have the 20k privileges: they can delete answers (you can't do this at 10k). Their votes are binding: they can close or delete a post with just their own vote. They can edit comments and revision histories, ban users, see flags, see deleted comments and likely some other things that don't come to mind. $\endgroup$
    – Sera Gunn
    Commented Jan 15, 2018 at 5:03
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    $\begingroup$ They have supper at @codinghorror's house every sunday night $\endgroup$
    – ziggurism
    Commented Jan 15, 2018 at 5:04
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    $\begingroup$ ._. kinda wish normal users could unlock comment editing after 5 minutes as a privelege, maybe just editing up to, say, 10 minutes later, since I can see the problem with no time limit. $\endgroup$
    – Simply Beautiful Art
    Commented Jan 15, 2018 at 13:09
  • $\begingroup$ @SimplyBeautifulArt it's honestly unclear to me why this should be a privilege one gets later on. If anything new users might have more issues with getting comments right. $\endgroup$
    – quid
    Commented Jan 15, 2018 at 15:30
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    $\begingroup$ @quid, it would be interesting if there were privileges you would lose by having too many points. $\endgroup$
    – Gerry Myerson
    Commented Jan 15, 2018 at 18:06
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    $\begingroup$ @GerryMyerson it does not fit exactly but getting points for approved suggested edits is on the one hand capped by number of edits and on the other hand in a way one loses the ability. Flagging for closure is also something one loses (as it becomes a vote). $\endgroup$
    – quid
    Commented Jan 15, 2018 at 18:42

1 Answer 1

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The line "access moderator tools" does not refer to any specific set of actions one can take, instead it refers to access to this page:

https://math.stackexchange.com/tools

This page mostly provides information on what is happening on the site. There are, e.g., lists of questions with recent close/reopen or delete/undelete votes, lists of questions with many comments or extreme scores, and information on migration.

Using this information you can, if you want to, navigate to places on the site that might need some action (an edit, a close/reopen vote, etc). One might think of it as a surveillance tool-set to moderate more efficiently.

The ways to navigate to this page are not very visible, especially since the most recent top-bar update, but they are still there.

Namely, in the drop-down menu that allows to get to the review queues at the top-right it also says: tools.

Also if you are on the page of all review queues there is a second tab "tools."

To confirm, per-site moderators and certain SE staff, differently everybody with a diamond symbol next to their user name, can edit comments without restriction (both their own and others), and indeed have access to the revision history of comments.

These privileges are not granted via points. Sometimes SE adds new privileges for users, but I think it is unlikely that editing privileges for comments will be significantly expanded.

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  • $\begingroup$ Is there a list of additional privileges available to diamond moderators? And who are these certain "SE staff"? Obviously some SE staff must have db and source code access, and so essentially have ability to change any aspect of the site or its content in any way and at any time, subject only to policy compliance. Is that what is meant? Or is there an expanded toolset, less than developer God mode, created for diamond moderators and some non developer SE staff? $\endgroup$
    – ziggurism
    Commented Jan 15, 2018 at 13:50
  • $\begingroup$ For what mods can do see meta.stackexchange.com/questions/75189 What do you mean by "who"? As I said those user-accounts that have a diamond attached on the site have moderators abilities, these are elected per site moderators (the list is here math.stackexchange.com/users?tab=moderators ) and a subset of the people employed at SE, Shog9, Jaydless, Jon Ericson, Tim Post, etc. These have abilities beyond what per site mods can do see meta.stackexchange.com/questions/158215 (and not all the same, in particular not all actual DB access). Or, yes, to your last Q. $\endgroup$
    – quid
    Commented Jan 15, 2018 at 15:26
  • $\begingroup$ Thanks. Those links were informative. $\endgroup$
    – ziggurism
    Commented Jan 15, 2018 at 15:54

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