Mods is mods because they’s mods.
Bad vanity, bad vanity; go sit in the corner.
Yep... Totally concur with you on this. I'm administrator on another forum (non-political, non-news) and regular members generally have no idea on the private chatter relating to problem members on what to do or to get second opinions on actions they took so they can be reversed or handled differently in the future. It ain't easy.
One thing though I picked up from other posts though is that some or all local boards do not have an abuse button or formal moderating? If this is accurate then it represents a hole in the armor against problem people and spammers. I have my forum set up with a designated mod on every board with a backup mod on most plus a very small number of super mods that have global authorization.
“Bad vanity, bad vanity; go sit in the corner.”
Now now now! This vanity has brought to issue some problems here on FR. I for one had no idea there were “Perrybots” on the site. Then again what forum does not have its mindless “bots”?