Forums → Support Forum → Moderators: balance of power

I checked a few of the pages and didn't see any posts about this topic specifically, hence I'm making a new one. This is a topic that would most likely require some kind of direct review by the forum admins.

As of late, I'm sure everybody has noticed an explosion in the spam. For whatever reason this is, I also know that everybody finds this particularly distressing given the malicious nature of some of the spam.

Moderators, when active, do an excellent job of clearing these posts on the site, but I've noticed a great deal of confusion over "why has this person not been banned yet?" When I'm starting to get confronted with bucketloads of spam from the same users despite repeatedly cleaning the posts and seeing mods clearing the posts and warning errant users etc., I know something's gotta give.

This gives me the following suggestions:

1) I don't know exactly what the balance of powers are. What exactly can the moderators do? What kind of protocols are involved in the banning of a troublesome user and what exactly constitutes grounds for banning? Is it fair to ask for some transparency here, please? Hopefully this will make it much clearer to all the users so there won't need to be so many questions (cluttering the profiles of the mods, especially), as well as there being less confusion about how to interpret various rules.

2) If the moderators themselves cannot already perform some kind of suspension or ban, I suggest at least having the power to independently temporarily suspend an account, effective immediately, pending further review. Seeing that the screening process is so careful, I'm quite sure that the risk of a moderator abusing this power is low, all things considered. As far as I can see, certain users have persisted on the site for several days even after insurmountable evidence that they ought to be banned.

3) I count a few moderators in the US, and a couple in Europe. However I don't see any from the Pacific region, which means that there's quite a large time-gap when both sets are inactive, which means that certain activity goes unmonitored, and furthermore means more cleaning up the next day.

Basically I'm suggesting it's time that AG take on more mods, the mods have increased power, and we somehow are able to know more directly what the mods can do.