- Spartan TKIA
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- Exalted Mythic Member
Posted by: Achronos
Just as Bungie employees are never not seen as "speaking for Bungie", moderators are always "speaking as moderators". In both cases, even when they aren't speaking for anyone but themselves, they are viewed as being "official".
If they were allowed to turn off their color, it would be easier for them to go under the radar, yes. But that also means it would be easier for them to forget that everyone knows they are moderators, and forget that they have to hold themselves to the standard that implies. The same goes with Bungie employees - if they post on Bungie.net, I give them gold text, not because they necessarily want to have a big target painted on them, but because they need it to remember that people know they are employees and anything they say will be treated as an official press release.
This is non-negotiable. It is for both our protection, their protection, and your protection. You're not going to convince me that it is a bad idea. There are lots of cases where a person who could be considered a representative of an organization posts something they think is anonymous or off the record only to have it come back to them in a bad way. The colors and titles DIRECTLY prevent that kind of thing from happening - it isn't arbitrary, it was very deliberately done and has nothing to do with some ambigious worry about elitism - which I still think many people on these forums are way too paranoid about and are generally acting like luddites about new features because of that paranoia.
Although that was 3 years ago, it seems to remain a perfectly valid argument. Moderators posts are seen by some to be representing Bungie, and the orange text reminds them that their posts do matter, as well as reminding members that they are moderators.
I also disagree that the text causes derailing. I haven't noticed that many threads being derailed because of moderators recently, and even if a thread is derailed, it is not necessarily caused by the coloured text. Few people (I hope) think, "They have coloured text, so I must therefore quote them multiple times." At the very least, I would have thought they would do that because they realize the member is a moderator, not because of their text, and even without a coloured bar or a title, moderators will still be recognized by other members.