It's up to the individual volunteer if they want to be identified. Speaking from experience, it is difficult to enjoy the forum the same way when everyone sees you as an authority or even having different abilities than the others.

I personally recommend that those that are anonymous stay that way, though they can do what they want, just as all of you ultimately can.

I also don't think that authority is the proper way to get folks to behave themselves. I believe that a community naturally governs itself with a set of norms. Like a schoolyard, if you're an asshole, you won't have many friends, you won't have much fun, and you won't want to hang out in the schoolyard anymore.

I've been on the net a long time and participated in many many online forums and communities. You have to understand that this place hums along rather smoothly compared to most. It's understandable to always want things better, but please take a moment to notice how good it already is.

Ideally, if we have enough Vols, and the community reacts to abuse in a mature way, no one will have report a problem to a Vol, a Vol will see it because they are participating in the community. These Vols don't moderate for fun, they participate in the community and just happen to have extra abilities because I know them well enough, and their peers know them well enough to handle, discuss and debate issues that arise. You don't have to have authority over a friend to stop them from, say, drunk driving, and I believe that holds true here.

The volunteers we have now were chosen based on several years of personal relationships, and not chosen only on their own merits, but by how they add to the group that is the Vols. I alway try to keep a well rounded group of people who compliment (or counter) the others' personalities and beliefs so that the group ends up a microcosm of all the members of the mudcat. Currently, as we have evolved, we have leaned toward the UK, so we need to lean our Vols to the UK and make an addition to our team.