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First published by Ed Price - MSFT (aMicrosof)
When: 11 Apr 2012 10:01 PM
Last revision by Ed Price - MSFT (aMicrosof)
When: 14 Aug 2012 12:38 PM
Revisions: 26
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The Different Roles in MSDN and TechNet Forums

This article is part of the Wiki series:

Owner
Administrator
Moderator
Answerer
See Also
Other Languages

There are several different roles in MSDN and TechNet forums...

Owner

This is usually only a few people. The owner assigns roles to other users and typically has final responsibility for the forum. This is always a Microsoft employee and is often a community lead of the forum's technology.

Administrator

This is usually a few more people. They also have high-level responsibility for the forums. This role is also given to some Microsoft employees. Most commonly it is given to Microsoft support vendors whose work includes helping moderate the forums.

Moderator

A Moderator is someone who helps do the following activities: Marking/Unmarking answers, Merging threads, Deleting threads, Splitting threads, Editing threads, Moving threads, Deleting individual replies, Editing individual replies, and Clearing abuse flags. Moderators should read Moderating Microsoft Forums. Pay special attention to Managing Posts and Threads: Marking Answers. Marking answers is what helps make a collaborative environment.

You can read about How to Become an MSDN or TechNet Forum Moderator.

Answerer

An Answerer is a role where the person focuses on marking and unmarking answers. This is the most important part of all the roles. If no answers are being marked, then far fewer people will want to try to answer questions.

Sometimes an Answerer is called an Editor (in some screens of the Forums). It's the same role.

Answerers should read Managing Posts and Threads: Marking Answers.