AoPS Wiki:AoPS forums

Types of Members

There are four types of members on the Art of Problem Solving-MathLinks forums.

1. Regular member
2. Moderator
3. Administrator
4. Bot

Regular Member

A regular member has the basic abilities on the forum (posting, viewing other posts, editing their own posts if the thread isn't locked) but can't promote or demote users; lock, unlock, or post in locked threads; delete threads; make threads announcements; or delete/edit posts by anyone. Their usernames are in black.

Moderator

The moderator of a certain forum has the ability to edit or delete any post in that forum. Additionally, the moderator can split posts from a topic, merge posts from one topic into another, move an entire thread to a different forum and lock/unlock any topic. Finally, the moderator can make topics become stickies or announcements (and vice versa). Their usernames are in green. Hovering over usernames also tells you if that user is a mod or not.

Becoming a Moderator

The selection of moderators is done by the administrators. There is no set process. New moderators will be chosen only when there is a need for them such as when a new forum is built, other moderators step down, or a forum begins to require additional supervision.

The process of choosing moderators is not democratic. There is no election. The administrators choose moderators based on their trust and confidence in a member. Being a good, productive member is the best way for one to improve their likelihood of becoming a moderator.

Please feel free to ask to be a moderator.

Forum Administrator

These are administrators in a forum. Forum starters will automatically be an administrator, and administrators can choose to promote users to a moderator, or another administrator. They can also demote users if necessary.

Not to be confused with Site Administrator

Site Administrator

The full-time members of the Art of Problem Solving staff are site administrators. Administrators basically have unlimited power and complete jurisdiction. Their usernames are in blue, with a X next to their name.

Bot

The bots are screen names created by search engines that crawl around the website collecting data so that the Art of Problem Solving-MathLinks sites will show up in the search results of their engine.

Examples of bots are AskJeeves, GigaBlast, Yahoo! Slurp, Gamebot, GoogleBot, and MSNBot

See the AoPS-Mathlinks Rules and Tips page.

Explanation of icons

There are various icons in the AOPS Forums.

a - Global Announcement. This topic appears in all forums.

Y - Upvote. This function is a "like". This button is on the right side of a post.

i - Forum Announcment. This topic is an announcement for a forum.

k - Locked. This thread is locked, and only Mods or Admins can still post.

h - Unread post(s). This indicates the post(s) you haven't read yet.