martinibuster - 5:03 pm on Jul 20, 2012 (gmt 0)

Not going to be easy picking out a decent member to rein in the buttheads if a butthead culture is what you got. What do you want to accomplish? Do you want to turn around the forum etiquette? Or do simply need someone to fight spam? If the latter then tell them it's a hands off policy on editing members, that their only job is to fight spam. Then change their title from moderator to something less authority-like, somewhere between caretaker and janitor.

If you want to reform their netiquette then good luck toilet training them. Many will bolt the forum and even start their own forum, although those rebel-forums often collapse under the weight of their infighting.

I choose my mods according to the quality of community participation they have demonstrated, first and foremost. Their knowledge level is secondary. I have no need for mods who are experts first and so-so members second.