# Mod permissions and access
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/mod-permissions-and-access/109553
**Category:** Feature
**Created:** [February 19, 2019, 2:42pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/mod-permissions-and-access/109553 "2019-02-19T14:42:19Z")
**Posts on this page:** 7
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Garrick](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Garrick)
#### Post date: [February 19, 2019, 2:42pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/mod-permissions-and-access/109553/1 "2019-02-19T14:42:19Z")
Is there a way to limit what the mods can see on the back end and do? Also to limit what categories someone can mod?
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### Author:  [@Chaboi\_3000](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Chaboi_3000)
#### Post date: [February 20, 2019, 1:02am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/mod-permissions-and-access/109553/2 "2019-02-20T01:02:36Z")
No, there is currently not a way to alter the permissions, as Jeff said in this topic:
> [@Changings permissions for moderator](https://meta.discourse.org/t/changings-permissions-for-moderator/30029/2):
>
> No, we have no plans to support fine-grained permissions models, either you are a moderator, or admin and get the standard permissions for those roles. We do plan to add category level moderators though.
Moderators for a specific category is on the roadmap, but not yet implemented.
> [@Add moderator for specific category or subcategory](https://meta.discourse.org/t/add-moderator-for-specific-category-or-subcategory/35761):
>
> Hello All, I wanna ask about how to make a moderator only for specific category or subcategory. Thanks in advance.
This is what moderators can do vs, admins:
> [@sam](#):
>
> I spent a few hours cleaning this up.
>
> After my current checkin moderators are granted **ALL** of the permissions admins have except for the following:
>
> - Moderators can not change site settings
> - Moderators can not change site contents
> - Moderators can not customize a site
> - Moderators can not view the API key or generate one
> - Moderators can not see the “health check” for the server
> - Moderators can not “force a browser” refresh
> - Moderators can not assign “moderator” status or revoke it.
>
> EVERYTHING else is allowed by moderators, you can read a PM stream of a user, handle flags, view real emails, edit profiles, close/archive and delete topics
>
> Internally we have a bit of a terminology issue I would like us to resolve, when doing permission checks we talk about:
>
> 1. The “admins”
> 2. The group of users that are either “admin” or “moderator”
> 3. The “moderators”
>
> I have no idea what to call group number 2 but I would really like a singular name we can use in code, cause at the moment its kind of crazy that User#moderator? denotes that group.
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### Author:  [@Mittineague](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Mittineague)
#### Post date: [February 20, 2019, 1:08am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/mod-permissions-and-access/109553/3 "2019-02-20T01:08:58Z")
> [@Chaboi\_3000](#):
>
> moderators, you can read a PM stream of a user
Are you sure? Last I knew moderators that are not admins can _not_ access a member’s messages unless they are included in the message.
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### Author:  [@Chaboi\_3000](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Chaboi_3000)
#### Post date: [February 20, 2019, 1:11am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/mod-permissions-and-access/109553/4 "2019-02-20T01:11:16Z")
Yeah, it’s probably outdated. Now moderators also can’t:
- Read people’s PM’s
- Get their email
- Cannot create categories.
@Mittineague is there some that I’m missing here?
Here’s some info about moderator permission changes:
[https://meta.discourse.org/t/permission-changes-moderators-have-less/12522](https://meta.discourse.org/t/permission-changes-moderators-have-less/12522)
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### Author:  [@Mittineague](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Mittineague)
#### Post date: [February 20, 2019, 2:01am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/mod-permissions-and-access/109553/5 "2019-02-20T02:01:51Z")
> [@Chaboi\_3000](#):
>
> some that I’m missing here?
I imagine there are other “can nots”, but one that comes to mind is Moderators can not impersonate other members.
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### Author:  [@Phillip\_Rooney](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Phillip_Rooney)
#### Post date: [July 22, 2019, 12:48am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/mod-permissions-and-access/109553/6 "2019-07-22T00:48:59Z")
I wonder, can moderators create other users as Moderators? Because it seems like only Admins can
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### Author:  [@1101010](https://meta.discourse.org/u/1101010)
#### Post date: [July 22, 2019, 1:34am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/mod-permissions-and-access/109553/7 "2019-07-22T01:34:42Z")
From my recollection that is correct.
But if you make someone a Leader they have a lot of power on the board. They can’t delete posts or ban users but they can hide posts or even move them to the locked board to effectively delete them if they’re too worrying to leave out in the open until a Mod/Admin is online.
Leaders can be very useful as a tool on your forum although in our experience it wasn’t possible to continually highlight their powers so in the end we had to remove them and have more moderators, as users were upset about what they saw as a lack of transparency in how things were being run.
Note the Regulars have the rights to update titles, tags and categories for posts. There is a lot of community control.