# Topic owner = topic moderator **URL:** \ **Category:** Feature\ **Created:** [February 28, 2020, 4:21pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/topic-owner-topic-moderator/142896 "2020-02-28T16:21:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 18
**Author:** ![Remah](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/remah/32/70590_2.png) [@Remah](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Remah)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2020, 1:16am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/topic-owner-topic-moderator/142896/18 "2020-02-29T01:16:05Z")
I think that this topic starts badly with a problem of terms based on two incorrect assumptions. That’s why the two sides can’t understand each other. Their assumptions are different. The title and first post in this topic asserts that the: - The topic originator (who is by convention the OP = original poster) owns the topic. - A moderator can have a scope as small as their own topic, i.e. the topic post. The short answer is that both assumptions require us to ignore actual legal rights and dictionary meaning: - There is no legal right for the topic originator (who is by convention the OP = original poster) to own a topic in this forum. However, there are legal rights to the content in that post. - The commonly accepted and dictionary meaning of the word moderator do not allow a scope that only includes the moderator’s content. In other words, a moderator is commonly a third party appointed to an office. Read on for a longer explanation. ## Owner The issue of who owns what is easily determined because ownership is primarily about legal rights. - Ownership of the topic content - an important distinction from the topic itself - is decided by legal interpretation e.g. [forum T&Cs](https://meta.discourse.org/tos); and statutes of copyright and hate speech. - The [forum owner decides who owns which topics](https://meta.discourse.org/t/topic-owner-topic-moderator/142896/8). - An OP only has ownership of their content and do not own the topic, post or reply which is the container for their content. - Creating the first post in a topic gives no ownership rights to any other posts. Legal rights generally trump moral rights so it’s not worth the effort to address arguments about the moral right of the OP to own the topic. ## Moderator [https://www.lexico.com/definition/moderator](https://www.lexico.com/definition/moderator) A moderator (as a person and not a chemical substance) has two specific attributes: - A function: to arbitrate or mediate between two other parties. - An office: appointed to a position of authority or service. The original proposition fulfils neither meaning: - A member cannot normally be a moderator for themselves. The one exception would be a supreme being who has no higher authority in their arena. Universally, that person would be God; in this forum, that person would be codinghorror. - A moderator should be appointed to the office. Where all members are moderators then effectively there is no distinct office of moderator that signals a difference in authority. So we shouldn’t use that term in this case. By the way, I use member rather than user because some users are irrelevant to this discussion e.g. AFAIK anonymous users who can’t create topics and staged users who can’t amend topics. We can prepend an adjective as a qualifier to denote the level of authority e.g. the aforementioned [category group moderator](https://meta.discourse.org/t/topic-owner-topic-moderator/142896/2). But this shouldn’t be used for the proposed topic-level authority that is available to all members and where members are not appointed to the role. Someone will probably say, but if I [moderate](https://www.lexico.com/definition/moderate) my contribution then I should be able to use the term moderator. The problem with this approach is that use of the noun _moderator_ is not normally determined by the use of the term _moderate_ in its verb (to make less extreme) or adjective (less extreme, more average) forms. If I have moderate views or if I moderate my extreme views then I become a _moderate_ not a moderator. Instead a moderator essentially uses verbs like arbitrate and mediate and does not rely on the use of the verb moderate except with the specific meaning to [monitor an Internet forum or online discussion](https://www.lexico.com/definition/moderate). Someone might argued that we could use that specific meaning to apply the term moderator to anyone who monitors their own discussion. Except that we run into the same issues again. A monitor is also associated with an office - in other words, in an official capacity - and this is almost certainly the intended scope of monitoring in relation to moderating in a forum. --- _[View the full topic](https://meta.discourse.org/t/topic-owner-topic-moderator/142896)._