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    If, and I think it is a big IF, "Many mods have secondary accounts to make things on the site without compromising or over-using his diamond." then I (as a mod on two sites - one small, one medium) think that they will be pursuing an unwise path. As mods we have a diamond attached to everything we do and once we are doing any/much of that through a sock puppet I think it would seriously undermine our credibility for fair and transparent moderation practices. I agree that the mod described in the question is more likely to be caring rather than aggressive.
    – PolyGeo
    Commented Oct 3, 2016 at 23:04
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    "Many mods have secondary accounts" [citation needed]
    – Michał Perłakowski
    Commented Oct 3, 2016 at 23:07
  • @Gothdo I made the text more accurate, I can only hope it is already acceptable :-)
    – peterh
    Commented Oct 3, 2016 at 23:08
  • @PolyGeo It seems it is not easy to formulate anything to be not considered harmful by anybody :-) How about the current version?
    – peterh
    Commented Oct 3, 2016 at 23:12
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    The only time that I think it is acceptable for a mod to use a sock is to test a function from the perspective of a new user. Personally, I have never found the need to do even that. A mod using a sock to "masquerade" as a normal user at arm's length from actions taken using mod powers is not moderating in what I believe to be the spirit and philosophy of SE moderation.
    – PolyGeo
    Commented Oct 3, 2016 at 23:27
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    @PolyGeo Ok, but isn't it annoying that you can't do anything without having the diamond behind your name? You can't vote as a simple user without overriding the votes of many others. You can choose to not vote. You can choose to not comment. You can choose to not doing anything. But how could it be enjoyable? It is imho quite normal to have a secondary account for this things. And mods tends to be surprisingly inactive in normal user things, I think it is obvious that they are using normal accounts for the ordinary user functions.
    – peterh
    Commented Oct 3, 2016 at 23:32
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    @peterh "You can't vote as a simple user without overriding the votes of many others." What do you mean? When a moderator votes on a post, it doesn't change the votes of the others.
    – Michał Perłakowski
    Commented Oct 3, 2016 at 23:34
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    @Gothdo Up/Downvotes don't, any other mod vote is binding. Thus, if he votes for close/reopen/del/undel, he overrides the votes of many others with it, what can be their goal only in exceptional cases. The result is what is very visible checking the activity history of any mod: they aren't very active as ordinary users. What is quite reasonable, considering, for example, the question below that we are commenting.
    – peterh
    Commented Oct 3, 2016 at 23:37
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    @peterh If a moderator is sure that a post should be closed/reopened/deleted/undeleted, they can do it unilaterally (i.e. with a single vote). If they are not sure, they just don't vote and leave the decision to other users.
    – Michał Perłakowski
    Commented Oct 3, 2016 at 23:41
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    You may "think it is obvious that they are using normal accounts for the ordinary user functions" but I have never suspected that any of my fellow mods are doing so, and if I did I would call them out on it in the relevant mod chat room. I think the reason some mods become less active in non-mod tasks is that they are volunteering their time and have to try and fit both into their "budget".
    – PolyGeo
    Commented Oct 3, 2016 at 23:49
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    In response to you asking "how could it be enjoyable?", I would say in the same way that any job or volunteer work can be, which is by taking pride in doing a good job in what, at times, can be challenging circumstances.
    – PolyGeo
    Commented Oct 3, 2016 at 23:52
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    I'm not sure what you are asking with "if a mod has also a secondary account, although it is possible on the SE customs, it is considered against the spirit of the SE?" but my understanding is that the use of secondary accounts by anyone is not in the spirit of SE, is explicitly not allowed when used to advantage themselves or another user, and is only tolerated when used for testing purposes. Even for the last category some level of transparency would be expected like naming it "PolyGeo-sock-for-testing-new-user-experience" to make clear who created it and why.
    – PolyGeo
    Commented Oct 4, 2016 at 0:26
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    I'd forgotten about some of the edge cases mentioned there but, all the same, the problem I have with your answer here is the insinuation that moderators are using socks to operate in two modes (normal user and moderator) on SE sites. I don't see any evidence for any moderators using socks to distance themselves from their diamond and would be very disappointed if any were doing so.
    – PolyGeo
    Commented Oct 4, 2016 at 0:36
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    I recommend not assuming the intentions behind downvotes and using that as the basis to comment upon the integrity of anyone exercising their right to downvote here.
    – PolyGeo
    Commented Oct 8, 2016 at 20:27
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    If anyone thinks my answer to the question is not useful then I have no issue with them downvoting it. I downvoted your answer because I thought when read as a whole that it was not useful, and I commented as a courtesy so you would know why I thought it was not useful.
    – PolyGeo
    Commented Oct 8, 2016 at 22:38