Moderation is the easy way to get points. With no limit, all you have to do is moderate until the cows come home.

I see, that's why some people are getting thousands of points in such a short time. Maybe a separation might be feasible as moderations do not directly contribute to Q&A but serves to eliminate clutter in the bags.

Good question, the penny has just dropped! yes most definately, anyone can moderate...and earn 5 points..yes a good idea Pattijo, moderation points should be kept seperate from overall weekly rankings.

I know how important moderations is and I think we could at least have a special star or trophy for the ones who have the most points weekly in moderations - Just separate towards weekly points from the other , might work out nicely. Just a idea / thought

Living in my own little corner of AB as I do, I had no idea. So the more questions we ask and more answers/comments we provide, the more we provide the fodder (as it were) for the moderators...so the creativity of the questions/answers becomes the playground for the moderators. Now I get it...I had no clue. Thanks for bringing it to my attention. I think perhaps my thoughts on the subject may be provided in the foregoing answer. :)

Living in my own little corner of AB as I do, I had no idea. So the more questions we ask and more answers/comments we provide, the more we provide the fodder (as it were) for the moderators...so the creativity of the questions/answers becomes the playground for the moderators. Now I get it...I had no clue. Thanks for bringing it to my attention. I think perhaps my thoughts on the subject may be provided in the foregoing answer. :)

I have no problem with separating them or combining them or even doing away with all the points. I don't mod just for the points. I am obsessed with things in their right place, in their proper category. I actually don't understand why someone never places their questions in the best category possible. They seem to do it on purpose. Some people just don't seem to care where they go. I think it's a more helpful site if things are in their proper place so you can get a better chance at finding good answers to questions you might have about a subject. I think that keeping order with the questions is just as important if not more important than asking questions that bloat the site with "this or that" or things like that. And it doesn't take me 24/7 or near that at all to do it. I can mod while doing other things, including answering questions (I love seeing a question I or others resurrect get going again and get even more points it's next time around). In fact it helped me find good questions this last week when the staff asked us to please go flag and get rid of those bad categories. They wanted us to do it. Sure, it's a one time thing and has blown dozens of members points for the week skyhigh. I'm sorry some think the numbers are too high. I'm sorry I am efficient and can use my early morning hours to mod while looking for questions to answer. If I look through Outside the Bag and I see a questions about how to fix their Ford, I'm not going to answer it but I'm going to flag it. If dog health questions comes up in Entertainment, I'm going to flag it and maybe answer it if I can. How do I do it so quick? I'm on DSL and I use Firefox. I go through half a page and "New Tab" everything I want to answer or look at. Then I go through them all quickly. It works for me. It's like a mental game just for me. I'm not in any competition. Sure, it's nice to do well. But it's more a comp with myself than others. I don't really pay attention to how well others do. I enjoy having more points to give to others. That's one perk I do love and I love being generous with questioners and answers. I do answer a lot of questions and try to think up Qs but that isn't my strong suit. I don't want to ask questions just to ask them and get points as some do. I don't answer Qs just to get points as some do. I do it for my enjoyment and to help others or explore a bit of knowledge. I love when someone asks something and I actually go off site and explore those questions and learn so much that never gets talked about here. I just don't worry about what others are doing. Sure, the General never answers questions and has gotten wherever he is by mods. So what? I didn't learn about till someone mentioned it. What difference does it do to each individual's enjoyment of the site? Do what you love. If you want to have more points or higher level or rank, then do what you want. Have fun at it. If you want to only ask questions and never answer a single one, that's your forte'. Nice. I'm glad you can think up so many questions. And remember that there ARE other types of ranking boards out there already. We already have that kind of recognition. There are ranks for who asks the most questions and who answers the most. Let's add a who mods the most if you want.

I think this week is rather exceptional because the staff put hundreds of existing questions into a new category called Re-categorize Me. In the blog Joel asked people to assign these questions to appropriate categories and a few people have done this. Good work from them and no problem to me.