Dlukin makes some valid points,
The internet and the web sites that populate it contrary to popular misconception are NOT a democracy, when one enters a site you are on their turf and have to abide by their rules, freedom of choice stops at the door.
Website TOS are a particular bain of my life, particulary the phrase "we reserve the right to change the rules without warning" it's so open to abuse by unscrupulous webmasters it beggers belief, Facebook being a classic example of this practice.
Yes, Mods are human and it is not uncommon to find one or more has had a bad day at work before coming online to a stack of abuse tickets eg: "he called me fat, I want him banned" sooner or later somebody does cop it from a Mod near breaking point. How site owners choose to run and train their moderators varies considerably, some really are thrown in at the deep end with no concept of just how difficult it actually can be to remain objective and impartial under difficult circumstances.
Imagine having to deal with legitamate problem being experienced by a member on site, when that individual had spent most of the previous week emailing graphic death threats detailing how they were going to harm you and your family for closing thier multiple bogus accounts.
Some I will admit though are Mods purely for the Kudos power trip, thankfully they are fairly easy to spot and as such normally weeded out during selection and training process. Of course not all web site owners have that luxury, they need a Mod(s) because they cannot do it all themselves and they need somebody now or the site will go completely to pot.
Are Mods 'Angels', One Percent may be
lol, and to answer your question yes, I have modded several boards over the years from kindergarten scrabble clubs to those of a more
cough adult nature. Nowdays I mainly help with training Mods, simple stuff like how to get a chat room under control without IP banning anybody and basically educating some in the finer points of foriegn cultures and offensive colloquial dialects. Until you actually see a Philapino try telling a joke to a Canadian you will never quite grasp how toe curling an experience it can be.