It could be argued that when a forum chooses to emphasis on intellectual discussion, or any specific topic, user freedom of communication is restricted by users with the authority to do so-- on the pretext that it's for the good of everyone. It could also be argued that individuals in positions of power are statistically found to have much more influence over the group as a whole-- which can result in group think, and a lack of variety of personalities and points of views within the forum.
It's for these reasons it is to the advantage of the forum as a whole to minimize situations where there is a requirement to have authority to maintain the function of the forum. By doing so, the power of influence between users is equalized, the social hierarchy within the forum becomes fluid and natural-- instead of being static (admins on top, then mods, then users).
One might think that social hierarchy plays no roll in an online forum, but actually, the opposite is true. Humans are social creatures above all. We define ourselves based on how we perceive others to perceive ourselves. We all crave to feel important. For this reason, when an administrator appoints a user higher in the hierarchy (to mod for example), the natural fluidity of the social hierarchy is lost, and it becomes static. Users will now forever have a positive bias toward the new authority figure. (this doesn't always imply in a net positive social perception, if your hated, your just hated less).
Such static social structures can begin dull. Forums become repetitive narcissist supply feeders to the moderators who rule over them, and moderators routinely seek out ways to demonstrate and justify their position. They define, and sometimes even add rules, and hope for praise when they enforce them. Dissenters who speak out about a mod's definition of a rule are not often treated favorably by fellow users, mods, or administrators, and can even find themselves feeling left out from discussions.
Such authoritarian moderation is fine for message boards dedicated to an extremely specific topic, or a very exclusive group, but is over-kill for web forums such as SC, where the topics themselves are often worthless and confusing to an outside viewer, full of inside jokes, and references to things only users within the group know. Unfortunately, modern web forum administrators enjoy the benefits of assigning volunteer moderators who not only keep their forum clean, but are thankful to be given the opportunity. This results in a lack of demand for an alternative solution to moderation, and as a result, we find that the majority of forums are ran on the traditional static structure.
By allowing topic creators to moderate their own threads, they gain a unique ability not found on other forums. The ability to control the over all seriousness level of the thread. A great example of situations where this could be great-- is this thread I am making right now. I'd like this to be an intellectual discussion about how to best go about making this feature, but as a normal user, I would have no way of ensuring that happens. Anyone can derail it unless a moderator is appointed, and then begins to define what is on and off topic, and enforce that definition. On the contrary, if thread creators had the ability to moderate their own threads, I could keep this thread on topic, and the trolls who create threads? They can even have more fun trolling the users who respond?
So that leads to the next big question. What power should a topic creator have in specific? The ability to ban specific users from threads perhaps, and the ability to hide posts. (other users can un-hide them if they want to read) There will need to be transparency. If users are banned from a thread, their might be a list users can click to see who are banned, and even an opportunity to list why. If spam is deleted, it cannot be simply deleted, perhaps it should rather be hidden in such a way as to not take away from the thread itself.
So if you guys have any advice, or ideas, I'd be happy to hear them. I think this will be a fun upcoming feature to work on, and it could have a profound change on the current level of quality of threads within SC. Thanks for reading! 