Being the poster most recently responsible for this thread's inception, I would like to point out that although moderation is indeed necessary, it should not be so at the mercy of preventing posters from as instant an access to the Forum as possible by the inclusion of moderator approval for each and every response to every post or thread. Once a poster has achieved membership status and until such time he or she forfeits that status, there should be as much freedom as needed to make the Forum as expedient as it can be by allowing any and all users to chime in at will. After all the word Forum means just that : A meeting or medium where ideas and views on a particular issue can be exchanged.
As a moderator myself on pro audio Forums I do not see the need for this extra step as all of the other moderator's responsibilities, already listed by Fredrik S, address much of the "noise and quality aspects of what this and other pro Forums should be......if a moderator needs to approve a post or reply then he or she can answer it directly! and there will be no need for a Forum ! it just doesn't make sense. This also makes the possibility of active live discussions nearly ipossible If indeed the questions are too banal or basic, do as other forums do and move things to the "basement" sort of speak or general area of a forum or divide it in different levels from beginners to expert.
If much of the posts should be addressed to Dataton sales, support or marketing then by all means forward this to the appropriate department and acknowledge that you did moderate that way, but to claim that only "professional colleague's" posts should be on the Forum than you might as well call this a club , a very exclusive one at that.....to be a professional is also to teach, that is how one becomes known as a pro.
Moderation =YES
Approval, past the acceptance as a forum member = NO
In closing I would like to thank Fredrik S for his very professional handling and mature reply to my original comments to the moderators.
Thanks
RayS