I've seen quite a bit of confusion about the activities of mql5.com Forum Moderators versus Administrators... versus a Service Desk, so I'll try to clear things up here. A Moderator is relegated to editing, censoring, and reorganizing the content of Forum Topics (threads) and Posts. Other than that, Moderators also contribute to Forum discussions in the same way that regular contributors do. Some Moderators are programmers, some Moderators are algorithmic traders, some Moderators are manual traders that don't program, and it's possible that some Moderators don't trade at all.
The overwhelming majority of Moderators are unpaid volunteers. Yes, most of them actually donate their time to supporting traders who use Metaquotes' trading platforms. Most Moderators are simply long-time users of the Forum, and they are not employees of Metaquotes Ltd. As a former volunteer moderator who resigned from a trading forum, I feel like mql5.com Forum Moderators should be compensated.
Administrators are employees of Metaquotes Ltd. Although they contribute in the Forum and might even moderate from time to time, Administrators primarily handle backend tasks like programming platform updates and executive management. While they likely have the knowledge to help users with just about everything, that is not their job.
The Service Desk mainly handles financial (or at least financially adjacent) issues. This includes mql5.com account/registration issues, Market billing/payment issues, and complaints outside the scope of Arbitration mostly from Market Buyers. You will know if you're barking up the wrong tree if the Service Desk bot sends you to the Forum--or otherwise refuses to open a Ticket.
The problem is that Moderators and the Service Desk likely don't have the same level training and therefore, are not always in lockstep. When I was a moderator elsewhere, there was zero training. For example, my cell phone carrier doesn't support international text messaging, so I openly requested that the Service Desk change my registered phone number to a free VOIP number. The Service Desk did so within their quoted timeframe. Then another user had the same problem, so I coached them through switching to a free VOIP number. Soon thereafter, "System" temporarily banned me for 2 weeks.
I basically said to myself, "Whatever. This doesn't affect my trading." I understand that there was no malicious intent--the Moderator simply lacked the knowledge that the Service Desk employees have.
Also, mql5.com Moderators sometimes send direct Messages under the name of "System" to users--which is the same name that automated code validation Messages come from.
It is what it is.
