A common question we receive on the site is from people wondering what the various members groups are and how they can join them. As a service to our members we have created this post to answer these questions. The Bleeping Computer Member groups and descriptions are:
Admin & Site Admins
The Bleeping Computer Owner, and overall Admin of the site and forums, is Grinler. Grinler, or Lawrence Abrams, manages the operational aspects of Bleeping Computer. Grinler is the highest ranking Staff Member, followed by Site Admins Groovicus, Papakid and Animal. The Admins have the final say when appointing all other staff positions and are involved in approving HijackThis Trainee/Team candidates.
The Admin(s) handle all aspects of the site's day-to-day operations. This includes setting configuration options, managing user accounts, and fixing site problems. The Admin(s) are also responsible for virtually all of the inner workings of the forum software features. The Admins are the final arbiter in any decisions affecting the Bleeping Computer forums operational aspect.
The current list of Admins can be found here.
Global Moderators & Moderators
A Bleeping Computer Global Moderator or Moderator is someone granted special powers by the Admins to enforce the rules of Bleeping Computer Forums. All moderators on all forums can move discussions to different sections of the forum, "close" discussions to prevent users from continuing to discuss them, as well as edit the content of individual postings. Moderators of both levels answer questions (or help people with problems), and "pin" discussions so they remain visible in their forum section even if no new postings are made to them. Global Moderators have a few additional powers above that of regular Moderators, the most important of which is the ability to suspend forum posting privileges of members who violate forum rules.
The current list of Global Moderators can be found here.
The current list of Moderators can be found here.
HijackThis Team Coach
A Bleeping Computer HijackThis Team Coach is a HijackThis team member who has been selected by the Admin(s) to teach the trainees about computer security and how to use HijackThis. The coaches also play a pivotal role in determining how the trainee program evolves. Trainees look to a HijackThis Team Coach for advice and guidance throughout the course. Coaches have moderator capabilities in all HijackThis related forums, including the Study Hall. The Team Coaches have the job of deciding when trainees have sufficiently proven they are "HJT-team" material, and make recommendations to the Admins when such a time has come.
HijackThis Team Member
A Bleeping Computer HijackThis Team Member is a volunteer who has permission to respond to HijackThis logs in the Bleeping Computer HijackThis forum. These members have proven themselves to be highly qualified in the removal of malware and are thus given permission to help people with spyware removal via HijackThis logs. A HijackThis Team Member has moderator abilities in HijackThis related forums allowing them to open, close, or merge topics together. The main ethos of the group is the word "team"; these volunteers will often ask various other team members for help if needed. As staff members, the team often works with the moderators by reporting spam posts or informing of members who have broken the site rules. The HijackThis team members also play a part in the running of the Study Hall, where they are encouraged to answer the questions posted by trainees for example.
Bleeping Computer Advisor
Bleeping Computer Advisors are regular forum contributors who have been nominated by their peers or other members of the staff as a result of their consistently high quality and expert responses to people's questions in the forums; Advisors can be trusted to give correct and understandable answers to our member's questions. Advisors also assist the Moderators with overseeing that the forum is running properly, and smoothly.
HijackThis Trainee
A Bleeping Computer HijackThis Trainee is a member who has volunteered and has been accepted to join the Bleeping Computer Study Hall training program, which involves learning the knowledge and theory behind the analysis of HijackThis logs, with the aim to eventually join the HijackThis Team when Admins and HijackThis Team Coaches feel they have reached a sufficient level of ability. A trainee has no moderator privileges. The trainee program is split up into two groups, the "HJT Trainees" and the "HJT Senior Classman". While the distinction is very fine, a HJT Senior Classman has proven he or she is dedicated to the task at hand, and has shown promising signs of progressing through the trainee program. Again, all trainees work in a community, with the aim of helping each other in their goal to join the HijackThis team.
Member
A Bleeping Computer Member is someone who registers and validates their membership and utilizes the site to their advantage. Some members are active participants while others are not as active; but all members are valued for whatever they bring to the forum/site and community at large. It is not a requirement of membership to be active on the forums.
Banned Member
A Bleeping Computer Banned member is someone who has violated the terms of use of Bleeping Computer in such manner that it is deemed necessary for the protection of the site and the membership to ban the member. Being banned removes the ability to view or post or interact with Bleeping Computer in any manner.
Deactivated Member
A deactivated member is one who has asked to have their account deactivated. When this occurs we place the user in this group, change their password to a random one, and remove all topic or forum subscriptions. In the future if they would like to reactivate their account they can notify us.