How do I moderate?

First, read What is moderation? for an introduction to moderation.

The power to moderate is available only to monks who have attained Friar.

There are two ways to moderate:

1. If you go to a particular section, any unapproved nodes will be listed below the nodes which have already been approved for that section (presuming you have enabled listing of unapproved nodes via your User Settings). Each unapproved node will have a pair of checkboxes by it — one for approving the node ("ok"), and one for front-paging the node ("frontpage"). Check one and click the "Moderate" button.*
   
   
2. When you go to the page of an unapproved root node, the Approval nodelet will be displayed in your nodelet bar (presuming you have enabled it via your Nodelet Settings). To moderate the node, check one or both of the "Approve" and "FrontPage" checkboxes and submit.* But first, make sure it has been posted to the correct section. (Note that you have to have turned on the Approval nodelet in your user preferences.)

* Note that since a node must be approved into its section for it be available on the Front Page, selecting only the "front page" option automatically implies approving the node into the section as well.

Using either of the above methods, a node can be approved by one monk and then later front-paged by another monk (or the same one). It is good practice to front-page only nodes which are well written and well formatted, will not take up too much space on the front page, and contain information relevant to the Front Page audience — namely, visitors and newbies. Whenever a moderatable node is displayed, the names of the monks who performed the moderation(s) of that node, if any, will be displayed in the approval nodelet. Note that it is not possible to approve or front-page your own nodes.

Moving a Node to another Section

If a node has not yet been approved, a moderator can change which section it's in. This allows you to deal with the problem of inexperienced users posting questions in the wrong section (or indeed move any content inappropriate for the section it was posted to).
Once a node has been approved, it cannot be moved unless and until it gets unapproved, and only janitors can do that.

Moving and approving a node cannot be done in the same transaction. In fact, if you want to do both to a given node, it is critical that you reload the page in between the move and the approve.
You must follow this sequence very carefully:

1. Move the node (change its assigned section, and submit).
2. Reload the page.
3. Approve the node.

Front-Paging a Node

There has been a lot of debate on the site about when to front-page nodes and what the appropriate criteria should be. Opinions range from front-paging only nodes with a reputation above $NORM (the average node reputation over the last week) to front-paging everything that is approved if its length is appropriate (or has been edited to include a <READMORE> tag). Many monks agree that the front page is what most new visitors to the site see first, so it is therefore important that the nodes on that page convey a good impression and show what PerlMonks is all about. For many monks that means interesting questions, for others it is good discussions, and for others it is something else entirely.

Think about it — What nodes should/should not be FrontPaged?

What if I make a mistake?

Well, as with most other kinds of mistakes Monks make, you can ask a janitor to fix it for you. Janitors do have the power to unapprove or un-front-page nodes. See How does editing work? for more info.