The "rightful powers of a Moderator" are whatever the forum Admins decide they are.
If you use someone's website, that's how it works. When in Rome, do as the Romans do.
You can point out that this lock was inconsistent with previous procedure, certainly... but it's not an abuse of Moderator powers. Not unless the Admins say so (and that would be handled by PM, between the Admin and the Mod, not in the open forum).
the difference is that cc purports itself to be one that listens to the community. there are also few hard and fast rules here, and rules and moderation have changed.
do as the romans do works only in perception of rules. that's the isssue that cc is weak addressing. staff and mods have their own perception of what is admissable.
i also disagree with your analogy of the saying, "when in rome...", it does not work here. this is a global community. the days of conforming are long gone, friend.
yes, tos is spelled out, but it seems to be questioned regularly here. there has never been any steadfast rules. rather, an evolution of what erik views as bad for the site.
I don't have a problem with the analogy, since the comparison isn't that Rome and this site are both regional. Chess.com is a private site, so it does get to make its own rules about its forums. But of course, as I've made clear in previous posts, I strongly disagree with how moderation in this case was applied to that particular thread, and hope that such an approach to moderation does not become a norm here.
You only locked it because he's gay. 
The "rightful powers of a Moderator" are whatever the forum Admins decide they are.
If you use someone's website, that's how it works. When in Rome, do as the Romans do.
You can point out that this lock was inconsistent with previous procedure, certainly... but it's not an abuse of Moderator powers. Not unless the Admins say so (and that would be handled by PM, between the Admin and the Mod, not in the open forum).
the difference is that cc purports itself to be one that listens to the community. there are also few hard and fast rules here, and rules and moderation have changed.
do as the romans do works only in perception of rules. that's the isssue that cc is weak addressing. staff and mods have their own perception of what is admissable.
i also disagree with your analogy of the saying, "when in rome...", it does not work here. this is a global community. the days of conforming are long gone, friend.
yes, tos is spelled out, but it seems to be questioned regularly here. there has never been any steadfast rules. rather, an evolution of what erik views as bad for the site.