Moderation Permission Changes

Intro

Not too long ago, I created a basic issue about the current permissions system in NodeBB and what I would like improved in it. ( #2462 ) Some of it did in fact get implemented, but there's more that desperately needs to be done to turn this into a major player in the forums board industries. Here are my few troubles/wishes for NodeBB's permission system. The ideas I propose would launch NodeBB, in this aspect, far ahead of it's competition (Discourse, Flarum, esoTalk)

Why Change?

As far as permissions for staff on NodeBB go, we currently only get two options:

• Admin: Do everything, everywhere, always, +management panel
• Moderator: Do everything, where specified, always.

In this current system, I'm expected to trust the absolute lowest staff member on my forums with the ability to unstick/stick, delete/undelete, edit, and move ANY TOPIC/COMMENT where they have the moderator permission in that category. This is extremely annoying for me, as I find it hard to give that much power to an untrusted individual. You may say "Why are you giving those permissions to someone who you don't trust?", and my answer to that is: because I need moderators, and I can't take the time to trust each and every moderator on a personal level, and if they decide to do stupid things, the effort it would take to revert their changes is absurdly high.

Proposition

• Assign groups a rank hierarchy index
  • As an example, an admin would have index 0, meaning no one is higher than them
  • One of my moderator groups could have an index of 3, which means index's <3 are higher, and >3 are lower
• Split moderator permissions up into more nodes (heh)
  • Change from "moderate" permission node to splitting it into separate "actions"
    • Delete / Undelete
    • Sticky / Unstick
    • Move topic
    • Edit topic
    • Etc (ban user, mute user from posting for a time, spy in conversations, and more)
  • Each "action" be split up into 3 nodes
    • Can do action to those of higher index
    • Can do action to those of equal index
    • Can do action to those of lower index

The issue names no files, tests, or entry points. Start by reviewing the existing permission system and the related issue #2462, then clarify the proposed group hierarchy and granular moderation actions with maintainers; done would mean an agreed design and implementation covering the required permission levels.