I did research it in the WordPress Codex, Google and even the Wikipedia. I am not perfect, so maybe I missed something.
The process of installing the BuddyPress plugin makes the role options for adding a new user change from
“Subscriber, Administrator, Editor, Author, Contributor” to
“Subscriber, Administrator, Editor, Author, Contributor, Key Master, Moderator, Member, Inactive, Blocked”
I currently suspect that the roles are related to bbPress. However, Google says: “Your search – “key master” site:bbpress.org/documentation/ – did not match any documents.”
All of the posts at the Google search for “key master” site:bbpress.org/ seem to be one to two years old, pre-date BuddyPress integration with the regular WordPress vs MU and while they discuss Key Master, nobody says what a “Key Master” does.
The Wikiedia does not offer any help as to what a “Key Master” is. I am sorry that I missed the meeting to learn the secret BuddyPress handshake and learn these things. I am truly trying to be a part of this community Forum. And to the extent people can help me to learn stuff, I promise to give back to the community and help with writing to the codex.
In addition to researching the Forum, Google and the Wikipedia, I also did some empirical testing. We created a new user and when adding a new user and choosing from the list of roles, “Subscriber, Administrator, Editor, Author, Contributor, Key Master, Moderator, Member, Inactive, Blocked” we chose Moderator. That new user now seems to have “Administrator” privileges. After demoting the new user from “Moderator” to “Member” that new user seems to have “Contributor” privileges.
BuddyPress also uses the term “Moderator” inside what I believe is the scope of a single Group Forum. I am guessing that the same word is being used for two very different things, which is not good.
A Usability Note:
When the “add new user” event in the WordPress dashboard offers the person logged in the opportunity to pick only one choice from the list: “Subscriber, Administrator, Editor, Author, Contributor, Key Master, Moderator, Member, Inactive, Blocked” what is implied is that the roles are mutually exclusive, i.e. you are one or the other. The standard WordPress roles hierarchically added more privileges, which made sense. But the new list makes little sense and the interface needs to be changed or at least explained as a workaround, so people will know what to do.
