Question Rank changed, but how?

I'm investigating an incident on our forum. One of our moderators¹ lost his rank in the past 48 hours. I went through the Kunena logs, but there is no entry with that user as target for the given time period.

We only have two users which are able to access the Joomla backend and change Kunena settings. My colleague hasn't logged in in the past 48h. I usually do all the administration and my colleague helps out when needed or when I'm away. I didn't change the mod's profile, either.

There is two more possibilities I can think of at the moment.

1. It happened during the update to v5.1.10.1
On 5 March I updated the forum to the latest version. It went through without any errors or warnings and a quick check didn't reveal anything out of the ordinary. However, we setup our own ranks, including Moderator. The only rank still left from the installation is the Administrator rank. Initially, we didn't want to use ranks, but later we decided to make use of it to scratch an itch, so to speak.

So, is there some script running during or triggered by the update, that could possibly have made a change?

2. Rank can be changed in the frontend somehow
Is there a way of changing ranks from the frontend, that I'm not aware of? That's the only other thing I could think of. Of course, there's also the possibility of a hack, but the system logs give no indication so far.

¹I just checked another mod's settings who's profile was almost identical. He also lost his rank. In addition, I'm seeing a user that does have the rank Moderator, but I never gave it to him. It's all very weird and it worries me quite a bit.

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In addition, I'm seeing a user that does have the rank Moderator, but I never gave it to him.

Please disregard the mystery moderator. It could well be a red herring.

The more I think about it, the more I'm convinced that this a bug in the latest Kunena release. Moderator ranks are assigned by some logic in Kunena. I never actively assigned the rank to anyone. I only changed the icon for the moderator rank and changed the moderation settings in the backend user interface. The ranks were assigned automagically. Thus,

I went through the Kunena logs, but there is no entry with that user as target for the given time period.

makes perfect sense. Nobody changed the moderator ranks. They are just no longer automagically assigned as they were before.

If you would like me to run further tests, let me know. I already produced a list of moderators and their assigned ranks, if any, should you be interested.

Which error you mean? I can not reproduce a mistake of this kind,
A Moderator and a rank are two different things.
Choose in the backend Kunena -> Users an user. You see the tabs Moderation and Forum Settings.
If you set on the first tab "Is moderator? = Yes" the user get automatically the rank Moderator and moderate rights either global or only for selected categories.

But if you set the rank on the tab Forum Settings, this is only a rank title without extra rights.

There is no error that I can see. I'm only seeing the results of something that has changed presumably since the update.

A Moderator and a rank are two different things.

Right and wrong at the same time. There is a default rank called Moderator. That's what I'm talking about. It's automagically assigned to users given the role of moderator on the forum. At least that's how it was (or I guess that's how it was).

Best to give an example:

username	moderator	rank_title
mod	1	NULL

That particular user is one of our global moderators. Before the update, the moderator badge, a custom image, I uploaded, for the rank moderator, was displayed below his account. You can see that he's got no rank assigned (NULL). Now, after the update, he's wearing the administrator badge. That's the red dots. I didn't change the image for that rank.

So, without us changing anything on the given user's settings, profile etc. his appearance changed. The update is the only change applied to the forum that could have such an effect, I guess.

Maybe the question boils down to: what is the magic that is applied for the moderator rank, or any other of the special ranks for that matter, to show in the frontend without assigning it explicitly in the backend. Also, somehow related, what takes precedence? A special, automagically assigned rank or an explicitly assigned rank (set in the backend)?

On our forum, we distinguish between paying members of our club and non-paying forum users. Members have access to special members-only boards. In order to help distinguish members from non-members visually, every member gets a special badge. We realize that by explicitly assigning them the custom special rank member. Any member could become a moderator on the forum, globally or for selected boards. So, once I elevate a users permission to moderator, should the associated rank automagically be displayed or do I have to change it in the backend?

Quite a question for something I could easily try out myself, I know. I'm just trying to better understand the applied logic. Without knowing what the intended behavior is, it's hard to tell misbehavior.

Here a list of automatic ranks.
Registered - Author - Publisher - Editor - Manager | Kunena rank is Member (Rank Image changes by number of posts)
Admin - Super User | Kunena Rank is Admin
Category Moderator | Rank is Moderator only in the assigned categories (in other categories he is Member)
Global Moderator | Rank is Moderator

Exceptions:
If you set Admins and Super User as Moderator - The rank remain Admin

Special Ranks (tab Forum Settings)
If you choose here a special rank title for an user (example Spammer), this changes only the rank image but not the rights. With this option you can also change the rank image for admins or mods.
docs.kunena.org/en/manual/backend/ranks/add-rank

Thank you very much for the overview. I would say there's a bug in the latest version then. The user in question is a normal user¹ in Joomla. In Kunena he's a Global Moderator. So, his rank image should be that of a Moderator:

Global Moderator | Rank is Moderator

Unless, there's something else that needs to be taken into consideration. Does Kunena look at all at access levels? I'm asking, because your answer triggered something in my memory. I recently² tried to configure Joomla such that Global Moderators can access the Kunena configuration logging in to the backend without them getting access to other settings than Kunena. That's a desire, because not everything can be configured from the frontend, e.g. boards.

I did not succeed, so far. But I did change some access levels for the Joomla group our Global Moderators are member of:

Kunena Forum | Access Administration Interface | Allowed
Global Configuration | Administrator Login | Allowed

Members of that Joomla group can now login to the backend, but the Components menu is not available for them. The same approach did work for a different component we are using on our website.

¹not in the Super Users group nor being granter the Super User ACL
²before, but possibly on the same day, I installed the update