Mod to Member ratio... (Current Discussion: Forum Specific Images)

[Angel Blossom]

Some of you guys are making it sound as if the administrators use moderator promotions as a tool to keep the better members from leaving (I'm looking at you, mr_pikachu). That may or may not be true, but I'm inclined to believe it is, at least in part. You'll find that on many smaller free forums people usually mass promote their friends to moderator positions. Why? As an incentive to remain active and participate. That's why I believe there are so many moderators here; it has nothing to do with "needing" 20-30 mods as TPM can easily survive with 3-4 active super moderators and 1-2 administrators.

I think the real question to ask is why people here have such a bizarre emotional attachment to their 'coveted' moderator positions on a forum devoid of much activity. If the moderators here truly care about this place, they won't care if they're demodded. Sure, they might be slightly annoyed at first, but if you explain the circumstances to them then I'm sure they'd understand. They'll simply continue to participate in the everyday discussions here if all goes well. However, if the moderators do care that they're demodded, then clearly they consider their moderator position more important than anything else on this forum. If they end up leaving over it, they probably didn't care much about this place or its community to begin with.

So, if it were up to me, I'd start by culling the moderator numbers down and then promote a select few to super moderator status, which won't compromise on efficiency. This'll prove who are committed to this place and who are simply remaining here because of power lust. But I can almost envisage that most people here will find some reason to oppose this, so I simply suggest not promoting anybody else from now on. You really need to find another way to keep the regular members participating in discussions instead of heavily relying on temptation; this is why introducing rules that limits discussion, especially at this point in time, is asinine. Even at this very moment, nobody can make a legitimate, lawful comment in the picture thread unless they post a picture because that rule is currently in effect. Those five comments fill up very fast.

Before you know it, you'll have even more moderators in your ranks when you don't necessarily "need" them.