Come on DTG it's about time you started investing a bit of faith in a few long term respected and trusted community members. There isn't a forum on the internet that doesn't require some form of gentle forum mediation from time to time and preferably with potential 24hr coverage by utilising members from different continents. SCS Software have had volunteer community moderators since its inception in 2012 and with absolutely no adverse effects in that decade (I should know I was a moderator there for many years until I stepped back due to time constraints). Forum threads can turn into a clownfest in seconds and if we're waiting for them to be defused 6hrs to 8hrs later once an actual DTG Staff member has logged in then it's often got way out of hand already, just look at the recent spate of spambots and thread derailments as a recent example. I understand giving forum permissions is a big thing and a huge trust leap but for the sake of YOUR community it's something that you really need to start thinking about. Software and coding solutions can only do so much, community forums need human assistance and guidance.
nah.... giving forum members admin powers just results in them banning all the people they don't like. Terrible idea. The people who want that position are usually just petty, small people who crave some kind of power within the community. I mean, who has time for that anyway? You really want an adult, who has so much free time on their hands to have that kind of power?
Never realised you were so new and naive to internet forums mate, or perhaps you just frequent the wrong ones, as has been proven for nigh on a decade on the scs official forum it can and does work. And just to note none of the moderators there were ever petty small people that craved power and nor was anyone ever banned without due process and discussion with the rest of the moderation team and on occasion when needed an scs staff member. I'm speaking from years of actual experience, if you feel your one man surmisations surpasses that experience and first hand knowledge then please do continue to discuss..
I think better moderation, whether staff or community, is a good idea. I've seen community moderation work well elsewhere, but I'm not convinced that the community here is large enough to support it. You'll need a team of moderators, not just two, and they need to be people that don't express strong one-sided opinions (enforcement of rules excepted), otherwise they get tainted with favouritism and the community dies. That needs quite a large group of users to throw up a sufficient number of suitable volunteers.
