Although most weight in this thread will be rightly given to posts/views/rants by admins, mods, ex-mods, ex-engineers (Happy Birthday

), and other 1337 members, I thought I'd throw in my 2 rusty cents all the same.
I haven't been here as long as some, but long enough to see the changes. Whatever ancillary benefits these changes were meant to bring about, the results have been a failing grade. The change was so obvious too, like a line drawn in the sand. One day there were quality, helpful posts, the next day the board turned into spam central. The worst part was that a good portion of these "new and improved" posts were being started by mods. I've never seen mods start so many threads in my life, on any forum on the web.
I must have learnt the internet backasswards, but I had always thought that a moderator's primary responsibility was to
moderate posts. In a community as large as BL, a mod should not have the time to start as many threads as has been happening (quota driven). Forums are created to satisfy an increased member-, not mod, generated interest in a new subject matter. If interest in an existing subject matter drops off and post activity in that forum ceases for an extended duration, then it should not fall on the moderator(s) of that forum to keep it alive, it should fall on the admin crew to review the focus of that forum, maybe change its spectrum or title based on member post subject matter. The public decides what they want to talk about, not the moderators, not the admins. The moderators are there to keep the conversations to their appropriate rooms/forums and the admins are there to ensure there are enough rooms and that all rooms are working properly.
Assigning posting quotas to moderators has never worked. Every single forum that I know of where this has been tried has either failed, or has been overhauled (read: overtaken). Bluelight is, without a doubt, at the same crossroads. Most people have thusfar looked on this situation in a political light, speaking of such concepts as democracy. I see this as more of an employer-employee relationship. The regional managers and the supervisors are all running around, trying to act busy, all in a futile effort to satisfy the whims of the CEO. Those who do not pretend well enough to be busy enough are fired. The anxiety and discontent transfers all the way down the ranks. Before you know it, the company has hardly any happy employees left, no one smiles any more, and it shows by the declining customer base. The employees stay only long enough to finance their search for another job or to start a company of their own. I am sure it is much easier to leave
this job (as BL mod), since there isn't a paycheque you are cutting yourself off from. It is, I am sure, just as degrading to get fired.
I am not a prize. In fact, I can be and, on many occasions, have been a downright asshole. This isn't exactly BlueChristianLight.nu, so hopefully all is quickly forgiven. I have met many wonderful people in this community, some only online, some in person (too bad I couldn't make Psycle last weekend, got stuck in Wales

), all have been amazingly interesting. It is these interesting people who make the board what it is. Bluelight has been and will continue to be the premium drug awareness communitie on the web. It has also become one of the better discussion boards online. That is in no small part due to the excellent work of some great moderators, many of whom are no longer moderators. I was both surprised and saddened to see some of them go, they brought so much to their respective forums. Some of them are voicing their opinions here and I am happy to see that. In my experience, mods have far more direct contact with a message board's member base than admins do. It would be fair to say then that mods have a more direct influence on the mood of the general population than admins do. If we take the average tone of the posts in this thread, it would be safe to conclude that they are extremely dissatisfied with their chief admin's running of the community, be it his people skills or his general administrative (not technical) abilities. That being the case, why not take this to the staff room, as previously suggested, and hold an untainted vote. Bottom line is - a fun to visit community is a happily run community. Bottom line - there are several very serious issues that need to be resloved here, posting quotas are the last of anyone's worries. Bottom line - if the chief financier of the community has to come forward and reason (almost plead) with the current chief admin in public to wake up and smell the coffee, ladies and gentlemen - we have a problem.
I think I've laid down enough random text. I'll go catch a nap now before my flight back home. I sincerely hope everyone comes to an amicable agreement of sorts, behind staff room curtains. I know that Bluelight will survive, regardless. I just hope it returns to being a fun place to visit. There are plenty of Lounges out there on the web, there's only one Bluelight... for now. Let's keep it that way.
Cheers