Why do we need moderators if we have so many admins? I'm all for moderators, but give the moderators purpose. Here is the way I would do this.
Targets:
1. The voters will choose policies not a person
2. The moderator will favour the people and hence be able to lead
Preparation: 1 single TRUSTED person is selected to manage this process, someone who is highly respected in such a way that there will be very little doubts of any corruption. Possibly not an admin, possibly not a very active person. Preferably a popular one.
*cough*Dan*cough* : Lets call this person the Prompter.
Another person preferably one with admin power will control the process. Lets call this person the Controller.
Phase 1: Criteria
The public comes up with moderator criteria.
Examples of criteria: Policy on SPAMMING, Policy on transparancy, Policy on the noble cause, Policy on etc.
Basically pick the things which the forum has been debating for SO LONG and list them. Preferably user-admin conflicts.
Around of 20 criteria/issues are selected.
Phase 2: Prospective admins will contact the Prompter with their Manifesto (consisting on opinion/amendments on each issue).
The Prompter posts polls for each issue having amendments as options of the poll.
So 20 issues = 20 polls
20 candidates = 20 amendments per poll.
no reference towards who submitted which amendment is made.
NB: Preferably, amendments are not posted in order of candidate.
Phase 3: Controller closes all polls as they are posted. And opens a certain amount of polls per week over say - 3 weeks.
Phase 4: When all polls have been voted on, the prompter will mail the controller with all the manifestos. The controller will then calculate which manifesto got most votes (taking each issue into consideration) and select a moderator.
Note this system will not only select a moderator but also a leader.
Other limitations: Put a post count limit on the poll voting (60 posts is fine)
Didn't understand? here is an example
Criteria chosen: User conflict, Spamming.
Joe, Angela and Maria want to be admins.
Joe thinks that users should be seperated by the ignore function if they argue alot. He also thinks that spammers must die.
Angela thinks that any users who argue alot should be banned. She loves spammers and thinks no action should be taken against them.
Maria doesn't mind user conflict and would 'let it be', she thinks a post limit should be implemented amongst spammers.
Joe, Angela, Maria give their manifestos to the Prompter.
The Prompter creates a poll for User conflict and a poll about Spammers, with each of their opinions in each respective poll.
The controller controls the voting - opening one poll for one week, and the other poll another week.
The prompter mails the controller with the manifestos AFTER voting is done.
The controller does the counting and releases the results.