Quote from: SocialBombshell on August 29, 2012, 11:20 pmI think you should apply to be a mod here pine, your much loved, and very fair and diplomatic, all the good qualities a good mod should have!Anyone agree with me here? :)Absolutely not! Whilst I fully support all that pine has done and is still doing for this community, and no one can deny that we have ALL benefited by his / her presence here, promoting more moderator positions is an incredibly bad idea. I'm sure (or at least I hope) that pine will back me up on this.The more people selected for these positions, the higher the possibility that a member of Law Enforcement will eventually be promoted to one. That is when the forum manipulation will begin, and little noticed censoring may occur. Or perhaps that moderator will go through the motions for a couple of weeks or months and build up a rapport with another member - who just so happens to be one of their colleagues - which will lead to them being recommended for a moderator position themselves, a decision which will most likely be supported by the community at large because "well, they're just such a great person, right?"This is the deepweb. We are all anonymous here. To be frank, NONE of us have ANY idea who anyone else is, nor do we have any idea who may have been tasked with forum manipulation. I could be LE, you could be LE, absolutely any of us could be LE and there is nothing to be gained by burying one's head in the sand and ignoring this very real, very dangerous fact. I'm not a paranoid person, and I have no real reason to be. I never see the bulk orders I place on here; I have no contact with the people receiving them, apart from an anonymous payment system. The only personal drugs I use are alcohol, caffeine, an occasional cycle of ephedrine when I'm working out and the occasional viagra when I want to have a better night than usual. None of these will get me in trouble with the law in my country - the latter two might possibly get me a fine, yes, but no record or any other such madness. As such, my 'paranoia' is aimed entirely at attempting to ensure the continued freedom of expression that we all enjoy here.We don't need more moderators; in fact I would argue that we need less. I appreciate the current moderators volunteering their time (and would encourage all users to donate something to them, if they can) but we must ensure the security and freedom of this forum, not leave ourselves open to the possibility of censorship and oppression should the wrong person 'get the job' so to speak. We all have enough of that in the real world.