I'm not trying to open a can of worms here, but there are several other game-based forum sites that have volunteer forum moderators "working" for them. Apolyton.net (Civ2) comes to mind.
Just thinking, not so much for answering questions, but just for policing, why not have a few posters over the years who've proven themselves to be reasonable people, be given the task of making sure everyone plays nice?
I figure it would free up HTC staff quite a bit, as there are tons of threads to go through, and often they are seemingly looked at by HTC because when they get out of hand they are (and should be) locked.
I'd just personally prefer to have HTC working on the game and not playing policeman, though as is currently the setup, it seems they have to.
Not to say HTC would never look at the threads again, but their moderators could clue them in when there is something that ought to be addressed/answered when they get a chance.
You could "pay" the moderators simply by cutting them a deal on their accounts. It wouldn't seem fair for someone to have this never-ending responsibility cutting into their playing time if they still had to pay full price.
Not sure if this is the right forum for this, but I suppose it could qualify under general aces high stuff.
