A lot of what Jellah said was spot on, and a lot of what Playahata said was spot on. The Guardians started when I formed a thread in the Hub Pub about spam in the map forums, and after some input and ideas and people getting behind it, the Guardians were born. The Guardians have Mod abilities in 2 places, the Maps section and Off Topic. These are 2 areas of the site that get the most traffic and as a result, more spam. Something that most people don't realize is that we Moderate this site for the love of the site. We don't get paid and we do it in our free time. So as you may expect, sometimes Mods can't spend that much time here and spam piles up. You should see the Reported posts forum in the Staff section sometimes, if we fall behind it can be a daunting task to deal with them. And that is just the reported posts, nevermind the spam and other violations we see as we scan the forums. It's because of this the Guardians were born, and for the most part they do an awesome job. Even with that said, sometimes there are not enough reported posts (usually spam) to keep Mods busy, so adding more Mods would be pointless and that is why Guardians are valuable. They reduce the amount of spam in the forums and allow full Mods to deal with more pressing issues like racism, inappropriate language, ban evasions, move/lock threads ect.. One thing to remember also is that when you get an infraction and you think we are picking on you there is a good chance your post was reported by one of your friends or fellow members, so don't blame us :0) We just pass out the punishment. Now, as far as the demoted Mods, some retired and some were forced into retirement. We appriciate the work everyone has ever done for the site, but sometimes people lose interest and the position goes to waste. When that happens you can be demoted and the position will be given to others who will use it more. Right now there is 10 Moderators and 4 Guardians. Not to mention the fact that every Journo and Admin has Moderation powers to some extent as well. So in essense, every Staff member can pitch in if need be. Like Shock said, we are working on a new rule system, one that is a bit more strict towards spammers and people that generally act like assholes. But if you just watch the spam and are generally a nice guy then you won't even notice the difference :0)
People are way to uptight on this website about spam. Hell, Ill bet you any money that Ill get an infraction for this post, just because i know the mods wont like it and most of them abuse their power. IDONT REALLY CARE if someone posts in one of my map threads saying "nice map" in fact, its appreciated. I could understand infracting someone for possting over and over just to bump the thread, but oh, wait, bumping isnt allowed either. LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL FAILSITE IS FAIL
It's not abusing your power if it's in the rules smart guy. Ask anyone who follows the rules here if the site is enjoyable, they will say yes. Only trolls and spammers hate it here because they can't get away with being thoughtless and annoying. Your post is proof of your inclusion in this category.
No we arn't, you're just to loose about it. You wont get an infraction because mods are corrupt, you might get an infraction because mods are actually doing their jobs. See thats what mods do. Thats not called "corrupt" thats called work ethic. Nobody would post "nice map" on your map unless they were spamming. No sir, you fail. Good day.
SpecOpsGrunt in disguise? Look, I prefer to get infracted for the odd bit of spam I do do, than not get infracted, do it more, then get banned for 2 weeks for spamming... Just saying "nice map" does nothing to guide the map poster in the right direction. It gives no constructive criticism, which is needed for a member to improve their maps, and the person who posted "nice map" would probably just post that on every map post they read if they weren't infracted for it.
=D That's what I do best. Honestly, I've been kind regressing into Off Topic lately because of how lazy I'm getting. I don't really enjoy writing anymore, so consequently I'm going to Off Topic laughing at pictures of men with distended anuses. I need to stop. Now. Spam is something I'm against, yet here I am now, going into Off Topic everyday. I can't help it. It's addictive. It's easier than writing a page's worth of post. But then it makes me look like a spammer. So, back to the drawing board. Stick to what I did earlier, start setting examples for others. Maybe writing page-long reviews of maps might intimidate new comers, but writing 'Good map, I like the interlocking, etc.' doesn't exactly tell them that all members have to follow the rules. Anyways, that's the end of my little writing, because I am lazy. But at least I wrote more than the usual few sentences now.